Weed Dating: Where Weeds (And Daters) Meet Their Match

Weed dating, where singles come to a farm and meet other singles while weeding is an increasingly-popular agricultural offering. Green Gate Farms in Austin, TX, timed their event with Valentine's Day. (Photo credit: Green Gate Farms)

Weed dating, where singles come to a farm and meet other singles while weeding is an increasingly-popular agricultural offering. Green Gate Farms in Austin, TX, timed their event with Valentine’s Day. (Photo credit: Green Gate Farms)

For some singles, dating can seem like an endless walk among the weeds. An increasingly-popular event on farms, weed dating, is putting that metaphor literally to work. Weed dating is an event where singles come to a farm and meet other singles, all while weeding in a designated bed (insert your own pun).

Weed dating as an event originated in Vermont on an organic farm, and it has spread all over the country, well, like weeds. Farms in Idaho, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri, Colorado, California, and Texas have hosted these agricultural events. Although there is a romantic element to weed dating, farms see hosting this type of an event as a way to shed light on agriculture.

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“We encouraged the people to come out, not just for dates, but also to find other ‘agri-curious folk’ like us — people who are really curious about agriculture,” said Esther Kim, marketing manager of EarthDance Farms an organic farm in Ferguson, MO.

Erin Flynn, founder of Green Gate Farms an organic operation in Austin, TX, took the weed dating concept one step further and timed the farm’s weed dating event with Valentine’s Day. “Valentine’s Day is such a miserable day. Everybody feels compelled to have a partner. We wanted to put some fun back into the Hallmark holiday,” she said.

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From Concept To Event

When Gretchen Vaughn, founder of Greensleeves Farm, approached her CSA volunteers about starting a weed dating event, the reaction was immediate.

“We said absolutely,” said Lou Meyer of Greensleeves Farm, a sustainable farm 20 miles south of Cincinnati in Alexandria, KY. “Anything to bring folks into the farm to introduce them to local farming, sustainable farming, etc., etc. Anything to raise awareness of that is good, plus, it’s good for business.”

After estimating how many would be attending the event, Meyer said the farm did a trial run with volunteers to ensure the event would run smoothly.

What he discovered was that if daters were having a conversation and “you have someone a span of two feet (away) talking, it’s very distracting, especially the same conversation over and over,” said Meyer. “(We said) let’s space them out so it’s not distracting. So I think we figured 6 feet was a good distance.”

Figuring out the logistics of hosting an event where lots of people come to your farm to do manual labor is one thing, figuring out how to get those people to the farm in the first place is an entirely different topic of discussion altogether.

“Just trying to get the word out to the right groups of people who would be the most enthusiastic about pulling weeds was really where the legwork came in.,” said Meg Calley, director of farming and education at Sprout City Farms in Denver, CO. Sprout City Farms operates a one-acre urban community farm at the Denver Green School.

More To It Than Just Weeds

Most farms offered some sort of introductory hour prior to digging in to the dirt. This allows for attendees to filter in and get registered.

Greensleeves Farm provided entertainment in the form of a local band in the first hour prior to weeding. Meyer said “music is a great idea because it gives you something to do. Those awkward few minutes of you walking in … Music really helps if you can get that in that first hour of registration and it gives you something to get in to.”

EarthDance Farms actually offered a farm tour prior to weeding as part ice-breaker and part orientation.

When attendees registered at Sprout City Farms, each person “got a little flower boutonniere we made and the type of flower that you had designated what category you were in. There was single, taken, and it’s complicated,” said Calley. “We had a different patch, basically for people who were not looking to date and were just looking to chat. It was a good way to make sure that everybody was welcome and felt able to participate and not make it awkward.”

Weeding The Right Crop

Just like dating is about finding the right match, finding the perfect crop for potential daters to weed is also important, factoring in that many of the weeders are new to agriculture and might be nervous or distracted. Farms also took the extra step of allowing the weeds to accumulate on the designated crops to ensure the daters had plenty of work to do.

“We were a little nervous about people plucking out the crops … but we realized that if we stuck them in the allium section it was very easy to discern a weed from whether it was an onion or garlic,” said Kim.

Daters weeded lettuce, radishes, and carrots at Sprout City Farms and at Green Gate Farms, daters went to work in a brassica patch.

“We used a dry pull bean, which is a great choice because they grow high and they were somewhat established at that point so there really wasn’t much confusion between produce and the weeds,” said Meyer.

Each of the farms also host an instructional portion prior to the weeding like at EarthDance Farms, so that daters — often new to agriculture — understand what a weed looks like and what the crop looks like. Also, instructions are given on how to properly weed to avoid injury.

Meyer said they focused on “here’s the proper way to bend over and pull a weed without hurting your back. … A little demonstration goes a long way.”

Sprout City Farms actually included a bit more explanation in to why beds should be weeded and covering the different types of weeds, noting that “certain plants that might not belong in that row but that we want to keep anyway because they’re beneficial for other reasons. So we had a little mini lesson before we got in to the bed,” said Calley.

At Green Gate Farms, attendees learned about why the weeds were being weeded, if the weeds were edible and, discussing “the length of time that the brassicas will be in the field. That’s why it’s important to make sure that the weeds aren’t competing for resources. We gave a lot of explanation about why we were doing this. It wasn’t just busy work,” said Flynn.

Now The Hard Work Begins

Once the weeding portion began, the farms had spotters around to ensure that crops weren’t being damaged if daters were distracted or nervous.

Meyer said, “we weren’t supervising like lifeguards. A couple of us who participate on the farm participated in the event. It wasn’t to keep an eye on folks but because it would be a lot of fun. It did double nicely because we could say ‘that’s a plant you don’t want to pull.’”

“We had a bunch of folks from the farm crew also here for the event so they were interspersed throughout the crowd and doing veggie patrol and making sure no carrots got pulled,” said Calley.

Daters rotate after a set time, often designated by a farm bell. The time may vary from farm to farm, but as Kim notes, “even within an hour if you have a five minute round for speed dating, that fits in about 12 (people). You meet 12 people during the night. An hour is actually a good amount of time for the dating portion of it.”

Green Gate Farms took an extra step and provided discussion questions to jump-start conversation.

“We had people line up on either side of the crop and then the leader would give them questions to ask them to get conversation started,” said Flynn “Then, people could get to know each other pretty quickly and they really didn’t want to come out of the field. … What we wanted to do was keep people physically moving but also let them engage socially.”

Success In The Form Of Weeding And Dates?

“We had a group of about 35 folks turn up, and we got two, 200 foot beds of onions (mostly) weeded during an hour of weed dating,” said Molly Rockamann, founding director of EarthDance Farms.

But, wait, isn’t the weed dating a DATING event?

“I wanted to offer a unique way for singles of all ages to meet potential partners, or just new friends. And of course we can always use help weeding,” said Rockamann.

If it’s not finding love, what’s the takeaway from these types of events?

“For us it wasn’t just about the dating and the romance piece of it. It was just about making new friends and meeting people with like-minded interests,” said Calley. “And that’s why we love having events like this because it helps reconnect people to the land and food that sustain them and rekindle this fire that we all have somewhere, passion for nature and what we put in our bodies.”

Were any love matches made at weed dating events, isn’t that the point?

“We know that two folks that connected (at last year’s event) are still together a year later which is great,” said Meyer. At the start of last year’s event Meyer said “if you find love, great. What we want you to do is find friends, we want you to learn about the farm, we want you to learn and hopefully take away from it that farming is difficult but very rewarding. … There was some love and a lot of friendships that are still around today.”

So, is weed dating a good fit for your farm?

“A farm should offer weed dating if you want to introduce your farm to a new mix of people and if you want to get a lot of funny looks when you mention the event to people,” said Rockamann.

Tips For Hosting Your Own Weed Dating Event

PLAN AHEAD: Flynn suggests “plan well in advance. You want to have a pretty good turnout to make it worthwhile. Use social media. Try and put it in the calendars, events section of the newspaper. Try and get the word out two or three months in advance.”

HAVE PLENTY OF HELP: Rockamann notes, “Depending on how large of a group you have, execution takes three to five people, so make sure you have enough folks to help you the day of — one person checking people in, one person as the ‘emcee,’ one person taking photos if you want to document the event, and one or two people answering any weeding questions that come up.”

USE SOCIAL MEDIA, LOCAL VENUES: “Social media goes a long way with these events,” says Meyer. We post to Facebook. We posted the fliers around town at places where people are social. … Your typical social person might not be looking to go to a farm and weed, but you find joints that are hipper and that’s where we found a lot of people.”

CHOOSE AN OBVIOUS CROP: Rockamann suggests picking “crops that are far enough along that they’re taller and larger than the weeds. The more recognizable, the better. People aren’t paying full attention to the weeds, they’re looking at the person across the bed from them!”

TO CHARGE OR NOT TO CHARGE: Whether or not farms charged admission for their event was a personal choice. Some chose to keep the event free and open. Others saw weed dating as an event to bring awareness to the farm, but also to recoup some expenses accrued such as seed purchases and equipment maintenance throughout the year.

POST EVENT FOLLOWUP: Some farms left it up to daters to exchange contact information. “People can exchange numbers during the happy hour if they want, but we didn’t say that we would do the follow-up for them.” said Kim. Calley noted that  she “got some feedback from a couple of people that they would have liked to have been able to exchange contact information easier with other folks.”

Agri-curious Now?

For the ‘agri-curious folk, here are some upcoming weed dating events:
Aug. 4: Greensleeves Farm in Alexandria, KY, click here for more information.
Aug. 16: Sprout City Farms in Denver, CO, click here for more information.

And for an informative video on weed dating from Earthly Delights Farm in Boise, ID, click here and for a video from Farm Run on weed dating, click here.

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