Summer Bouquets and Lavender Shortbread: Week 3 of LoCoFlo’s Flower CSA

July is here! We are in the thick of summer and the flowers are loving the heat!

 

This week’s bouquet is filled with:

• Monarda from Talmar
• Daucus and statice from Butterbee Farm
• Lisianthus, spearmint  and viburnum from Wollam Gardens
• Calla lilies and snapdragons from Flowers by Bauers

Since this is our first week of the season for Monarda- we thought we’d tell you a little of what we learned about it.

Mondarda is also referred to as bee balm, horsemint, oswego tea, and bergamot. You can make it into a tea (it has a mildly citrus taste) as well as dry it and use it for potpourri.  Be sure to pull a stem out of your arrangement to check out the square stems!

Our friends at Butterbee Farm grew A LOT of  lavender this year so we picked some out at the farm last week and used it for some sweet tasting lavender shortbread cookies. We thought we’d share the recipe with you since they were so good!

Happy July!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh (local)
• lavender
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh (local) mint leaves
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the lavender, mint and lemon zest. Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt; mix into the batter until well blended. Divide dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten to about 1inch thick. Refrigerate until firm, about 1hour.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Cookie stamps will work well on these too. Place on cookie sheets.
• Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, just until cookies begin to brown at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Spikey, Sticky, Sweet and Hot: LoCoFlo CSA Week 2!

It’s June 24th and it’s our 2nd CSA pick up day! While it has cooled off slightly (it’s only going to be 84 degrees today) it has been in the high 90’s for the last few days. With the heat, comes summer flowers. We’re past the transition flowers from our last pick-up like larkspur and bupluerum and we’re on to a new variety of flowers, fruit and foliage.

Today, our bunches are filled with:

• Blueberries from Greenstone Fields
• Snapdragons from Butterbee Farm
• Borage from Butterbee Farm
• Thistle from Seaberry Farm
• Hydrangea Foliage from Wollam Gardens
• Queen Anne’s Lace From Seaberry Farm
• Sunflowers from Capital Flower Growers

Since this is the first year we’re using Borage, we thought we’d tell you a little about it. If you’re looking for it in your bouquet, it looks like this!

Butterbee Farm loaded us up with a couple hundred stems in the last few weeks. Borage is also called Starflower and is actually an herb. The leaves are edible and Laura Beth from Butterbee Farm said it tastes like cucumber but Irene and I tasted it today and…it was a little gross to eat. Try it for yourself and see.

We also added thistle to our bouquets this week. We love the color but not the spikes!

Back by popular demand this week is another cold drink concocted by Eric to keep our CSA members refreshed while they pick up their flowers. This week Lemon Basil-ade! Hillen Homestead provided us with Lemon Basil this week that Eric turned into a simple syrup. He added it to lemon and water…and voilà!

In each of our blog posts on the CSA, we’ll share some things we heard people say while they were visiting. Today our best quote came from Andy: “The flowers last week were beautiful. My girlfriend just hugged the bouquet when I brought it home.

Thanks to all our CSA members, thanks to our growers and thanks to Irene for putting our bouquets together today!

Be sure to check the hashtag #locoflocsa on twitter, instagram and facebook to see more photos from the CSA. There is still time to join if you’re interested. Check out the sign-up form on our website.

Our next pick up date is Wednesday, July 8 from 4:30-7pm. See you then!

2014 CSA AWESOMENESS!

This year’s local flower CSA at Local Color Flowers was seriously awesome! If you aren’t familiar with our CSA, here’s how it worked. Over the course of 5 months (June through October) CSA members came over to our studio twice a month to pick up a wrapped bouquet of locally grown flowers and foliage.  Each bouquet included a tag telling members what is included in the bouquet and what farms the flowers came from. Most weeks, members were also treated to snacks incorporating locally grown flowers and produce.

Steve H. seen here with his CSA bouquet!

Sweet William Shortbread and Basil Limeade made by LoCoFlo designer Carling Elder

Loved these little friends who were always interested in learning about flowers!

We always envisioned creating a space for people to come together to chit chat, laugh, eat and learn. This season felt like we had accomplished that.

If you’d like to see more photos from the CSA, check out our Facebook page.

We’re looking ahead to 2015 already! If you’re interested in signing up for the CSA, check out the registration page on our website. This year we’re offering a HALF share for $150 and a FULL share for $300.  This is a great holiday gift for anyone who loves flowers (and who doesn’t love flowers!!)

Hope to see you next year at Local Color Flowers!

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!

CSA 2014: Week 3

Week 3 of our CSA and we’re taking a break from HOT colors and going with a more muted, deep palette.  This weeks bouquets include:

• White Lisianthus (they look a little like a rose)
• Dark/almost black dahlias (or some of you may get purple)
• Wild Carrot/Daucus (looks like Queen Anne’s Lace but dark burgundy or light pink
• Mountain Mint
• Lemon Basil
• Blackberries (yup! blackberries)
• Scabiosa (little pincushion flowers)

Our lisianthus, dahlias, blackberries and daucus are from Capital Flower Growers.

The beautiful mountain mint came from our friend Bill Harlan of Belvedere Farm. We’re grateful to Nancy for delivering to us today!

Finally, the lemon basil and scabiosa come to you this week from Hillen Homestead. Located just 1.6 miles from our studio, Hillen Homestead is currently our only Baltimore City farmer.

Maya, her husband Max and their little one, farm on a small plot of land where rowhouses used to stand.

In their second year of growing, Hillen Homestead is getting the most out of their space! My favorite from so far are the scabiosa which you’ll see dotting your bouquet this week.

We’re grateful to Hillen Homestead and all of our growers for all of their hard work on our behalf!  They are so much more to us than just “suppliers” they are really a wonderful part of the LoCoFlo family! We couldn’t do what we do without them!

Enjoy your flowers this week! Be sure to change the water frequently and trim the bottoms every two days. Keep them out of direct sunlight to get the most life from them!

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!

CSA 2014: Week 1!

It’s our first week of the CSA and we’re so excited!

For those of you who are CSA members, this week’s CSA bouquet is filled with peonies, larkspur, snapdragons and bells of Ireland.

Your snaps were grown in Jarrettsville by our friend Matt Bauer of Flowers by Bauer's.

The larkspur and peonies were grown by our friends  Rick and Wenfei Uva from Seaberry Farm out on the eastern shore.

The Bells of Ireland were grown by Capital Flower Growers, a collaborative effort by Wollam Gardens and Greenstone Fields.

From left to right, the flowers are Bells of Ireland, larkspur, peonies, and snapdragons.

Since everything is TALL this week, if you’re going to display your bouquet as it’s currently arranged, choose a tall vase that will allow your flowers to show off all of their blooms!

Since this is our first week for flowers I thought I’d share some tips about how to keep your flowers looking fresh for as long as possible.

1. Replenish the water daily. Change the entire vase of water every 2 days.
2. Trim the ends of your stems before your put them in the vase and each time you change the water.
3. Keep your flowers out of heat and direct sunlight.
4. Be sure the vase you are using is CLEAN.

Each flower has a unique vase life (how long it will live in the vase). Your flowers will be happier and live longer if you follow these tips!

Hope you enjoy these early summer blooms! Don’t forget to use the hashtag #locoflocsa if you share photos on social media.

If you are reading this post and still want to sign up for the CSA, there is still time. Sign up on our website today! (the price will be prorated!)

See you next time!

Baltimore’s Best Local Flower CSA!

Summer is around the corner and Local Color Flowers local flower CSA will be starting in just two weeks! We’re so excited for this year’s CSA! Here’s how it works. Sign up today and pay $250 for 10 beautiful local flower bouquets over the next 5 months!

Pick-ups are at Local Color Flowers studio located in Charles Village at 3100 Brentwood Ave between 4:30-7pm.   Pick up dates are: Jun. 4, 18; Jul. 9, 23; Aug. 6, 20; Sep. 3, 17; Oct. 1, 15 2014.

This year, we’re excited to add a new feature to the CSA! Each week after you pick up your wrapped bouquet, you can check out our blog for a new post all about the flowers in your bouquet, the farmers that grew them and how to arrange them when you get home. We can’t wait to share this with you!

We’re also offering a short, one hour CSA “design” class that will give you tips about how to care for your CSA flowers when you bring them home. The class will take place Wednesday, May 28, 2014 from 6-7pom. Sign up today!

We’re so excited to see you all for the first pick up on June 4th!

Mother’s Day Week At Local Color Flowers

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and there are SO many great options for gifts involving locally grown flowers this year!

Moms love flowers (doesn’t everyone??)! Order your Mother’s Day bouquet or arrangement today! All bouquets and arrangements are made with locally grown cut flowers from farms within 100 miles of Baltimore! Delivery is available in Baltimore City on Friday May 9. You can also pick your order up at our Charles Village Studio Friday from 9-5pm and Saturday from 8am –noon.

While a single arrangement is awesome, maybe your mom would like the gift that keeps on giving! A subscription to our 2014 Local Flower CSA! The CSA begins in June. Members receive 10 bouquets over 5 months. It’s an amazing way to experience the changing of seasons with flowers!

If your mom really loves flowers, how about signing her up for one of our design classes! Attendees get to learn more about locally grown flowers along with designing an arrangement to take home and enjoy.

If you’re out and about and want to pick some flowers up on the go this week, Carling will be out at the Union Memorial Farmer’s Market this Wednesday from 11am-1:30pm. This is a great opportunity to pick up a wrapped bouquet, a locally grown plant and much more.

Our friends at Chesapeake Wine Company in Canton will also be selling wrapped bouquets starting Thursday afternoon. These babies go fast so be sure to get over there early!

Beginning Friday, Green Spring Station Celebrates Mother's Day with complimentary local flowers from Local Color Flowers.  Stop in any boutique and receive one beautiful stem – shop many stores and make a collection or, enjoy just one. One per customer at each store and available while supplies last Friday and Saturday (May 9 and 10).

Like I said…lots of great options! Happy Spring!

2013 CSA…Success! Looking Ahead to 2014!

One of our goals here at Local Color Flowers is to help more people enjoy locally grown flowers on a regular basis. Finding locally grown flowers at the grocery store isn’t always easy and in some communities, it’s nearly impossible. The thought behind our 2013 Flower CSA was to connect urban folks with flower farmers so that they could experience flowers throughout the seasons.

As with any new project, we weren’t sure what to expect. The plan was to provide mixed bouquets twice  a month for 5 months. Each bouquet would have a tag describing the types of flowers that were in the bouquet and what farms they came from . We started with peonies in early June and finished up in October with some of the most beautiful dahlias I’ve ever seen.  We partnered with JHU’s Space Telescope Science Institute to have a drop of location at Hopkins main campus. We also let people pick up their bouquets at our studio.

Well, the CSA turned out to be SO MUCH FUN! Members were so excited to see what each new bouquet would include and we were excited to tell them all about the farms, farmers and flowers.

“ My wife and I were absolutely delighted with the flowers we received as part of the CSA this year!! We loved the variety of flowers and the arrangements you put together.”

                                                                    - Steve

“the csa was a bright spot in my summer!”

                                                                    -John

Since we liked it so much, we’re excited to announce that sign up is now open for the 2014 Local Flower CSA! If you sign up before the end of the year, you get a 10% discount (great holiday gift!). All the details can be found on our website.  We’ll be adding a couple new/fun features to the CSA this year. Each week we have a bouquet pick up, we’ll do a blog post about the bouquet, where the flowers came from, who grew them and more. Also, at the start of the season, we’ll offer a discounted design class for all CSA members to help them make the most of their bouquets throughout the season.  So much fun to look forward to!

Excitement! Joy! Local Flower CSA!

Last week was our first week of our local flower CSA! We made bunches for delivery to John's Hopkins University as well as for pick up at our studio.

Our first week’s bunches were filled with peonies, larkspur, sweet william, sunflowers and raspberry foliage. Each bunch included a tag explaining what farms the flowers came from and how to care for your flowers at home.

It was great fun to meet so many new people and see so many old friends who came to pick up their bouquets! I could tell people were excited-one person even did a happy dance!

I especially loved so many people sharing photos with us of them enjoying their flowers. This was one of my favorites.

There is still time to sign up for the local flower CSA. All you have to do is sign up on our website, pay $180 and you’re set to receive 9 beautiful bouquets over the next few months!

Our next pick up date is Wednesday June 19th! Hope to see you then!

Weekly Flower CSA at Local Color Flowers

Get in on the fun! Local Color Flowers is offering an awesome, local flower CSA this summer!

Here’s how it works. You’ll sign up for our Flower CSA online or by phone at 410-262-1494 and make a onetime payment of $200. Then on ten different Wednesday evenings throughout the summer and early fall (dates listed below) you’ll stop by our studio from 4:30-7 PM and pickup a gorgeous, seasonal bouquet . The flowers and foliage in your bouquet will always be locally grown and we’ll even tell you which farms each flower came from so you know you that you really are supporting your local community.

Your bouquet will be wrapped up in pretty paper, but we won’t be supplying vases.  If you’d like to keep your flowers hydrated on the ride home, you’re welcome to bring your own vase or bucket. If you forget, mason jars will be available for $2.

Since we know you’re busy, we will send you an email reminder every other week so you don’t forget to pickup your flowers. Because you will have already paid for your CSA flowers at the beginning of the season, your pickups will be quick and easy. In no time at all, you’ll be cruising with your local blooms and a smile on your face. You’ll probably even get home in time to catch the O’s game.

What’s not to love?

Local Color Flowers 2013 CSA Dates:

June 5^th

June 19^th

July 3^rd

July 17^th

August 7^th

August 21^st

September 4^th

September 18^th

October 2^nd

October 13^th