Thank a farmer: Family farm blooms into second career
Jul. 21—HOLLY POND — It's not easy for a small, local business to bloom in today's climate, but Carrie Murphy couldn't have it any other way.
Murphy, with her husband, Allen, and their four children live on a patch of land in Holly Pond, a community where Carrie Murphy's roots run deep — she's lived there her whole life. Today, a thriving flower farm on the family land has sprouted tendrils, and the roots are deeper than ever.
But Carrie Murphy didn't start out as a farmer: career and family came first.
"We started the farm, Wooden Crate Flower Farm, in 2019," Murphy said on a sunny, warm July day, gazing over rows of zinnia, cosmos, celosia and now-spent sunflowers, among other blooms.
"The inspiration was, well, I have a degree in social work," she said. "When we started having kids, I stayed at home with them. So, I've been a stay-at-home mom and my youngest is now 7. When she was about 3, I thought, when she goes to school, what am I going to do?
"I didn't want to go back into social work, because that's 8 to 5 with lots of training. So, I was on Facebook and I kept seeing this ad pop up for a floret flower farm workshop, and I took it, online. I also took Lisa Ziegler's Gardner's Flower Workshop. We learned from both of them, like, (how) we start everything from seed, in a tray, before we plant it in the field."
Like the seeds of a farming business that were sown even earlier, and no further away than her grandmother's, Shelba Benefield's, own Holly Pond flower bed.
"When we were little, we would go over to my grandmother's and she had these giant zinnias," Murphy said. "They were absolutely beautiful. That's one of the things from her garden I remember. I've just always liked flowers."
"Beautiful" is an adjective that comes up frequently when Murphy talks about her flowers, trumped only by the word, "pretty." and it's easy to see why. As she talks, she's standing surrounded by her summer crops: zinnia, celosia, lemon basil, purple basil, strawflower, yarrow, black-eyed Susan and, further out, the sunflowers that have played out — in addition to a bit of Queen Anne's lace "which is just hanging on."
"We try to grow something new every year, and so this pink," she said, cupping flowers on a stem, "is pink flamingo celosia, and I think it's just the prettiest thing. and here we've got orange cosmos; that's just so pretty."
But pretty on the farm is one thing. The work continues once the blooms are cut.
"We harvest the flowers," she said. "After, we take them in and let them hydrate, provide water and flower food, for about three hours. Then, I make market-type bouquets and we take them to Mavens & Makers on Thursdays.
Those bouquets typically are for sale at the Cullman store through the weekend, but on Saturday, Murphy also puts out an honor stand of fresh, cut flowers on the roadside by the farm at 1291 County Road 1709, an area flanked by towering pines.
While you're likely to see that stand from about 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on any given summer Saturday, like every good farmer, Murphy keeps her eyes on the next season.
For Wooden Crate Flower Farm, that means selling wreaths from unsold flowers her youngest son helps to dry.
"He likes the inside aspect of (the farm)," Murphy said of the family business. "He's 10."
And so, the roots continue to grow.
