Deep Roots, Blooming Dreams

I grew up surrounded by orchards, quite literally. As a fourth-generation orchardist, farming has always been part of my family’s story, but for most of my life I wasn’t directly involved. I was a cowgirl through and through, far more interested in riding horses than picking pears.

That all changed when I was 27.

My mom was ready to retire from Nicholson’s Orchard Fresh Fruit Stand, the business she had built from the back of a flatbed truck more than 25 years earlier. Suddenly I felt a deep connection to it. I wasn’t ready to see the doors close.

At the time, I was searching for a new career path, so I took a leap and offered to take over. I didn’t know exactly where it would lead, but I figured I'd give it a shot and see what happened.

In the beginning, my focus was on growing into my role as a business owner and expanding the fruit stand. But in 2019, we removed some orchard trees, which left me with an open space and an opportunity to try something new.

That’s when I decided to experiment with vegetable farming, thinking I might become a market gardener. While I loved working the land, I quickly realized vegetables weren’t my passion.

In 2020, I dedicated a small section of the farm to cut flowers, and everything changed.

I found myself completely drawn to them: the colors, the movement, and quiet joy of harvesting and arranging blooms. That summer I realized something important. Vegetables weren’t for me, but flowers were.

By early 2021, I was ready to dive in. I enrolled in the Floret Online Workshop, learned everything I could, and fully committed to growing flowers. That season, Crickside Blooms was born, and I knew I had found my place.

Growing flowers also brought my passion back to the farm and the fruit trees that are in my blood.

Over the next few years, as the fruit stand grew and my love for farming deepened, my family decided it was only natural for me to step into the role of managing the remaining five acres of apple trees on our farm. Today I manage those apples from bloom to harvest, with every piece of fruit sold through the fruit stand.

Everything is hand-picked, and each season I continue learning more about orchard farming and caring for the land that has been in my family for generations.

Crickside Blooms is more than a flower farm, it’s a piece of my family’s story.

In addition to the flower farm, I continue to run Nicholson Orchards, our season roadside fruit stand open from June through October. Together, the orchard and flower farm allow me to share the beauty of this place through both fruit and flowers.

Here at Nicholson Orchards and Crickside Blooms we farm with care, intention, and deep respect for the land. Our flowers are grown using natural, no-till methods, and our fruit trees are carefully tended season after season.

I grow flowers on land first cultivated by my great-grandfather, surrounded by fruit trees that have been producing my whole life. The name Crickside comes from the Peshastin Creek (or “crick,” as the locals say), where I spent my childhood summers swimming and whose gentle sound I fall asleep to every night.

This valley is my home, and it’s an honor to share a small piece of it with you through the flowers I grow and the fruit we harvest.

Whether you’re picking up a bouquet, choosing the best fruit of the season, or simply stopping by to say hello, I hope you feel the connection— to the farm, to the seasons, and to the people who grow your food and flowers.

This work isn’t just what I do. It’s who I am.

And I’m so grateful to share it with you.

—Anna