2021 RECAP
I will probably always remember 2021 as the best year of my life. The cut flower season has officially come to an end as of the day before thanksgiving, this year. Then, we began making Christmas wreaths and Garland!
It seems selfish to say that this year has been the best of my life considering many are still suffering from effects of COVID-19. More specifically, people in “my circle. I have friends and family members with health concerns that are earth shattering... I am so ready for this pandemic to be over.
This year, my “Mema” passed away in March. She didn’t pass away from Covid but it was difficult not being able to visit her as we wanted to due to covid. I am sure many can relate to this. However, I am grateful she spent the last months of her life at Wake Med where my aunt Val (Dr.Barlow) is chief of staff could make sure she received the best care. I know this holiday season of life was especially difficult for my dad; losing his mom... But, This is a celebratory post! I have to mention that Joanna Nancy Freeman joined us in time to meet her great grandmother - “Mema Iris”. Having her here early was a blessing to have her to love on during the hard time.
2021 was my second season selling cut flowers and it was a record year! 2021 was a great year for the farm and for my immediate family!
Joanna Nancy freeman came into the world 25 days early on March 5, 2021. She weighed 5 pounds and 8 ounces and was 19in long and perfectly healthy. She was and is an absolute miracle and the best thing that ever happened to me and my husband! She has changed my entire family’s lives forever!
My granny, moms mom comes over to see her almost every day! Joanna is her first and only great grand baby so far!
Ironically, the week after Joanna was born a book that I had written four years prior, Freeman; through the water was published!
This was so exciting because honestly after so many years had passed and after so many rounds of editing, changing the most minute details, and wondering, “is it ever going to be a real thing”? At a time I had completely forgotten about it, so wrapped up engrossed in Joannas birth, my book was available on all platforms! The celebration of LIFE continued! This was an all. Time. High. For me!
Not long after Joanna was born we started building the “Birdsong Chapel”, and the Cornealius Properties DREAM beacons a REALITY! Little did we know, at the time, mom and dad were deciding to build “Carriage hall“ too!
The day after my husband, my cousin Martin, my cousin Scarlett, and CJ Deselms (A family friend who helped out at the farm and with NProjectsLLC over the summer) and myself finished landscaping at the chapel my best friend Payton (Meadows) Lofton and her husband Luke flew into town for the weekend to spend time with Kenneth, myself and baby Joanna! This would be the first time that Payton and Luke met Joanna.
While they were in town, Luke brought his drone to video the chapel! I posted the video he created onto TikTok and it went viral!
316.7k views in a matter of HOURS!
The Cornealius Properties, In my father‘s eyes, was not ready for booking! After the TickTock went viral he changed his mind and we began booking weddings for the coming year, while the venue was still not complete!
My parents completed one NProjectsLLC fixer upper and started working on another.
We called the “family house” house the car lot house at first because when my parents purchased the home it had about 20 broken down cars in the front yard. Also, the house was completely filled with rubbish. The home has great bones, it just needed a new roof, a lot of paint, new windows etc. they chose to add New hardwood floors, new granite countertops, new cabinets, new tile floors in the bathrooms and laundry room appliances, new light fixtures and finishing on all of the cabinets. So now, everything in the house essentially looks brand new. Also, they added a garage door on the carport. I wanted to move in myself! It became a part of the wedding venue too and is available for, just as it sounds, the family, at an additional cost on wedding week / weekend.
My entire life, my parents have been working on a fixer upper. When I was younger, I remember they would often sell the homes. These days, they fix up a home and get so attached to it that they choose to keep it. They have been married for 35 years this year! I can, in my mind, hear them saying “we might would live here one day “. Most of these projects signify A specific time in their lives. when I look back, I can remember which project we were working on when so-and-so events were happening. These remodels have become therapeutic to my parents especially my father. I can hear my dad, in my mind, telling my mom he is going to start another fixer-upper. She will say something like “why don’t we let someone else do this one” but then she ends up getting on board and becoming the designer!
Anyway, the home they started in the summer, they intended to rent on a month-to-month contract basis as they do many rental properties. However, this eventually evolved into “the family house“ with the Cornealius properties.
My little cousin who lives in Raleigh came to spend a few weeks working on the farm during the day and working on a fixer-upper in the evening with my parents. Having her in town for a few weeks was such a wonderful time. I think one day she will say “remember that time I worked on Brooks Flower Farm “like my parents talk about working in tobacco as teenagers. It was the highlight of my summer. I am glad we will always have those memories together! And she’s planning on coming back in 2022, her work ethic is super impressive and she’s a strong little thing.
Funky fresh donuts opened in downtown goldsboro and quickly became a sensation and one of the most popular places to hang out. Mrs.Pam is the kindest soul ever and Mr. John, he is also pretty great; as well as his mother Mrs.Trilby who often helps out at the donut shop. Not only does this family run funky fresh donuts, they run funky fresh the catering company. I wish they would open a restaurant so I could eat their meals regularly! Pam and John assisted my family with dreaming up a caterers prep kitchen for Carriage hall at The Cornealius Properties.
Rohan Shrenath, started “humans of Wayne County“ interviews at the Wayne County Public Library during Covid 19 and asked me to participate! It was an honor to be a part of something wonderful he did for our community!
The Farmer and the Dail invited us to participate in their last mini market at their old location before moving to their brand new location. (Have you been to their new location?!) I agreed to this with hesitation as I knew it was right around Joanna‘s due date. Hours before my water broke and Joanna was born I was at the farm making a small wedding “premade you pick up” package for the next day …
and I had picked a ton of flowers to make bouquets for the farmer and the Dail mini market. Of course, I went into labor that night, after driving the tractor. Thankfully, my mom dad and in-laws went to farmer and the Dail for me the next day! They needed something to do to keep themselves busy while they couldn’t be at the hospital anyway! From that point forward we started selling flowers and farmer and the Dail at their new location weekly. We dropped off fresh bouquets at least two days a week! We met so many new people just by having our name (flowers) out there.
I received a grant for six new high tunnels to go up on the farm! In the middle of August myself, CJ, and my cousin Scarlett worked for about three weeks straight Putting up these hard on us. Mr. Robert and Jordan assisted when they were not busy doing other tasks such as delivering flowers. It was miserably hot and I never thought we would get it done. CJ definitely became the team leader on this project. He is quiet and a steady determined worker. Finally, the day before he went back to school, and the day before Jordan moved back into college after starting before the sunrise to “beat the heat” we completed the tunnels! AMEN!
Mr. Ken from new old North contacted me on a Sunday afternoon, he asked that I call him to discuss the best of the boot magazine that was going to be coming out later in the year in August or September. He was very vague on the phone discussed interviewing me and having a photographer come out to take some photos. He would not tell me if I had WON best of the boot or anything regarding the magazine other than I would not believe it. Later I found out that I received the most “organic votes” for who “Wayne’s watching” meaning, Wayne County is keeping up with my Flower Farm! At this point, I did know that on an average day 3000 people would watch my Instagram stories of me running around on the farm picking, bunching, attaching flowers ETC. However, I didn’t know that so many people in Wayne County had truly taken interest in my Flower Farm! I mean, it was only a few months ago that when I started discussing dreaming up a Flower Farm I couldn’t even get anyone to listen to my plans! This really made me think, people are really watching me, what is my business standing for? I hope that my business is a work for the Lord. I hope others see Him when they see me. After all, I am living on “borrowed time”!
August was full of projects, as I spoke of before, August was miserably hot and we were in the middle of a drought through August and actually into most of September. I have to say it one more time, August was miserably hot and we had a lot of projects going on as well as the every day farm tasks. During the month of August it is really difficult to stay at Farmer but thank Hod I had good help. This summer, my husband and I made the decision to complete the inside of the Flower Farm barn. We insulated, put walls up, and purchased two window air condition units. This made a world of difference. Though we did most of the work in August so we could not actually enjoy the air condition until late September, next August will be so amazing having air in the barn to take breaks in.
Also, I’m August, Dakota Hersey came to do a branding shoot and I believe we almost caused her to have a heat stroke! We did have a great time though and I think we got some wonderful images I will use for years to come.
Also, again, In the middle of August, Got To Be NC ag came to the farm to interview me for women in AG small business spotlight!!!!! I had the absolute best day with the two ladies that came to the farm. They made a fabulous video of me and suffered through the hundred plus degree temps outside and the barn was probably even hotter than that at the time! They were both so excited to be doing a farm visit and not be in the office, they joked and said it was like an adult field trip!
Sometime in the early season I messed up the driveshaft in my tractor, all this time, I thought I had been driving my tractor like a pro, little did I know I just about totaled the thing. And of course, I did it during the middle of a pandemic when parts are almost all at a shortage. Thankfully, there was ONE of the tractor parts that I needed available in the United States. I had to wait a few months but eventually I did receive the tractor part and my tractor was completely restored. I have never hated my push behind tiller so much. My mom laughed and remembered when she asked for that tiller one year for her and my father‘s anniversary. She reminisced on the small garden that her and my father made for me and my sister every year around our playhouse. Using this push behind Tiller on a commercial scale was absolutely hilarious! But we made it through the weeks without it.
When I received my tractor back from Musgrave equipment company, by the way, thank you Musgrave! I purchased a new tractor implement that would lay raised beds and lay drip irrigation and plastic at the same time. This was quite the investment but after using it and creating over 60 beds in two hours I realized this was the best investment I had made in my Flower Farm career yet. I kicked myself for not having purchased this implement sooner. My back thanks me already.
Somehow, I still have not cracked the code on having standing florist customers. However, I have tried to have a good mindset and attitude about this. If I sell the flowers myself, in my own arrangements, I can get the most money per stem, since I am not selling them wholesale price! I have cracked the code on selling to my local wholesaler, meaning I’ll end up taking an even lower than wholesale price when I sell flowers to them - because they sell the flowers to other florists at a wholesale price. It’s not ideal. I will admit, when Joanna was born I did sell to a local wholesaler (practically gave my heard earner flowers away) for about three weeks because I figured it was better to take bottom dollar for all my gorgeous anemones versus throwing them away. However, looking back this hurts my heart to remember how cheap we sold our very hard earned beautiful anemones for! We work hard all year long to grow one fabulous crop behind the other.
One of my CSA members sold me a burnt orange couch that they had in a storage unit, they actually reached out to me and asked if I had any interest in it and I was thrilled to see it! They even said I might would need to recover it. When I saw that thing in person the fabric was an absolute perfect condition! I love that burnt orange couch to death. I put it under a big oak tree on some of my parents property and staged it with pumpkins and baskets and a few flowers. We took family photos one afternoon and then I decided to do some for mini photo sessions.
Fall mini photo sessions evolved into Santa mini photo sessions. I ended up doing over 100 photo sessions of different families. I had so much fun with this!
Speaking of CSA, this year my CSA ran for 40 weeks! This was a record and I was absolutely thrilled with the fact that we were able to produce flowers from mid February through mid November. I do believe we could have produce flowers for one more week however, we would have been delivering flowers on Thanksgiving day!
I am very thankful for the 40 weeks that we did deliver CSA flowers! Also, I am very thankful for the love that our CSA community showed Mr. Robert, my delivery driver who joined the team in July! His last day of delivering the CSA route he came home with $80 in tips and three handwritten notes. I have never seen a man so full of emotion and happy! He kept the hand written notes, he showed me where he put them in his car, in his bible. It really touched him. He loved his flower delivery job.
I have to speak a little bit more about Mr. Robert. Mr. Robert was my memas “special friend “he was very depressed after she passed away and we did not see much of him for quite a few months. He does not have social media so he does not know that I had started an ad for a CSA driver and he literally just happened to show up on the farm the next day and ask if I needed any help. Not only is it nice to have him around because he helps with the CSA, it is nice to have him around because he could assist with the tractor, pulling T post, hammering T post, mowing the grass, The list goes on. And he was always wearing a smile. He is a strong man and was always willing! I am sad to say, at the end of this year he decided to move back to Pennsylvania to be with his niece so he would not seem so lonely here in North Carolina.
In September I was a part of A stout shoot at the Cornelius properties with so many other fabulous local vendors! That was definitely a highlight.
Most recently, I told my husband if he was going to go fishing at least once every two weeks that he must start videoing himself! HA! He started an outdoorsman YouTube channel in November! I am proud of him! He was so thrilled when he received 300 views in 24 hours. He loves to watch other fishermen and hunters on YouTube. I have suffered through watching many hours of these “shows “in our living room. I hope his YouTube channel continues in a wonderful direction, I think it’s already better than half of outdoorsmen he watches religiously!
2021 was simply the BEST. 2022, I can’t WAIT for YOU!