Hello Stems Family and Friends - It’s been a minute! It’s 9PM on New Year’s Eve in Homer. The girls are in bed after watching a fantastic fireworks display from the comfort of our deck. Definitely not as grand as being there in person, but a lot simpler. And I’m going to be honest, we kind of dig simpler.

2023 was a year, and I’ve been a little quiet for the past few months on the Stems-front. I know rumors have floated, and I’m excited to take a minute for some reflection and sharing of our plans for 2024.

This year was no joke. It was rainy, and it was grey. It was hands-down the lowest production year on our farm since we began selling flowers in 2011. With that being said, the tulip season was awesome - especially after the tulip scarcity of 2022 when we only received a third of our bulb shipment the previous fall. We also had Madra working here as a full-time farm manager, which was also simply amazing. Additionally in the spring, Emily and River were around part-time to help keep things moving while we were bustling with tulips, turning over beds, caring for perennials, and getting summer transplants in the ground. Little did we know what the season would bring… (or, rather, what it wouldn’t bring…. Sun. And flowers.)

There was also the continuous challenge of business ownership and heaps of unknowns. And our kiddos, getting older and more engaged in the world - with me wanting to go play and explore with them during our few short summer months here in Alaska.

Amidst all of that, and as I wound down into the fall, I made a declaration. 2024 would be different. I would take a break, and take an opportunity to re-assess.

Tulips are in the ground, and it’s going to be another amazing tulip year in 2024! I think we’ve found our sweet spot of ~18,000 bulbs for the season. It’s enough to satiate our Homer community and bring a few runs up to Anchorage without stressing us out too much. Ben loves the tulips, as do I. And I know you do, too!!

I couldn’t get any of these INCREDIBLE Great Barrier Reef tulips for 2024, but at least one friend has a tattoo of them now! And I’m hoping that some of our new varieties will be equally (or at least close) stunning!

But after that, Stems is taking a 2024 Floral Sabbatical (mostly!). I’ll still be tending our family veg garden, and our many perennials. I have one wedding booked, and I may take one more if it was a really good fit! Our farm may be leased for the season, or it may be cover cropped and the soil allowed to chill out and also rebuild and reform after over a decade of production. TBD…

One thing I’ve come to realize in the past few years is what brings me energy in this business. It’s you - it’s the community surrounding the flowers we grow and you bring into your homes and businesses. It’s the hours chatting at the Farmers Market, and the connections that have grown and blossomed through these blooms.

In September, I started working part time for the Alaska Food Policy Council as their new Advocacy & Policy Director. Again, this is a space of relationship and connection, part of a team and a network in this place, Alaska, we call home. It’s energy-building in another way, and I’m delighted at how the agricultural passions of my life are able to intersect in this space.

*With my new job, I was able to attend the Alaska Summit for the* *Intertribal Agriculture Council* *at the* *Alaska Native Heritage Center and I was humbled and honored to be able to be there and learning. (If you’ve never been to the Native Heritage Center, it should absolutely be a priority!)*

Over the years I’ve had people share different stories of leaving or quitting or changing. Quitting jobs, leaving graduate school programs, changing careers, exiting relationships. My response has always been the same: congratulations. Knowing that there is so much inertia behind our lives, so much invisible force to keep on keeping on. But that isn’t always the best choice, and it’s not always the most fulfilling - but it’s usually the safest. So I always offer sincere gratitude and congratulations to those taking Big Steps into unknowns, breaking away from their inertial forces.

And so here I am! Breaking away from the inertia of this amazing, vibrant, soul-full business to step into a little bit of an unknown and see what I find out.

Ben is pretty keen to keep growing tulips, as am I. He also thinks we grow some pretty awesome carrots, and maybe we revision ourselves as a tulip & carrot farm - ha! I kind of like it, and no matter what happens going forward I know it will be a move towards greater simplicity. What will that look like? That’s a big TBD.

In the meantime, I would love to bring you some incredible color this spring! I have a limited number of tulip subscriptions on our website, and we’ll again have them rolling into the grocery store, ready for Mother’s day, and available locally starting sometime in mid-May.

Thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart for all of the support and joy you’ve shared with me over the years! I’m so grateful to call this place home, and to know we are part of your community.

With gratitude,

Rachel (and Ben, Sadie, and Linnea!)

PS. Below are some family highlights from the year. Check out more: 2023 Photo Album from the farm and family