Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Kiwiet.
Hi Jessica, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Pieter and I have both been gardeners forever, and have fond memories of working in our families’ gardens as children. We were excited to grow something together when we moved to our property in 2005. We started out with a community garden in our back field, inviting friends to create food plots in our space. We loved the idea of working with others and sharing our property, but the garden eventually failed because everyone involved was too busy to harvest as needed. We switched to flower production because flowers were beneficial for the bees and the butterflies, even if we didn’t have time to harvest. Beauty without guilt, a win-win.
Over the years, the garden has had several iterations as our goals and focus have changed. In 2016, we started selling small bouquets on a blue table outside of a friend’s salon, and that is how our flower business got its name. Because we still had full time jobs, however, we usually gave most of our flowers away.
Blue Table Flowers experienced a major pause in 2018 when Pieter had a debilitating stroke and spent weeks at Mary Free Bed relearning how to walk. The garden took a back seat while we figured out life. In 2024, we decided to resurrect Blue Table Flowers as a business. I am now the main proprietor and Chief Officer of Everything (COE).
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Without a doubt, Pieter’s stroke has been our biggest obstacle. He used to run circles around me out in the field and he’d tackle any tech issues we had. Losing his full abilities has made for drastic changes in how we work. Luckily, I have some part time staff who are an incredible help to me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Blue Table Flowers?
The motto of Blue Table Flowers is, “we are in the business of growing Wonder”, and that refers both to our farm and to how we choose to live our lives. We live and grow with purpose. We cultivate Wonder in the beauty of our flowers and in the joy we create from the imperfect world that surrounds us. We are extremely proud of the high quality products we produce, the research we do, the knowledge we share, and the people with whom we surround ourselves.
We have incredibly special products, and we are looking for people who appreciate what we do. Blue Table Flowers practices sustainable agriculture. We are a no-till farm that utilizes brix scores, cover cropping, multi-cropping, and fermented probiotic amendments to grow healthy, beautiful flowers. We do not use insecticides or synthetic fertilizer. Our aim is to leave the earth in better condition than we found it.
Our focal flower crops are peonies, zinnias, and dahlias. We sell flower subscriptions (CSAs), bundles of flowers at our farmstand, DIY buckets for events, and personal items for weddings. We offer dahlia tubers for shipping or farm pick up. We also host occasional bouquet making events on property.
Added to our farming practices are backgrounds that support community, art, and creativity. We dream of Blue Table Flowers becoming a farm where people gather, where art work is generated, and community is built. We are in the business of growing Wonder, in both what we cultivate from the soil and from our world.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
When I was a kid, I played outside with the neighbors all day, created forts in the woods, and imagined new worlds through play. I loved books–going to the library or buying from the Scholastic book order. I would have the hardest time whittling down the list of books I needed to have on that order form! Some of my favorite books as a child were A Secret Garden and The Chronicles of Narnia. Magical places really captivated me. (I’ve often said that if I had all the money in the world, I’d have secret passages in my house.)
Our property reflects my love of the outdoors and my drive to create. It’s a huge palette for the textures and colors of plants and the nooks and crannies that inspire imagination. I love to think about how the spaces appear to the mind of a child, and I am constantly thinking of new things to add!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bluetableflowers.com
- Instagram: blue_table_flowers
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueTableFlowers
