Hundreds of people came to this week’s U-Pick flower event at Fleurish Flower Farm in Elk Point, South Dakota. However, they didn’t all drive there, some visitors arrived from the sky.
Several planes lined the runway during the event on Sunday, Aug. 27.
Travis and Lisa Meyer flew in with their Piper Cherokee 180 airplane from Wayne, Nebraska, to pick flowers.
“People that have planes want to fly, they want to go out and see things and do things and having an event like this at such a great location and facility, this is wonderful,” Travis said.
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“It’s just a really unique component to the flower farm, the fact that we can open up and let people fly in here. My husband is a pilot and so he really enjoys that part of the flower farm, that he can do that,” said Christy Heckathorn, owner of Fleurish Flower Farm.
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The grass runway brings diversification to the farm.
“I think it’s really important to be diversified so you are not counting on just one type of customer,” Heckathorn said. “The fact that we do have the grass runway here, it’s extremely specialized and it’s not something that just anybody could do … so the fact that we can offer that to people, I think just kind of makes the flower farm even more special.”
The event brings the aviation and farming communities together.
“The aviation community really is a family atmosphere and from what I am seeing here the flower, the agriculture, farming, everybody is a family and I know in the agricultural world you see it,” Travis said.
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And it’s a way to combine Christy’s love of flowers with her husband Chad’s love of airplanes into one event.
“It’s really nice that we can combine kind of our two loves together, his being aviation and mine growing flowers, so I think the fact that he can introduce people in the aviation industry to flowers is just really kind of fun because pilots are always looking for somewhere unique and special to fly to and I am not really sure if there is another flower farm that has a runway like this on it, so it’s definitely kind of a neat combination,” Heckathorn said.
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Travis encourages other pilots to check out the farm.
“Come out, stop by, it’s not that far really from anywhere, Tea, South Dakota is very busy airport, we are just south of there. Not very far. In a flight, it’s 15–20-minute flight. Come on down, check them out, and it will be well worth your trip,” Travis said.
If you are interested in flying into a you-pick event, reach out to
and they will provide you with the coordinates and flight information.
