Episode 679: The Anderson Family’s forty-one years of growing flowers, herbs, and ornamentals at The Fresh Herb Co. in Longmont, Colorado, including thousands of lilies each week – all year long!

Slow Flowers Podcast

https://youtu.be/IqJU6_Qp0QE?si=GMjliuNJQWgkrKjM Chet and Kristy Anderson are flower farming pioneers, having operated The Fresh Herb Co. for more than four decades, supplying farmers’ markets and Whole Foods shoppers in the Rocky Mountain region, selling their flowers direct to local customers, and hosting weddings and events at their beautiful farm in Longmont, Colorado. Joined by their adult son, also called Chet, they continue to expand The Fresh Herb Co., including its impressive, year-round lily program. Next week, they will open their farm to fellow growers as part of the regional meeting for the ASCFG – and today’ you’ll enjoy a preview. Chet and Kristy Anderson, photographed at the 2015 Field to Vase Dinner (c) Certified American Grown I am especially excited to talk today with the Anderson family – parents Chet and Kristy, and their eldest son, Chet. His brother Nick is also involved in the family business. This is a forty-one-year-old operation, beginning with culinary herbs and salad greens, and for the past 20 years, having a focus on specialty cut flowers, hanging baskets, succulent bowls, and yes, of course, those beautiful herbs. The year-round greenhouse program produces 6,000- to 8,000 Asiatic and Oriental lilies each week, which is nothing short of mind-blowing. The Fresh Herb Co.'s Oriental lilies I first met Chet and Kristy when I was invited to speak at the Denver Botanic Garden in 2011. Their embrace of my passion for Slow Flowers led to an invitation to tour their farm, and my collaborator, photographer David Perry, and I immediately knew we wanted to include their story in the book we were creating – which eventually became The 50 Mile Bouquet, published in 2012. Read that story below: Rocky_Mountain_Flowers_The_50_Mile_BouquetDownload I’ve been back to lecture and teach at DBG, but also was privileged to attend two of the Field to Vase Dinners that Chet and Kristy and their family hosted during my years helping to get Certified American Grown’s farm dinner program off the ground. What a delightful chance to reconnect today, get caught up on what these talented flower farmers and entrepreneurs are doing, and to include a discussion specifically about growing lilies in crates, under glass, for a massive year-round sales program. Those of you who will attend the ASCFG regional meeting on September 11-12 are in for a huge treat. For the rest of you, we have a bonus video tour that the two Chets dad filmed and recorded for us. Listen: Chet and Kristy Anderson on the Slow Flowers Podcast - Episode 177 (January 20, 2015) Watch: Slow Flowers Member Meet-up with Chet and Kristy - April 8, 2022 https://youtu.be/3ksL77fmigA?si=mGKl-Usq_IYbtFOP The Fresh Herb Co. lilies Bonus: Lily Tips from The Fresh Herb Co.:Asiatic and Oriental Lilies are some of the world’s most popular cut flowers…..and for good reasons. They have been grown around the world for centuries, they come in a dizzying array of forms and colors, and they have an exceptional vase life of 10-14 days. A value flower if there ever was one! Asiatic Lilies are characterized by their slightly smaller bloom size, warm tone colors (yellow, orange, red), and little to no fragrance. Oriental Lilies, by contrast, have far larger blooms, are typically cooler tone colors (white and light to dark pink), and have an exquisite vanilla/nutmeg-like fragrance! If you have never tried lilies before, now is the time to buy a few bunches and see if they don’t become your new favorite cut flower! Thank you to our Sponsors This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 750 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers. Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors.