CSA 2014: Week 4

It’s summer, it’s hot! To help relieve the heat, we wanted to offer a little something to our CSA members in addition to their flowers this week!

Too help cool off, Eric and Carling teamed up to make limeade with locally grown basil simple syrup.  The basil came from our friends at Hillen Homestead!

Basil Simple Syrup (adapted from Cooking with Flowers)

• 1 Cup Organic Cane Sugar
• 1 Cup Water
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves (washed)

Dissolve sugar in water over medium heat, stirring occasionally until it reaches a simmer. Place basil leaves in a nonreactive bowl (glass or stainless steal) and pour hot syrup over top. Let sit 30 minutes, or longer. Strain out basil, and pour into sealable jar ( a mason jar works great!).

Ideas for Basil Simple Syrup:

• Mix with fresh lime or lemon juice, water, and ice for limeade or lemonade.
• Mix with gin, ice, and tonic or club soda for a refreshing cocktail.

Carling also made Sweet William Shortbread

Sweet William Shortbread  (recipe from  "Cooking with Flowers" by Miche Bacher of Mali B Sweets Available for purchase at Mali B Sweets online.

For those of you that are not familiar with Sweet William or Dianthus, it represents love, fascination, distinction, and pure affection. Culinary Uses: dianthus is sweet, with a slightly clove like aftertaste. The petals are an ingredient in the liquor Chartreuse.  Our sweet william this week came from Butterbee Farm

Of course, we’ve got flowers too! This week we’ve got:

• Sunflowers, Lisianthus, Sunshine Daydream Perrenial Sunflower Capital Flower Growers
• Mountain Mint, Celosia, Tansy Belvedere Farm
• Scabiosa The Hillen Homestead

Hope you enjoy your flowers and treats this week!

Photos, Friends and Flowers at Butterbee Farm

Last week Team LoCoFlo headed out to Butterbee Farm for an early evening photoshoot. It was a warm night and the farm was just starting to come alive with summer blooms. Our idea, was to get some shots to help promote our upcoming classes at Butterbee Farm.

What a fun night! We played with flowers, toured around the farm, drank limeade (thanks eric!) and enjoyed the beauty that surrounded us. Thanks to Stacy Bauer, photographer extraordinaire, we got some amazing photos of our models, our team and our dear friend Laura Beth, owner of Butterbee Farm.

The first class we’ll be offering is our Mid-Summer Head Wreath Class On July 26th . Head wreaths are hot right now! Attendees will be able to tour and pick flowers at the farm, enjoy sweet snacks and cold drinks, and make their very own floral head crown. What fun!

 

  

Our second class is our Down on the Farm Summer Centerpiece Class on August 17th. Learn how to arrange locally grown flowers, herbs, foliage and more!

Thanks to all our our amazing models (Rachel, Molly, Lindsay Anne and Sarah), our creative designers (and great models) Carling and Irene,  Laura Beth for being a pretty badass farmer and for Stacy Bauer for taking some sweet photos.

Check out Butterbee’s blog for more photos or to see the full photo album, check out our flickr page!

CSA 2014 : Week 2

The hot weather had arrived just in time for the longest day of year!

This week’s CSA bouquets are filled with

• Purple Campanula (bell like flowers)
• Dahlias (red in this photo, some people got orange or pink)
• Yellow Yarrow (be sure to smell this one! it’s got a really unique scent!)
• Orange Asclepius (this is one of my favorite Summer flowers)
• Sunflowers
• Safflower (the green “flowers”. They are still in the bud stage which we love. It may bloom orange).

Last week we met Capital Flower Growers and Seaberry Farm on the blog. The provided some of your flowers this week too.

The campanula, yarrow, dahlias and sunflowers came from Capital Flower Growers and the Safflower came from Seaberry Farm.

This week your Asclepius came from our friends at Plant Masters down in Gaithersburg.

Husband and wife farmers, Carol and Leon Carrier have been farming for over 30 years. They grow flowers and plants and can be found at The Montgomery Farm Women's Cooperative Market year 'round and The Olney Farm Market (Sun 9-1 @ MGH grounds 5/9-11/7) and The Potomac Farmer's Market (Falls & Democracy,Thurs. 2-6)

Leon and Carol are always so generous with their flower knowledge. We love working with them!

Now that the weather is getting hot, be sure to keep your flowers in a cool spot out of direct sunlight. Keep them filled with water (add water every day) and change the water every other day.

Enjoy the flowers! Happy Summer!

Farmer’s Market Design Class at Local Color Flowers

Our first Farmer’s Market Design class was a huge hit! What could be better than a design class focused on locally grown flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables…with local snack…and visits from farmers?

As folks arrived, they were greeted with snacks and coffee from some of our favorite farmers market vendors including Zeke’s Coffee and Chez G. Once everyone got acquainted, the class started with a welcome from Laura Beth of Butterbee Farm.  We were super excited for folks to meet some of the growers who grew the flowers for our class.

After I demonstrated some of the design techniques we would be using, including using chicken wire instead of floral foam and how to use fruit and vegetables in arrangements, the students were ready to begin.

     

First they chose their vessels and they they chose their flowers.

   

Midway through the class, we were lucky enough to have a visit from John McKeown of Locust Point Flowers,  another one of our amazing farmers as well as Mr. Reid, of Reid’s Orchard, who grew the grapes we used in our designs. It was great to hear about flower and fruit farming in our region.

Toward the end of class, it was time for tweaking arrangements, gentle critique and final flowers before we took photos.

Finally, the finished products!

  

 

 

Thanks to everyone that came out to our class! Thanks to all the farmers that provided our flowers including Butterbee Farm, Hillen Homestead, Capital Flower Growers and Locust Point Flowers.

Special thanks to the AMAZING Ana Isabel Photography for these amazing photos.

To see more photos from the class, check out our flick page.

To sign up for our next Farmer’s Market Design class, check out our Class Page.

Summer Bouquet Class

Summer Bouquet Class: By Carling A.W. Elder

Friday morning, I got to do something really fun. I got to go to my work, and not work at all! Yesterday morning, I was lucky enough to attend a Summer Bouquet class at Local Color Flowers taught by my talented boss Ellen Frost where I got to sit back, play with some beautiful local flowers, and revel in being a student again.

I’m always quick to tell anyone who asks that one of the best things about designing with local flowers is the ever changing variety and availability of the flowers. Each week, there are different colors, textures, shapes, and scents to examine and explore, and it keeps floral design from ever becoming boring or static. I love the challenge of working with new materials each week, and I always feel it’s my responsibility to the growers to make their flowers shine in each design.

For the class this week, there was basil, celosia, mountain mint, lisianthus, gomphrena, zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds to choose from. The mint and basil smelled fresh and sweet, and the multicolored zinnias lit up the studio table with their brilliance. We each got a silver or white, low footed bowl to use as a vase, and quickly filled it with a ball of chicken wire to create an eco friendly support structure for our arrangements.

As Ellen explained the basics of floral design, we passed a golden marigold around the design table and stuck our faces into it, delighting in its earthy scent. I watched the excitement on the faces of my classmates as they learned how to cut stems on an angle, the importance of foliage and texture, and the benefits of buying local flowers. As I choose green and orange flowers for my design, I watched others gravitate towards their favorite colors of purple, red, and yellow. Once we had chosen our flowers, we each grabbed a pair of clippers and, as Ellen likes to say,  “Dove in!”

 

My friend Julie accompanied me to the class. When we got home, she asked me “Was it useful for you?” wondering if I found the class helpful since I’ve been doing floral design for a few years. I answered with a resounding “YES!” At yesterday’s class, Ellen’s teaching, summer’s  fresh flowers, and the basic elements of floral design, gave me a deliciously strong shot of inspiration. While creating our summer bouquets, I saw my classmates awaken to the joys of floral design, and I thought about the many reasons I love floral design so much.

At yesterday’s design class, I realized that no matter how good a designer I ever become, my goal is to always approach floral design with a beginners eyes:  with enthusiasm, with curiosity, and with a desire to learn. 

In other words, I will forever strive to be a student of my favorite artform, floral design.

MAKE TRIBE

Make Tribe: By Carling A.W. Elder

A few weeks ago, I met up with two lovely ladies to join a discussion about how Local Color Flowers could help grow creative conversation in our Baltimore community by teaching a terrarium class. As Lindsay Hite and Jessica D’Argenio Waller shared their vision for their newest project, Make Tribe, I grew more and more excited. Make Tribe would be a series of seasonal workshops for the sole purpose of sharing expertise, forging relationships, and feeding inspiration, and as we chatted I thought,  “It’s happening!” This event is already encouraging creative conversation between us, and it hasn’t even begun! Naturally, Local Color Flowers jumped at the chance to partner with Make Tribe.

As Lindsay and Jessica had explained, each Make Tribe event would be lead by a creative professional or “Partner” who wanted to share their expertise, but it wouldn’t be a class or lecture where you merely heard about their artform. Each event would be a workshop where you worked with your hands, got dirty, and took home a souvenir and a new skill. These parameters were of course a perfect fit for a terrarium class, and for Local Color Flowers since we love getting our hands dirty!

The day of Make Tribe’s inaugural event, I showed up at the venue with trays of gorgeous locally grown succulents from Farmhouse Plants and Flowers in Brookeville, Maryland. Lindsay and Jess had the venue decorated to perfection with pretty signs, hanging garlands, chic cocktails, and Make Tribe souvenir booklets.

 

Three long tables were set up in the middle of the room lined with supplies for building the terrariums. Waiting at each place setting was a different glass vessel, and as guests trickled in, they claimed their favorite one.

 

I loved sharing my knowledge of terrariums with all the creative spirits who attended this event. The enthusiasm of every participant was supportive and infectious, and the conversational  manner of the class opened the door for many questions, comments, and new friendships to form. Everyone’s personalities shone through in the terrariums they created; from which color succulents they choose, to the shape of their vessel, to the figurines and accents they added.

Special thanks to Lindsay Hite of Make Tribe for these beautiful photos. To see more photos from the class take a look at our flickr site!

It was truly wonderful to see such creativity blossoming all around, and to play a small part in bringing Make Tribe to life.

Summer Design Challenge: “No Foam” Alter Arrangement

When I was asked to design a 4ft long piece to go on a traditional alter, I knew that this would be our next “No Foam” design challenge. In the past, when creating a long, low piece like the one requested, we probably would have used some long tray filled with floral foam. Since we’ve given up floral foam, we had to strategize about an alternative.

The bride’s mom shared this photo of an arrangement made by one of our favorite designers, Francoise Weeks as inspiration. She liked the arrangement but wanted just a splash of color.

Our thought was to make the arrangement in pieces for ease of transportation and also because finding a vase the size and shape we needed (very low-maybe 6 inches tall and long-4 feet long) seemed impossible.

We took 6 rectangular glass vases and lined each of them with a bamboo/faux leaf ribbon and then stuffed them full of chicken wire. The ribbon would help make the base look green (instead of seeing the stems) and the chicken wire was used as structure to hold all the tall stems in place.

Since we designed it to look like one piece once set up, we numbered the vases on the back so that we would know what order to put them up once we got to the church.

Once the pieces were filled with foliage, we added a few splashes of orange and purple flowers.

Even when it was mostly done in the studio, I couldn’t get the full effect of what it would look like in the space. Once we arrived at the church and set it up, we finished it with strands of ivy along the bottom of the arrangement to add to the look of cohesiveness.

I cant lie: I loved the finished product!

Working without floral foam may seem like a big jump. Each successful project gives us more confidence and forces us to be more creative.  Have you given up floral foam? We’d love to hear how you did it!