When it was time for the family to move from in-town living, Eric and Kate Frase and daughters Amelia and Dori, picked a spot where they had family nearby with farmland. (Photo by Leslie Milby)
There’s some new entertainment in town, and it sure is colorful! As owner Kate Frase, owner of Vintage Family Farms in Hurlock, says, it’s “flowertainment!”
Kate and husband Eric’s venture hopes to not only show off their sustainably grown flowers, but to become a place for family and friend groups to relax and spend time.
When it was time for the family to move from in-town living, the couple picked a spot not far from where they lived before they had daughters Amelia and Dori, and where they had family nearby with farmland.
A sunny property of 39 acres, it was perfect to both build their new home on and is located on Preston Road, making their bright blooms visible to passers-by on the main road. Those carefully chosen factors made it perfect to bring Kate’s vision of a you-pick flower farm to life.
When peak season hit, the field was alive with 20,000 pops of yellows, corals, reds, purples, pinks, stripes and every shade in between, with blooms large and small. Guests had the option to cut their blooms or dig up the bulb to bring some of that beautiful color to their own yard not only for this year but the next. The gorgeous array had folks picking “just one more,” like kids in a candy store, Kate said.
A former environmental educator who now homeschools their children, Kate had long dreamed of not only a flower farm, but one where folks could linger and relax. While pumpkin patches rule the agrotourism market in fall, she said she saw a flower field doing the same thing in the spring and summer.
With guests in mind, their flower field features wide, fuss-free rows that offer a family friendly space to explore. There’s even a flower maze to wander through, and benches to lounge on and take in the fresh air and view.
Beyond the flowers, kids can root around in the mud kitchen, cooking up nothing but mudpies and fun. The whole family can enjoy a game of jumbo Connect4 and even old-fashioned croquet. Feeling competitive? Try a potato sack race.
The flowers are so vibrant, it’s irresistible to not snap a few pictures amongst the stems. Kate said a few photographers even regularly stop in to snap pictures of the most recent blooms for their portfolios as new varieties were popping up every week.
As more selfies amongst the stems circulated social media and aided by promotion from their local tourism offices, the Frases soon had guests showing up from over an hour away. The couple said they were overjoyed by the support of not only friends and neighbors, but the completely new visitors coming out to their afternoon and weekend hours.
Typically, tulips should start to show their colors to the world around mid-March and likely last until the end of April. But Mother Nature got in on the act with a warm winter and barely any snow.
Bulbs started poking out in January, Kate said, way too early for them to thrive and survive.
So as it is for family farms, all hands were on deck spreading wheelbarrows of mulch to exhaustion before they decided to give blowing straw a try.
Mother Nature struck again when summer temperatures started appearing during spring break, causing the tulip season to come a little quicker but then end a little earlier than expected.
Adventure and adaptation was certainly the theme of their first year, Kate said.
Another challenge they are hoping to conquer by the time spring rolls around again is having even more bulbs in the ground. While they were able to not only plant 20,000 bulbs by hand, but dig up the remainder as well in 2023, they aim to somewhat mechanize as their next step. With tulip specific planters coming from Holland and being quite pricey for a beginning business, Eric will be working on some ingenuity to make it happen to lessen the load as he also works outside of the home full-time.
If you did miss out on tulip season, summer flowers are right around the corner! Sown right in their greenhouse before moving out to the field, they’ll have sunflowers, zinnias, snapdragons and more to wander through and pick. They also plan to do more of their flower bar events at spots around town as they did last year, but also plan to host more fun events at their own space, like they did this spring at their “Toast to Tulips” event.
They also intend to continue stocking flowers for Taylor’s Produce in St. Michaels and Harris Farms’ stand at the Easton Bowling Alley. For those that enjoy brightening their home and mood with fresh- very fresh- flowers, the farm also offers farm subscription for frequent purchasers. There’s even a delivery option for certain areas.
The Frase family also raises heritage breed Champagne D’Argent Rabbits. The breed became popular for their silver pelt and meat, Vintage Family Farms raises and breeds them both to sell commercially to restaurants (there is a waiting list) as well as for family pets. Their oldest daughter Amelia shows them as her 4-H project.
They also grow heirloom vegetables, with tomato varieties like “Green Berkeley Tye Dyed”and “Sart Rose.”
With different shapes and colors, you could just about make a tomato bouquet!
For now, most of their produce is sold to local restaurants.
