I wish we had better news to share. Our farm was devastated by a wind and hail storm this week. Our tunnels were torn up and blown down, rose bushes were smashed and so much work lies ahead to clean up our farm. Our infrastructure is in place and strong so we’re grateful for that blessing in the midst of the mess. I want to cry when I go out to our fields. Seeing our farm look like this at the end of a brutally hard season, our investment trashed by a storm that came and went quickly and left behind hundreds of hours of work to repair the damage. The silver lining is that this happened during our very last week of cutting roses, so we only had to let down a handful of clients who ordered roses for this week. Instead of harvesting roses, we’re putting our farm back together.
I’ve always tried to be very transparent about farming and how incredibly challenging it can be. We’re constantly dealing with weather-related issues, even in California where most people perceive us to have perfect weather. We truly appreciate the grace and kindness our clients show us when we’re in times like this.
Our 2020 season has been one for the books as far as weather goes. California had the hottest summer on record with our farm seeing more than 50 days over 90 degrees and countless days in the triple digits. We endured weeks of heavy smoke from wildfires and an early frost that thankfully didn’t put us out of business because we installed our new tunnels. Keeping our roses alive, business thriving and customers happy has been extraordinarily stressful. With our winter season here, we are pausing to refresh, be thankful and taking our down time this next month to prep for our most beautiful spring yet. We and our roses will be back in March!
It’s been a very warm and dry winter for California and everyone has been really worried about fire season. Up until today we haven’t seen any rain in nearly a year. But today, the day after our farm was devastated by winds, the skies opened up and we’re finally getting an enormous, much needed rainstorm (with lots of wind, unfortunately). We are so thankful for this gift. It’s washing away the hardships of the year and renewing us for spring. We have some big news to share soon and we can’t wait to get back to growing roses! Thank you for your continued support of our farm.
