STITCHDOWN FARM: Flower Power
BY MARIA BUTEUX READE
A graceful urn sits on a table, afternoon light intensifying the artfully arranged ivory dahlias, pink lisianthus, magenta cosmos, purple foxglove, and pale coral calla lilies. A bride holds a perfectly designed cluster of peach ranunculus, orange anemones, pink lilies, and white peonies, accented with a deep purple lilac. A CSA member cradles an armload of blooms, a riot of vibrant zinnias, larkspur, sunflowers, and snapdragons, part of her flower share.
Any of these bouquets are worthy of a Renaissance oil painting. An artist herself, Rita Champion composes these masterpieces with the flowers she grows and wild plants she forages from her gently sloping farmland in Bethel. “Flowers fill the creative need in me,” Rita says. “Growing highly diversified varieties and colors keeps it interesting.”
Rita and her husband, Andrew Plotsky, met while working on a farm in the Pacific Northwest. Rita was growing vegetables, and Andrew was a meatsmith focused on whole animal cookery and charcuterie. They decided to move east from Vashon Island to Vermont because they valued Vermont’s progressive rural culture.
Rita and Andrew bought the property in November 2014 and settled into the 1820 farmhouse in early winter. The couple spent the first year getting to know the area and the markets. As they settled in, they realized central Vermont and the Upper Valley had plenty of successful produce operations. So they decided to grow a different product: flowers.
“We were accepted into NOFA-VT’s Journey Farmer program and got paired with Broadturn Farm in Scarborough, Maine. John Bliss and Stacy Brenner were a perfect match, as flower growers with a vision similar to ours,” Rita says. “We visited their farm a couple of times, and they came over here. The Journey Farmer program equipped us with practical knowledge of what we could grow in central Vermont and how to market it.”
Rita and her farm team oversee 1½ acres of flower and vegetable gardens and several greenhouses. “Our neighbor Lauren Elmore helps with greenhouse management, deliveries, and field crew orchestration,” Rita adds. “She’s crucial. I’d be a mess without her.”
“Many of the flowers I grow aren’t traditionally shipped or found in florist shops. They’re ephemeral and powerful. My favorites are the spring flowers, a breath of magic after a long winter. People are ready to see color! Anemones and ranunculus are the first in the ground, cool season flowers that thrive in the low to mid 50s. Sweet peas and poppies are next in. I plan to establish more perennials, as a balance to seasonal annuals. We have more than 500 peonies now. Come late summer, gladiolas and zinnias are rock stars; rudbeckia and cosmos are workhorses. We also forage pasture weeds and woodland treasures around the farm. That natural and unexpected wildness distinguishes my work.”
Stitchdown Farm offers a flower CSA share, with freshly cut bunches available weekly. “I incorporate up to five different varieties of flowers and some fun fillers like ornamental grasses. You can keep them as a bouquet or take them home and arrange the stems as you like in your own vases.”
Rita and Andrew keep their farm stand stocked with flowers and veggies grown on the farm, including a popular weekly salad mix. They sell their own pork from the pigs that Andrew raises, along with other local products. “We try to provide basic staples at an affordable price for folks who make the effort to come by,” she says.
The pandemic challenged Rita and Andrew to consider how they wanted to live and where to concentrate their energies. “We wanted to be more involved in our community and not just be the exhausted farmers on the hill,” Rita explains. “I am booking fewer weddings and prioritizing more local accounts. Once the pandemic hit, we focused on our CSA and farm stand and have doubled down on keeping our prices accessible. We want to get more flowers to more people. I want to focus on my family. My son, Francis, is 4 years old and likes to hang out with me in the greenhouse. He has a small garden in there and his own little watering can. It’s really nice to share this experience with him.”
Rita sells to florists in Norwich, Barnard, and Woodstock. She also belongs to Rooted Farmers, a collective of farmers from central Vermont and New Hampshire that market their product through an online platform for customers in Boston. “I love that all my flowers have homes, and we’ve found a scale that feels comfortable.”
Rita believes in the power of flowers to bring joy and beauty. “A floral arrangement in a room holds transformative power. Flowers bring nature, life, artistry, energy, and joy into a space. They should not be considered a luxury item but an intrinsic part of indoor life. Everyone deserves the magic of sharing space with flowers.”
