Our Story
At Nourish with my hoop house helper.
On the property at Nourish with a less than thrilled toddler.
Hello! For those who don’t know me, my name is Rebecca Duquesnoy and I am the person behind Serendipity Cut Flowers. My husband, Paul, and I have two sweet and entertaining kiddos, Eden & Hollis.
Speaking of the farm, we are incredibly lucky to be farming on land that belongs to a fantastic non-profit, Nourish. Nourish Farms not only educates and helps to feed healthy food to the community, they also are a springboard for farmers. The people who work at Nourish are supportive and generous with their time and knowledge. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be there!
If you had asked me 10 years ago or even last summer where I saw myself going, it would not have been starting a cut flower farm. Life has an interesting way of working itself out. Ten years ago, I was working as a special education teacher. It felt good to help people, but it never totally felt quite right. A few years later, I had our daughter. She came into our world with a beautiful smile and significant special needs. I quit teaching to stay home with her and a few years later, we had our sweet boy, Hollis.
The last few years I have spent changing diapers, making snacks, taking walks, visiting museums, occasionally losing my mind and enjoying the fleeting time of childhood. Knowing that the kids would be in school full-time eventually, I took a course at a local tech college for growing vegetables because I love growing things and have been doing it for years. I realized that as much as I loved growing vegetables, I could not do this as a career.
Our daughter has a rare syndrome - Prader-Willi Syndrome, which eventually causes an insatiable hunger. We will have to lock our cupboards and have 24 hour supervision unless a cure is found. (For more information, please visit https://www.pwsaofwi.org/) There is no way I could live on a farm growing vegetables with Eden safely. I explored other options and fell in love with cut flowers. I love the joy it brings to those who receive it, the raw beauty nature has provided us and the connection to the earth.
In searching for land to farm, it was difficult to find. Randomly, at a suggestion by a friend and my husband, I reached out to Nourish to see if they would have opportunities to farm on their land. What do you know! They had space AND they were a springboard for farmers! The only thing they didn’t grow was flowers. It all was SERENDIPITY.
Follow @Serendipitycutflowers on Instagram and Facebook to check out my progress, learn some gardening tips and appreciate nature’s beauty.