Harvest your own bouquet at N.H. farm

June 14, 2006|Marty Basch, Globe Correspondent

EAST CONWAY, N.H. -- Cut the fiery celosia along a country corner. Grab a bucket and scissors and head out into the field with its colorful flowers. Want to try something different than picking apples or choosing pumpkins? It's time to collect your own pretty zinnias, sunflowers, burnt orange rudbeckia, pink bachelor buttons, rainbows of snapdragons , and assorted other flowers from the rows at Sherman Farm for a rural bouquet.

Eight miles east of North Conway's outlets and smack against the border of western Maine, the dairy and vegetable farm has been in the Sherman family since 1964. Al and Phyllis Sherman raised their three daughters there. Outside are the rows of flowers at the corner of River Street and winding Route 113 with the rounded mounds of Maine's Jockey Cap and Stark's Hill in the distance behind the greenhouses.

Across the road, the Saco River flows hidden from New Hampshire into Maine. The fields are teaming with produce to be.

Though on the fringe of the White Mountains, the landscape is largely agrarian . Venture to the corner after first heading inside for tools. If you cut it, you buy it, a sign warns.

Keep dogs out , because the resident watchdogs don't appreciate the competition. This is casual country comfort.

Sherman Farm is a third - generation family business. The cut-your-own-flowers part of the farm started nearly 20 years ago after a local woman from whom the Shermans had bought bouquets moved away. The bouquets were good sellers, so the family decided to plant flowers and let customers cut them themselves. They've been showing up to do light farmwork ever since.

Once the flowers are ready around mid-July, all types of customers gather out by the rows , deciding which flowers to take home.

``Moms bring their kids all the time," said Kathy Sherman, second generation on the farm. ``The kids bring in the bouquets and they are so proud."

Couples cut their own flowers too, and come August and early September there are people out cutting them for weddings a day or so away. In the fall, hay rides are offered on the weekends.

Inside the store are seasonal vegetables, pork, beef, veal, jams, jellies, salad dressing, baked goods, prepared meals to heat and serve, and all flavors of milk in a bottle , including chocolate, banana, blueberry , and strawberry.

Pick the flowers as a couple. Pepper an arrangement with white dill and green artemisia. Take home some statice for drying.

The couple that picks together, sticks together.