Rebecca Maillet started growing flowers in 2016 as a tribute to her soulmate, Ruth, whom she lost to cancer. In the denouement of their time together, the couple collected flowers from the backyard, spreading them through their home as gifts for one another.
“I didn’t know at the time, but I was essentially incubating what is now Many Graces,” said Maillet.
In 2018, Maillet met Kel Komenda, a skilled fine woodworker and furniture maker, who moved here for a full-time job. Maillet said, “Kel became my full-time volunteer because it was the only way we could spend time together.” The COVID-19 pandemic and career shifts happened, and Komenda became the managing director of Many Graces.
Authenticity, self-discovery, craftsmanship and intuition have guided Maillet and Komenda since they joined forces in 2018, shortly after Maillet established Many Graces as a farm. Maillet recalls, “My turn toward farming was such a beautiful antidote to the sedentary office work I was doing at UMass.”
Like wildflowers in a field, once Maillet and Komenda leaned into the farm, their creativity and passion sprouted not one, but three businesses which blossomed from their commitment to radical sustainability for the environment and their ethos of beauty. Many Graces Farm supplies their floral design studio, where the team curates and composes bouquets for every life event. The farm also supplies Sub Rosa — their botanical lounge and flower shop — with the elements necessary for an immersive floral experience.
Now the creative director of Many Graces, Maillet is self-taught as a farmer and as a floral designer, with a brief stint at Glendale Ridge as her only farm job before jumping into her own business.
Many Graces is a testimony to the pair’s values and aesthetics. They rent just over five acres of farmland in Hadley. Komenda explains there is a cost to their principled approach. “I think we’re trying to put forward in the world really beautiful things that many people can enjoy. The cost of doing that is extraordinary, and it’s only becoming more difficult,” they explained.
Komenda has been active in the National Young Farmers Coalition and articulates the challenges young farmers face if they do not inherit family farms. They explained, “We do not have our own land, and each year, we’ve put more work and more infrastructure into the land that we rent.”
When they began, there was no irrigation, electricity or internet to the property. Over time, the team built three high tunnels and added a solar-powered well, but the cost of site improvements like bringing electricity to the property is not financially viable. Komenda said, “Everything we do costs more and takes longer, where access would make things go more smoothly.” Komenda noted that there are fewer grant programs for growing flowers than for growing food, which adds financial barriers to their work.
Komenda continued, “It’s mentally exhausting because we know we can’t take it with us. We know that even if we found a piece of land where we could start from scratch, we would have to redo everything.” They said, “We have a lot of perennials that we put in with the hope that our lease will continue for as long as we need it, but at some point, if and when we have to move, we’ll have to plan our business structure in a way that excludes having income from those plants for a whole season while we move them.”
Many Graces Farm is known for prolific flowers, including annuals like cosmos, lisianthus, celosia, and also hydrangeas and peonies. The farm is perhaps most well-known for dahlias, which bloom from summer to fall. They also grow a large collection of medicinal and culinary herbs, including Tulsi, several varieties of basil, echinacea, lemon balm and lavender, and they serve teas made from their herbs at Sub Rosa.
The pair have made a business decision to put the earth ahead of convenience or profit. Maillet has evolved as a grower, drawing from her intuition. Komenda said, “Rebecca notices what’s happening.” Early on, they used organic-compliant sprays to combat some pest pressure.
Maillet continued, “I just started looking around the field, and I wasn’t noticing any beneficial insects, so I just basically decided in 2021 that we’re not going to spray any chemicals ever, not even organic compliant ones, because even those still can have negative impacts on the ecosystem.”
A key aspect of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), beneficial insects help Maillet manage their fields. One way the farmers manage insects is through bait cropping. Maillet said, “We’ve figured out which crops do the best job at deterring these sort of pest populations away from production crops. It’s inherently more expensive because we are growing things just to be destroyed by pests. But it’s a way that we don’t have to use sprays and we save our high-value production crops from pests that are already in our field.”
Despite challenges, joy abounds for Maillet and Komenda at Many Graces. Maillet said, “For me, it’s a real honor to be able to provide flowers and designed pieces to the community — to our clients — as they move through the most important moments in their lives. Also being able to work outside and feel connected to the land feels like a real gift and one that I don’t take lightly.”
Komenda concludes, “Every year there’s this remarkable moment where all of a sudden you look up when you’ve been working so hard, and then there’s just like a field full of flowers. It’s really special.”
Special Event consultations are available at manygraces.com/floraldesignoptions and pre-order online with delivery throughout the Valley is available at manygraces.com/shopmg
For more information, call 413-570-4122 or email hello@manygraces.com. Sub Rosa Botanical Lounge is open 5 to 10 p.m. on Thursday, and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The design studio is located at 33A West St. in Northampton.
Lisa Goodrich is a communications coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). To find cut flowers at local flower farms near you, check out CISA’s online guide at buylocalfood.org/find-it-locally.
