Slupik Mini Farm: One family's labor of love

Like many first-time business owners, Stacey Slupik didn't know exactly what to expect when she started her flower farm business in 2020.

What started as a passion project for Slupik, a mother of three who discovered flower farming in her search for a fulfilling creative outlet, quickly grew into a way for Slupik to share her newfound love of home-grown flowers with the local community.

Unknowingly, she picked a year to start her flower farm when people were actively looking for ways to bring joy and beauty to their "new normal" in-the-midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Slupik's flower farming story doesn't start in 2020. It really began in 2014, when she and her husband fell in love with and purchased their current family home on a small plot of land just west of Niwot in Oriole Estates.

"This is our dream, our landing place. This is where I've dreamed of raising a family and having some land and trees for them to climb and a connection to the outdoors," said Slupik.

When they purchased the home in 2014, the property and house needed some work, lining up a long line of projects that the Slupik family tackled over the ensuing years, in what Slupik calls a "labor of love."

"The first spring, my husband and my young son were out there spading out grass so we could throw down a few seeds in the garden. It was all weeds and overgrown. That's kind of how the whole yard and property and house was. We've worked non-stop on it for six years, inside and out," said Slupik

Over the years, the Slupiks transformed their home and property, starting with the interior of the house and working their way to outdoor projects, doing as much of the work as they could themselves. The two-acre property along Niwot Road slowly but steadily transformed from an overgrown, nondescript yard to one that turns heads as folks drive or bike by, thanks to the beautiful wrap-around porch, epic treehouse, and eye-catching greenhouse.

This home-built greenhouse is just one example of how Slupik approaches her passion projects-with a designer's eye and a mother's patience. With the end goal of a greenhouse in mind, she spent several years collecting unique windows from flea markets and salvage yards.

Much of the rest of the greenhouse's construction materials were salvaged from another project-re-doing the home's front porch. The Slupiks even found a way to incorporate a stack of old bricks they inherited along with the overgrown yard, which now makes up the floor of the greenhouse.

With the help of her husband and children, Slupik pieced together the one-of-a-kind greenhouse like a big puzzle, structurally planned around the windows. "That kind of determined the style of the greenhouse. We designed it around the windows," she said.

Now, Slupik said, passing drivers will stop and get out of their cars to take pictures and cyclists yell compliments on what is definitely a one-of-a-kind structure born of a several-years-long project.

So in 2020 when Slupik started to entertain the idea of starting a flower farm, it should come as no surprise that she was able to take the idea and run with it. "We definitely had a dream of growing things, but the flower farm idea wasn't in our minds first off," she said. The family instead grew vegetables and herbs and planted trees and berry bushes.

Then Slupik found and started following Floret Flower Farms, a flower farm based in Skagit Valley, Washington, on social media. She became intrigued by the farm's short video tutorials.

"When I saw those clips, I just felt such a connection. There was something in me that felt so excited," said Slupik.

Slupik signed up for a six-week online course about how to start a small flower farm. Next thing she knew, Slupik, with the help and encouragement of her husband, was tilling up a big part of their two-acres to plant a flower garden.

"My husband's super supportive," she said. "He just told me to go for it."

Early on in 2020, with her first batch of flowers on the way, Slupik was able to sell several spring and fall flower subscriptions and collaborated a bit with Ollin Farms to reach new customers before the pandemic effectively shut down in-person events for the summer. It became evident that "business as usual" was not likely to happen, and Slupik had to think creatively.

"After the pandemic hit, we had this little cart that we had made for our kids to sell vegetables and do little lemonade stands, so we threw that out there with some flowers to see what happened," said Slupik.

"My daughter is very artistic so she painted my sign for the flower cart to put out on the corner of the road. And people found it, and word started spreading. I went from not knowing what I was going to do with all these flowers to many weekends I was selling out of flowers. I couldn't keep my flower cart stocked," she said.

On a busy weekend, Slupik said the stand would sell upwards of 30-40 bouquets. Her customers expressed gratitude for being able to buy flowers and vegetables with the contactless purchasing system Slupik set up via a cash box and Venmo information at the Slupik Mini Farm's end-of-driveway farm cart.

"I'd be out working in the flower field, and people would bike by yelling, 'Thank you! I love your flowers! I love your greenhouse!'" she said.

On the day that I spoke with Slupik in mid-November, her family was busy putting up Christmas decorations. She said that they normally wait until after Thanksgiving to put up their lights, but decided to get an early start this year.

And the Slupiks didn't stop there. Thanks to the artistic skills of her oldest daughter and the handiwork of her entire family, the Slupik's two acres have been transformed into a walkable winter wonderland, drawing inspiration from the Christmas movie Elf.

For anyone who might need a little extra Christmas magic this year, the Slupiks have invited the community out for a socially-distanced walk around their property, where you too can visit Santa's Workshop, take a stroll through the sea of swirly, twirly gumdrops, enjoy the world's best cup of coffee, or visit the candy cane forest. Check out Slupik Mini Farm on Instagram or Facebook for more information on how to visit.

For visitors who are interested in making a small donation, the Slupiks are collecting donations for A Woman's Work, a local non-profit dedicated to helping women in the St. Vrain Valley who need financial support for immediate needs that cannot be met by other sources.

Looking ahead to 2021, Slupik is busy planning next year's flower crop, an off-season project that for her involves plotting her flower garden on a huge, post-it grid planning board and starting slow-growing seeds in her basement under grow lights. For Slupik, the ever-changing process and variability of seasonal planning required to successfully grow flowers is all part of the fun and challenge of the creative process.

"There are a lot of things I want to fine-tune," she said. "Last year was such a learning experience, I planted so much stuff and a bunch of different varieties to start learning what I like and how things grow. This year, I'm excited to start honing in on my style, the colors and flowers I love."

Regardless of what the coming year holds, it's a safe bet that Slupik Mini Farm will continue to bring joy-and flowers-to the Niwot community.

"It's cool to do something that people feel moved by," she said. "Photography, interior design, flowers - all of it has a way of making people feel something. You see a photograph or walk into a space or hold a bunch of flowers and it makes you feel something. I realized that's my gift and my mission, especially in a world where we spend so much time in front of screens, a lot of the feeling and emotion and appreciation for the beauty in the world is lost. My gift is to be able to make people feel those things."

For more information on Slupik Mini Farm, visit their website at http://www.slupikminifarm.com.