It all started with the tiniest seed of a vision.
John and Sara Lancaster were living a “typical life” in Union Grove, working as an art teacher and an editor at Reader’s Digest, respectively.
“It was the normal daily grind, kind of on auto-pilot,” she says. “But we kind of had this dream to maybe have some land someday, maybe have a pottery gallery. We always had this loose idea of wondering if we could do things differently.”
While they pictured moving to Asheville, an arts hub nestled in North Carolina’s Blue Ride Mountains, their dream took root closer to home.
The couple bought an old farmhouse and plot of land in Fish Creek and soon learned about a Door County flower farm whose owners were relocating out west and selling a lot of their perennials. When they arrived to buy some of the flowers, the owners suggested the pair give flower farming a try. John and Sara looked at each other and their dream started growing.
After a lot of talking, a ton of research and a UW Extension course on farming, they launched OneEighty Petals in 2017, focusing on sustainably grown blooms. They’ve since added a cut-your-own flower field, a “petals-to-go” bouquet cooler and boutique floral design services, and they produce their own raw honey and raise hens and goats.
This season will see the opening of a pottery gallery, enhancing the couple’s focus on cultivating creativity of all kinds, along with community. They hope to offer workshops on pottery and flower arranging, as well as other ideas, in the future.
While the farm’s public season runs June through October, the work of flower farming starts much earlier. John and Sara begin seeding flowers in February, and trays fill their living room, front porch, laundry room, attic and basement before they’re brought out to the land, prompting even harder work.
“Flower farming, it’s magical but there are also weeds out there,” Sara says.
“It’s not all Instagram,” John adds.
Yet both admit there’s nowhere they’d rather be, especially now that their son Jack is part of the adventure. Born in 2019, he helps remind his parents when it’s time to stop working and have some fun. Among the family’s favorite activities are hiking in Peninsula State Park and going on meandering back-road drives. But growing up witnessing his parents tend to the earth is important too.
“He has a very different childhood than either one of us had,” Sara says. “I love seeing such a curiosity grow in him.”
She also likes when other kids visit the farm and make discoveries about how and where flowers grow, and appreciates adding a new type of agritourism to Door County’s tradition of growing cherries and apples. With that has come a community neither she nor John expected.
“We feel more at home here than what we’ve experienced elsewhere,” she says. “We felt like it was meant to be.”
And seeing their dream bloom in this place makes the couple eager to share the experience of “something more” with others.
“We love to see people relax and have a good time,” Sara says. “We love being able to offer that place — you’re still in Door County, but you’re away from the busyness and able to connect to things you don’t get in your regular life.”
– Katie Vaughn
Top photo by Andrea Naylor Photography and others courtesy of OneEighty Petals.
Katie Vaughn is the editor and co-founder of Northerly. She is a University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University-trained journalist with experience as a writer, reporter, editor, blogger and author. She lives in Madison with her husband, daughter and son, and is always up for an adventure.