(upbeat country music) - I've always loved flowers.

Flowers have just always spoken to me.

(upbeat whistling music) They have always kind of been like a luxury item and a luxury item I didn't really have growing up.

You know, it's nothing that we could ever just buy for fun, you know, and flowers, it's, it brings such joy when they're fresh.

And then I even started to see like the beauty in dried afterwards and the colors are still vibrant and bold and fun and it's also being able to kind of reuse those flowers again and put 'em to use.

And then I started thinking of like keepsakes.

That kind of is how it kind of took off into the next level as well.

(upbeat whistling music) This is how it started.

And I would put, you know like these beautiful, not beautiful, I mean they were just these weird little like dried floral scenes on here, you know, and just make this cute little thing.

And then I was like, I think pressed flowers would be fun to get into.

So dried floral art started for me like around covid time and I just found this woman on Pinterest, just scrolling.

I became a stay-at-home mom and I was bored and I saw this woman making beautiful wreaths with dried florals.

And so I essentially kind of started doing that and it took off.

So it just started as dried floral wreaths and now it has evolved into pressed floral art and preservation and just all sorts of dried floral.

Vases and cloches and wreaths and balls.

(peaceful rhythmic music) Mostly people that just got married are sending me their bouquets, bridal bouquets, maids bouquets, boutonnieres.

And that also goes hand in hand with funeral pieces as well, I've been doing, but mostly weddings.

So the brides will send me their bouquet via mail, kind of UPS two days or if they're in the Fergus Falls area they drop it off and I get it in the press right away.

So the project I'm working on now I got flowers about six weeks ago and that's about how long it takes to press.

That's kind of my estimates.

We've been going a little longer lately due to humidity but I just pulled it from the press.

All the flowers are now pressed, some are pressed whole, some are pressed petal by petal.

And I just got a custom frame made by a local gentleman in town, the BC wood shop.

And so I will then start designing these flower layouts on glass and then eventually secure them with glue, put them in the frame and nail it in and send that guy off.

And you guys ready for the fanciest press you've ever seen?

You guys don't know me, don't care.

(upbeat rhythmic music) So my foxtail fern mixed kits is kind of how this whole thing started.

When covid hit, bars shut down, my bar shut down that I was running, I had quit, you know four months before covid hit.

I feel like I dodged a bullet a little bit.

But what I make is 8 to 16 ounce little concentrates.

And you get that with a recipe card, straws, and garnishes.

It's essentially a mocktail at home.

It comes with suggestions on how to mix it but eight ounces of one of those should get you eight drinks cause it's one ounce of concentrate.

Two, four to five ounces of whatever your mixer.

Ginger ale, soda water, tonic tend to be the basic ones.

And then you just toss in one of the straws I gave you and some ice and the garnish and you got yourself a cute little drink at home.

(drinks sloshing) So this is a blueberry mint shrub concentrate.

That's blueberries, cane sugar, apple cider vinegar.

There is no mint it because the mint comes from the garnish.

So the big part of the Foxtail Fern is events, I call it atmosphere catering.

So the dried floral art was something that took off by storm that surprised me.

But entertaining and setting tablescapes is kind of in my blood.

I ran restaurants for 12 years, mostly on the cocktail side.

So with the foxtail fern, I do refreshment catering.

But I wanna go beyond that besides just dropping off drinks.

I also want to set the table and make this a beautiful little tablescape that I drop off with a mixed concentrate.

And if you have cupcakes I pitch, you know, maybe I can add flowers to it or do an interactive cake dessert.

I just love making things pretty and whimsical.

(upbeat energetic music) (upbeat energetic music) And nature has in kind of come back full circle with the kids, with my husband.

We had lived in Colorado and we had lived in Arizona and California.

And a big part of what we did for fun was going new places and hiking.

And when we had children in the cities we still went to our local park and did that.

But we had kind of missed that.

And now I fell in love with early childhood education too.

I don't have an education background but I've read a lot of books about early childhood education and found a love in nature play-based education for children and kind of a term that's being thrown around more now is forest school.

And so that was a big draw for us to get back again to an area where we could buy land, afford land, and get our kids outside.

'Cause I think that's what kids are kind of missing now you know?

And so that's a big part of the Foxtail Fern brand too was kind of just, you don't have to do as much with your kids, you know, nature's there, take full advantage of it whether you're adult, a child, I think it just kind of rejuvenates you and it's beautiful in all forms.

I mean I love Fall obviously with the seasons changing so I just go trim the branches right now in yellow and they're gonna stay yellow.

You know, like that's, that's pretty cool.

It's just there is, I just think nature's really awesome with all the seasons and being here in Minnesota to be able to see that all.

It's really special.

(upbeat rhythmic music) And so the Foxtail Fern journey has been just taking me on one and I'm just kind of along for the ride.

You know, I post stuff on social media and that's it.

Right now I don't have a website yet.

And so it's just been really exciting.

It's been taking off by storm more than I thought.

I'm getting a lot more traction especially with the bridal bouquet preservation and I'm getting bigger refreshment caterings where I'm serving, you know, 50 people, a hundred people full bar or mocktails.

So it's been a wild ride.

It's been a lot faster ride but it also had to slow down in certain parts too.

And so where I'm taking it now is gonna be a little different, but who knows, it could change cause it seems to be changing often.

(upbeat energetic music) - [Narrator] Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7kram.

Online at 967kram.com.

(peaceful rhythmic music)