OUR FARM
While Proclamation Flowers was established in 2017, the Francis family history on Oak Knoll Farm dates to the 1950s. We are a farm 5 generations in the making!
Photo credit: Kat Haring Photographic Artist
The flower field now versus then as a sheep pasture
The grounds of the flower farm have been in the Francis family since 1950, but from 1950 to 2017, the flower field was a set of livestock pastures.
The barns have held a rotating cast of livestock, from sheep, to beef cows - the specialty of Chris’ grandfather Fred, to pigs (thanks to Chris’ uncle Bill), and one horse (an ill-fated and short lived experiment that purportedly produced damage to fence lines we still hear about!)
Sheep in what would become the flower studio raised beds.
Chris’ childhood flower planting + tree starting still evidenced around the farm!
The oldest barn on the property is immediately adjacent to the flower field, and dates back to the late 1870s.
The barn quilts on the field side of that barn were designed and painted by Chris’ mother, and speak to her family’s legacy as fifth generation wheat farmers in Kansas.
The cottonwood to the east of the farmstand was transplanted from the Spiegel family farm. The trees on the south fenceline of the flower field were started from seed and transplanted by Chris when he was in middle school.
Photo credit:
Kat Haring Photographic Artist
The farmhouse is in the Italianate Revival Style, and dates to the early 1870s. It remains in the family as a private residence to this day.
The flower field itself was, once upon a time, the bank of the Kankakee River, which is now about 1 mile to the west. The top of the field is sandy after a strong storm, the former lambing pens by the oldest barn have river clay in them, and the field had a healthy population of river rock that has had to be cleared out of it.
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Thank you for your interest! But, no. The house and other buildings on the property are a private residence.
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No. The last sheep left the farm in 2018.
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The oldest building is the farmhouse. It was built as a test of the carpenter, to see if they were considered trustworthy to build the main barn!