If you’re missing your Sunday flower bouquets from the Ballard Farmers Market, you’re in luck: a group of volunteers are delivering Hmong family farmers’ bouquets to Ballard, Queen Anne, Magnolia, Phinney Ridge, and Fremont, and raising funds for the Ballard Food Bank while they’re at it.
The bouquets are $15 each, but if you’re unable to pay that amount, the volunteers will accept $10 and make up the difference. However, if you’re able to give more than $15, the extra funds will benefit the Hmong farmers and the Ballard Food Bank.
Here’s how it works: if you want to order a bouquet for yourself, fill out this online form. If you want to order for others, just submit one order form and pay online. Orders of 10 or more should be picked up at one of two locations in West Woodland or Sunset Hill (they’ll email you the exact address). If you order fewer than 10, they can deliver the bouquets to your address so long as it’s in the delivery area. Orders must be submitted by Wednesdays at 8pm, and flowers will be delivered and available for pickup on the following Saturday afternoon.
Volunteer Roger Dowdy, one of the organizers, says they’ll keep up the flower sales on a weekly basis, “as long as we’re able and the farmers have flowers in the fields.” The online form will be taken down once the farmers’ capacity has been sold for the week and will be put up again each Monday morning.
The Hmong famers’ flowers are a staple of farmers markets around the city, and have a storied past: the Hmong and Mien farmers have been selling flowers at Pike Place Market and other markets since 1982. Many Hmong people came to the US from Laos as refugees in the 70s, and some settled in the Puget Sound region.
Using their farming skills, a group of six Hmong and Mien families started the Indochinese Farm Project in the 80s with county funding. Today, the farm supports 80 families, who sell at farmers markets around the Puget Sound region. However, with the farmers market closure, their only source of income has evaporated, the flower delivery info reads.
For more info about the flower delivery service and to order bouquets, click here.
Photo: Flower vendors at the Ballard Farmers Market (photo from Ballard Farmers Market on Facebook)
