Sláinte y'all! 3/15/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


Happy Friday y’all!    It’s beautiful out here!  The peaches, plums, Loropetalum, Spirea, Carolina Jessamine, Clematis armandii, wild plums, sand pear, and so much more are dripping in flowers.  Petals are raining down in the wind and rain and sprinkling the ground with beauty around the base of the plums.  The grass is getting tall, taunting me with threats of another job that requires my time.    We had plans to celebrate St. Patrick's day with some special friends (both are responsible for Mandy and I connecting), but realized we are back in that space of farm flow where the world is moving so fast that no matter how much you run, you can’t quite catch it.  So in the name of responsibility, we...

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Heavens to Betsy 3/8/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


   Heaven’s to Betsy it’s been busy. We are all running at max capacity all day every day at this point. Good problem to have I guess, but what the hell does heaven’s to Betsy even mean? Sometimes you write something down and are confused as to why you are writing it down. I could google the origins, but I think I’ll prefer to stay ignorant right now. Too fried to self educate.     So, “Is everything always perfect and easy over at 3 Porch Farm?”, you beginning farmers might be asking yourselves. Indeed it’s a veritable cake walk. (Has anyone ever been on a cake walk? What is a cake walk? Do you need new shoes or just a...

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Kumquats and Drippy Drops 3/1/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


Happy Friday!    It's a rainy one today.  Looks like we're in for a week or more of drippy droppy out here.  We had a crazy busy week shipping out tons of orders.  The first round of 200+ orders hellebore plants went out on Wednesday and most orders should be arriving today.  We also got a very thoughtful IG nod from Floret about the poppy sale we had this week and it doubled our orders in an instant.  We had to have 2 Fedex sprinter vans come out for the hellebores on Wednesday and another 2 vans to get all of the poppy orders on Thursday.  It's a great problem to have to be stressed to keep up with orders. ...

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Ojos Del Sol 2/23/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


Happy Friday!    It’s starting to warm up a bit out here.  It’s still been freezing every night until last night, but the mornings have been warming up faster and we’ve got multiple days in the 70’s coming up, so I imagine we’ll see some new leaves and flowers out in the world this week.  The spirea are putting out fresh leaves already.  This week’s gift of divine fragrance is bequeathed unto my grateful nostrils by the Winter Gold Paperbush (Edgeworthia Chrysantha).  Love that dang plant!  Smells sooooo good.  We’ve got a newer one in front of the house, but a much more established one out in the woods by the generous mulberry tree in front of the cabin.  Surrounded...

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Red fingers and Polyrhythms 2/16/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


Happy Friday!    The first of the daffodils have bloomed!  We made a decision last year that instead of cutting and selling them all, the daffodils growing in the yard would be left for the collective appreciation of everyone who spends their days here.  So, now we are graced with pops of yellow and white adorableness throughout our day as a constant reminder towards gratitude.  It makes us feel wealthy to not absolutely have to cut them anymore.  The state of self deprivation gets programmed in, so it's a therapeutic act to release that grip and it feels so liberating.    Earlier stages than the daffs, but still noteworthy, there's little red fingers poking their way up through the earth...

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The Fragrant Witch 2/9/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


Happy Friday dear friends!    Spring is sending little teasers our way out here.  The unassuming Witch Hazel has been delighting confused olfactories for the last 2 weeks out here.  Always fascinating to the uninitiated, this 10 foot tall bush looks like a bunch of sad dead sticks and leaves, but upon closer inspection tiny little flowers (arguably also kinda dead looking) are wafting irresistable fragrance at passing noses.  It's lovely and very perplexing if you don't know Witch Hazel, but randomly happen upon it.  I couldn't figure out where that delightful smell was coming from for the life of me for many springs until Mandy observed my ignorance and unmasked the mystery of the witch for me.  It is a...

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Halentine's 2/2/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


   It’s been beautiful out lately.  That sideways light that early spring brings for much of the day is truly magical and puts a little pep in my step each day.  On the few days that hit 70 degrees last week I caught faint whiffs of floral fragrance in the air and heard the chorus of hundreds of frogs.  Seems early for frog song, but I guess when the mood strikes and ambient temps facilitate romance to course through your cold blooded veins, you have no choice but to serenade.    Flowers are trickling in with a slight increase in velocity, but not enough to satisfy everyone quite yet.  It’s coming though, I promise.    I know Valentine’s, Galentine’s, and...

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Fire in the Sky 1/26/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


Happy Friday y’all! This will be our last newsletter from this email address.  What this means for you is that next week, if you don’t see us in your inbox, we may have ended up in your spam or promotions folder.  We’ll be sending from steve@3porchfarm.com with Flodesk instead of the current address with Mailchimp and are aiming for a somewhat more pleasant interaction between words and photos for our newsletters going forward. The sunsets last week were quite glorious if you could handle the cold.  My folks joined me for a shivery sunset or two.  My brother and sister-in law were also here for the weekend, generally just eating, chatting, and spending a little time catching up with Mandy’s...

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A Quick Note 1/19/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


   Happy Frosty Friday y’all! Keeping it brief, cause my family is in town.      Georgia people, keep dripping those faucets and wearing those long johns for another 3 nights.  It’s gonna be a super frosty weekend.  We’re always colder than the forecast out here, so we could get down to single digits on some parts of the farm.  Next week it’s going to pop right back up to 70 degrees (with 3+ inches of rain), so I’m anticipating the acceleration of growth in tunnels and a few flower bundles will be made available.  Poppies are coming!    As for farm stuff….we just got some Butterfly Weed seeds that are the host plant for arguably the coolest butterfly in the U.S. (Monarchs) and...

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And So It Begins Anew 1/12/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


Hi friends,    The crew is back from their 2 week break and progress is afoot.  The last greenhouse beds have finally been planted with our new secret, possibly awesome, possibly meh variety of a favorite flower.  We’re excited to see which it turns out to be, but we’re also excited to have completed our Fall plantings of our tunnels.  Much later than normal, but we had a tough time germinating them so the whole process was delayed.  Anywho.  The tunnels are fully planted and we are pleased.      We’ve actually been harvesting anemones here and there for the last few weeks and even the occasional ranunculus, but aren’t quite ready to start shipping.  We’re gifting early blooms to friends and family...

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