Newsletter – Cramers Jan 09

Time to move!

Well, not quite yet but it has to happen soon. We’ve been leasing our current farm since 1997 but now we’re fast approaching the end of the lease. We’ve enjoyed a mutually satisfactory relationship with our landlord and he will do all he can to help accommodate our transition to a new property but the bottom line is, we still have to move.

This move will be complicated because we need to move and/or establish acres of willows and perennial flowers. We will have to move the greenhouse we use for transplant production and seed drying as well as our 2.5 acres of Haygrove tunnels. We don’t know where we’re going yet but undoubtedly, we will have to remodel the buildings to suit our needs.

We need plenty of office space (never have enough), flower drying, grading and storage area, holding area for fresh flowers, flower cooler and vehicle shop. On top of all that, we’ll probably need to drill a well, install new water and electric service and upgrade the septic system. All of this will have to be accomplished while maintaining our current level of production, sales and customer satisfaction! It will be quite a burden but we’ll get it done. And as we’ve learned from being in business for so long, what appears to be adversity is often opportunity in disguise. The key is finding an affordable property that meets our needs.

Philly Flower Show

It’s that time of the year again, we’re getting ready for the flower show. We’ve been vendors for about 13 years or so and it’s a big deal for us. Two days of set-up and nine long days selling dried flowers, pussy willow and curly willow. If you’ve never attended this event, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Seeing the huge displays and all the fresh flowers and trees is certainly a good way to chase away the winter blah’s, it’ll get you fired up about the coming season. If you stay overnight in the nearby NJ motel (inexpensive) we use and follow our instructions, we can maximize your enjoyment of this great show big time – call for details. Stop in and say hello when you’re in the vendor area, we’re in booths 418 & 420.

Store closing

We closed our retail dried flower store at the farm. Those of you that come to the farm to pick up your orders are still welcome to do so, we just won’t have all the flowers on display in such a pretty setting. We closed it for two reasons, (1) we never had time to promote it that way we should have and (2) we needed more office space. There was no other direction to expand and it was easy to convert the store to attractive office space.