Piper Road Gardens Flower CSA
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute- East Troy, WI
Jodie Janovec is a flower farmer incubating her enterprise, Piper Road Gardens Flower CSA, at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, sharing garden space in Stella Gardens with the New Farmer Foundation Year students. See information about her: Flower CSA.
I wanted to remember the garden…
Piper Road Gardens Flower CSA is named after a road in Whitewater, Wisconsin where Jodie Janovec’s family shares a home garden with another family on Piper Road. “I am preparing the soil on two acres there for my future business site and my husband, Jared, wants to grow vegetables to expand my CSA. I wanted to remember the garden on Piper Road wherever my business might go; it gets so personal, you get attached to gardens.”
Flowers are where my passion and knowledge base is…
Jodie worked for a flower grower and realized flowers were the route she wanted to take. The grower told Jodie that owning his own business was the best thing he ever did. And Jodie agrees. There’s a lot more involved than she imagined - marketing, money management, taxes, writing about yourself, plus the physical, long hours. She is learning to work faster - it’s not just a hobby. “The effect on me is that I feel so open and alive to everything, such as needing to know where my datebook is all the time. There isn’t one thing I that I don’t like, it is just figuring out how to do it better.”
It is important for my kids to see me doing this…
Jodie’s 4 and 7 year old sons, Avery and Morgan, are learning a lot as she is. Land prices keep the family living in town, but with a family garden and Jodie’s flower enterprise her children see their mom with the vision of what she is working for. “It is a balance also between my time Piper Road Gardens demands, the business and what my children are learning about living my dream. My son, Morgan, thinks it’s good and bad. Why not work at the bakery and bring home more cookies?” Jodie had worked at Nokomis Bakery at Michael Fields, baking bread and cookies, and talking with the New Farmer students as they came into the bakery conveniently located next to the Michael Fields student training site, Stella Gardens. It was there Jodie realized that that was the life she wanted to have.
Realizing a dream….
Jodie considered attending the New Farmer Foundation Year program at Michael Fields but with the two children it was a bit too much so the incubator opportunity made it possible to jump in. “With Janet Gamble leading the Farm & Food Education programs I had the confidence I could do it and Janet had the confidence in me.” Jodie saved money while working at the Nokomis bakery and prepared for opening Piper Road Gardens. She still cooks at Climbing Tree Childcare Center, located near Jodie’s garden site, three days a week to pay for Avery’s pre-school tuition.
“I don’t have big vision. With every step I am taking everything is falling into place. I don’t need to look for other places to sell things and I am getting up to speed to have enough of my organically grown flowers for my CSA members, retail outlets and farmers markets. It is important to me that I had an occupation that helped people directly and indirectly. In my Piper Road Gardens Flower CSA brochure I offer a low-income option. I feel everyone should have these flowers.”
How does business work?
“My day starts with getting my children off to school, then to the greenhouse for a couple of hours, watering, checking for insects and waiting for the weather. This time of year (early spring) is the busiest with so many details that can’t be missed once things get into the ground.” Planning, reviewing winter notes about how many plants are needed, seeds to start, and work in the field to prepare the beds are all in a day’s work for Jodie. The weather determines Jodie’s schedule and creates a level of focus that she appreciates. “When the flowers come in I cut them at between 11am and 12pm, when they are no longer damp and it is not too hot in the day. I make up bouquets which I sell during the week at a few farmers markets, Local Industry (Tom and Tiffany are new owners and so helpful), Basics Cooperative (Amber shares ideas about marketing, flowers, anything!), and Tim Huth of LotFotl Community Farm, a third year incubator at Michael Fields, is arranging for me to get into a Milwaukee market.
Incubating connections…
Jodie’s decision to become an incubator was not just about access to land. “I feel connected to East Troy; it is a special place, there is something that brings people here. Everyone with organics is passionate; they care about each other and want each to succeed.” Michael Fields Agricultural Institute provides incubators the infrastructure of land, tools, equipment, as well as mentoring services critical to new farmers. “I get to try different tools, attend the Whole Farm Workshops, and figure out the logistics of my business without making large financial commitments initially. And I get to do it within a community of people who share my values and are generous of themselves.”
As an incubator Jodie was connected with the many resources within the sustainable agriculture community, including Harriet Behar at MOSES (Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service), a member of the Michael Fields Farmer Faculty, who teaches “Getting Organized for Organic Certification”. “Harriet responded right away to my call for information about organic certification and made it much easier to continue on with that process.” “I feel so much more confident and in a sense don’t feel I’ll ever really leave. I will always feel that I could call on a huge network of people I have met here, wherever they are in the country.”