PHOTO PROVIDED / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
FLOWER FARM FOUNDER … Cara Rufenacht, right, the founder of Clayfield Farms, a flower farm one mile east of Archbold on County Road 21-3, told Archbold Rotarians about her business at the August 22 Rotary meeting. The program was arranged by Rotarian Barb Britenriker.
PRESS RELEASE – For Cara Rufenacht, Clayfield Farms is the perfect combination of her college major in art and her interest in design, and it’s located in the community where she grew up – about a mile east of Archbold on County Road 21-3.
It’s not a mega farm, but a one acre flower farm where she grows beautiful blooms for fresh bouquets from roughly April through September.
She recently told Archbold Rotarians what Clayfield Farms is all about by showing buckets of some of the summer blooms that are growing there.
She explained that it operates as a bouquet subscription service where customers can subscribe to a spring or summer contract for a selection of flowers that are picked to the customers’ preference on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. The customer pick up their flowers to be turned into an arrangement in their own vase.
Her business currently has about 135 subscriptions that are paid in advance. Her website, www.clayfieldfarms, explains what flowers are available April through May and June through September.
It also explains how her roadside stand works for those who want to stop and buy a bucket of already picked flowers without buying a season long subscription.
The roadside stand is open for business Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Prices at the flower stand range from $10 to $40 and can be paid for by cash, check or Venmo.
The first flowers that she offers are tulip bouquets that are ready for Valentine’s Day.
The rest of her flowers follow the northwest Ohio growing season – ending with the first killing frost, usually in September but sometimes waiting until October.
Her flower farm and stand are located at 2454 County Road 21-3 just past the F&M Bank operations center east of town on, south of County Road C.
Rufenacht explained that her flowers are picked daily, so her customers’ bouquets are as fresh as if they grew them in their own garden, but without having to keep them appropriately watered and fertilized for the best blooms and also controlling for insects.
She explained this year her biggest insect concerns this year have been Japanese Beatles and leaf hoppers. About 90 percent of the flowers that are sold in the United States come from Latin America, she said.
For the most up to date information, she does a monthly email newsletter that anyone can subscribe to from the farm website or follow them on Instagram @clayfieldfarms.