Summer Voelker plants happiness in North Strabane
It doesn’t shout for attention, but the antique charm of bronze calendula draws second glances when growing wild in a garden or included in a Kindred Flower Farm arrangement.
Summer Voelker and her daughter Willa, 8, admire the lavender flecks on a black knight scabiosa growing wildly in the garden. Voelker grew up near the plot of land she and her family have transformed into Kindred Flower Farm.
The beautiful chaos of flowers growing wildly – all in their rows, of course – is a sight Summer Voelker never tires of. Voelker founded Kindred Flower Farm, a business dedicated to spreading happiness through freshly picked bouquets, dried flowers and other floral decor, in 2020.
Scooter strolls through the garden on a summer evening at Kindred Flower Farm. “He likes to come out. He’s my little shadow,” said Summer Voelker, who founded the floral business in 2020.
Yellow celosia stands out against the blue evening sky and matching shed at Kindred Flower Farm. Summer Voelker delights in the uniqueness and beauty of all flowers, a love passed down by her grandmothers, who both gardened.
Rows of wildflowers dance in fading sunlight on a summer evening at Kindred Flower Farms. Summer Voelker, a self-taught grower, has been selling freshly-picked arrangements, dried flowers and floral wreaths at area farmers markets and online since launching her business in 2020.
The Voelkers admire the fruits – er, flowers – of their labor, delighting in the colors and textures of posies raised lovingly on the family’s land, on a recent summer evening.
Summer Voelker leads her daughter Willa and husband, Josh, through a row of flowers in the garden. Both Summer and Josh grew up down the road from the plot of land they now call Kindred Flower Farm.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Summer Voelker leads her daughter Willa and husband, Josh, through a row of flowers in the garden. Both Summer and Josh grew up down the road from the plot of land they now call Kindred Flower Farm.
When self-taught grower Summer Voelker launched Kindred Flower Farm amidst a pandemic in 2020, she never dreamed her business would blossom the way it has. Voelker loves watching flowers grow and intuitively crafting picturesque, antique-y bouquets, dried floral arrangements and sweet wreaths for customers to order online or pick up at area farmers markets and the farm’s self-serve station.
Willa Voelker runs wild as the flowers in her mother’s garden while Summer Voelker and the family’s pup Scooter watch, laughing. Willa enjoys helping her mamma prepare for farmers markets by picking posies and putting together beautiful bouquets.
Though only a quarter of an acre, Kindred Flower Farm is home to dozens and dozens of floral varieties, including the bright red gomphrena haageana.
A Kindred Flower Farm bouquet brings to mind tea-stained paper and soft candlelight, feels like lovely summer daydreams beneath a pale yellow sun, evokes romance.
“I just love earthy antique colors,” said Summer Voelker, the owner of Kindred Flower Farm, whose radiant smile and easy manner exude a peacefulness. “People use bouquet-like prescriptions. Everything is laid out and really strategic. I don’t work like that. I’m chaotic, and I like making things all different. We just kind of put them together, and it’s whatever looks right; I’m feeling this.”
Of course, if you’ve shopped Kindred, big, splashy bouquets may have caught your eye. Those works of art are usually the craftsmanship of Summer’s built-in assistant.
“My sister makes bouquets with me. She loves really bold, beautiful, rich colors. You can tell the difference between each of our bouquets,” Summer laughed.
While her sister Allison Kasper assists with floral arrangements and wreaths and manning tables at farmers’ markets and events, all flowers ethereal and blushing and striking and chic are homegrown with love in Summer’s backyard, where she, her husband Josh and their eight-year-old daughter Willa tend a whimsical quarter of an acre plot.
That little slice of heaven brimming with everything from zinnias to pin cushion flowers to pumpkins is just a stone’s throw away from where both Summer and Josh Voelker grew up, a blooming paradise neither dreamed would be their present.
“Life: it’s just crazy,” said Summer. “I grew up here. If you would’ve told me I was going to end up with a guy, not only from Canon Mac but from my same road – his parents live on the other end of Linden – I would’ve told you you were crazy. And here we are. We’ve been married for 14 years, back on Linden Road.”
Josh and Summer both went to Wylandville Elementary and graduated from Canon-McMillan High School a few years apart. The couple connected during Summer’s senior year; eventually, they married and settled in Pittsburgh.
“The first time I grew dahlias was in Brookline. I had a little garden. But the ground was so, so bad there. Our backyard was in an alley. You had nowhere to do anything,” she recalled.
During a visit to Summer’s parents, the Voelkers noticed a for sale sign along Linden Road. They weren’t looking to move, but Summer was drawn to the property. While Josh was out of town on business, she toured the home and fell in love.
“I sent him videos, and we bought it. He hadn’t even been inside the house,” Summer laughed.
One of the perks of their home sweet home: the land. Both Summer and Josh grew up with parents who planted gardens every year, and they were eager to carry on the tradition.
“Growing up, my dad always had a huge honking garden with more vegetables than anyone knew what to do with. I feel like we only have one size: you just go big with a garden, and that’s it. So that was kind of my framework,” Summer said. “Our first full year here, I had my dad come, and I put in a big vegetable garden. I had veggies for two years.”
But the family burned out from eating an endless bounty of squash and tomatoes, and Summer decided to call it quits with the veggie garden. When Willa started kindergarten, Summer, who had enjoyed working as a stay-at-home mom and part-time yoga instructor, brainstormed ways to keep herself busy.
She’d always dreamed of opening a small flower boutique, a sweet-smelling brick-and-mortar bursting at the seams with enchanting bouquets and freshly cut flowers.
“I was like, gosh, I wish I could do that, but it has to be so expensive to bring in all those flowers,” Summer said. “Josh was actually like, ‘You like growing things. Why don’t you just grow flowers?’ I was like, oh my God, mic drop. Of course. Why am I not doing that? That’s how we got started.”
Three years ago, the Voelkers transformed their vegetable garden into a small flower garden – with low expectations, Summer laughed.
“I just started some snapdragons and some chocolate lace flower and calendula. That was my first foray into starting seeds on my own. I had never started a 72-cell tray of seeds before, so I just had no idea if the seeds were going to grow, if I would have flowers,” she said.
Summer immersed herself in learning. She read about growing and took a Floret workshop, which helped her cultivate her green thumb. Shortly after deciding to go all in on flowers, Summer registered Kindred Flower Farm (named for the kismet of finding a home so close to home and starting such a beautiful venture) as an LLC and applied as a vendor for the Main Street Farmers Market in downtown Washington.
“I went for it,” she laughed. “We had no idea what was going to happen, if we were even going to have flowers. We’re just going to sign up for it and keep our fingers crossed. I figured I could do flowers once a month there, from June until September.”
But come June, Summer’s fenceless flower garden had become a feasting ground for wild rabbits, and she’d lost most of her blooms.
“I had to cancel the June one,” she recalled. “Things would come up and as soon as they would come up, it would be just chomped. So, that June farmers market, I couldn’t even make it, and I was so embarrassed. I was so nervous that I would have to cancel again.”
Fortunately, thanks to a little fencing and a lot of sprouting, Kindred Flower Farm made its Main Street Farmers Market debut in July 2020.
“I set the bar very low for myself. I knew it was going to be challenging because … big farms are there and they sell those huge bouquets, and they’re like $10 and they’re the size of my body. I knew I had to make things just a little bit different, just a little bit more interesting color choices, maybe just a little softer. That was really how I tried to differentiate,” she said.
Originally, Summer planned to set up shop once monthly, but she quickly grew a following.
“I ended up doing a bunch of consecutive weeks because I had flowers, and they were so nice and welcoming,” she said. “Things were growing, and people were buying them. I was just so blown away; like, I think I could actually do this. I just sold flowers all through the season. Feeling welcomed and things are going well gives you motivation, that drive that I can do this. It was fun.”
Since that first season, Kindred Flower Farm has been a staple at Main Street and other area farmers’ markets. The farm has appeared at holiday craft shows, including last year’s Covered Bridge Festival and Phipps Conservatory’s holiday market, and will have a table at this year’s Canonsburg Old Fashioned Christmas vendor market.
Kindred Flower Farm has also expanded its offerings to include dried florals, wreaths and ornaments, a pop-up self-serve table along Linden Road and a personalized flower subscription service.
“I try to make each bouquet specific to the person,” Summer said.
One can imagine that with all the public appearances and floral products, Summer Voelker is always gardening.
“You hear farming is hard work, and you’re aware of that, but it really is. In order to have healthy plants, you have to be out here all the time. There are no days off,” Summer said, adding she harvests the morning of each farmers market or event, arranges the freshly cut flowers and then transports them.
“I try to get up and out here by 6:30. It’s not like I’m out here in a linen dress, harvesting flowers. I’m rolled out in coveralls, a rain jacket and muck boots. If I have to be somewhere earlier, I’ll go out at 5:30 and wear a headlamp. I look like a hobo,” she said with a smile. “What are you going to do? You’ve got to be dedicated to something.”
Dedicated, she is. Most mornings, Summer plays tones – a nod to her yoga background – and spends the gloriously silent early hours harvesting. Her flower life often bleeds into her domestic one: Willa loves arranging flowers for her mother (“My bouquets at the farmers market are always the first sellers,” the little girl said matter-of-factly), and Josh has acquiesced the family’s home to the business.
Summer starts planting in January in the basement, where she’s set up tables, grow lights and heat mats. When seeds start sprouting, they’re moved into the greenhouse. From there, flowers are transplanted into the garden.
The basement growing station is an upgrade from the original kitchen operation, Summer said, adding that the kitchen is now overflowing with dried flowers used for ornaments, arrangements and wreaths.
“It’s like the Texas Roadhouse of flower seeds,” Josh said emphatically. “There’s just seeds everywhere, all over the downstairs. You put your shoes on, and you’ll find a seed. After she makes all the wreaths, that’s kind of like the running joke for a few months, is -“
“Where are we going to find the Saluja seed?” Summer finished with a smile.
Kindred Flower Farm has existed for three years, and Summer has expansion plans. She dreams of extending her growing season, booking a few weddings with brides who share her wildflower aesthetic and vision, hiring a delivery driver and offering more product variety. Really, though, she’s happy simply growing.
“That’s my enjoyment,” Summer said, sitting at a picnic table near her garden. “I like making arrangements and making the dried stuff, but really, my happiest is being out here.”
The way Kindred Flower Farm has blossomed in the last few years still blows her mind, and Summer is grateful she spends her days doing what she loves, a passion that brings joy to herself and others.
During a late summer evening, Summer Voelker walked her garden, reminiscing on three years in business and trying to narrow down her favorite flower.
“I love tulips. They’re hardy. I love snapdragons. Those are a top four. Oh gosh, I don’t know. I love those double cone echinacea, and I love hisa and chocolate sunflowers,” she said, blue eyes wide. “I am dazzled by all flowers. I love them all.”