Episode 638: A visit to Washington flower farm Field to Heart, with Dee Swan and Valiant Poole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2LUprKQ7r8

The Slow Flowers Podcast is grateful to the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market for its longtime support -- and today's episode underscores our relationship. From its beginnings in 2010, when a group of local flower farmers hatched up the idea of starting a wholesale hub for local flowers here in Seattle, my storytelling has been intertwined with their stories. My guests today are part of that narrative. Please join me on a visit to Field to Heart owned by Danielle (Dee) Swan and Valiant Poole.

Valiant Poole (left) and Dee Swan (right) of Field to Heart

Danielle (Dee) Swan at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market's Field to Heart product display

When I first me this couple, they were based in Snohomish, an agricultural county located about 30 minutes north of Seattle. Both have an extensive background in the arts, horticulture, fine gardening, and organic landscape maintenance. They apply this experience and passion to providing sustainably grown, chemical free, high-quality flowers to florists in the Pacific Northwest.

In 2018, Dee and Valiant relocated Field to Heart to Curtis, Washington, to a new home and acreage located west of Centralia. The area is known as the center point, about 90 miles in either direction between Seattle and Portland, which has allowed Field to Heart to also supply Portland area florists who shop at the Oregon Flower Growers Association, also a Slow Flowers member, located at the Portland Flower Market.

The view from Field to Heart

Earlier this month, I had a trip to the Washington coast planned with a friend, and in looking at the map for my return to Seattle, I realized that we were due west of Field to Heart. I have always loved the botanicals that Dee and Valiant grow and I basically invited myself to visit them on my drive home. When she emailed me back, Dee wrote: “We’d love to show you around Field to Heart! We should be here all day on Saturday making wreaths…being farmers it’s hard to get away even in the off season.” 

Low Tunnels with Craspedia globosa

I brought my camera and started filming the minute I arrived. You’ll see inside the high tunnels, the low tunnels, and spent time as I chat with Dee and Valiant on their porch. In preparation for their winter wreath and garland production, the porch is converted into an outside studio filled with greenery and other design elements. It’s also the location of the wreathing workshops they host during December.

Pottery by Dee Swan of Field to Heart

I also wanted to mention that you can find Dee’s handmade pottery mugs and vases on the Field to Heart website and at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. I love her sentiments: “We often wonder if we are farmers with the eyes of an artist or artists with a farmers’ touch. We are educated in both and strive to create our lives around both disciplines, whether it be plant identification to painting, music to 'garden-nerding' or ceramics to soil health.  It's all intertwined.”

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This Week's News

Here in the U.S., we’ve just finished a nice, long, four-day Thanksgiving weekend, followed on Monday, November 27th by Cyber Monday. While Slow Flowers isn’t jumping on that bandwagon this year, we do want to remind you that there’s still time to grab your ticket to the 2024 Slow Flowers Summit and  take advantage of Early Bird Registration rate! You’ll save $100 off your Slow Flowers Summit registration, now through December 31st.  I can’t wait to see you in Banff,