We are a family owned and operated commercial peony farm located in Willow, AK. We have operated our farm for 11 years and exclusively cultivate peonies as cut flowers for sale. Our property is 6 acres, one acre is peony production with the remaining land being native forest and living space. We also have a vegetable/berry garden that is cultivated for private use. We have a fire pit/gathering area that most WWOOFers really enjoy as well as a weekly farmers market in town.
Nathan is a Forester, so we often host his co-workers and industry professionals for a wide variety of projects ranging from drone mapping to sapling nursery and native species regeneration. Our farm is dedicated to assisting with educational research whenever possible, so we host visitors almost weekly to offer data and specimen collection.
We'd love to show WWOOFers all aspects of a commercial peony operation depending on the week you plan on visiting.
Tasks may include:
Testing and repairing irrigation systems
Staking plants as they growRemoving side buds to encourage one terminal bud for commercial harvest
Building boxes as we prepare for shipping
Harvesting and grading
Cooler management
Preparing shipments
Driving of deliveries/shipments
Field maintenance: weeds, integrated pest management, nutrient application, compost spreading, irrigation, mowing
Maintaining vegetable garden and berry patches (including sharing the bounty) Farm work is generally physical, laborious, repetitive and done in all sorts of weather.
A flower farm sounds like a vacation, but it is still a working farm.
Harvest typically occurs the first 21 days of July and is our busiest time of year. We normally harvest every four hours.
Nathan is constantly building and upgrading systems. Any system a WWOOFer is interested in learning more about, we'd be happy to teach as much as possible. We've built every piece of our farm from the ground up and learned a lot along the way. Martha is also the sales manager for a large peony cooperative so if any WWOOFer is interested in sales, marketing and business management we'd love to share our knowledge with you!
Although we are off the grid, we have found ways to work around the constraints to provide comfortable accommodations. (Fully off grid, which means no electricity except for solar, clean water is hauled in drinking water jugs from a nearby well, no flush toilets, only an outhouse, laundry by hand in buckets and an outdoor shower house with an on demand propane hot water heater, so at least it is a hot shower.)
We have built two locations to house WWOOFers; a tiny house to accommodate one guest, and a guest cabin to accommodate two guests. The guest cabin has a loft with a queen bed and the downstairs has a futon. Both are equipped with clean, warm bedding and a full kitchen including a propane stove and refrigerator, sink and all cooking/eating utensils. We live in a separate third cabin, all in different locations around the peony fields. There is a central outhouse (typical of many Alaskan properties), solar panels for electricity and we bring drinking water into each cabin as needed. Breakfast and lunch will be prepared by WWOOFers individually in your own cabin and dinner will be communal prepared by your hosts, Nathan and Martha. We'd happily stock your cabin with the food items you'd like, just let us know your preferences. Since the grocery stores are an hour away we typically do a grocery run once per week. Please let us know if you have dietary restrictions so we can prepare dinners accordingly. We have an outdoor shower house with a propane water heater for everyone at the farm. There is also a paid shower location within couple miles of our farm that we can visit if necessary. (If you require a hair dryer for example.) We do not have any TV's at the property, and cell service with AT&T is very reliable. The public library is one of our favorite spots to go to, it is only 15 minutes away with a cozy fireplace and fast internet service. There is no Wifi at the farm, so we rely on cell phone hot spot or library WiFi.
Daily activities are often dictated by the weather so a bit of flexibility is requested. If the weather will be hot and sunny we'd like to get the work done in the morning/early afternoon. If it is rainy we may postpone field work or stop field work early if it is too miserable. During harvest we often work split shifts, harvesting for a few hours in the morning, taking an afternoon break/nap and then resuming a harvest later in the day. We'd like to work with each individual on a schedule that works for both of us. Since we will be working outdoors every day proper gear is required. Boots/sturdy shoes and a raincoat will be necessary.
We generally expect 5-6 hours per day from our WWOOFer guests. While your workday may end after 6 hours, I will work the entire day (until 9 or 10pm) and am generally not available to socialize on a regular basis. Please have available something to keep occupied, a book, drawing supplies or a general curiosity in the area.
We have a stand up paddle board you can borrow to take to the numerous nearby lakes. Our farm is in a great location close to Denali, Talkeetna and a couple of State parks. On the days you aren't busy at our farm it is a great location to explore. We don't have a spare vehicle to loan out, but Turo is an easy option for a day/weekend trip. Hiking, canoe rentals and park tours are all easily reachable within just a couple of hours.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Wild foraging
Flower farming
Renewable energy production
Mechanics / tools / technology
Methods or systems
Holistic management
No-till farming
Mentoring opportunities
Woman-operated
Host type
Production farm
2.4
Hectares
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6
Acres
