Important Dates:

August 1, 2025: Next subscriber giveaway drawing.

July 8, 2025: Volunteer day to set up for CFA day! 8:30 am -10:30 am. We can use a hand getting set up. Tasks could be to set up hand washing stations, hang a sheet for projector, update a chalk sign, string trim and trim some branches up the driveway, put out tables and chairs, etc. We may have some of these items complete, but this is a short list of what we will be doing ahead of the event. If you have to choose between volunteering or the CFA day, skip volunteer day! Let us know if you want a bouquet for your time and we can get it ready ahead of you coming to help. Otherwise, feel free to just show up.

July 9^th 2025: Community Farm Alliance (CFA) is coming to Loving Farm to talk with us about agrotourism, one of our favorite topics. Registration is open and participation is free of charge. The program will include a brief tour of our farm, followed by a presentation by Kati Bowman from KCARD to talk about ways to increase the success of agrotourism on Kentucky farms.

Nicole Gwishiri will also be here representing American Farmland Trust. We are looking forward to hearing what they have to share with us! Feel free to share the links to this event from your socials or forward this email. There will be food to eat and flowers to arrange too! It is open to anyone with an interest in this topic free of charge. Make sure to register here as spots are limited.

Agrotourism/agritourism according to the USDA site: a form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining or educating the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch or other agricultural business owner.

Thank you to everyone who supported our farm this week! This past Tuesday we had a spur of the moment decision to sell some flowers at the market. We had already cut a bunch of flowers to bring to Frankfort on Wednesday and still had to process them. Instead of doing that at home which was feeling boring, we threw everything into the car and took it to the extension office to do it all there with our market friends. It was great getting to see everyone for a spell, plus we came home with less flowers, some fresh farmers market goodies and, good vibes which are always free of charge. I took the drive to the flower market Wednesday along with an order for Locals in Frankfort that Sunflower Sundries needed delivered. It was perfect.

The rest of the week has been spent hanging with neighbors in between us prepping the farm for our big event on Wednesday. We have had some prime porch sitting around town between the evening of the 4^th across the tracks and a hang on our friend Susan’s porch for the Ewing parade on Sunday, with a quick stop with some flowers to another dear friend along the way.

There has been mowing, string trimming, sign-painting, cleaning, weeding, and watering to try and make the farm look extra special to welcome our guests. Perriee has the walking trails trimmed down in preparation for a farm tour and we have the area in front of the deck mowed back to hopefully lay some logs down for some amphitheater seating. It is looking pretty spiffy over here, if I do say so myself!

The flowers are on fire with life and it is so much fun to see new things in bloom on the daily. I think my favorite flower this week is the peppermint stick zinnia which I have been hoping to grow for years now. These ones are from seeds a friend sent to Perriee a few months ago and they are everything I hoped they would be. Freaking beautiful. Oh gosh…but what about the bee balm?? Is THAT my favorite?? Sigh. I looked at that bouquet of bee balm this week and had a moment of feeling fancy. It was that appreciation of the beauty that nature gifted me that could not be surpassed no matter how much money I could possibly have. Perfection, if you will, in flowers that were not even sell-able for dollars, but literally invaluable.

We watched a couple documentaries about farming and forever chemicals and one of the guys spoke about how we wanted to leave his place better than when he took over care of that particular piece of land. Now, how about some daydreaming? If you could do something cool to make the community you live in better, what would it be? Ideas that come to mind to uplift this town include:

1. Open the Warehouse up one day a week to for a community meal. We saved the old wooden doors from when they installed the metal ones and some of them are perfect for huge, long tables. The cedar poles in there will serve as legs, and we certainly can muster up enough chairs to cater to whoever comes (Nepton is small, people). Everyone is so busy, especially this time of year, and it would be such a pleasure to cook a big farm-style meal to recharge everyone. Didn’t they used to have big farm dinners for people?

2. Have a fundraiser to create a vet fund for neighborhood dogs and cats. It would be a dream to see a random cat show up in the driveway knowing that we had a bank account set aside specifically to get them spayed or neutered and vaccinated and whatever else they may need at the time. Even better, would be for the neighbors to know we have this account for anyone with a pet in need. Maybe someone has a sick dog that needs a checkup and no funds. Or if someone with a pet had an accident and was faced with a decision to pay for treatment or not, they could tap into the “Nepton Vet Fund” and not have to worry about the money. I believe family pets are the heart of so many homes and money should not preclude a person from that enjoyment.

3. Post a community board to create a way to do ride-shares for those of us that have to go far for appointments. I cannot tell you how many conversations I have had with people talking about driving to Cincinnati or Lexington (both an hour and a half from here). Personally, I think it would be nice having a companion to chat it up with while rolling up the AA highway to the city. Sometimes we don’t go to appointments together because the driving itself can take three hours that could be spent working on the farm.

4. Host a talent show in the Warehouse. This was Perriee’s. Yes please!

I think these are my top three. Well, they are right now anyhow. Write down your top three and post it on a mirror or the refrigerator. Bring it to life. I bet you a million dollars (or a bouquet of bee balm which is equivalent) that some of these will turn into reality if you do.