The Dirt | Episode 31: Georgia Monroe
Not only did I find out I have a great new source for local flowers, but I also got to meet the sweetest "flower farmHer"! Georgia Monroe's passion for flowers and operating her own farm was undoubted! I loved chatting with her at the AMAZING Basecamp Farms.
More on Georgia:
Having grown up on a cattle and horse ranch outside of San Angelo, Texas, the love for the outdoors is deep for Georgia as she is now a 5th generation farmer in Texas. One grandfather, Bill Helwig, was a cotton farmer and gin manager for 30 years, and raised a small herd of Hereford Cattle. Her other Grandfather, Eddie Huckabee, was a wheat farmer with a small herd of Black Angus Cattle. Her dad, Todd Huckabee, had a cattle ranch and grew winter wheat for grazing, as well as rodeoed on the side, participating in team roping events, calf roping, and steer wrestling. Almost all generations had large gardens at one time or another and Georgia learned about landscaping from her parents who had beautiful properties landscaped by themselves. Georgia was also very active in 4-H and FFA, participating on the Livestock Judging Team and showing market lambs and breeding ewes at various Texas Livestock Shows. After her high school graduation, Georgia studied nursing, graduating in 2010 and began working at a hospital as a Registered Nurse while her husband, Jordan, served in the Army in Killeen, TX. Around that same time, Georgia began learning about gardening and landscaping, which started her interest and passion for growing plants. Over the next 8 years, she learned more and more about plants and then found the cut flower industry around the same time her daughter, Sedona, was born. While in-between caring for a baby, she began to study all she could about growing cut flowers specifically, as she loved having fresh flowers in the home but couldn’t afford to buy them each week and just wasn’t happy with what was available at the grocery store. Thus began the journey to start a flower farm so she could grow thousands of blooms to share with the community. It is now very much a family affair, as she runs the daily operations and Jordan is the Chief Weed Officer and Lawn Mower. Sedona, now six years old, helps care for the chickens and barn cats, and plays in a old horse water trough while Georgia washes buckets each week. Together, they care for the farm, living there full time now officially since January of 2019. Starting their fourth season in 2021, they grow year round with 30 different crops, with sunflowers being the primary crop but they grow many seasonal favorites include dahlias, anemones, ranunculus, poppies, cosmos, zinnias, marigolds, and more! The farm has become a local destination attraction and starting in 2020 started offering more on the farm events including “Pick Your Own,” workshops, classes and hosting private dinners and events in the Event Center Pavilion that was built in the fall of 2019. They also offer the property and crops as photography session locations, and also opened an on the farm flower shop in the summer of 2020 to give better access to customers during the week. There are still many projects to come, which will take years to complete, but as Georgia’s mom likes to say, “Rome was not built in a day.” *Connect with Georgia*
IG:@basecampfarms
Website: www.basecampfarms.com
Keep up to date with all things "The Dirt" by following along on Social Media
IG: @agchicks https://www.instagram.com/agchicks/
FB: Ag Chicks https://www.facebook.com/agchicks
Watch the visual version of every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxACPclc7yeXtl1RiWa0sA
Shop Ag Chicks apparel: https://shopjunkndisorderly.myshopify...
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agchicks/support
