Welcome to Rooted Agritourism. I'm Dr. Liz Fidler
-Murgan, owner of Sunny Mary Meadow, a you -pick
flower farm, wedding florist, and event venue
in central Minnesota. Our mission is to serve
anyone rooted in agritourism, value -added agriculture,
and rural entrepreneurship. The people turning
ideas and raw products into thriving businesses
and experiences. Let's dig in. Hello and welcome
back to another episode of the Rooted Agritourism
podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Liz Fidler -Murgan,
and today we've got a guest coming on. end of
January, we are hosting the third annual Flower
Farmer Forum Conference. And this year, for the
first time ever, it is being held at our farm.
And so I have my girl Allie Anderberry from Nebraska
coming on. And the reason I picked her to come
and interview is because she, this girl, you're
this girl. I hope that didn't come across as
rude. After listening to the podcast for so long,
slid into my DMs and was like, hey, what's this
PPP? I want to start a flower farm. And I'm like,
you should come to conference next month. She's
like, okay. So I just want to give you context.
When Allie came last year, she didn't know a
soul, was from Nebraska, and just got a hotel
room, took a chance on coming. And I think it
was one of those moments that I felt a really
strong responsibility that, holy cow, people
are investing in this thing. And I don't take
that lightly. And so instead of me talking about
it, I want Allie to talk about your flower farming
journey, how conference helped you, how PPP has
helped you, but just in general, what made you
decide to come? So how did you find me? How did
you find the conference? Can you walk us through
that real quick? Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Allie
Anderberry from Anderberry Acres in Chapman,
Nebraska. I found you from your podcast. I was
just searching, like once I decided to take my
business serious and not just my love for growing,
I started searching like... flower farming, but
with business, you know, you were the first podcast
to come up and I literally binged your podcast
for months. And then I ran out, you know, and
so that's when I reached out to you and I ran
out, I ran out, ran out of the podcast. So I
reached out to you and I was like, all right,
I got to sign up for the PPP course. I needed
more, you know, and then you mentioned the conference
and I was like, I don't know, but I needed more.
What made you decide to attend in person last
year? Where was your farm at last year before
conference? And where is it now? Okay, so before
conference, I was technically a second year flower
farmer, but basically a second year grower. And
this was my first year where I was like, okay,
I'm going to grow more than sunflowers, cosmos
and zinnias. I had only been to a couple of farmers
markets. I was just selling bouquets for... 15
bucks, you know, for pennies and selling them
on marketplace and like tracking people down
to buy the flowers that they wanted. I needed
to be business minded. So where I'm at now, I'm
growing like 60 different varieties of cut flowers.
I'm focusing on subscriptions. I already have
like five for this year. Last year, I had 10
after the conference. And stem bars, you picks,
I just cannot believe how far I've come from
last year, just growing sunflowers and zinnias
to this year. Like I didn't even know what a
ranunculus quorum was. And now I'm growing like
thousands. So I remember when you asked the group
something about peonies or something. And like,
I just remember the whole group, someone would
ask something and they'd be like, maybe this
is dumb. And like, simultaneously, a group full
of Men and women. We had some guys there. Yeah.
And we had two guys in the room. And literally,
I just remember simultaneously every time someone
apologized because we like pass around the mic.
I mean, it's a good, it's a good size. It's not
huge, but it's not tiny. And it's just. You know,
you find the people that you relate to within
your farm. We'll talk about it in a little bit
more what I'm planning on doing with the roundtables
differently. But anytime someone apologized for
asking a question, there was... Which was me.
Well, you and a couple other people that were
new and you felt like you shouldn't be there.
You felt like you didn't belong yet or something.
And simultaneously, there were 40 people going...
Stop it. Stop. Like, don't apologize for asking
a question. We have all been there. Like there
are no dumb questions. It's okay. Try like, we're
all just figuring this out. So I would say before
the conference expectations versus reality, what
did you think the conference was going to be
like? Did you have any hesitations of like, I'm
not farmer enough or what if I'm, you know, whatever.
So tell me versus what it was. I was probably
the newbie of the group, you know? So I was really
afraid. I thought it was going to be awkward.
I thought it was going to be the oddball out
because... I had no experience, you know, like
I was afraid. Like I had so much anxiety to go
to that conference, but it ended up being super
chill. Like everyone was there for, you know,
a common reason to share their experiences and
learn. And thankfully no one made me feel dumb
about the questions that I asked because I asked
a lot. I do remember asking a lot of questions,
but yeah, no, it was, it was awesome. There's
a lot of online conferences. There's another
one put on by the Dirt on Flowers podcast. This
week, it's DirtCon. I am not going to be able
to make it to everything because I have a wedding
expo and another thing, but I'm still registering
live because I'm like, I'll watch what I can
and we'll see. But I think that there is a huge
value to that. But what I want to create is an
in -person one. And if people can travel, I plan
on doing... Now a couple a year, like I love
the January one because it's the off season and
we just like pray to God for no snowstorm. And
I guess it is what it is. But what do you think
consuming content online versus standing in a
room with people doing the thing? So I believe
that growth. doesn't always happen in a comment
section. You can totally learn a lot online,
but there's just nothing like making real connections
with real people sitting across the table from
a super successful flower farmer and picking
their brain. You know, I don't know if you can
really do that online. Like they're stuck with
you. You know, like you get to share experiences
in real time, in real life. I don't know. It's
just different. That's my vision for this. So
actually next week when this comes out, I'm going
to... Podfest. It's a podcasting conference in
Florida. I went there last year and I chatted
with you guys right after I got back. And it's
like an entirely different in -person conference,
right? It's about podcasting and authors and
coaching and teaching, whatever. But I mean,
the rule that they have there, the unwritten
rule, and actually it might even be a written
rule, but same thing here is like, while you
were in this room, there is no gatekeeping. There
is no... Like, well, I don't know. I figured
it out. There's no competition. I mean, I saw
two women raise their hands and they're like,
well, I'm from Bemidji, Minnesota. And she's
like, I'm from Bemidji, Minnesota. And you could
tell for just a brief moment, the room was quiet
and they were like, sweet, let's be best friends.
And I was like, right. And so people get so nervous
and so whatever. And it's like, no. And so that's
where, you know, we've done the map of where
are you coming from and all these things. And
what do you think was the ripple effect? after
conference like in the last year the people you
met at conference we haven't spoken in six months
right you're busy I'm busy but I'm like hey Allie
I'm like why is Allie not signed up yet you're
like I just haven't gotten around to it come
on okay so the ripple effect after so the conference
couldn't have been scheduled on a better like
day January is the month that you're ready to
get pumped up for your season but it's still
January still snow on the ground so being able
to go to a flower farming conference and talk
with like -minded people about what you're about
to get started is just, I don't know, it's something
that I feel like I'm going to need every year
now. Just because you get pumped up again, you
know, like you're getting ready for the season.
So you come home and you're ready, like you just
took away all these tools from the conference
and you just feel more ready and more excited
for your growing season and more confident. You
just talk. to 20 or so people about their experiences
and you learn from them so you just gain so much
confidence. My goal for this year is I want it
to feel like home for you even though you haven't
been here you've never been to my farm but having
people at the farm this year and you know every
year there's so last year we had some people
that couldn't come that came the year before
we have some people last year that can't come
this year but people from two years ago are coming
back and they're bringing a friend and it's just
this this really cool community that we all have
different goals and we all have different visions
of what our flower farming looks like. And I'm
not out of touch. I'm aware that my space and
my building and my venue and my high tunnels
and my, you know, all the weddings that we're
doing and obviously the podcasting, the coaching,
the creating an app, Farmers to Florists for
crop planning. Like I am well aware that not
everyone wants. those goals. And that's okay.
You know, so I'm not sitting here like, oh, you'll
be here someday. That is the last thing I will
sit here and say, because I know that this is
not what everyone wants and what's the best fit
for everyone and their life and their goals.
And that's what I think. One thing that you said
earlier in the episode, you're like sitting across
from a super successful flower farmer. My favorite
thing about it is you can define success in your
own way. And success is also that person who
says, Hey, I want 30 subscriptions a week and
two you picks on the weekends. And I want to
sell out of them and I don't want any employees
and I just want to do mine. And like, that's
enough to pay my bills and sweet. Absolutely.
And then we have someone who says my path to
my business is selling to florists. My path to
my business is a farm stand, you know, whatever
it might be. We've all tried everything to figure
out what works, to figure out what thing our
customer wants and all of that. So new this year,
we have on Saturday, we've got quite a few more
speakers. Two years ago, I had a ton of speakers.
I had, you know, an insurance professional. I
had someone from the FSA coming to like get your
farm registered. We did a lot of high tunnel
stuff, like how to secure their funding, the
grants, those types of things. A couple of florists
came and just talked about what they would like
to have. So that was a ton of speakers the first
year. But then the feedback that I got was that
we wanted more time to talk and mingle and round
tables and discuss. So then last year, I did
presentations. We had kind of a motivational
speaker over the noon hour. I did a lot of presentations
that I do feel like I'm really proud of them.
feel like I was qualified to teach them. But
then in between we did a lot of round tables,
stuff like that. And so now we're kind of getting
back to that in between. I've got a couple of
really amazing speakers. My sales rep from Ball
Horticulture is flying in from California. She
is terrified of the snow, the weather. I promised
her I will come pick her up from the airport
because she's like, what if there's ice? I will
come and get you. She's like, I don't have a
winter coat, Liz. I don't have, you know, we've
talked about all these things. I'm like, I got
some boots you can borrow. Like, you're going
to be fine, God. But I'm so excited for her to
come because she's going to talk about plugs.
And that's where I buy my ranunculus from and
my tulips and my peonies and all those things.
We have got Lenbush roses coming, which is a
huge urban farm in Minnesota in the Twin Cities.
That's where I buy a lot of my wholesale from,
but they grow. massive amounts of stock and snapdragons
and their own peonies and so they're a farmer
themselves but they're also a distributor and
they also have that relationship where they do
import flowers and you know have that relationship
and it's still this it's this needed conversation
that's not one right way or wrong way and how
do we figure out what the floral industry needs
because some things we just can't grow in Minnesota.
And so, you know, how do we meet that demand
and support each other? So they're coming. Everyone's
going to get a bouquet this year. We're going
to have a stem bar at my farm and see my big
cooler, my like 12 by 22 cooler. If you want
to get adventurous, we can go to the old butcher
shop and look at the old one with the little
scariness. But my new one that has a couple of
cool bots, we've got cool bot is sending some
information to like help you. thought about it.
And so if you have any questions, you can contact
them. We've got my insurance agent that insures
my fairly big agritourism operation. And so he
can kind of answer all of those questions there.
My best friend, Nikki, she came two years ago
and she is a loan officer for Compere Financial.
And so she's going to talk about balance sheets.
She's giving the same presentation that she gave
two years ago. And it's literally... what the
heck is a balance sheet? What do you need to
know before you even try to go get a loan? And
it's not that scary, but it's just what you need
to know, like very basic how to run your business.
You start with this. And so I'm really excited
for that. And then the round table discussions.
Last year we did, I think we did like two minute
timers and you said something about what we can
bring to the table or what we're really good
at or what we're nervous at. We kind of. led
them that way this year I want to divide up the
couple different sessions you'll have three different
options what to go to and we'll have a have a
topic on a table like a little tabletop that
says subscriptions and we'll have another one
that says selling to florists and another one
that says wedding florals or another one that
says just business and then you just go sit at
that table And you just hop in for 10 minutes.
And if you're like, I don't want to talk about
this anymore. I'm going to go to this table that's
talking about that. So I'm really excited for
those roundtables. And then we are able to just
hang out here. Abby's going to play music bingo
at night. I have a consumption and display permit
with my business, which means I can't sell alcohol,
but people can bring their own. Don't think that
this is this big drunk fest. Like, let me pause
and say that. But we can have our own social
hour here and just naturally turn it into a social
hour rather than last year we left. And then
we went to milk and honey ciders, which was so
fun. That was one of the most fun parts of the
conference just to like hang out and see each
other. So this way it can just be a natural extension,
happy hour into there. If you want to stay, if
you don't, I promise. I feel like I was like,
everyone's going to drink. No, but. You can have
some cocktails and come back if you want or don't.
It's fine. I definitely will. And so then that's
on Saturday. And then on Sunday, for those that
are choosing to come back, we have four signed
up so far. We can do a maximum of 10. We are
doing a Wedding Flowers 101 for a flower farmer.
And so Sydney, who has years of design experience
that does my bridal bouquets, that does all of
my like wedding, really good design. She is going
to be, literally teaching everyone how to you
know it's going to be two to one groups so you
will have two people with sydney making a bridal
bouquet two people with britney and lydia making
boutonnieres and wrist corsages two people with
me doing a consultation teaching you how to like
bid it how to do it and so you will leave here
feeling very comfortable if a bride says hey
i just need a bouquet bridesmaids boutonnieres
wrist corsages like and maybe some butt bases
you will leave here feeling ready to do that
I'm not going to promise that you're going to
leave here this isn't the type of wedding boot
camp where you're going to learn how to make
all these massive centerpieces and installations
and stuff like that I would say that's a little
bit more of the next level and we're planning
on hosting one of those next summer but this
is very kind of very confidently get started
and so Len Bush Roses is sponsoring that in sharing
the flowers and they distribute flowers to the
Midwest and so you can get a wholesale account
to supplement with what you grow but I'm going
to walk you guys through kind of the why behind
and this will be part on Saturday as well but
the why behind the Farmers to Florist app that
I'm just launching this week that shows you the
crop planning and the inventory and all of that
because my goal is to use the most flowers. possible
grown by myself or other growers and you know
domestically of course is ideal but sometimes
you just need to import some roses or something
my opinion some people might not want to that's
okay but to me the brides still care about the
look the most I've had is that included in the
in the conference or so that's an extra one and
it's only available if you go to Saturday So
I've had a few people say, can I just come Sunday?
And I said, nope. So after you buy or check out
for Saturday, it will immediately pop up and
it'll email you and say, hey, do you also want
to come to Sunday? And if we only have four people
out of the 10, I really didn't know. I've never
added this before. It's such a specific thing.
Not everyone wants weddings. But to me, I mean,
if you have a bride, six bridesmaids. eight boutonnieres
and two riscorsages, that's a $1 ,200 wedding
easily. And you will make this up in one wedding.
And you will make it up in one mistake of ordering
the wrong things or getting a bad review. And
do you also really want to practice on a bride?
Right. No, count me in. I'm definitely interested
in that. So that's a part, you know, that's available.
But we will definitely, this episode is coming
out on Monday, the 12th? Question mark? I think
so then yeah this will come out on the 12th and
then that way you know we're going to keep registration
open I think until hopefully the week of conference
or however if it sells out so we'll see we're
past our goal for last year and now we're going
to start really ramping up you know historically
December signups have always been pretty slow
so we just kind of let's just push it really
big in January but yeah I think we have almost
as many as last year already signed up and we're
just excited so Yay. Yay. Anything else that
you want to just share about conference? I feel
like we jumped around. I gave Allie sort of the
questions ahead of time, full disclaimer, because
she was nervous to come on the podcast, which
is totally fine. But now I jumped around and
I went off the cuff a few times. So this is very
non -scripted. Going into conference last year,
you talked about what that felt like, kind of
what you expected. You were nervous. What decisions
do you think that you made differently? Because
of conference, because of what you learned, because
of the people that you met, what helped you change?
Well, I definitely stopped selling myself short.
Like literally, I stopped selling my flowers
for pennies. I stopped like putting a price that
I think, you know, was what people would buy.
And I started crop planning. I started, you know,
taking notes. I started actually planning like
a business owner and not a hobby grower. And
all the connections I made, you know, like I
leaned on them a lot. Like I bet Brianna at Back
Forty Farm or Maria are so annoyed with me because
I'm like constantly in their DMs and I wouldn't
have met them otherwise. You know, like you're
not just going to meet. I mean, I guess you can
meet someone on Instagram, but it's just nice
to meet someone face to face and you will always
have that connection. You know, one thing that
we've talked about at a conference every year
is. Just that confidence that comes from being
with other people. It's so hard because you want
to, I keep saying this, we want to make people's
dream come true. We want to say, you know, someone's
like, I just really want a stem bar, a vernunculus
and stock and peonies for my baby shower. It's
my dream. It's my first baby. We had infertility
and this is my dream. But this is my budget.
And you're like, oh, but it it's not your responsibility
to write for cheap and you can't. And so I think
that, you know, last year, I remember there was
one session where we were all really chatting
and and we started talking about pricing. And
I finally and they're like, well. No, but my
customers won't pay that. My customers won't
pay that. I'm like, you guys. And I went, I pulled
up my wholesale account on the big projector.
And I said, you guys, look at this. People's
jaws were dropping. They had no idea. Like, this
is what the florist in town is paying to have
the flowers delivered in water, smashed together,
rubber band and plastic and whatever. And I'm
not saying like, and it's great for when it's
needed, right? It's whatever. But you are giving
them stripped stems, full length for half the
price. No, that's not going to work. It's not
sustainable. And the other thing that I learned
and that one customer actually said it to me
when I was still selling my flowers for 15, 20
bucks a bouquet. And they were like, Liz, I want
you to be in business in two years because I
like being your customer. If I keep paying these
prices, you are not going to be in business in
two years. And, you know, it's like my sister
lives in a really rural town. One lives in Nebraska,
kind of by you. My sister's in South Dakota in
a pretty rural town. And I noticed her nails
were done at Christmas. And I'm like, oh, did
you drive to Aberdeen, which is the town that's
an hour and a half away? And she goes, no, there's
a girl in Moebridge that's doing it and she's
young and whatever. And I said, oh, and I, you
know, we were talking and then I'm like, how
much were they? And she goes, oh, it was, and
I don't remember what price she said, but it
was very, what I would expect to pay around here.
And I said, that's awesome. And she goes, I agree.
And I said, because if she was doing it for $30,
a full set of nails, a manicure, like. she's
not going to stay in business and so that's good
like you like her and you know there's something
like that it's hard to have someone doing something
like that in you know that and in rural areas
unfortunately there's a reason some of that stuff
doesn't exist in rural areas if people aren't
going to pay and support so if you want that
person to stay in business my point is like those
are something that I just remember being like
big conversations and that's the kind of conversations
that are having so if you're listening to this
the links are in the episode notes by the time
this comes out it's going to be all over our
social media again emails going out sign up join
us we would love to have you we'll have the photo
booth again it's just going to be fun it's going
to be so fun and you know learning and all that
thank you so much Ali for joining us from Nebraska
thank you for having me can't wait to see you
so soon All right. Sounds good. Bye. Thank you
so much for listening to this episode of Rudded
Agritourism. If you enjoyed it, please leave
a five -star review and share it with someone
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rooted