Jodie’s Posies: The Story Behind Our Dried Flower Bouquets
Here at Abma's Farm, traditions are woven into every corner of the farm, from our fields to the greenhouses, to our scratch kitchen and bakery, to the market shelves and beyond. And sometimes, those traditions come full circle in the most beautiful way!
We are honored to feature a very special seasonal item in our farm market: handcrafted dried flower bouquets by Jodie (Abma) Woudenberg, a third-generation Abma whose childhood was deeply rooted in the fields, flowers, and community of Abma’s Farm.
Growing Up Abma: A Childhood Filled with Flowers, Family, and Farm Life
Jodie grew up on Abma’s Farm in the 1960s through the 1980s: a time she remembers fondly. Her parents, Jim and Judy, raised Jodie and her siblings- Beth, Jim, and Kim- alongside grandparents Barny and Anna, and uncles Henny and Willy with their families. Cousins, chores, and wide-open farm adventures defined the Abma childhood.
Growing up on the farm, I thought we were the luckiest kids around. My siblings and I and our cousins all had our share of chores. The guys were the luckiest because they got to ride the tractors and work the fields while the girls were in the farm store. My particular specialty in the store was to cut fresh flowers and keep the store stocked with bouquets. I remember when I was younger, my grandfather would walk up the driveway with his arms laden with beautiful fresh-cut flowers from the front garden to be sold in the store. Later, my father took over the flower-cutting and then trained me. We made a great team, sometimes picking over 150 bouquets on a Saturday to keep up with demand.
Delving Into Dried Flowers
Dried flowers became a popular home decor stable in the 1980s, and the Abma's started playing around with different varieties and drying techniques.
We didn’t know much about them, but began experimenting by growing strawflowers, statice, gomphrena and other varieties that lend themselves to drying. My father rigged up cables in the upper floor of the barn where it was dark and dry, and fashioned hooks out of wire so that we could hang the bunches of flowers upside-down. Together we would haul bushel baskets full of flowers up the ladder so we could hang them to dry for the fall. By the end of the summer, the barn was full of beautifully preserved flowers that were sold as bunches or made into bouquets. The flowers we had dried were also used to make wedding bouquets, including those in Jim and Pam’s wedding, and mine and my husband John’s wedding.
Life Off the Farm
After graduating from college, Jodie left her job at the farm and began a career in accounting. She married John Woudenberg in 1987, relocated to Massachusetts, and raised three wonderful children. With the hustle and bustle of careers and family, the days of flower picking and drying flowers became a "happy but distant memory".
A New Season of Life...
In the Autumn of 2024, Jodie decided to hang up her hat in corporate accounting after almost 40 years. She traded in her laptop for other pursuits.
It had always been a dream of ours to have some land, so we tested the waters by renting a small plot of land in our town’s community garden. The original intent was vegetables, but then it came to me that we could have a cutting garden, complete with dried flowers like my days at the farm. I knew enough about picking flowers but had no experience with growing an entire field of them. I shared our idea with my brother Jim, and he gave us a crash course, and provided all the transplants we needed to have a mini version of Abma’s cutting garden in Massachusetts.
We had no idea how this was going to work out, but we gave it our best shot. The soil was cultivated and fertilized, rows were prepared, and the tiny little transplants were planted. To our delight, the garden was a success! We had so many flowers that we had the wonderful dilemma of trying to figure out what to do with them all. We filled mason jars with arrangements and delivered them to family, friends, neighbors, our church family, and the local retirement home. Before long, word got out and antique mason jars would appear on our porch to replenish our supplies. Friends enjoyed coming up to the garden to pick their own bouquets. Throughout the summer, bunches of strawflowers, statice, celosia, salvia, gomphrena and eucalyptus were hung to dry on an antique clothes-drying rack in the living room. By September, the rack was full of bright colored preserved flowers. Again, we had so many. Now what to do?
Coming Full Circle
Using skills learned on the farm as an adolescent, Jodie began crafting dried bouquets just as she had done decades ago. They are thoughtfully arranged, timeless, and preserved beautifully. When she shared photos with family members, Pam immediately said "we need these at the store!"
And just like that, the flowers came home.
From seeds started by Jim in our Wyckoff, NJ greenhouses...
To soil, sun, and hands-on care in Massachusetts...
To the drying racks in Jodie's living room...
And back to where it all began: Abma's Farm.
And the best part? Coming full circle; returning to my roots, working with family, cutting flowers in a field, creating arrangements, and returning to the farm store to share my dried flowers.
These dried flower bouquets are now available in limited quantities at our Farm Market in Wyckoff, NJ.
Whether you display them in your home, gift them to someone special, or keep as a reminder of the beauty of handmade things, you're holding a bit of our farm story. And a bit of Jodie's heart, too.
With gratitude,
Valerie Abma & the Abma Family