Hanna Farm on Tour Route
Published: Friday, June 13, 2025
Purdue University Extension has scheduled guided tours at working cut flower farms at nine different locations across the state, including LaPorte County.
One of the hosts on June 17 will be the Line in the Sand Farm at 14601 S. 550 West in Hanna.
The owners are Gerard and Irene Torres, who seem to be a perfect fit for hosting one of the guided tours aimed at people wanting to grow professionally.
Mrs. Torres said growing things was a totally new venture for them when her steelworker husband decided after their children were grown that he wanted to be a farmer.
She said they sold their "fancy home" in Chesterton in 2017 and bought a residence that came with 10 acres of ground once used to raise pigs and horses that needed regeneration.
They learned how to restore the soil and grow not just flowers but vegetables like green beans, tomatoes and peppers.
Mrs. Torres, who's been in the medical field for over 30 years, now spends most of her time raising flowers and offering them for sale in places like farmer's markets.
The couple has also added to their operation three 100-foot-long high tunnels to extend their growing season.
"We've like already tripled what we initially started with," she said.
The guided tour will also include in-depth discussion on preparing soil, crop planning, succession planting and harvesting techniques, according to Purdue Extension.
Tips will be given on the cut flower varieties to choose, pest management and growing for floral designers or farmer's markets.
In addition, there will be talk about things like startup costs along with a question and answer session and idea sharing with aspiring growers.
Emily Evers, an educator from Purdue Extension in St. Joseph County, said the guided tours are a first time offering made possible by her office helping to obtain a $40,000 grant.
Some of those monies have already been spent on class sessions related to things like protecting cut flowers from pests and disease.
She said the effort is in response to growing interest statewide in raising cut flowers.
"It's just something that we recognized was a need," she said.
Evers said Zinnias and some varieties of sunflowers are among the more popular cut flowers along with tulips and Dahlia bulbs grown in the area.
After the flowers are harvested, Evers said new blooms reemerge multiple times in the plants after each cutting.
"Once they cut it, another flower will pop up," she said.
The other tours will be in Vigo, Marion, Owen, Whitley, Hancock, Porter, Clark and Scott counties.
Each tour costs $15 per person and preregistration is required due to limited capacity, according to Purdue Extension.
Torres, who has drastically cut back on her duties as a nurse practitioner to focus more on the farm, is the primary cut flower grower while her husband, still working full-time as a steelworker, is more involved with the vegetables.
Torres said the change in direction of their lives wasn't easy for her emotionally, at first, but it's one she agreed to accept for her husband.
"That was my dream home, so now we have to go with his dream," she said.
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