Over the past decade, Anaïs Forster has been growing into a life as a PNW farmer. From working on a small family farm on Lummi to running her half-acre Everson flower farm, Goose Creek Flowers, her journey is one of finding community, embracing opportunities, and harvesting joy where it grows.
Photograph by Teo Crider
Anaïs moved to the U.S. in her early 20s, “straight from Germany to Lummi Island,” where she lived next door to Full Bloom Farm. Helping them grow produce and peonies was her first taste of small-scale, community-focused farming. Then she moved to California, where she continued to live and work on farms. After about five years, she returned to Whatcom County and began working at Sumas River Farm, an organic produce farm founded by Lyndenite Helen Solem. Inspired by another seller at the Bellingham Farmers Market, Anaïs started growing flowers at Sumas River with Solem’s blessing.
“I started in 2022 … That was my first year [growing flowers,] and then it started taking off at the market,” says Anaïs. “I started selling to the [Community Food] Co-op from the beginning on, and they were incredibly supportive, too.” This ushered in the realization that she could make farming work for her in a self-sustaining way.
Photograph by Teo Crider
“I love farming, I really do,” she says, “I’m very independent—I grew up like that, my parents are self-employed. So just having that freedom … now I can work 80 hours a week, but for myself.”
After finishing her season at Sumas River Farm, she met with Dusty Williams of Broad Leaf Farm.
“He’s been around for a long time and he helped a lot of people here get started,” Anaïs explains. “He has a very established vegetable farm and a lot of land, and he’s just an incredibly generous person.”
Photograph by Teo Crider
Williams allocated a half-acre parcel and greenhouse at Broad Leaf Farm for Anaïs, which is now the home of Goose Creek Flowers. Her booth at the Bellingham Farmers Market became known for its garlands of marigolds and “kaleidoscope of flowers” in market bouquets.
“Spreading joy through flowers … joyful and vibrant, I think is what I’m going for,” says Anaïs. “I really realized that [while] working at the farmers market. Anybody who comes up to the booth like, ‘Wow!’ or whenever I hear, ‘That’s so pretty,’ I know they mean the flower booth, and I’m just like, who has a job like that? It’s incredible.”
Photograph by Teo Crider
On her half-acre, Anaïs plants about 50 different types of flowers in dozens of varieties, with a focus on sunflowers, marigolds, and dahlias. With the growth of her business, she’s been working to find the balance between being a farmer and an entrepreneur. Last year, she launched her flower CSA (community-supported agriculture) program and began offering wedding floral services, allowing her to express her passion for art and design.
As with many other steps on her journey, an established local business owner—Adina from Tangled Roots Floral Company—helped show her the ropes of wedding work. Thanks to the support of small businesses and the community at large, Anaïs has been able to put her whole heart into pursuing Goose Creek Flowers.
Photograph by Teo Crider
“There’s so many people here that really want to support local farming and see the value in it,” Anaïs says. “It’s not that I couldn’t do it, but I don’t know if I would want to do it if I wasn’t growing at Broad Leaf or in that community.”
Everson, goosecreekflowers.com
