Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Mudry-Till and Dan Till.
Hi Alex and Dan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Dan and I met in culinary school (The Culinary Institute of America – Hyde Park) in 2008. It was there that we both bonded over shared experiences of food and travel. We loved visiting various fine dining restaurants as well as dives and modest hole-in-the-wall locations to find both the best food along the best experiences. Fast forward through a decade of our working in restaurants and bakeries in N.Y., D.C., and Virginia and we started to realize that it was time for a change of pace. It was at the same time we found a shared love of gardening and horticulture and thanks to the pandemic – had a lot of time to think about what we wanted to do next. So we thought about how we could combine horticulture with hospitality and the early vision of Quince Blossom Ridge was born!
In the summer of 2020, we recognized a gap in the wedding venue market in Southern Maryland and developed our vision for combining lush garden spaces with an event venue concept. During this time, I (Alex) was in a Beginning Farmer Training program through PGCC and Eco City Farms in Bladensburg, as well as developing my hand at growing flowers. With my experience in the wedding market as a partner and lead decorator at Buttercream Bakeshop, I also was able to see and work with many of the fantastic event florists and farmers who supply local products to them. So it seemed a natural fit that we create a flower farm as part of the lush garden setting.
In the fall of 2021, we purchased our farm and started putting our roots down (figuratively and literally) in Southern Maryland. And now fast forward to today… We are growing on close to 1 acre of our property, focusing on perennial specialty crops such as peonies and roses as well as rarer types of flowers and foliage. We offer monthly “Snip and See” (cut your own) events through the growing season and are looking to add more flower and garden-focused events in 2024. And now we are in the final stages of putting together event rental packages for weddings and events of up to 150 guests. So there is a lot on our plate – but with so many more exciting things to come!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Haha, not in the least! Finding the property that was less than an hour from downtown D.C. and also had lots of the attributes we knew we wanted for the future buildout complicated things. Many of the properties were too large/would incur huge development fees, others seemed perfect but part of their land was due to be taken in the coming months by eminent domain.
The property we finally found also had no fencing (to keep out hungry deer) no water or sewer lines for irrigation or plumbing. So we put up temporary fencing around our small growing area carted water from our house (a ten-minute drive away) and hand watered 1/4 of an acre of planting for Spring and Summer of 2022. (Each watering day took up to 6 hours to complete!).
But with every one of these challenges, we learned what we didn’t want to do moving forward! Observation and adjustments are always key when being an entrepreneur!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
One of our passions and one of our specialty crops are roses. They can be difficult to grow in our area due to the high humidity and pest pressure. We are also a no-spray farm (no pesticide, herbicide, or fungicides are used – conventional or organic certified) because we are passionate about growing our products in a way that is in harmony with our natural surroundings.
So we focus on plant and soil health and growing a variety of crops that have natural anti-fungal properties along with pollinator-attracting plants as well as using beneficial insects to reduce pest pressure. (Think tiny good bugs you can’t see that eat all the things you don’t want!) We know beautiful, unique garden roses can grow in this area and are a special addition that not many other farms have in the mid-Atlantic.
We also love gardens and the greater development of our property includes creating garden rooms (unique spaces that have themes or specific planting styles or features).
The first garden room we built this year was our fountain garden. We started marking out the spaces in March of 2023 and built up and planted garden beds. Dan constructed a large pergola area with two arbors for climbing roses and clematis to grow on. The most impressive thing was of course – the fountain which he built by hand!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting?
For people looking to farm in any capacity (veg, fruit, flowers, etc.) I highly recommend finding somewhere to apprentice or intern. The same applies to baking and restaurant work. It’s a hard course and a lot of hands-on learning that you cannot simply do in a classroom.
The day-to-day grind is what people don’t entirely understand until they do it. Before making a big leap to buying property changing careers or attending a culinary school – I’d strongly recommend interning or working somewhere for at least 6 months to see what the day-to-day is really like.
There’s no harm in having a hobby you enjoy. Plenty of people try to monetize a hobby and then lose the passion for it. And for anyone that is trying to run a business of their own or go into specialized fields that are historically underpaid – you need grit and some other sort of motivation to keep going.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.quinceblossomridge.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quinceblossomridge/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuinceBlossomRidge
- Other: https://quince-blossom-ridge.square.site/
Image Credits
Farmhouse 1851
