During the Spring of 2017 we began to explore various ways to introduce and develop the 1818 Farms’ Seed to Vase initiative. The goal of this initiative is to educate others on ways to identify, grow, harvest and/or arrange seasonally grown flowers. Through our Seed to Vase initiative we plan to share our gardening knowledge as well as the beautiful flowers from our farm. After growing heirloom flowers and herbs for six years we felt comfortable expanding our reach by providing an innovative and unique service business and hands-on workshops to our community.
The first step of introducing the Seed to Vase initiative was hosting our inaugural Bloom Stroll and Bouquet workshop in June 2017. Workshop participants toured our gardens and learned to identify and properly cut flowers and herbs. Following the garden tour, participants gathered under the 1818 Farms pavilion to discuss the basic steps of creating a stunning floral arrangement for any occasion. Each participant created a one of a kind arrangement using flowers that were harvested a few feet away from them the morning of the workshop. This was one of my favorite farm hosted workshops in 2017.
After hosting the workshop and seeing the excitement and happiness of the participants I felt strongly about the importance of sharing the beauty of our farm flowers with others. We began to explore ideas of how to make flowers easily available to our community. After extensive research we determined that the most effective method would be to launch the 1818 Farms Flower Truck in the Spring of 2018.
Flower trucks can be found in cities throughout the United States. A flower truck is a place where community members can comfortably ask questions and learn the basic steps of making fresh bouquets, gardening and more. They can build a one of a kind bouquet from the hand-selected stems that are on the truck that day.
We wanted the 1818 Farms Flower Truck to be representative of our farm motto “Life the way it used to be.” The truck needed to evoke memories of an era of slower times in small town America when kids rode their bikes, you knew your neighbors and the farmers who grew your food. It had to be a classic American made automobile since our farm and its product line is a part of the Made in the USA movement.
As a child I grew up in Florence, Alabama. I remember neighbors and family friends being employed at the nearby Ford Motor Company plant in Sheffield, Alabama, that manufactured auto parts. My family drove a Ford and our neighbors had made those parts with their hands, so the brand seemed like the perfect choice for the 1818 Farms Flower Truck.
Finding a working, vintage Ford truck was the next challenge. Luckily with internet access your choices are not limited to your geographic region. It became just a matter of finding the exact vehicle that met our parameters. After months of looking at various models we found the perfect truck at PlaytoysClassicCars.com. Scott and his staff were wonderful to work with and made the process of purchasing and transporting our truck very simple.
Meet the 1818 Farms Flower Truck. She is a classic American Made beauty! This baby blue 1965 Ford F100 spent her life in Southern California with one family. We love her bright color and style. For a true vintage look the 1818 Farms logo was hand painted on the truck doors by Michael Swann (swanngraphics.com) of Birmingham, Alabama. A sturdy wooden table to display and transport our flowers was designed and constructed by Tommy Walker of Flint, Alabama.
After attaching the truck’s custom designed awning, our flower truck is now ready to travel the Tennessee Valley, bringing fresh flowers to the community.
