I was fortunate enough to chat with Allie Howard of Post St. Farm in Franklin Springs this past week. Relative newcomers to the Clinton Farmer’s Market, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know these young folks and marvel at their gorgeous produce and flowers over the last few years. Vegetable and flower farmers are already incredibly swamped with field work this time of year, but Allie and husband John are expecting their first baby at any moment. Giving me a few minutes of her time was an enormous gift, indeed!
From Allie:
“My husband John and I started Post St. Farm in 2021, but we’ve been growing our own food since 2019. It all started with a few raised beds next to our house where we grew lettuces, tomatoes, hot peppers and more for our own consumption. We then started a little roadside stand and put our fresh veggies out for locals to enjoy. After 2020, we took a hard look at what we wanted our future to be. John was previously in construction and decided to end his time in that field and pursue market farming full-time. I continued my day job as a journalist and editor up until April of this year. I made the leap of going full time with the farm and haven’t looked back. We’re really inspired by the need for food accessibility, food quality, sustainability and nurturing our land. A few people we look up to are Eliot Coleman, JM Fortier, and Erin Benzakein—pioneers in market farming, vegetable growing, and cut flowers, respectively. We’ve learned that this job is really hard but really important. Our community is very supportive and sometimes we can’t keep up with the demand! We look to expand our business, our team and our infrastructure as we move forward. But it takes a lot of hard work.
“We grow a variety of heirloom vegetables, salad greens and flowers. We offer vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, radishes, beets, turnips, onions, garlic, squash, cucumbers, potatoes, kale, swiss chard, celery, bell peppers, microgreens, sprouts, cabbages, collards, and more. Our salad greens—like our signature blend of mixed greens—and others like arugula and spinach are what we’re known for. You can’t beat fresh-cut salad greens! For flowers, we grow a variety of cut flowers that thrive in our growing zone. For us, these are zinnias, snapdragons, lisianthus, sunflowers, dahlias, rudbeckia, celosia, amaranth, gomphrena, ageratum, anise hyssop, scabiosa, asters, cosmos, gladiolus, tulips and more.
“Our flower operation is a wonderful value-add to our farm. While vegetables are our mainstay, flowers add an extra edge to our offerings and bring in additional income to support our operations. We offer market bouquets all season long, we host several flower subscriptions, we take custom orders and service events like weddings, parties and more. This year, we did two full-service weddings and several a la carte orders. We will be scaling back a bit on our wedding services with our new arrival coming soon, but will continue to offer a la carte wedding flowers for pickup. The wedding business is its own beast and we’re just breaking into it!
“John and I are co-owners of Post St. Farm. John focuses mainly on vegetable growing, overall operations of the farm and greenhouse, land management, irrigation and lots of other tasks to keep our farm running. I focus on flower growing and harvesting, finances, our website, social media and general upkeep and organization around our business, seasonal hires, and more. Speaking of seasonal hires, we have at least two part-time employees on the farm in the summer and look to hire more staff in the future as we grow and expand.
“I personally love the flexibility and freedom you get from working for yourself. It’s stressful, yes, but I get to work outside, with my husband, and grow a dream that we’ve been working so hard at for a few years now. It’s very fulfilling, especially when we get feedback from our customers at farmers markets and on social media. It really makes the blood, sweat and tears all worth it. We are working to have our farm in one centralized location on a new plot of land where we established our greenhouse and some new beds. We’ve been working off of three separate plots and are looking to bring everything together where our greenhouse is located. We also have plans for our own farm market, u-pick, introducing new crops and much more. But first, we’re expecting a baby any day now!
“As market season wraps up, our produce, greens and more can be found on our Virtual Farmstand on our website at poststfarm.com/order. Ordering is open from Sundays-Thursdays and pickup or local delivery is on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at our home base on Post Street. We offer all our products you would typically find at the market on our website and we update it weekly as new items become available.
“I should also mention that we have a produce CSA that we offer during the summer months. We love our CSA customers and are working to adapt our offerings as we move forward. Spots open up for 2025 this fall, so keep a look out!”
During market season, Post St. Farm can be found at the Clinton Farmer’s Market every Thursday from 10am-4pm. For updates, follow them on Instagram at @poststfarm and on Facebook. Be sure to check them out!