FARM BUSINESS PROFILE: Floating Lotus Farmstead

May 17, 2022

In its sixth year of operations, Floating Lotus Farmstead in Lothian has a growing customer base for its produce and is part of a new generation of farmers in Anne Arundel County. Adam and Jocelyne Cottrell are the husband and wife owners who started the business as a home garden and grew it to six sites between Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties.

Floating Lotus Farmstead sells its produce through its CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a recently developed business practice which allows consumers to pre-purchase a “share” of the harvest for the season and support local farmers. It also sells produce at the Riva Road Farmers Market in Annapolis on weekends. Top sellers are its salad mix and root crops. Adam says the root crops have become especially popular with customers over the last three years. “The land that I’m farming right now produces just some really nice roots. Not only the size of them, but the beauty of them. The colors just really pop and then the flavor. It’s just really well balanced soil, and just creates the flavors really nicely.”

A typical day for the Cottrells includes meeting with their crew to go over the daily plan, managing the irrigation, and working in the nursery or fields. Field work involves transplanting, cultivating or harvesting, and washing and packing vegetables. Adam says he and Jocelyne both share in all the duties of the business from planting, seeding, and driving tractors to managing crew and going to market. “There’s no aspect of this business that either of us can’t do. But there are aspects that one of us enjoy doing more. I do more of the nursery work because that’s what I enjoy. Jocelyn really manages the CSA because that’s her thing.”

Adam says that Floating Lotus Farmstead is benefitting from today’s trend of consumers becoming really interested in where their food comes from. He also sees the beginnings of a new innovative agricultural ecosystem where entrepreneurs are developing services that can expand the work of farmers in a variety of ways, from refining grains to creating new agricultural tools to building barns and wash and pack facilities. “We’re developing an agricultural system that’s new and I think is cutting edge. All these secondary businesses are being developed around the grower, which is really essential.”

For details on their CSA, produce, growing practices and more, check out their website floatinglotusfarmstead.com or follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

Patch Covers Third AAEDC Inclusive Ventures Program Graduation »