HB Farms - Keeping the Family Legacy Blooming
“I’m the last one of my family to keep farming in the valley. It was really important to me that someone kept farming here”
The poet Maya Angelou wrote: “You can only be truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”
It took some time for Heather Schuh to realize she was already growing something as a hobby that could make her family’s farm profitable: stunning flowers and foliage that Seattle florists and customers love.
Her family has been farming in the Bow area, near the quaint town of Edison, since 1940. Through the decades, the 30-acre farm has shifted focus many times, growing different crops, but mainly raspberries and blueberries.
When Heather’s grandmother passed away in 2009, Schuh’s family started dividing the land to sell. One piece of land became the well-known Bow Hill Blueberries. Heather and her husband Brandon bought another 5-acre piece to build their home and start their own farm.
“I’m the last one of my family to keep farming in the valley,” she said. “It was really important to me that someone kept farming here.”
Schuh also helps run both a construction company and a logging company, but wanted to make sure her family legacy stayed intact and contributed to the larger Skagit agricultural community.
She initially continued the family blueberry business, but quickly realized the market was over-saturated by large-scale farmers, and she could not compete.
She briefly tried other ventures such as growing Japanese maples, but eventually came back to the thing she was already growing abundantly for fun: flowers.
HB Farm has quickly grown a following among some of Seattle’s elite florists for her unique, locally-sourced, high-quality foliage and blooms.
The London Plane, the Rusted Vase, and Terra Bella Flowers frequently buy her product through the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market in Georgetown.
Ironically, one of the things Heather has become most known for is her blueberry foliage. Almost year round, she cuts her family’s old blueberry bushes at different stages for florists to use in their bouquets.
“They actually have a four-season shelf life,” she said. In the spring, there are buds and blossoms.
In the summer, unripe green or blushing fruit make delicate and interesting additions to bouquets, and the fall colors make a vibrant filler.
“They want their flowers to look like where they come from – natural - and that’s where the blueberry comes in. It makes it look like something from the farm, from the countryside”
“I noticed she was bringing her blueberry foliage to the market and I just fell in love with it,” said Melissa Feveyear, florist, and owner of Terra Bella Flowers in Greenwood.
Feveyear is known for her wild and organic flower designs inspired by nature, rather than the generic flower ball bouquets, which she calls “flower cakes.” Her spectacular bouquets include things like moss and even mushrooms in stunning artistic displays.
Because of her background in hazardous waste management, Feveyear is passionate about sustainable flower sourcing, especially because mass produced flowers are often grown elsewhere around the globe with toxic chemicals and a huge carbon footprint.
In Seattle, she’s supported bringing more growers like HB Farm to market by helping form the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, which includes several Skagit County Farms and others from around the region. Customers in Seattle also want more local and sustainable flowers as well.
“They want their flowers to look like where they come from – natural - and that’s where the blueberry comes in. It makes it look like something from the farm, from the countryside,” she said.
“They want something green and lush and that’s where the blueberry works beautifully.”
Helping the larger community of farmers here is central to her ideals at the farm
The one time Schuh can’t sell the blueberry foliage is when the blueberries are actually ripe, because they give off a gas that can kill other flowers. Friends and family come to harvest the berries, or the birds eat them, which she hopes help protect the other berry growers’ harvest in the valley.
Helping the larger community of farmers here is central to her ideals at the farm. She’s also hopeful that her huge variety of flowers is helping surrounding farmers with pollination.
Along with the blueberry foliage, Schuh focuses on specialty flowers. In the spring, her large uniquely colored parrot and peony tulips, such as a peach and green colored bloom called La Bella Epoch, are some of the first local tulips at the market.
Schuh has a degree in interior design. Mixed with her passion for flowers, she’s got a unique eye for colors and styles that are desirable in the Seattle market year-round – double daffodils, butterfly Ranunculus, dahlias, rudbeckia, limelight hydrangea and wreaths in the winter.
Along with selling to florists, her bouquets are also sold at Seattle grocery stores, such as Burt’s Red Apple in the Madison Park neighborhood.
Much of her harvest comes from her own landscaping right around her house – things that she was growing anyway, just because she loves them.
Story and photos by Tahlia Honea: info@skagitonians.org