Prairie Summer Kitchen

     Amidst twinkling lights–and stars–and vining flowers, women in sundresses and trendy hats smile as they pose for twilight photos together at one of the hottest new attractions in southeast South Dakota: Fleurish Flower Farm in Union County, South Dakota. This half acre flower farm in Richland, just a few miles north of Elk Point and a few miles from the Iowa border, offers “you-pick” events on Wednesday and Sunday nights, and makes it a special occasion for the guests by also inviting musicians to play live, and food trucks to come sell their wares to the hungry flower-pickers. The ladies (and men, who are just as welcome although generally fewer in number to attend) laugh with their friends and enjoy the beautiful rainbow of flowers available at Fleurish Flower Farm. They then head to the heart of this flower farm to arrange their chosen blooms: a summer kitchen more than a century old.
     Owner Christy Heckathorn bought the property with her husband to expand their soybean operation, and initially wasn’t sure any of the existing structures could be saved. The house couldn’t be–it was razed. The barn couldn’t either, and it too was torn down, but the Heckathorns saved the barn doors, and lovingly use them as backdrops for photos at private events. But one outbuilding was still in great shape: the summer kitchen. The summer kitchen in Union County was originally built in the late 1800s and used later by an intermediate owner, Thelma Kalstad well into the 1990s.
By Lindsay Hindman
Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. 
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