ASCFG 2021 Election Ballot
Every election is determined by the people who show up.
These ASCFG members have taken the initiative to serve their fellow growers. Please take just a minute or
two to show your support of them and the ASCFG Board of Directors by casting your vote below.
Thank you for showing up.
Please vote by September 15.
President (2022, 2023, 2024)
Val Schirmer, Three Toads Farm, currently Southeast Regional Director
I first joined the ASCFG in 2000 after launching our little farm with a great family friend in 1997, and then pretty much just floundering around — until joining this amazing organization and going off to my very first conference. That was the turning point for us. Since then, my role has been to GO, to see people and places in person, to listen and try to learn, then try out new ideas. Through almost this entire time, I’ve also worked in the corporate world, which has been a challenge to juggle, but also made many things possible.
Until recently we grew on 2 ½ acres (in the field and in two Stuppy greenhouses) on two farms. It’s not surprising that we’ve gone through a lot of changes since 1997. Today, we grow small-batch style (just like Kentucky bourbon) on one farm: our home. From the beginning we’ve tried “to grow the kinds of flowers that could stop people in their tracks,” and that’s never changed. Even though we’re tiny, we try hard to live up to being named one of Martha Stewart Wedding’s top ten farmer-florists a few years back.
This organization is a BIG reason we’ve been successful and I’ve been very thankful to try to give back by serving as your Southeast Regional Director, and an active member of the board for the past five years. In this time, our Regional membership has grown from 138 to more than 400, while our global membership has gone from just over 1,000 to nearly 2,600.
In these five years, I’ve worked to help uncover and bring together great ideas, share best practices and learnings, develop our first strategic plan and put together great conferences and events to connect growers large and small, so we all can keep learning, getting better and stronger every year.
After originally retiring from my (non-ASCFG) role leading global communications in 2012, I returned in 2016 for 2 ½ years and went back again in late 2019. I’ve just now permanently retired from my off-the-farm work, but I can’t complain. What I learned and put into practice at work has helped us grow our own flower business, and also been useful in my work on the board.
The last 16+ months have been exceptionally challenging for all of us, and rewarding for many of us, too. While we learned a great deal about how to connect our members virtually, we also realized just how much we miss connecting in person. No matter the size of your business or how long you’ve been at it, this is a GREAT time to be a flower farmer.
It’s an even better time to be part of the ASCFG.
Vice President (2022, 2023, 2024)
Mimo Davis, Urban Buds, currently Vice President
I am co-owner of Urban Buds: City Grown Flowers, an urban flower farm located in the heart of St. Louis City. Our farm consists of eight contiguous lots growing more than 70 varieties of cut flowers in year-round production. I have been a flower farmer for over 20 years, and an ASCFG member for most of that time. This organization is one of the best farming resources available—sharing knowledge, camaraderie, and fostering community. I have served on the board for a number of years as North and Central Regional Director and am currently Vice President. I am interested in pursuing programming to expand our outreach to a more diverse and under-served audience looking to add cut flowers to their production. Education has always been, and continues to be, a focus for me. I’d like to see the Mentor Program expanded, and more educational opportunities made available to growers both online and in person.
This organization has meant the world to me, and the knowledge gained through the camaraderie and educational forums has helped make our business the successful farm it is today. I’d like to continue to pass that on and am interested in the position of Vice President. I look forward to continued service to this amazing organization.
Post COVID, I think we are all raring to go!
Vice President (2022, 2023, 2024)
Carolyn Snell, Carolyn Snell Designs, Buxton, Maine
Hiya from Maine! I grew up on my family’s vegetable farm, and always had an eye on the rows of flowers we grew for farmers’ market. I’ve been expanding that part of the business for about 10 years. I grow about four acres of flowers for sale at farmers’ market twice a week, and run a delivery route to nearby florists and designers. I believe orange flowers are the best flowers.
Joining the ASCFG was a turning point for me as a flower farmer. This organization has connected me with amazing farmers around the world and encouraged me to take flowers seriously and embrace the intellectual puzzle of being a farmer florist. I’m very grateful to the ASCFG for all the support and information over the years and am eager to pay forward that care to other flower farmers.
West and Northwest Regional Director (2022, 2023, 2024)
ALASKA, CALIFORNIA, HAWAII, IDAHO, NEVADA, OREGON, WASHINGTON
Kelly Gregory, Fiddlin Frog Flower Farm, Marysville, California
What do you love about flowers? I love Mother Nature’s special way of sharing her creative beauty through the simple perfection of a flower. My passion is in the art of arranging flowers. I am fascinated by the idea of planting a seed and discovering the beauty that a flower shares. I was raised in the construction business and went to work for my dad when I was 17 years old. This was before computers, the internet, and cell phones. Beginning as a file clerk I worked my way up and eventually started my own construction company. I soon discovered that owning your own business can be one tough gig but the lessons I have learned can only be discovered by going through the problems. After a successful 20-year run and enough stress for a lifetime, I needed to find a new adventure. I bought a few packs of summertime seed, my husband plowed up a row, added water, and by golly, flowers began to bloom. That was the spring of 2017, and the addiction continues.
Fiddlin Frog Flowers is named after the bullfrogs that call from the creek on the hot summer nights which is music to my ears. We are on 12 acres fed by the fresh waters of the Yuba River. I grow in an open field, roughly one acre of heavy clay, in 100-foot rows with lots of weeds.
I believe in sharing information and helping others. The ASCFG Mentor Program has been such a wonderful gift of knowledge and friendship. I have found a dear friend in my Mentor, Brenda Smith.
I have found growing a flower business is so much more than learning to grow a few packs of summer seeds; it is real, and it is competitive, encompassing all the burdens of any other business. I have sold at farmers’ markets, a local grocery store, a fruit stand, wholesale direct to designers, and am still looking for the right markets that make good business sense for me.
I have accepted the nomination as the West and Northwest Regional Director because the ongoing development of the Association’s Education and Mentor Programs are important to me. I’d like to help continue the growth of ASCFG’s network of professional business tools, contacts, and markets that shape local flower access across our country.
West and Northwest Regional Director (2022, 2023, 2024)
ALASKA, CALIFORNIA, HAWAII, IDAHO, NEVADA, OREGON, WASHINGTON
Erin McMullen, Rain Drop Farms, Philomath, Oregon
It has been a wonderful experience to serve as the West and Northwest Regional Director for the past few years. One of my passions, outside of growing things, is education. From an early age I loved learning, and as I have grown, I have realized how much I enjoy passing on and facilitating learning for others. This makes the ASCFG a natural fit for me. Our focus on community and education are the perfect blend of how I like to spend my time—learning and teaching, and connecting with people.
My passion for plants started in college, when I worked at a nursery and learned more Latin names than I ever thought I could. From there, farming was the next step, and that was a steep learning curve, for sure. Over the past 22 years, we’ve grown from a backyard market veggie farm into almost 12 acres of specialty cut flowers, adding beauty to tables and events through our wonderful customers throughout the Northwest.
I look forward to delving deeper into our work as a Board, creating and implementing educational opportunities for farmers everywhere, and helping to grow awareness about how important locally-grown flowers are. Thank you to all of you who have reached out and connected over the years; I look forward to many more years being a part of this wonderful organization and would be honored to serve on the Board for another term.