Imagine you wake up, your eyelids feel light as you lift them to see dew from overnight hugging your bedroom window. The air is crisp, but light is peaking through the condensation like a mosaic. You lift up your hand, wiping the glass to see a sea of flowers growing beyond your walls. The colors are so vibrant, you open the window to get a better look at what is waiting for you in the garden, the petals thirsty for the Washington rain, and the leaves stretching upward, begging to be touched by the sun. It’s been ten years since you left the city for a rural community in South Kitsap. The sweet air fills your lungs from outside as you get ready for another day at your family-run farm. That’s just a typical spring day for Becky Durant.
In 2016, Durant and her family moved from Tacoma to a quiet five acres in Olalla, where a fixer-upper sat that would soon become home. After scrubbing, painting, cleaning, replacing floors and walls, and purchasing a few pairs of rubber boots, Durant was ready to create something new.
She wanted something more, and she had the courage to try. What Durant described as an overgrown jungle would soon become home to Olalla Blooms Flower Farm, which sits on about a quarter acre of her land. There wasn’t a polished vision for what the future held for Durant in Olalla, but she was willing to trade comfort for possibility, and her flower farm began operating six years later in 2022…