Illinois Extension educators are teaming up with Blessed Blooms Flower Farm & Market in Fairfield, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois Summer Twilight Series to share information about cut flower production, marketing flowers, and developing a farmers market that offers business opportunities to local producers. The free event is at 6 p.m. July 15 at the market, 1618 W. Main St. in Fairfield.
Blessed Blooms is a cut flower farm providing fresh, locally grown flowers for events and everyday enjoyment. Middle school principal by day and a flower farmer by night, April Smith has turned growing flowers into a business, sharing her flower farm experience with others. Her daughter, Alyssa Short, makes up the other half of their team, designing unique arrangements grown with love. They grow their own blooms from April through October and specialize in wedding florals, market bouquets, and floral subscriptions. In 2023, Blessed Blooms expanded into a location with a local vendor farmers market and events as well as a vintage furniture and decor storefront.
Over the past nine years, the team has partnered with area farms to provide evening twilight meetings to allow participants to experience different production and marketing practices utilized by local producers. Individuals will have a networking opportunity at each meeting, which is important in forming relationships with other local enterprises. This opportunity helps to increase business for both parties, grow the capacity of our local foods and small farms, and support a stronger, more sustainable regional economy.
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