Floral Best Practices: Kendall Farms in the Spotlight
Floralife’s Spotlight Program is a series of articles about where cut flowers come from, the people that make it happen, and their floral best practices. Recently we paid a visit to California’s Kendall Farms, who shared with us the beauty of their flowers, as well as the production, sustainability and community involvement measures that have landed them in the Spotlight!
David Kendal founded Kendall Farms in 1987 with an initial 50-acre purchase near Fallbrook, California. David passed in 2004 but his sons and nephew have carried on the family tradition. Today, Kendall farms consists of 500 acres known for its waxflower and eucalyptus, and also sunflower, Protea, pincushion, lucadendron, myrtle, Limonium and Kangaroo Paws.
What are the floral best practices that Kendall Farms brings to the Floralife Spotlight?
Innovation: Kendal Farms’ best practices include on-site composting and shredding. They divert green waste from inside and outside the farm, producing compost in order to greatly reduce the amount of commercial fertilizers they consume. Also, deep-well water pumping consumes a lot of electricity, so the Farm is now in the process of installing solar panels to offset energy consumption.
On the marketing side of the business, Kendall Farms has a robust visitation program for customers and potential customers. They consider the Farm to be one of their best sales assets!
Sustainability: The Farms’ best practices also include aggressive water management. They installed a massive, 2 million gallon reservoir and water treatment system for capturing and recycling almost all of the water used on the farm. A highly efficient drip irrigation system also helps prevent water waste. Combined with their own system of on-site wells, Kendall Farms no longer uses any imported water for its flower and greens production.
Community Involvement: Kendall Farms has partnered to create the Outreach Farm Project. This non-profit program dedicates areas of the flower farm to food production. The food is then distributed to local feeding ministries. More info here.
Floralife is proud to shine the Spotlight on the best practices of Kendall Farms. And this just some of the story. Check out the rest on the Floralife Spotlight page, and visit Kendall Farms at http://www.kendall-Farms.com!