Growing up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities and Chicago, I truly didn’t know what it meant to support local. Most places my family shopped, visited, or ate at were large chains. Once we moved to a small town, I got to fully experience what it means to support local and small businesses. It was completely eye-opening. Behind every small and local business, there is a person and sometimes, a family. They’re living out their dream, their passions, or God’s calling for them. Each day, they pour out everything they have to support their business. Lucky for us, we get to be a part of that support. We have the privilege of helping them with their dream!
I’ve mentioned before that when I started blogging, I started getting to know the owners behind the small businesses I was visiting. What a treat to read mission statements and the backgrounds to how their businesses started! Earlier this spring after discovering the adorable town of Lakefield with so many hidden gems, I realized they had a flower farm. Looking up Meadow Forge Flower Farm, I was blown away by their mission and their background. It’s powerful, something you need to read for yourself. Visit their website at https://www.meadowforge.co/ to read. As I sat there reading and crying from their wonderful story, I knew my family had to visit this summer. Not just for the beautiful flowers, but also to see God’s amazing plan on this farm and to support this sweet family.
Let me tell you, this is a spot you need to visit this summer! My oldest daughter just had a supracondylar humerus fracture and I decided this weekend, she needed some flowers in her life to cheer her up. Meadow Forge definitely did the trick! Instructions were posted on how to make your dream bouquet. They provide the vase, snips, flowers, and location to arrange the bouquet. Each bouquet is $30 and they accept cash, Venmo, or PayPal. Hours for Meadow Forge are weekends (Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays) in July, August, and September from 8am to 8 pm. We arrived right around 11 am and it was perfect weather out.
As we pulled up to Meadow Forge, we were greeted by several rows of flowers. I loved that they were grouped by variety, which was different than other flower farms I’d been to. Walking down the rows, you are greeted with the calming sounds of buzzing bees, the stillness of nature, and sweet aromas of flowers wafting around the farm. Butterflies weave in and out of the flowers and any stress you have just seems to melt away into the flower fields. Since we have made bouquets with the kids before, we were able to jump right into gathering the flowers we wanted. The hardest part is choosing just enough flowers for a bouquet out of the many, many stunning flowers available.
Shortly after starting to pick, we were greeted by Hilary, the owner. She asked if we had any questions, talked with us, and offered to take our picture. Truly a gift of small businesses to be able to speak right to the owner and get to know them!
After chatting, we continued collecting our flowers in the meadow. Each kid had so much fun making this bouquet as a family. Although their jobs for helping ranged from our youngest sniffing each flower to our oldest snipping them, they all enjoyed this activity and the meadow. A cool part of picking with the kids was seeing their learning from our own garden and our own flower experiences take off. Hearing them name some of the flowers or remind me of where we had seen the same flowers made me a proud mama! Once we finished picking the flowers, it was the thrilling part of assembling our bouquet. This took a little trial and error to make it look exactly how we were envisioning, but we finally got it!
Before Meadow Forge, we had never picked a bouquet all together, as a family of five. Let me tell you, it was such a great experience and bonding activity! Now, as we look at our bouquet on our table over the days, we all will remember the work and experience together. I love that it wasn’t just me making it. Instead, the kids can look and see the flowers they snipped and helped arrange with us. They will envision teamwork, problem-solving, and cooperation (and a little arguing because we aren’t perfect…) it took to make it look the way it does. What a memory!
Overall, this is one of those experiences that will just keep giving back to your family as you see the breath-taking bouquet over and over. If you dry some of the flowers after, you can even make book marks out of the dried flowers to remember your day at Meadow Forge. This is an activity enjoyable for all ages and a true blessing of a location to make wonderful memories in Southern Minnesota! Thank you Hilary for following God’s calling for you while providing all of us with this stunning oasis of flowers and nature in your beautiful meadow. Make sure to find a time to stop out in Lakefield for a u-pick date, whether it be by yourself, with friends, or with your family. Meadow Forge does offer subscriptions, custom arrangements, and a variety of workshops as well. While you’re in Lakefield, check out some of the other amazing hidden gems from this blog.
Until my next adventure,
Allie
Adventures with Sota Mama 
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