2025 - The Year That Was...

For all of us, a new year has begun. A time when we make resolutions and hope we can see them through to reality in the months to come. And, for many, it was not so long ago that we remember turning the calendar to an entirely new century and cautiously wondering what that might bring. What we couldn't envision was the start of the social media age – nor how that would change our way of human communication and interaction forever. In the year 2000 The Produce Market had yet to be established, nor had we conceptualized our 1,000-acre farm and our 5-star resort located in Belize. The entire property in Belize is powered by solar and hydro and is completely off the grid.

Originally, we were slow to adapt to this new age of communication, partly because Flower World’s focus has always been on a "world of flowers, plants, and a whole lot more". The argument can be made, however, that this age has fit nicely…65,000+ of you received this electronic message as members of our e-Club newsletter and many of you also follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

Looking back at 2025, here are some of the year’s highlights and challenges:

• We sold more products for less money and saved our e-Club members over $500,000 as they continue to enjoy their additional 10% discount.
• More Flower World employees became partial company owners as they earned, and were awarded, more shares of Flower World’s stock.
• We added a planting option to our already extremely popular delivery service. Now you can shop and we will make sure all the Flower World plants, trees, and shrubs you purchase are carefully and professionally planted for you. Our team of experts make sure that everything is right…guaranteed.
• Some of our new projects have seen significant delays. We think many of our customers would love the idea of adding “a whole lot more” greenhouse-style restaurant. Our plans to use a barn and open a restaurant, near the wineries at our new south entrance, continues to meet permitting restrictions, red tape, and other governmental obstacles. Trying to simply connect to sewer (only 200 feet away) has proven to be a challenging hurdle we have yet to overcome. Time will tell when the County starts realizing the good ideas presented to them - finding ways to promote and help local businesses rather than over-regulate and block them.
• Like many of our friends and neighbors, we were impacted by the flooding in December. Our Marsh Road property, home to our sheep, where we grow much of our local fruit and produce, and where we are moving forward with many new and exciting "Spring Family" activities, was under 6+ feet of water for over 2 weeks. While we are still tallying damage costs, the cleanup is well underway, the animals are safe, and we are still expecting to meet our Spring opening goals.

Looking forward to 2026, we have many ideas that will be focusing on
“sharing a whole lot more”.

Sharing the animal experiences at The Produce Market.

• Enjoy Emus, Turkeys, Peacocks, Chickens, Geese, Ducks, Goats, and Sheep. Free fun for the entire family. Stop by often since new friends are added frequently.

Sharing the Park with you in new ways.

• We plan to introduce Music in the Park.

Sharing our 80-acre farm in the Snohomish Valley…something we haven’t done before.

• Families and companies can rent their own 1-acre section of our garden area for private parties and weekend get-togethers.
• Tractors pulling wagons to tour the entire 80 acres of the farm.
• Picnicking in the park area.
• Explore the "Living Maze"…a project we have been growing for more than 5 years.
• Learning about the working side of the farm. How we care for our sheep. How we produce hay. Our U-Pick apple and pear orchards. How we grow U-Cut Christmas trees.  

Sharing our farm in Belize.

• In 2025, through a random drawing, we gave away an exciting 7-day vacation to Maya Heights Resort, our sister company located at our 1,000-acre farm in Belize, to a lucky customer. This trip included round trip airfare, lodging, and extras for two. We hope to do this again throughout 2026…stay tuned.

Cheers to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2026!

John & Marijke Postema