Last year to pluck flowers, eye art at Cottage Grove farm
COTTAGE GROVE — An abstract artist is living on a happy hill in Cottage Grove, and she is inviting others to come and smell the flowers at her homestead.
The Happy Hill Homestead flower farm, run by Cindy Ingram, is open every Sunday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in July and August. Guests can grab a pair of provided gardening shears and pick as many flowers as they can fit in a bucket. On the way out, guests can pay whatever they feel is right.
“It’s more about enjoying the experience than about a certain dollar amount,” she said.
Ingram also invites new artists every weekend, and displays and sells her own art.
Last weekend, two guest artists set up shop at the flower farm: Barbara Holmes, a batik artist from Florence, and Meg Littler, a potter and painter in Eugene.
Ingram herself took up painting two years ago. With a New Year’s resolution of “being more artsy,” she went to the garage, broke out some old spray paint, and began her artistic journey right then and there.
Now, Ingram’s abstract artwork can be found across the Pacific Northwest: Salem, Corvallis, and even Camas, Wash. More locally, Ingram is the artist in residence at Capitello Wines, and she is working on a mural at The Hybrid, a music venue in Eugene.
However, the Homestead began four years ago. Ingram first moved to Oregon to be closer to family about 30 years ago, though she only made her way to Cottage Grove just before the pandemic. With her Pacific Pub Cycle business parked due to the pandemic, Ingram filled her time by hacking away at the sea of blackberries in her backyard, wielding little more than a pickaxe, a push mower, and determination.
Having won the battle against the weeds, Ingram explored what to do with the new space. She asked herself “what would make me happy?” and the answer was clear: She wanted to be surrounded by the beauty of nature.
“I just kind of started building it and I learned how to hammer things together for the first time, just kind of learned how to do it,” she said.
In order to source an income, Ingram called some local florist and asked if they would be interested in buying flowers from her garden. And every one of them said “yes.”
Ingram has also created a line of “Dirty” merchandise with Sarah Decker, the owner of Olive Creek Farm. “Dirty” is often used to call people dishonest, unethical, or unsavory, but Ingram and Decker took the opportunity to reclaim the word and empower female farmers.
Nancy Brown, Eugene resident, enjoys her u-cut haul at Happy Hill Homestead flower farm, located at 250 Cooper Ave. in Cottage Grove.
This will be Ingram’s last year of both Happy Hill Homestead flower farm and the “Dirty” merch. Ingram has some personal reasons for closing this chapter of her life, but it’s also simply “time to move on,” she said.
In years past, Ingram cut the flowers herself to sell them. But because this is the last year, she decided to invite the community in and share the wonderful scenery with others.
This decision has also allowed Ingram to experience her space in a new way.
“A sign of a really successful flower farm, frankly, is you won’t see any flowers because as soon as they start to bloom, you cut them down. And so, since I’ve been here, I haven’t had the opportunity to watch the entire lifecycle of all the flowers that I’ve been growing,” she said. “So it’s been really nice to just let them bloom.”
Although the farm will be no more, Ingrid will keep painting. She is also inclined to help new entrepreneurs find their way. In any case, it’s clear that Ingram will continue to create.
“I have a few ideas,” she said, “but nothing is set in stone yet.”
True to the nature of a serial entrepreneur.
