Rooted Farmstead, a Bellefonte area flower farm known for its pick-your-own fields, workshops and community events, has brought its interactive floral experience to downtown State College.
The farm is operating a shop through the end of September in the Calder Way Pop-Up space at 236 E. Calder Way, offering fresh-cut flowers, a bouquet bar, plants and weekly workshops.
Owner and founder Christie Holloway never expected to be a farmer or a florist. A Philadelphia native and civil engineer by training, she studied at Villanova before working as a consultant and later moving to State College in 2014 for a position in project management at Penn State.
After she and her husband purchased a 14-acre farmette in Ferguson Township, they restored its historic barn for their wedding and began renting it out for events. When Holloway offered to grow flowers for her sister-in-law’s wedding, she discovered a passion that would grow into a full-fledged business.
By 2019, the couple was cultivating flowers for weddings and events, with plans to expand in 2020. But the pandemic halted gatherings, leaving them with acres of blooms and no customers. They then officially opened their fields for pick-your-own flowers, and the idea quickly gained traction.
“Tickets were selling out in minutes. It was just so cool to see the community react to what we were doing in such a positive way,” Holloway said.
The success led Rooted Farmstead to purchase a larger, more accessible property in 2021, opening officially the following spring at 138 Scott Avenue, just off Jacksonville Road in Spring Township. Holloway left her position at Penn State to pursue farming full time. Today, the farm hosts seasonal markets, workshops and festivals, in addition to its floral design services.
“Since then, we’ve expanded our pick-your-own, expanded our community events, our festivals, our workshops, and really leaned into the floral design aspect—being able to work with my own flowers, sourcing other flowers sustainably and responsibly, designing them responsibly and sustainably,” she said.
The downtown pop-up represents a new, experimental chapter for Holloway and her business.
“We basically packed up most of our on-farm gift shop and brought it down here,” Holloway explained. “But the idea is bringing our fresh, harvested flowers here every day we have, since our main offering at the farm is pick your own flowers. We wanted to still give that type of experience, so we have a bouquet bar, meaning you get to build your own bouquet. You get to select your own flowers and make your own arrangement or bouquet. Or we can absolutely help you do that, but still to make it an interactive experience, to get you touching the flowers, picking the flowers.”
Workshops and collaborations with other local businesses are a key part of the pop-up. Rooted Farmstead has hosted events ranging from flower arranging to watercolor and mocktails, often teaming with businesses like Idou Coffee, Happy Valley Nomadic Spirits and Charm State.
“We’re doing workshops weekly throughout our whole time here… having some of our friends and small business friends come down and do workshops that we usually have at the farm, having them here for things like watercolor mocktails or permanent jewelry pop-ups,” Holloway said. “It’s really what we’ve been doing since the beginning, but now just bringing it downtown, making it more accessible.”
While the pop-up shop during a traditionally quieter time in early August, the return of Penn State students has created an unexpected, positive experience.
“The first three weeks, there really weren’t many students around. It was a lot of our usual customers coming in, some folks that are just kind of wandering down the street, peeking in to see what’s going on,” Holloway said. “So with the students, it’s been really interesting to see them come in and build the bouquets. But also be like, ‘wait, I can go pick my own… Wait, there’s more where this came from.’”
One of the most rewarding parts of her temporary downtown pop-up store, Holloway says, is helping college students find the right flowers for the right occasion, especially when it comes to date nights.
“What I have loved the most if I’m being honest is seeing the young men come in and they’re picking out flowers for their dates, for their girlfriends, and they’re giving it true thought,” she said. “It’s very encouraging. I will say that’s actually so awesome. That’s the whole point of having a location like this. Our flowers are here for so many different things, but especially, like, in a romantic way, too. That was something I wasn’t really expecting.”
Beyond flowers in the shop, Rooted Farmstead also offers a mobile bouquet bar, which can be booked for birthdays, showers, fundraisers or team-building events.
“We develop packages based on what your event type is, how many people there’s going to be, what the vibe is,” Holloway explained. “It’s great for birthday parties, showers, fundraisers, team-building events—something that’s a unique keepsake for the event, that you can feel good about. It’s local flowers, it’s a small business, and it’s interactive.”
The farm itself, meanwhile, continues to grow as a community hub.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love the Arboretum, but I also have two little kids, so being told, ‘No, you can’t touch that,’ it’s very stressful sometimes,” Holloway said. “But what I love is when families come out and, at first they’re kind of a little tense, like, ‘Oh, don’t touch that’ to their kids, and I’m just like, ‘No, it’s totally fine.’ I grow things that can withstand toddlers, kids, dogs. They’re all hearty things you really cannot hurt much out there.
“And, we grow so much so that we don’t have to be so uptight because we don’t want you to feel reserved or holding back or nervous, like the whole point is to go out there and relax and enjoy yourself.”
While the Calder Way shop is temporary, the program offers an experiment for the farm.
“Obviously, this is a trial run,” Holloway said. “The whole point of the program is to see, is it viable? Is it worth it? It’s a lot of work harvesting and bringing out our perishable goods, so it’s like picking up the farm every day and bringing it down… And see can we withstand the flows of being downtown?”
Rooted Farmstead will host an open house from noon to 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29, at the pop-up, sponsored by Happy Valley Agventures and the Downtown Improvement District, It will feature raffle prizes, refreshments from Way Fruit Farm and photo opportunities.
At the farm, their next major event is the fifth annual Fall Market on Sunday, Sept. 14, featuring food trucks, live music, pumpkins, and flowers.
“We’re just going to keep growing and building on what we’ve done, more workshops, more ways to get out to the community, more doing flowers for weddings and special events, and just keep building on kind of what we’re known for, that kind of community interaction,” Holloway said.
For upcoming events, check out the calendar on Rooted Farmstead’s website.
