Blossoming Entrepreneurship and Eco Dreams, Amy Eiken shares how she is cultivating the legacy of her family's century farm with Sacket Farm Flowers

Ever envisioned a world where vibrant flower fields foster community and eco-consciousness? Amy, a Delaware, Ohio native and serial entrepreneur, did just that by transforming her ancestral farm into the sustainable haven of Sackett Farm Flowers. Her tale is not one of simple farm life but an enthralling journey through geography and permaculture, spotlighting the urgency of preserving agricultural land. As Amy intertwines her background with the roots of regenerative farming, we gain a window into the heart of a modern-day steward of the land, preserving her family’s legacy while nurturing the planet.

The allure of Amy's endeavor stretches beyond the farm's boundaries, reaching into the very essence of human healing and community connection. Unveiling the metamorphosis of a traditional farm into a sanctuary for sustainable flora, we delve into the visceral impact of flowers on our well-being and the transformative process of eco-friendly cultivation. The dream blooms further as we explore Amy's blueprint for a community-centric, Blue Zone-inspired oasis, which merges the joy of local food with the strength of community bonds. From the regulatory hurdles to the everyday steps toward her vision, Amy's narrative is a compelling invitation to witness how monumental change sprouts from steadfast dedication to a dream.

Closing the loop of our conversation, Amy takes us down the path less traveled, where entrepreneurial ventures blossom from passion projects, such as an art studio for mental health, to the serenity of flower farm retreats. She courageously shares her story of funding these dreams by tapping into retirement savings, challenging the conventional and igniting the flame of possibility for those on the brink of their own entrepreneurial leap. Her ethos extends to cultivating a business culture where employees thrive as stakeholders, and where community events sync with the rhythms of nature. Prepare to be inspired by a story steeped in the spirit of innovation, the resilience of nature, and the audacity to chase a passion against formidable odds.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Time to hustle America. Roll up our sleeves and make dreams happen. Midwest momentum brings you stories of CEOs, startups, product development and founders doing whatever it takes to make their big idea happen. Here's me with momentum holds Michelle Gatchel, she'll catch all right, everyone welcome.

Speaker 2: 0:24

We have a great guest today from Delaware, ohio, and she's kind of a serial entrepreneur, I'm gonna say. She's got all sorts of businesses, but what's really cool is each one of them highlights a passion of hers, and I think that's really important when you're starting a business is to follow your passions and, amy, I can thank you so much for joining me.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Michelle, it's great to be here, thanks you have recently started a flower farm and it's called Sacket Farm Flowers and it's located on your century family farm, right, yeah, it is. I love that. I mean I. You always hear these stories about people selling their Family farms because they don't know what to do with the land. It doesn't, it's not cost-effective anymore, right, and? And you're finding unique ways to make this work for you.

Speaker 3: 1:20

So far so good. Yeah, it's, it's been um, you know it's really it's a family operation, in that all the family is in alignment with we're not selling. It's important to keep it, you know, in production and Open space. You know we live, or I. This farm exists in Delaware County, ohio, which is the one of the fastest growing and has been historically for Decades, I feel like it is the the healthiest, the wealthiest and one of the fastest growing in the state of Ohio, and so there's a lot of pressure on landowners to sell to developers or, you know, imminent donating takes, takes farms, you know, to put highways or byways or or roads through, and it's it's Unfortunately in this area, you know the farmers are becoming less and less Prominent.

Speaker 3: 2:20

I guess in the in the landscape, you know, being a being a century farm, actually we're almost we're at 180 years In the same family. So you know, my ancestors were early settlers here in this area and it's just really important because, you know, anybody I don't know people think about it, but once a land is taken out of agriculture and made into a shopping center or a Housing development, it never is reverted back to farmland. Yeah, you know it, it sits there and it's covered with concrete. So it's just, you know, as I've, as I've begun this adventure, adventure four years, four years. I just finished my four season already. Wow, I'm flies and a cobit is kind of time warped, everything but started the flower farm during the year of cobit and it was really a great adventure because I was working outside and I could be out in the country and I wasn't, you know, confined to my home, which was, which was lovely, yeah, and I felt very lucky about that.

Speaker 2: 3:28

So I'm rambling, so well, you know, let's talk about your inspiration for a flower farm. Oh gosh.

Speaker 3: 3:37

Well, you know what? It's funny because it's one of those things that was really right in front of me all of my life. You know, right out of college I was a geography major, which I had no idea what I was doing with that, but I loved the professors and I loved. You know, it's really about how humans interact and change the land and migration patterns and how we're influenced by natural disasters and wars and all kinds of things, and so it's kind of a big topic and it's really neat because it's come back full circle, because, as I'm diving into learning about regenerative farming practices or permaculture agricultural practices, it's all about working with the land. You know, how does water naturally flow? Well, don't, you know, do something that's going to flood out and you're going to be economically ruined. Work with mother nature rather than trying to think we know better. So, you know, the geography thing has always been there and I've always worked at garden centers my entire life. That was always my fun job.

Speaker 3: 4:45

I was a middle school educator for many, many years and loved going to play with plants and flowers after school hours as my second job. And you know, I was sitting there one day and I'm like, really one of the biggest obstacles for people to follow their passion or their dreams, to get back to the land, is acquisition of land, and I'm like we already have the land. Yeah, the biggest hurdle has is already I'm over it. And so how can I? You know, what can I do? And I mean I love flowers. I think just looking at flowers and having flowers in your life it has some healing properties. I mean, it just is. It's a great self care. People see it as you know. It's a celebratory thing. It's not something you know. People feel like they deserve all the time and I beg to differ that flowers in your life all the time and it really does make a difference. It really does make a difference.

Speaker 3: 5:44

So so I just I felt, like you know, when I had transitioned out of my education career and was looking for something to do that I felt was more meaningful and just bigger than me, like healing the land and preserving land, that's. That's more than I can do in my lifetime, but I certainly can take steps into that process right when and you know a while ago I'm like I'm not healing the land, I'm basically taking away things that get in the way of Mother Nature returning back to balance. So I'm not doing anything other than determine not to have chemicals on the land, you know, putting leaf, mold and compost and different things back on this very depleted agricultural field.

Speaker 2: 6:40

You know you rented out the fields for farmers, right?

Speaker 3: 6:44

I'm sorry your family rented out fields for farmers, yeah so we've always had farmers doing renting the land from from us. So my family was not farmers outside of you know they had a dairy cow or some chickens that they would, you know, eat, but other than that it wasn't a big scale farm and we didn't have all the farm equipment stuff.

Speaker 2: 7:06

How many acres is it?

Speaker 3: 7:08

75. Okay, yeah, so it's. You know it's not a big farm. I mean 75 acres in the world of suburbia is a lot of land, but it also, you know, it limits us. At one point my grandmother was interested in putting the land into the American Farmland Trust, which is a national land preservation organization, and 75 acres just isn't big enough for them to be interested in. They're looking at, you know, 125 and on.

Speaker 3: 7:39

So you know we have to take matters into our own hands and do our own things. You know a couple of things that we've done. My mom is still living. She just turned 90, so she's still a landowner and she's just very pleased with the projects that I talk about or the things that I'm interested in doing on the land. And it's way more than growing flowers. I mean that's fine and that's challenging, but it's more about bringing people out, having them experience the flower farm, just the farm of itself. I mean we've got a grove of 200 year old trees and just being in their presence is like wow, this is pretty magical you know and I don't do anything.

Speaker 3: 8:31

It's just like I just get to invite people in and they get to experience it, and when they say, wow, this is really magical, I'm like check, yes, it is.

Speaker 3: 8:42

And so it's very holistic in my mind. It's about growing flowers in a regenerative way. I don't use chemicals, you know I have really I've not had any big issues with fungus or insects. I mean, there are a lot of grasshoppers but, and they like the sunflower. So that's a challenge. But other than that, I haven't had to really figure out how do I get a deal with this problem in an organic way, in a natural way.

Speaker 3: 9:14

So I've been very lucky that way and I really, like you know I just I wanna build community and have this be a place where people want to come and interact with like-minded people or just have their first experiences out in the country and see flowers growing in the field or whatever, and it's-.

Speaker 2: 9:36

When you started the business, because it was already a farm. What extra did you have to do? Like? Did you have to register for the state for the business name?

Speaker 3: 9:47

Did you yeah, I had to register the business name and you know I really have a big vision. I say we're a little farm with a big vision and I'm very interested and I don't know how many of the listeners are familiar with blue zones in the world. But these areas where they have found people live in community. It's intergenerational living and there are many people in those communities that are thriving while over 100 years old and they're eating local foods and they're, you know, they just have a real sense of community which I feel like people are desiring and wanting that to come back. But we just we haven't fostered that in a really again I go back to the word holistic. In a holistic way that includes where we eat, how we eat, being together, you know, in really meaningful ways, and so my big vision is that there's a little eco village and we're growing our own food. You know it sounds like a commune and it kind of is. It's community living, but it's in.

Speaker 3: 10:54

You know, I'm just I think we lose out when we are housing and all our seniors over in 55 and older communities, or they're in, you know, they're in the retirement communities and I think how, what richness and wisdom are we missing out on. Okay from myself, the people that are younger and anyway. So that's down the line, but that's really what I envision. And so, anyway, back to COVID. I'm like, well, what? I don't know how to make that happen, so what can I do right now? So, really, it's always about if you have a dream and you really have a vision. It's like what can you do on a daily basis to move in the direction of your dreams?

Speaker 3: 11:40

I don't know how it's gonna happen it's not my job to know how it's gonna happen. I just know how thinking about it makes me feel. So I knew and I learned that there was a begin farming program through a nonprofit locally called OFA, the Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association, and so I signed up for a five month class or a program and went through that program and really looked at all aspects of farming and it is a business and so it's and it's about really you have to do your, you have to do research and there's a lot

Speaker 3: 12:23

of learning every day, because there If you make a business plan you know I did and it was but I also feel like I'm just gonna be really honest right now. That's really not my forte business protein and stuff and I feel like this is a little outside of the box away from a traditional business and it's and maybe I'm making excuses here, I don't know. It's okay, yeah. So I'm just gonna be really vulnerable and honest right now. You know there are different enterprises that I do and I most recently, this past spring, I did go through a business accelerator and really, once I had started the business and had done it for a while, I was like oh well, now I can write a business plan because I have a really better sense about what the X is, what's going on, how much things cost, because otherwise I'd feel like I was just like I have no idea, right. So you know I've done so. Now I'm a regenerative farmer in an eco florist. Okay, the eco florist is simply one that has I've found materials that are eco-friendly and they're not plastic and they're not. You know the oasis green, you know spongy bricks that they use and floral arrangements is full of micro plastics. There's nothing good about those. And I've found a company I'm sure there's more than one now and they make the bricks that hold water, that you make floral arrangements made out of compressed sheep's wool oh really, yeah. So they're taking some scrap product, you know, out of the woolen company, I guess, and they're making these blocks. You know there's bamboo instead of plastic trays that you make floral arrangements in. Now they have its pressed leaves so the whole thing can get tossed.

Speaker 3: 14:25

And I think you know, as I started to research and looking, I dipped my toe into the wedding business and did some wedding flowers and love. You know, very fun to do, but there's so much waste. Yeah, like at the end of the wedding, all that goes in the garbage. I mean, I was doing some statistics and it's like there's 400 pounds of garbage after a typical wedding. Oh, I can. So you know how can we eliminate that? And these are not my original ideas. But you know I had a bride recently and I said you know, if you are interested, I can, we can collect the flowers after the wedding. You take what you want, but anything left over, collect them. I can reimagine them into smaller bases and we can donate those to a nonprofit, and so she was like, oh, I love that idea because she didn't want them to go to waste either. And so.

Speaker 3: 15:19

I went up after the reception, collected the flowers, you know, reconfigured them into little, just you know, like little votive candle size things, and they went to the battered women's shelter in town and they were thrilled, thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. So you know, I'm just always trying to think like, how can we make this less impactful?

Speaker 1: 15:43

You know again the ripple effect.

Speaker 3: 15:44

What's the ripple effect of I create this thing, and then what happens to it? Well, we need to minimize those risks along the way, or those consequences I should say. So it's really. You know, that's the challenge always, because gosh plastics sure are readily available and easy to use and we're so ingrained, you know, they're everywhere. So, it's um.

Speaker 2: 16:12

Yeah, so let's talk about ripple effect. I know you started that one back a ways, but ripple effect. That kind of follows your passion for art and creativity. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 3: 16:26

Totally. You know, ripple effect. I just I love that term because I believe that we are energetic beings, where spiritual beings have a human experience. So, as an energetic being, every word, thought, indeed, that I do or think or say is energy and it goes out into the world and it impacts those around me, or even, you know, it impacts everything. And so when I really had that kind of aha or awareness, or heard this for the first time and it really deeply resonated with me, I'm like, wow, if people really understood that as core, how would people change? You know how they interact with each other or whatever. And so, anyway, ripple effect came to my mind and I'm like I so I dubbed myself when I was left education. I'm like I'm going to be a recess specialist Okay, my new title.

Speaker 3: 17:28

So we're sitting in my in my art studio in my house and I let people to come and just play and make art and you know, come and do that, because I love doing that and I find that that really is. I mean, that's great, it's a great mental health release. You know, there's just so many great aspects about being creative and you know, what I found was people in education or nurses or anybody and kind of in the service industry have a really hard time saying yes to themselves. And so that just that didn't go real well. I mean, that didn't go as easily or as quickly as I anticipated, so that I pivoted and I'm like you know what I really like having?

Speaker 3: 18:17

I really enjoy creating experiences for people. I mean I would turn my classroom into look like the forum of ancient Rome. You know the kids in the next day and I'm like, Wow, this is so cool. And then they're really interested in engaged in what I'm doing because they're like sitting in that place, right. So I know that that's important and so that kind of led me down the path of Wow, I have a really great house, I have an art studio here. I could put my house and listed on Airbnb.

Speaker 3: 18:51

So, that led me into another entrepreneurial adventure, and that one was that one's been so gratifying. I've done that for seven years and that's called people.

Speaker 2: 19:04

So I'm in.

Speaker 3: 19:05

Delaware, ohio, it's called rest gate, rest gate. Okay, Rest gate. It's a peaceful retreat. It is about. You know, it's a it's a small footprint house and it's got three bedrooms, though, and it's but it has the art studio. So as an add on, as an Airbnb experience you can have, you know, I can come and do an art lesson with you, or you can do a painting, or we can make vision boards, or, you know there's a variety depending on what you do. And so I've had quite a few guests that have said, you know, they come over the holidays and are looking for things to do with their kids and like, wow, we can, we can do some playing in the art art room, and so that's kind you know. So that kind of was a interesting adaptation to my original idea, and so now, as I have the flower farm you know it's going to morph again where I can. Right now we don't have lodging opportunities actually on the farm.

Speaker 3: 20:07

My house is 10 minutes across town, and so I'm thinking about creating some retreats this coming year where people would stay in my house but spend a day out the farm interacting with flowers and doing different things, and so that's the next metamorphosis is going to be an adaptation that way, because I've been able to go to some different retreats and have found them to be just really life changing and just, you know, having the opportunity to lead that kind of a thing or have you know additional people coming in as teachers or whatever theme you know is important, at that time I was like that'll feel so bad, I miss teaching.

Speaker 3: 20:49

I do that sort of thing again. So you know, it's going to be kind of a full circle maybe, and you know, and if it doesn't work, you know what we learn and we move on to the next thing. I really have learned as an entrepreneur that we don't you can't get stuck and think that you know this is the way it's going to be, mm, hmm, because if it then go your way, then you're out of business. Yeah, okay. Well, now it's time to pivot. It's time to look at this. You've got to look at it from all different angles and talk to people and get feedback. I think that's really important, just to be open to suggestions or open to ideas.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Now, as a flower farm, I'm going back a little bit. Yeah, that's okay. The other part of being an entrepreneur in some cases is hiring people to help you out with your business. Right, have you had to do that?

Speaker 3: 21:47

I have done that. I have done that and it has not been my favorite thing to do. Yeah, I don't like being the boss, gotcha, and I just feel like there's a different model out there and I haven't found it. There's a listener that has an idea what that looks like. I'm not sure, and I've toured companies, and one is New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, colorado. It's owned by a woman and every employee is a shareholder in the company, so there's so much pride in the company and all of them are motivated to promote, keep it clean. There's a waiting list to work there. It's a great working environment. So that's what I want to create.

Speaker 3: 22:45

I want people to come in and have a stake in the results, and I don't want to feel like I'm the boss and I'm dragging everybody along and we just want our paycheck, and that has not been my experience. So I'm not going down on the people that have helped me out, but there's just a different energetics, right, yeah, and knowing that we're energetic beings, I want equanimity, I want equal buy-in. I want a team of people that are dedicated to the, not just the flower farm, but just the whole philosophy of what we're about, which is reconnecting people to nature, helping them heal, getting people connected to a part of themselves that has been neglected for a really long time, and, it's important, creating community, just learning about how do we help mother nature get back in balance, because we really have not done right by her for a long time.

Speaker 2: 23:53

Yeah, Well, that's cool. So will you be doing then classes this coming season?

Speaker 3: 24:01

Yeah, so that's on my to-do list after the holidays. It's really coming up with kind of a calendar of events we do hold. I do hold full moon, goddess circles many months out of the year, and again because I want to be more connected into the rhythms of nature, so it's like I'm actually hosting next week Winter Solstice Dinner, and so when there's a spring equinox and there's a big solar eclipse happening or there's meteor showers or whatever. But as there are things that we could get others involved to come out to the farm and just recognize or partake in or get introduced to something that's a little bit more natural, I think that's really cool. You know, a harvest celebration or whatever it is yeah, fantastic, yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:03

So what's next?

Speaker 3: 25:06

Wow, there's some big things on the horizon. I'm not at liberty to share right at the moment, but there is a big change that's happening at the farm and it's after the start of the new year. If anybody wants to connect with me on social media, Sacket Farm Flowers you'll hear what the big announcement is, but there's something that's really cool and it's going to be a really good thing.

Speaker 2: 25:45

That's nice, yeah. So if people you mentioned collaboration if people have ideas, if they think, hey, I'd love to talk to her about collaborating on. A B and C or whatever. Yeah, how do they? Get a hold of you.

Speaker 3: 26:02

Well. Sacket Farm Flowers at Gmail. Sacket Farm Flowers at Gmail. Sacket Farm Flowers on Instagram. Sacket Farm Flowers on Facebook are your best bets right now. To connect with me Again, my name is Amy Eichen and, yeah, I would love to hear ideas. If you have a group looking for something unique to do during flower season, we do. It's an immersive go out and pick flowers and then I talk about the basics of floral design so you can make a bouquet to take home. We have community potlucks once a month that are free. Just bring some good food and we just have a great time there. And after dinner we go out and we take our chairs and we sit in the field and watch the sunset and usually Mother Nature puts on a great show and, yeah, it's just, it's really it's just it's celebrating kind of a quieter pace, you know, and taking time to notice what beauty is all around us.

Speaker 2: 27:05

Yeah. I bet your farm would be great for a meteor shower.

Speaker 3: 27:11

Well, right now it's probably okay. We're getting a big housing development south of us, so that may not be always the case, but yeah, for now it does get. It's pretty relatively dark skies, I'll say. So, yeah, that would be good.

Speaker 2: 27:28

We go out there and we've watched Eclipses before and, yeah, it's, it's nice, oh yeah, next year Ohio is supposed to be the prime spot for the huge one April 7th or 8th, I think, yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:40

I gotta make my plans for that. I know, Come to the farm. There you go. Well, hey, Amy, I want to thank you so much for sharing your business journey, Absolutely, Because I think a lot of people you know have a passion not sure where to start. Yeah, Did you. I didn't ask you. But did you have to get loans to get started?

Speaker 3: 28:06

I did not get bank loans and sometimes you know when a business, a flower, no, I didn't get loans. Easy answer yeah, okay. I don't know if you're going to be yandering around.

Speaker 2: 28:15

Yeah, no, I did not, you did not. Well, that's good.

Speaker 3: 28:20

All right, I'm going to get into my retirement, so that's probably not what the traditional people will tell you is the right thing to do. But you know what?

Speaker 2: 28:29

It was easy, accessible and I was ready to go, so yeah, no, I've heard a lot of people dip into the retirement to start their business. It's my money.

Speaker 3: 28:40

Yeah, I get to do with it what I want.

Speaker 2: 28:44

Well, thank you so much for joining me on Midwest Momentum and sharing your journey.

Speaker 3: 28:50

Oh, thanks, michelle, it's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 28:52

Thanks for listening to Midwest Momentum on your favorite podcast site and great radio stations across Ohio like WWCD 92.9 in Franklin, licking and Delaware counties and WDLR Herden, delaware, union and Marion counties. Now let's hear what's coming up next week.

Speaker 2: 29:15

And coming up next week we are going to talk to Eddie Pauline, the president and CEO of Ohio Life Sciences, about what new companies are coming to the Buckeye State and what companies based in life sciences are here to stay and making great momentum. So that's all coming up next week right here on Midwest Momentum.