Picaflor Farm Harvests Creativity and Inclusivity
Rev’s newest member company strives to do good by people and the planet with everything they do. Picaflor Farm and Gardens is a medicinal herb and flower family farm, apiary, and gardening service. With each small-batch medicinal product they produce, they support the creation of healthy pollinator habits that help improve the health of the earth. The farm strives to create a space to uplift women and gender-nonconforming individuals, celebrate racial and ethnic diversity, and center wild creativity in their work.
We recently spoke with founder Karen Purcell about how Picaflor got started and what’s in store for the farm.
What is the “origin story” behind your company?
“Picaflor” means hummingbird in Chilean Spanish (I am Chilean born and raised). I grew up watching birds with my dad in the Andes mountains, and gardening with my mom in the Central Valley. I especially love hummingbirds because Chile has a huge variety. The Giant Hummingbird (Patagona gigas) is a favorite! I studied at Cornell University as an undergraduate and got my Master’s at New York University. I worked at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for 23 years. During my time at the Lab, I worked in community-based participatory science with diverse communities throughout the Americas.
As an older non-binary human, it has always been hard to ‘fit in’ the corporate/academic world. My desire to create a safe space to belong, be wildly creative, and take risks led me to our farm. At almost sixty years old I began to live life fully, on my own terms, and follow my life-long dream of owning a family farm: Picaflor Farm! Our family goal is to use regenerative agriculture to grow wild and stunningly beautiful pollinator habitats with every action we take, center non-conformity, work with nature instead of against nature, and produce medicinal herbs and flowers to create value added products that help make the earth and its inhabitants a better, healthier place.
What customer need is your company attempting to address?
Picaflor Farm strives to produce medicinal value-added products that help people and animals lead thriving, healthy, and happy lives while nurturing the land and soil to create and maintain a healthier planet.
Over the years our family has worked hard to build a strong and healthy apiary and medicinal/healing herb and flower farm. We are committed to growing flowers and herbs organically to use along with apiary products (beeswax, propolis, and honey) to create value-added products that help people and animals lead thriving, healthy, and happy lives, while nurturing the land and soil to build a healthier planet.
Do you have any recent company milestones or accomplishments you would like to share?
We were recently selected as an incubator farm by Cornell Cooperative Extension Tioga County, which is an incredible opportunity for us. We’ve also hit a few social media milestones, including 6,000 Instagram followers. Even more exciting is our TikTok account, which has reached 46,000 followers and 1.9 million likes. We are also selling our products at the Ithaca Farmers Market, and we are days away from launching our online stores.
Where do you envision your company a year from now? Five years from now?
We plan to continue to grow our family farm and gardening services; add a strong educational component (online and in person workshops); hire more staff; and have an established and recognizable online brand.