ELK POINT, S.D. -- As her flowers take root across the driveway, Christy Heckathorn stands inside a small building and speaks reverently of the family that put down roots in this corner of Union County more than a century ago.
A big, modern building housing husband Chad's seed business dominates this former homestead, but a small, historic structure near Fleurish Flower Farm's entrance off of South Dakota Highway 50 in rural Elk Point immediately draws attention.
More than 100 years old, Thelma Kalstad's old summer kitchen has become a centerpiece of Heckathorn's blooming business, a nod to the past much like the classic flower hybrids she grows. A lover of history, Heckathorn said the attractive old building fits perfectly with her young business.
"The flower farm is new, but this is old, and I wanted to tie the two together. It just made sense to incorporate the two together," she said.
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In the days before air conditioning, farm wives cooked meals in small outbuildings known as summer kitchens so the house wouldn't get as hot from the kitchen stove. When the Heckathorns bought the property in 2015, the farmhouse and barn were beyond saving, but the summer kitchen still stood strong. As Heckathorn cooked up her plans for a flower farm, the summer kitchen became a main ingredient.
"I really felt if I did a flower farm here I had to include the summer kitchen. They had to be together," she said.
It didn't hurt that vines likely planted by Kalstad more than 100 years ago still climb on the porch and the peonies and iris she planted still bloom each year, long since she moved off the land in 1989.
The vines and flowers remain in tribute to Kalstad, who died in 1999, and the kitchen figures prominently in the farm's logo.
At the time she and Chad bought the property, the idea for a flower farm had yet to fully sprout in Heckathorn's mind.
The Sanborn, Minnesota, native had lived in Elk Point since marrying Chad, a local boy, after the two met while attending South Dakota State University. Heckathorn worked at the flower shop inside Pioneer Drug (which also housed Edgar's Old Fashioned Soda Fountain) and learned how to arrange flowers from Barb Wurtz. After the business closed, Heckathorn kept doing flower arrangements for weddings part-time, but was looking to do something more.
She took an online class from Floret, a Washington flower farm, in 2020 to learn more about growing flowers, and, in her words, "it literally just blossomed after that."
Heckathorn tilled half an acre of rich soil where a cattle lot once was and last spring planted more than 60 varieties of flowers, all from seeds she started indoors in February and March and grown organically without chemicals. She raises flowers that usually aren't available from commercial florists or wholesalers, a lot of varieties you'd recognize from your grandmother's flower bed: zinnias, bachelor buttons, black-eyed Susans, snapdragons, dahlias, strawflowers, amaranth, cosmos and more.
"I try and plant a lot of colors that are unique or different," Heckathorn said.
It's a niche business not seen much around here, a change of pace from the corn and soybeans -- and a large pumpkin patch -- the Heckathorns also plant. Heckathorn has supplied flowers for enough weddings that word is spreading, and flower lovers are finding the farm, located six miles east of the Vermillion exit off of Interstate 29.
"I love that I can share my love of flowers with people," Heckathorn said.
On July 17, Heckathorn will begin hosting U-pick events on Tuesday and Sunday evenings. A week earlier, she'll host an opening night party with music and food. The summer kitchen is a perfect place for vendors to set up amidst the rustic decorations and furnishings. Heckathorn saved the doors from the barn before it was torn down and uses them as backdrops at events.
Again, a dose of the old to go with a new endeavor.
"I love using these things that were part of the past," Heckathorn said.
As for the future, Heckathorn has no current expansion plans. She now can grow thousands of flowers, as many as she needs. The summer kitchen needs a little work, and Heckathorn hopes to create a display about Kalstad so visitors can learn more about the woman who, though she has passed, still very much lives on in spirit here.
"I don't want this to go away," Heckathorn said while standing in the middle of the summer kitchen.
Like Kalstad's vines and peonies, it's not going anywhere -- its role on the farm likely to grow right along with the flowers.