Alternative to Tobacco is Flowering

Source from:  By Byron Crawford bcrawford@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal 09/14/2006

The Owen County fields where Raphe Ellis and Teresa Biagi once grew 9,000 pounds of burley tobacco are now carpeted with purple majesty millet, brilliant celosia and Indian summer rubekia and many other colorful plants. Now, instead of cutting tobacco, they are cutting bouquets of flowers. The old plank barn -- where for several generations tobacco was hung for autumn curing -- is used for trimming and blending fresh-cut and dried arrangements for sale at farmers' markets in Lexington and Cincinnati, and for weddings and other special occasions. A large walk-in cooler in the corner of the barn helps keep the flowers fresh until they are delivered. "We got the name Hazelfield Farm from one of our dogs," Biagi said. This is life after tobacco on one Kentucky family farm. "It's just as much work as tobacco was, but it's a whole lot harder to be in a bad mood," Ellis remarked. As their tobacco quota and burley prices declined, the couple realized that major changes were needed if they were to survive as full-time farmers on their 161 acres above Eagle Creek near Wheatley in Owen County. They have planted some three acres in flowers and have left the remainder in hay, woodlands or pastures for a few beef cattle and one jersey milk cow. Biagi and her daughter, Esmee McKee, had operated a shop in Frankfort and had successfully marketed some of their home-grown flowers at a few farmers' markets several years earlier. A family arrangement After the family switched to the flower business full-time, McKee moved to a home near the farm and handles sales of the flowers at the Hyde Park Farmers' Market in Cincinnati on the weekends, while Ellis and Biagi market their organically grown flowers and produce in Lexington. Hazelfield Farm was asked to provide the flowers for the funeral of Larry Turner, the University of Kentucky associate dean who was killed in the recent crash of Comair Flight 5191. Turner was director of the state's cooperative extension service, whose Owen County office was instrumental in Hazelfield Farm's successful transition from tobacco to cut flowers. When the growing season is over, the family turns to dried flower arrangements and Christmas wreaths. After a brief vacation in January, they start flower seeds in float beds, just as they once sprouted tobacco seeds for spring transplanting. "We'll cut probably between 4,000 and 6,000 stems a week -- daffodils, narcissus and tulips -- starting in April," Biagi said. "Then we go to peonies, lilies and iris." Except for special orders, most of Hazelfield Farm's arrangements vary in price from about $35 to as little as $5 for some table bouquets. Their income from flowers has compared very favorably with tobacco revenue, Biagi said. No bed of roses just yet, perhaps, but enough to make the farm payments and live comfortably, surrounded by flowers. "Sometimes people ask me when I'm going to retire," she said. "I say, 'Retire from what?' " To learn more about Hazelfield Farm or to schedule a visit, e-mail them at hazelfieldfarm@hotmail.com. Enditem