Inside and outside jobs, life before weather apps
Hello!
Since I grew up in rural Baltimore County, Maryland, there have been indoor and outdoor days. Put simply, if the weather was good, I was sent outside. Books, board games, curling up on my father’s leather chair with back issues of National Geographic were reserved for rainy weather. There weren’t weather apps then, but the standard was instilled. And the distinction sticks with me to this day: there are inside jobs and outside ones. For the most part, I prefer the outside ones and let the inside ones, however necessary and enjoyable, wait.
But my flower farmer life has reached the point that I’ve saved up enough inside jobs that I’m actually looking forward to them: working on the flower company website, taking dahlia cuttings, potting on lupin and aquilegia (aka columbine or “Granny’s Bonnet”). And, let’s be real, a fair bit of admin. (Every job has its yuck.)
Yesterday was without question an outside day. I spent hours on my hands and padded knees getting seedlings into the ground. I tugged at weeds, and, drumroll please, made the first sunflower harvest of 2026!
Talk about an inside-outside job. I start sunflowers in the basement under grow lights when it’s still cold outside. As the soil warms, week by week, we plant them out. Even now, mid-June, tender summer favorites like sunflowers, zinnias and basil are vulnerable to a light frost, so my weather apps and frost cloth are never far away. Yesterday morning, it was all worth it!
This week, both the sunflowers in my field and coreopsis along the roadside have been remarkably bright and golden under stunning blue skies. Maybe this was the inspiration for our state’s Gold and Blue?
I love this season. It’s the time for open air yoga and helpful discussions of recipes for garlic scapes, those long curly shoots from the base of hardneck garlic plants (which invariably make me think of Medusa – was she really so awful or simply too outspoken for badly behaved Greek gods and sailors that later washed ashore?)
And soon enough, the longest day of the year. Such astronomical moments are a good reminder for perfectionists like me: Mother Earth, my formidable business partner, is askew. She is tilted on her axis. And this wonk, and the ensuing elliptical orbit, are what give us our seasons. With them, flowers and beauty.
So, we have lots to celebrate this week – take your pick. Juneteenth on Friday, West Virginia Day on Saturday and then the Summer Solstice. When I think about them, they are about freedom in various forms – the arc of our planet’s orbit, mountaineers, human beings. May they all flourish.
Let there be flowers – and herbs!
Lizz
PS - Points of Sale this week are:
• Fridays – Sundays, 7am-2pm, bud vases at Blackwater Galley in Thomas (delicious breakfasts and baked goods, and a West Virginia Day celebration of buckwheat cakes on Saturday and pepperoni roll bagels all weekend!)
• Fridays, 4:30-7:30 pm, Davis Farmers and Artisans Market, next to Davis Riverside Park, across from Shop’n’Save supermarket
• Sundays - pop-up, 2:30-5pm, in Canaan Valley by the Canaan Valley Garage on Route 32/Appalachian Highway
• For custom orders, quantities, convenience or just because – contact me! hello@canaanvalleyflowerco.com