What’s one of the best housewarming presents you can give? The answer: Flowers. Organic, gorgeous, local flowers.
I was inspired to give flowers as a gift as I was preparing to leave my last home after it sold. As I was cleaning my house before the final walk-through, I decided to make one final gesture for the buyers. I knew it was their first home purchase, and that they were probably excited and nervous and a tad scared of the new adventure that lay before them–homeownership. So, I decided to leave them some flowers as a housewarming gift, a bridge of kindness to say, “I appreciate you and your willingness to purchase something that I have loved and I hope it treats you just as well or better.”
It couldn’t be just any flowers, though. It had to be fresh-cut flowers from a Cincinnati farm in Indian Hill, Turner Farm.
Why Haven’t I Heard of Turner Farm?
I’m a native Cincinnatian, but it took me until adulthood to discover Turner Farm. It is a little slice of Narnia, tranquil and beautiful. Tucked away in Indian Hill and literally down the street from Cincinnati Country Day where I first started my education, I was driving by this 230-acre Cincinnati farm twice daily and never knew what a gem I was missing! The place seems sacred: horses plow the fields, chickens roam the yards, flowers grow with such beauty and abundance.
My children and I have been fortunate enough to participate in the Turner Farm flower CSA program for the past four years. We are allowed to gather 250 flowers per season and they make the most stunning bouquets, gifts and trophies of nature I’ve ever seen.
A Local Gift from a Cincinnati Farm
After I decided I wanted to leave flowers for our buyers, we went to the flower field at Turner Farm. The kids knew that this time we weren’t picking for us, we were picking for the soon-to-be new owners of our home. They took their time (in the blazing sun) to carefully and meticulously select flowers for people they had never met and that would be soon take ownership of the only home they remember. I thought there would be tears, but they did it with such vigor and enthusiasm. I was touched.
After the house was all cleaned up, I placed the flowers from Turner Farm in a nook in the dining room and added a love letter about the house. I wished them well and told them we had brought our son home from the hospital there. I made notes about what was still alive vegetable-wise in our backyard garden.
I’m not going to lie; I cried. But at the closing the next day they mentioned those flowers and how pretty they were and how special the gesture was during their final walkthrough. I told them about Turner Farm and the flower CSA and how my children had picked the flowers just for them.
More than Flowers at Turner Farm
I still love every trip to Turner Farm with my kids. While their flower CSA is sold out for this year, you can still buy Turner Farm flowers in their Farm Market, along with the organic produce, meat, and eggs they grow and raise there, too. Find out when the market’s open and what’s in stock here.
