October snow covers the mountains behind the crescent barn.
From the Field
Winter, here we come!
Autumn came and went! Did you miss it? If you blinked, you probably did. We were visited by all four seasons on the farm this month. From frosty mornings to sunny and hot afternoons. The seasons offer us a great reminder to slow down and take time to rest, much like our beloved soil and plants.
This month, the crew cut down all of the annual plants in the fields and covered the beds with landscape fabric for the winter. Our short seasons make it tricky to plant a cover crop that will decompose and feed the soil over the winter. Instead, we cover the bare soil with reusable porous landscape fabric that allows moisture to pass through, keeping the soil fertile and moist all year long. However, we are constantly experimenting with alternatives to plastic to keep our soil healthy and no-till.
What’s Blooming Now
If you’ve visited the barn in the past month, you may have caught a glimpse of our incredible variety of dried flowers. We’ve painstakingly harvested, hung, and dried everything from sunflowers to statice, bupleurum to basil. We’ve turned the barn into Santa’s workshop as we’ve been hard at work making dried flower gifts of all kinds! We can’t wait to share our unique creations with the community this month at our 2nd Annual Holiday Market!
What’s New
Mark you calendars and invite the crew to celebrate the season with our *world-famous holiday market!
Rathvinden’s 2nd Annual Holiday Market
Saturday, November 14th from 10am - 2pm
You can expect local vendors, food, warm drinks, and a good time!
Bring your friends, family, loved ones, enemies, situationships, neighbors, etc…
We’ll be selling all the familiar favorites including both fresh and dried wreaths and flower garlands alongside some new offerings like FLOWER SPRINKLES, Rathvinden merch, and so much more!!
*locally-famous at least!
Forever Blooms for you!
We’re very excited to offer a winter dried flower subscription this year!
This subscription includes SIX locally-grown handmade dried flower products picked up in two separate bundles. One on November 20th and another on December 11th. This is a great way to have local seasonal decor ready and waiting for you!
Check out all the details and purchase here:
Please note: this subscription includes 6 locally-grown items picked up in two separate bundles, on November 20th and December 11th. These These subscriptions are not available for shipping. Want to send some flowers to a loved one that lives out of town? Check out our Shippable Dried Flower Gift Box - more details to come!
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Yes, you heard that right: local flowers in the dead of Montana winter. Though we can’t figure out how to grow fresh flowers in the Montana tundra (and honestly, nor do we want to) we still have a bounty of our flowers to share, in dried form, so we dreamt up the Winter Flower Subscription. ♡ Everything in this box was grown on our farm or thoughtfully foraged around Bozeman, which is a rare and wonderful thing in winter, when most "fresh" flowers on the market have traveled thousands of miles to reach you.
What's included (note: each of these creations is unique and hand-made. Items will vary from picture and purchasers will be able to select the color combination of their choosing upon pick up):
Fresh Holiday Wreath- Hand-tied with freshly cut juniper and spruce boughs, fragrant and full, ready to hang on your door or over your mantel.
Dried Floral Wreath- A softer, everlasting companion piece, made from our preserved summer harvest for texture and warmth that lasts well beyond the holidays.
Strawflower Garland- Papery, jewel-toned blooms strung into a garland to bring color to any room. Drapes beautifully over doorways, mirrors, or mantels.
Marigold Garland- Sunny and bold. A nod to marigold's long history as a symbol of warmth and celebration, even in the coldest months.
Dried Bouquet- A gathered, seasonal arrangement designed to be enjoyed all winter long, no water required.
Edible Flower Sprinkles- A little edible magic to elevate your baking projects, cocktails, or table. Farm-grown petals you can eat.
Dahlia Tubers- Something to look forward to planting in spring!
By purchasing a Winter Flower Subscription you're not just getting a delightful assortment of one-of-a-kind, locally grown items; you're helping keep our crew employed through the off-season. Your subscription directly supports the people who grow, harvest, and hand-craft every piece in this box; a win-win if you ask us. ;)
Pick up #1 occurs on November 20th or 21st and includes: Holiday Wreath, Strawflower Garland, Sprinkles
Pick up #2 on December 11th includes: Dried Floral Wreath, Marigold Garland, Dried Flower Bouquet, Dahlia Tubers.
Or can pick up your full subscription in one go during either pick-up window.
Both pick ups will occur at our farm off of Springhill Road. Detailed directions here! Please reach out if you cannot make these pick up date(s) and we will arrange an alternative option for you!
♡ Thank you for supporting locally-grown flowers! ♡
Upcoming Events
‘Tis the season for gathering! Check out our upcoming workshops and add one (or a few) to your calendar! They’re also great gifts for your loved ones who enjoy the beauty of flowers all year long!
Our previous dahlia workshops have all sold out, so claim your spot ASAP if you want to learn all about the joys of growing dahlias in Montana.
Our wreath workshops have been a huge hit in years past because you’ll not only learn how to make your own wreath for the holidays, but you’ll have access to our entire rainbow of dried flowers.
As an incentive from the Rathvinden fairies to celebrate community, we’re offering a promotional
Buy One, Get One 40% off
our wreath workshop!
Spaces are limited so act fast! This discount will be automatically applied when you add two or more wreath workshop tickets to your cart.
Want to Grow Your Own Dahlias? Join us Saturday November 21st, 1-3PM.
How would you like to save your favorite varieties and increase your stock every year??? Would you like to have so many tubers you’re giving them as gifts and selling them on the black market?
Guess what, it’s easy! But there are a few tricks and hopefully we can save you years of trial and error by showing you what we’ve learned. Plus you will take home at least 5 tubers to get you started, from varieties like Cafe au Lait, Cornel Bronze, Gingersnap, Isabel, Beaucon White, Hy Patti (Fiona’s very favorite), Caitlyn’s Joy, Creme de Cassis, and more! We guarantee you will go home with at least $60 worth of tubers.
This class will teach you how to grow, care for, harvest, and propagate dahlias. We are focusing on tuber dividing and storage but will also cover cuttings and seed saving. We are gearing it for all levels and we are going to do some hands on dividing of tuber clumps. If you have never grown a dahlia in your life, you will learn how, if you already know how to store tubers over winter, we will talk methods and compare what has worked best and worse for us. We’ve had a few happy surprises over the years and we want to hear yours! Growing and overwintering dahlias is very particular to each climate depending on temperatures, soil type, humidity, etc, as many of you already know. We will be discussing what works best in this region of Montana.
Warning: Collecting dahlias can be extremely addictive. There is already an epidemic of dahlia addiction that can be witnessed in forums and tuber sales across the country.
This class will be led by Fiona who is too late to save and could be infectious. Proceed with caution.
Join us Saturday, November 21st 10AM - 12PM.
Enjoy light refreshments while you learn how to make your own holiday wreath at Rathvinden Farm. Workshops are led by farm staff, and classes are kept small. All materials are provided for you to design an original wreath to take home. Sign up with a friend or make a new one - we can’t wait to see what you create!
Behind the Blooms
We’ve had a month full of visitors (from Ireland and Nicaragua!), mega bulb planting sessions (all hands on deck!), Instagram reel recording (all hands on deck!), and squeezing the most out of the very last fruits of the season.
We’re proud to still be suppling a few local businesses with fresh flowers (shout out to both Blackbird and Madison Double R for being fresh flower customers from April through November!). In fact, the crew at Madison Double R hosted all the Rathvinden farmers and their significant others for an incredible evening of food, celebration, and star gazing. We were having so much fun not a single photo was taken.
Fiona donned her teacher’s hat this month for a deep dive into dahlias with a sold out class in the barn. Participants were welcomed to the farm with a layer of fresh snow and fog. Alas, nothing can keep a flower farmer from her precious tubers! Luckily, there are more than enough dahlias to dig around the farm and in hoop houses to keep classes busy for the next month (or year…). (If you’re interested in dahlias, make sure to grab your spot in Fiona’s November class asap! They fill up fast!)
We can’t wait to see you at the Holiday Market on November 14th!
A simple denim blue tote bag for all your daily essentials ;) With a large silkscreen print of our BRAND NEW logo in lavender and sage green.
We are offering FARM PICKUP ONLY by appointment. Please fill out your preferred pickup time 9AM- 3PM Mon, Tues, Thur, or Fri ONLY at checkout.
As always, thank you for your support, flower purchases, friend referrals, and belief in our little farm and what we’re doing.
We know it would be so much easier to just till the soil, hire cheap labor, and plant easy flowers. Instead, we’re committed to doing something different. We’re committed to paying our people a living wage, building up our ecosystem by using organic and regenerative practices, and supporting our community with events and workshops. We may be small but we’re also mighty!