Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm
When at the TMK Creamery, the REALOregon group got to see the very controlled, niche market of agri-tourism with the ‘One Cow’ products. On the same day, the group had the chance to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm to see agri-business taken to a much bigger level.
The Wooden Shoe story:
Our family farm began in 1950 with the marriage of Ross and Dorothy and their purchase of the main farm. They worked hard expanding the farm and getting their six children through college.
The Iverson family began growing tulips in 1974. The first tulips belonged to Dr. Holman who would ship part of the bulbs to Indiana every year for forcing. When he retired in the late 1970’s we bought a few acres of bulbs from him.
By the early 1980’s we had over 15 acres and needed to broaden the market base. Seeing this as an opportunity, in 1983 we started the Wooden Shoe Bulb Company which had a name change to Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in 2001.
In the first few years we printed up black and white order sheets and sales were slow. Then, in 1985, we opened our fields for Easter weekend. The rest you may say is history.
Now we open our fields for an entire month, end of March the first week of May. We have greatly expanded our operation to include taking bulb orders, cut flowers, potted tulips, a gift shop, and all sorts of food and activities on weekends for all members of the family.
In recent years we have also added our Fall Gift Shop, Wine Tasting Room and a summer Event Garden.
Wooden Shoe has expanded the agri-business side of farming through constant reflections on what customers want and what they have to do to be able to make their farm successful. Over the years they realized that parking was a problem so they planted fields into grass that can be used for parking hundreds of cars during the time the tulips are blooming and then letting the grass grow for grass seed and hay to be harvested later in the summer.
They ran into problems with getting the volume of vehicles to their farm so contacted the road department to change the county road into a two lane one-way road during the two months of the tulip festival. In a smart move to keep neighbors happy, the Iverson’s created roads through their property for the neighbors to use when high loads of traffic impede the locals.
They invested some of their property into growing grapes and have their own wine made from them. They are out to make the farm experience a trip that customers want to make year after year and each time bringing the next generation to see the glorious flowers, the beautiful grounds, tractors pulling train-loads of youngsters and a specially made, tractor-pulled unit to take the old-sters around the fields. They cleaned out an overgrown corner of the garden and added paths and seating areas for events, it has become a sought-after venue for weddings, graduations, birthdays and anniversaries.
The Iverson family seek out issues and take them full on, they do not see problems, only opportunities.
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I am so pleased to announce that MaryJane Nordgren has made her new book available to the public! Click here for your copy of Nandria’s War.