Bloomstead Farms, Marketing

Meet Jody

Grandma Jody pops in to help with planting, harvest and with gardening tips and tricks. She brings wisdom to our partnership and cooks great meals for the team!

  1.  What is your life’s motto and why?  I want to leave things better than what I’ve found them

2.Who inspired your work ethic? My parents.  As kids we always had jobs.  On Saturday mornings we helped mom clean the house.  After lunch we all went to town. While mom was at the grocery store I went to the library to check out books. I loved to read then and still do now. In the 50’s you went to town and Mom would buy groceries.  My favorite thing to do was to buy books.  Every day we had different chores to make the family work. Dad’s reward for working would be to sell a calf and he would give us some spending money. That’s how we learned a reward for hard work.  In jr high I did ironing for a neighbor lady.(including her husband’s boxer shorts).

3.What is your earliest memory on the farm? During harvest time my mom and the neighbor's wife would milk each other’s cows.  People were really good at helping each other out.  My dad had an eye injury and all the neighbors all came and helped him do spring tillage. 

4. What do you like about the farming lifestyle?  I like  growing things and watching things grow.  With gardening I always carefully mark things out.  It’s a thrill to put things in the ground and watch plants come out. Farming is not a 9 to 5 job.  Farmers come in for supper and go back to work.  It’s not a very scheduled life.  Our whole married life has been unscheduled. You learn to live with what you’re doing. You have to be flexible.  When I was a kid.  I used to think “I’m never going to marry a farmer because of the uncertainty” Dad would have a great crop and then there would be a hail storm.  But then I did.  But then the rewards of being able to work with your family and working for yourself and you can’t blame anyone else. 

5.What values do you feel you learned from your family?  I feel that being raised in a Christian home taught me how to treat people the right way.  We squabled like a typical family, but we valued each other.  We learned to respect people and to love the Lord.  I learned good work ethics.

6.What are your strength areas? I think I am an encourager.  I am a caregiver.  I can encourage everyone to do what needs to be done.  I’m knowledgeable about flowers and gardening.

7.What work or projects do you do outside of Bloomstead Farms?   I have a large vegetable and flower garden.  I volunteer at our local thrift store. I am committed to getting my children’s baby scrapbook done this year!  The gardening that I do is helpful because I can be a supporter of beginning gardeners. It's something our younger generation of kids can carry on.  I’ve always given out plants from my yard.  

8. What do you do on the flower farm? I mainly help with the partnership and on occasion with things like planting.  I also help with gardening tips for customers.

9. What is your favorite part about the flower farm?  It’s fun to see all the flowers blooming and to see this turn into a business. I also enjoy seeing how thoughtful the grandsons are in our business meetings.

10. What is your vision for Bloomstead Farms?  I would love to see it become a great  agricultural opportunity for the grandsons.  It would be neat to see it be a new opportunity for the boys and their future families. 

11. What is your favorite flower?  I love the Sam Hopkins dahlia.