YOU PICK
Wander - Gather - Create Something Beautiful
There’s nothing quite like strolling the farm, pausing to take in the sweep of the bay, watching bees drift from bloom to bloom, and cutting flowers to curate your own hand-gathered bouquet. Our You-Pick experience invites you to slow down and harvest what speaks to you, moving at the rhythm of the season and the island breeze.
This year, we’re embracing a self-serve model for both You-Pick and our Farm Stand, allowing you the freedom to explore and gather at your own pace. Before you begin, we ask that you take a few moments to review our simple guidelines for harvesting with care and preservation in mind—so the fields continue to flourish for pollinators, future guests, and the seasons still to come.
HOW YOU PICK WORKS
During the busy hours, there is usually one of us working the farm, but we are primarily a self-serve operation. This means we are leaning into our guests to follow the Golden Rule and treat our farm, flowers, and animals with care.
If you have questions, flag down one of us working the farm or give Carol a call at 360-776-9356. She is always only a call or text away... and likely somewhere weeding or dead heading blooms like a mad woman.
GUIDELINES
- From our parking lot, you will see a You Pick station set up at the entrance to our farm.
- Please take a few minutes to read and follow the instructions on our signs. Use our free wifi to snap the QR Code, which will provide detailed instructions on what and how to You Pick flowers. To preserve our plant's health and nurture new growth, please follow those instructions on how to best pick flowers through proper flower cutting practices.
- Note: all veg and herbs are cut and harvested by our team, so please don't You Pick veg or herbs. You can find harvested veg and herb available in our Farm Stand.
- Flower snips: You will find clean snips in one bucket and a bucket of water with a light peroxide cleaning solution to dip your used clips in another. Use the clean snips and when you are finished, give your used snips a dip and set into the bucket marked Cleaned Snips. Thank you!
- What not to cut: trees, shrubs, hydrangeas, roses, lilies, perennials like japanese anemone and single stem sunflowers. You will find a huge variety of already cut single stem flowers to add to your You Pick selection in our farm stand. Not sure? Exercise caution and don't cut or call Carol and ask!
- What you can cut: dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, ranunculus, greens like Bells of Ireland, cress, larkspur, digitalis foxgloves, calendula.
- Need to use my outdoor workstation to put your bouquet together? Please do. To the right of the farm stand is a large table and work station for bouquet making. Use it! Trimmings can go right into one of any of our compost pits. They are hard to miss. Please return and clean your snips to the You Pick Station by our front gate.
- Be careful! If you enter our farm, you take personal responsibility for you and your party, including children. Please don't run, especially with flower snips. It's a working farm and there are many things to catch a toe, so watch your step. Stay on paths and again, follow the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
- Children are welcome but they must be supervised. We have chickens, dogs, and a pond.
- Please no dogs inside our farm. There is a shady area to sit with your leashed dog across from the farm stand.
- We have chickens and three Frenchies and Hasko, Silvano's seeing eye dog, roaming our farm. They will likely come greet you as they are all super socialized and friendly. But, they all need to stay inside our farm's fenced area so they don't get under a wheel of a car.
- Need assistance or have questions? Call Carol at 360-776-9356 and she can answer any questions you have or cut flowers on the prohibitied list for you.
COST
We are self serve honor system farm but here are general guidelines for You Pick and in the end, you need to use your best judgement. Thrillers like dahlias and large Zinnias are $3 per stem. Spillers like cosmos or a sprig of amaranth are $2 per stem. Fillers like Bells of Ireland, sweet peas, or Cress are $1 per stem.
We provide 20 oz paper cups you can use to take your bouquet to go, or pop out the bottom and stick your longer stems all the way through, using the cup as a general guide and per stem pricing above to get to $25 dollar's worth of stems.
Please don't over stuff the cup. It will crush your stems and flowers. Remember the Golden Rule. Small farmers always struggle to cover costs, and that's our objective. We want everyone to lean into fairness as to our flowers and their worth. Need more than a cup? No problem. We have three bucket sizes for you to choose from, which you can load up with stems. Please don't take our buckets, they are an enormous expense for us and need to stay on the farm for all to use. However, you may bring a bucket of your own, like a Home Depot bucket or wrap your flowers in paper we provide at our You Pick station at the people gate and entrance to our farm.
20 oz Paper Cup of Flowers - $25
Small Bucket - $40
Medium Bucket - $75
Large Bucket - $125
Or just call Carol and she can assist! 360-776-9356
PAYMENT
Cash in the Honor Box at gate and Farm Stand. Or, use our Guest Wifi The Little Farm and login to pay by Venmo @littlefarmlife. Please add 8.5% WA Sales Tax to all purchases
DONATIONS - THANK YOU!
This farm and the experience we provide is our passion project. The kind donations we receive helps us maintain this farm; paying a living wage, covering insurance and electricity, which is insane on this island, and the thousands of dollars Carol spends each year in equipment, fertilizing, and planting the beautiful collection of perennials and annuals you see growing on our farm. Farming is one of the most difficult businesses to manage. We are committed and greatly appreciate your support.
PARKING
We have seven parking spots in our little lot. If our lot is full, you can park across the street at the Inn at Shipbay’s parking lot. Our lot is a tight space, so if you have a large car, consider parking across the street. Please pull all the way up to the designated curbs. Please be mindful of their property and ours. There are no restrooms or trash receptacles in either location. Please be very careful crossing the street.
RESTROOMS
We only have restrooms available for private workshops and events. However, Eastsound is just a mile away and has public restrooms available on North Beach Road - the main drag in town and right by the park.