Our Wreaths
A friend of ours got us hooked....
Mary Fisher, who for a long time supplied wreaths at Meyer's Dairy on South Atherton Street in State College, asked us if we'd be interested in learning how to make wreaths and helping her with the 2007 sales season. Of course, we said yes, primarily because we realized it would be a great fill-in income between the end of the planting season and the beginning of snow removal season. The season went well and we were hooked. Mary stopped making wreaths in large quanities but still makes them on a small scale. We tried to pick up where she left off to what extent we could.
We learned the ins and outs of a good wreath...
We harvest greens from customers yards, neighbors yards and local tree farms for a fee. We collect cones all year long and various friends and neighbors bag theirs up and drop them off too. Family members scour the shelves after Christmas for ribbon sales and we talk walks to collect plant parts and fruits for drying for the wreaths. Although the wreaths are primarily made of local items we do cheat on two things: a friend of ours in North Carolina sometimes sends us the huge pine cones from her yard (they are so worth it on the large wreaths!) and our family in Massachusetts will cut and deliver us cedar from their property. These two items make nice additions when they are available.
We worked on developing a customer base...
We started by circulating flyers with wreath order information to our friends and family. It slowly grew from there and now we serve about 100 regular customers, two local fund raisers and particpate in a local Christmas market. On our own, we won't be able to do much more than that, but when needed, we enlist the help of our families and friends.
And took a step back to set some boundaries...
Since we have our hands in so many different fires with the nursery, the goats, the farmers markets, snow plowing, etc., we decided when we got into the wreath business that we needed some boundaries. We start our wreath making the Monday after Thanksgiving. The wreath making ends a few days before Christmas (usually around the 20th or 21st) with exceptions made on a case by case basis. This schedule allows us to spend a work free Thanksgiving with our famiy and gives us a few days before Christmas to catch our breath. These holidays are very important to us and are during a time of year when we typically have more time to spend together. We feel it is important to stop to enjoy the harvest and give thanks and to be with family during Christmas. We hope our customers understand and don't mind waiting a few extra days for quality wreaths!
Please use our wreath order form to place an order!
