Wait… what the heck is the Olympic Peninsula Flower Market, and why haven’t you heard about it??

That’s because it is still under production. But this is where you can sign up to find out more info, join our market specific mailing list, donate, volunteer, etc.

Specifically, if you are a florist or flower farmer, welcome! This market is being designed SPECIFICALLY for YOU! It will take a village to make this dream a reality, but it truly will add a much-needed piece to our community!

We are going to answer the who’s, what’s, where’s, and the why’s. If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, feel free to sign up to our mailing list and we will email you the business plan, financial projections, and all updates as we receive them!

Who is The Olympic Peninsula Farmer’s Market? Currently, it will be an extension of LVF, possibly a separate entity made up of florists and farmers. It’s a hybrid of a coop and a starter company that can be invested in by the community. None of us are Venture Capitalists, so this isn’t primarily an investment opportunity. It’s an opportunity to receive funding to make this dream a reality. Investors will receive some compensation for their willingness to invest- which inherently comes with risk! But we are getting ahead of ourselves, more about that in the upcoming weeks!

What purpose will this Flower Market serve? The primary function of the flower market will be to connect farmers and florists within the entire length of the Olympic Peninsula. That includes Poulsbo and Forks. It will serve to assist farms and florists that either can’t afford the time or the money to send drivers to the meetup spot for Seattle Wholesale Grower’s Market (SWGM). It allows florists to have access to hyper local product, which far outweighs in quality anything we receive from overseas. It provides a market for farmers who are already far extended in their time, without having to learn an entire additional industry in order to provide quality product, and a delivery service from farm to florist! It will also serve as a market open to the public.

Where will the location be? We have had our eye on a specific location for quite some time. It has excellent space to build a giant walk in cooler, excellent retail space to shop the market floor, a space to park two delivery vans, with excellent access to downtown traffic. We are keeping the location to ourselves for now, but if it pushes through, we will definitely announce it!

When do you think it will be up and running? If we are able to find funding in the next few months, we will be ready to open by the start of next growing season- meaning that we could have services ready for Valentine’s Day! If funding takes longer than expected, it might need to wait a few more months. You all will be the first to know when we have a better idea of when!

Why a flower market? Why here on the Peninsula, do we really ACTUALLY need it? Funny you should ask- we do ACTUALLY need it! The prices of flowers have been steadily going through the roof. The quality of product has been decreasing. For florists to have high quality flowers, they must reach a $300 minimum for a wholesaler that only drives out here once a week and carries pricier product, compared to their competitors. This leaves some florists at a very large disadvantage. Tariffs have added to the problem. None of these issues even begin to address the toll on our planet that the flower industry takes. Shipping large amounts of flowers across the globe is doing a number on our carbon footprint. Most mass flower farms far underpay and over work their farmers. They also work with horrific chemicals that make their workers sick, destroy their skin, and continue to add to the overall physical harm of our soil and earth. Those chemicals stay on the flowers through all of their travel (which sometimes takes up to 2 weeks) and end up on the hands, skin, and clothes of our florists and consumers.

Our local farmers are always looking for ways to expand their businesses. More sales means more profit for them- leading to the ability to pay their workers more, flexibility in their own schedules, higher quality of life, and less stress worrying about how to make ends meet. We live in one of the best locations to grow flowers. In fact, Clallam County is one of the largest flower suppliers in the entire state of Washington! It seems, then, to be a no brainer- local farms can provide flowers for local florists. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy! Farmers don’t understand the floral industry- what flowers are highly sought after, how long lasting they are in a vase, color theory, design theory, and the individual design styles of different florists and shops. But they can grow incredible product! Florists don’t fully understand the farming side- especially when it comes to farms being strapped by time, money, and staffing constraints. Not all high production farms have time to harvest, deliver, and play the guessing games of what florists are looking for. Florists definitely don’t have time to teach farmers how to design.

Enter the Olympic Peninsula Flower Market

We have been dreaming of a way to be able to bridge this very large gap. I personally have worked with several farms over the past three years and watched the rapid change in flower production. Jembe Farms is now growing massive amounts of some of the highest quality product I’ve ever seen, selling to SWGM. They even received a grant to build a giant rose garden where they are growing specialty roses FOR florist to use in weddings and events- as well as the retail front. If you’ve never met Jennifer, she is one of the best growers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. She consistently works to put out the best possible product, studying at great length the intricacies of each variety. Every farm I have worked with uses organic farming methods- which means, no chemicals for me! Chi’s farm grows some beautiful flowers and insanely gorgeous tassels of Amaranthus. But he doesn’t have the capacity to harvest and market his flowers. The Flower Market does! Our goal is to be able to provide door to door service. We will pick up from the farms, allowing them to focus on what they excel at- growing! We will bring the product back to our shop, process, organize, condition, and store in our large walk-in cooler. Florists will be able to order straight from us- no calling around to every farm every few days to see what’s available. They’ll receive one availability list every single week for them to choose from. On their desired day, we will deliver all their flowers right to their shop. We will not use plastic wrapping; all packaging will be reused or compostable. There will be incentives for florists to sign up for standing orders at the beginning of every growing season, allowing the farmers to plan their season with exact florists in mind. Crop failure WILL happen- but we will be able to plan for it!

What happens if the florist needs a flower that isn’t available right here locally? It might be available in Seattle! What about the farms that want to grow even more than our florists can keep up with, but they aren’t able to drive to Seattle to sell to the market there? Again- enter our new Flower Market. We will arrange weekly delivery service in a refrigerated vehicle to the meetup spot for SWGM. Delivery fees will be quite small! $20 gets your product picked up, $20 gets your product delivered. We will design a route from our farthest-reaching farms and deliver it all to the meetup location. For only $20! We will then pick up any orders for florists and deliver those straight to you! For $20! We hope to be able to work out some deals with SWGM, especially the more we are able to buy and sell with them! If you don’t know much about SWGM and want to learn more, feel free to reach out and we are happy to share more! Essentially, they buy only from small PNW flower farms. The quality of product is unparalleled! They utilize incredible farms such as Peter Kort Roses, which has a wildly vast selection of high-quality roses. They also have more product available year-round. Which helps us florists during the non-growing season!

I think this about covers the basics! I do believe it to be fairly easy to see why this market will make a lasting impact on our small slice of the world. I could go on for 10 more pages about the wedding industry, tourism, and other avenues that our community relies on for our ability to feed our families. But, I do believe, we all are aware of those realities. Flowers are a necessity, even though they seem to just be a pretty thing to look at, they do wonders for a micro economy. This market will be an even better way for a whole lot of small businesses to continue to grow and scale and make more money without hurting our planet and our people!

How are we going to make this a reality? These are the details that need to be ironed out. Currently, so many flower farms are on board! We are researching how on board the florists are willing to be! We need to find funding for this project and have/will be applying for grants. We are also ready to crowd source. Once we have our business plan written and official, we will send it out to all those who are interested. There will be projected financials- the expected cost, the expected money we will make in our first year, and a way to pay back our investors. Once we have those details, we will be open to taking donations, ready to sign on investors, and have different packages available. Only have a little money to put towards it? Every penny counts! You’ll also get a few additional pennies for being willing to risk your hard-earned cash on our little idea. Maybe a few free flowers for a month or a year. Those details are yet to be worked out! We do expect to need upwards of 150-200k to start this project. It will give us 6 months-an entire year of paid expenses for the location, full time employee with benefits, 2 part time employees, a new walk-in cooler, a refrigerated van/truck, and the supplies to be able to transform the new space into an aesthetically appealing market that everyone will want to shop at! That number will be refined to a more specific one in our business plan. Again, we’d love for you to sign up for our mailing list if this is something you’d like to be a part of! Thanks for following with us in this incredible dream, we cannot WAIT to make it happen! Stay tuned, y’all!