Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Vanhoozier.
Amanda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In the summer, we would visit my grandparents’ farm, Bishop Hill, just west of Columbus, Ohio. My favorite times were helping my Grandpa Bishop with his big kitchen garden. My dream, as I finished my BS in Education at Kansas University in 1978, was to go live on their farm and grow cut flowers and sell to the restaurants in Columbus. And life got in the way!
Instead, I started school gardens at each school where I taught and led workshops around Kansas, then Texas on interdisciplinary school gardens. Realizing the transforming effect nature and gardening had on people of all ages, I began the Coppell Community Gardens (CCG) in 1998. Through community gardening, many more would be learning about earth-friendly ways to grow at the same time building positive community connections and donating the organically grown produce to the food pantries. All the while, I was gaining the knowledge and skills of growing successful and productive gardens.
Upon noticing the public wanting to purchase the CCG’s produce, there became an opportunity in 2002 to start a volunteer-run farmers market with the support of the City of Coppell where I worked as Community Programs Manager. The Coppell Farmers Market is today one of the premier farmers markets in DFW. Fortunately, I was connected with the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and fascinated with the methods and techniques of farming.
Through the Coppell Farmers Market and as Director of Dallas Farmers Market, I have visited close to a hundred farms in Texas. Each visit led me closer to wanting a farm of my own. In 2017, I was ready to fulfill my dream to grow cut flowers and launched Bishop Hill Farm Flowers.
It was as if my life’s work had prepared me to realize the potential of locally grown flowers and the happiness they bring to others! I grow year-round on a fourth acre in high production and attribute the results with my home-brewed compost teas. Bishop Hill Farm Flowers is at the Coppell Farmers Market a stone’s throw from the flower farm and can be found at local coffee shops and restaurants.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
When you start tender seedlings indoors with all the necessities to grow, they will not survive outside without the hardening off period with bits of wind, rain, sun to tolerate the outdoors. This analogy is how I see obstacles that will prepare you for the future. I was at the forefront of school gardens, community gardens and farmers markets with the challenge of forging ahead while bringing along others slowly but purposefully to adapt to new ideas.
Currently, my challenge is to organize my time to do the hard physical work of farming while being committed to other important work in the North Texas local food system. After my first successful summer with Bishop Hill Farm Flowers, I became the Farmer Relations Director for the start-up, Profound Foods. This helps fulfill the gap between local farms and chefs to increase the market for farmers and provide highly sought ingredients for restaurants. Again on the forefront forging ahead. Simultaneously, I became the Slow Food DFW Chair which is a non-profit organization connecting food advocates, farmers, chefs, educators with good, clean, fair food for all. The challenge is too much on my plate, but it is all worthy and there is so many fantastic people working alongside to bring about change!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Bishop Hill Farm Flowers story. Tell us more about the business.
Bishop Hill Farm Flowers provides cut flowers that are naturally grown and harvested fresh for long-lasting vase life. Locally grown seasonal flowers are now found at farmers markets and showing up in floral studios and wedding bouquets. We have a booth at the Coppell Farmers Market on Saturdays 8 am to noon and the Good Local Markets-Lakewood on Sundays. Many customers are repeat and have found that the flowers last so much longer than imported flowers and to know the farmer makes them even more uplifting. Hence the hashtag: #grownnotflown Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @bishophillfarmflowers
Many of the farm to table dining experiences throughout DFW will have Bishop Hill Farm Flowers in a simple to eye-appealing table arrangements. And that dream to sell flowers to restaurants is now a reality.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I would go with more destined and purposeful, rather than luck.
Contact Info:
- Phone: www.justpickedtx.com
- Email: amanda@justpickedtx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bishophillfarmflowers
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BishopHillFarmFlowers/
Image Credit:
Amanda Vanhoozier
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