The Dilemma of Mother’s Day

Today I read that 1.9 billion  dollars is spent on Mother’s Day flowers in the US every year. That is a lot of flowers. If you live in Baltimore or DC or any of the surrounding counties and your mom or gram or anyone else you may want to buy flowers for lives close by, you have SO MANY OPTIONS for buying locally grown flowers for them. 

• You can check out the Local Harvest website for a farmers market close to you. There are markets all weekend so get out there and support your local farmers.
• You can go to the Whole Foods and choose the “locally grown” cut flowers
• You can go to a local nursery and buy potted flowers that can be planted in a garden.

But what if your mom doesn’t live in Baltimore. What if she lives at the beach in a little town in Florida-20 miles from a real town and 45 miles away from a city.

Here are the options I’ve explored:

I looked in the ASCFG Buyer’s Guide to see if there were any farmers near there that might be able to deliver a flower arrangement. There was only ONE Florida grower listed. Cheney Farm in O’Brien, Florida. It was 172 miles away and they don’t ship.

I looked up florists in Clearwater (closest big town) and in Indian Rocks (the small town where she lives). I even called a couple to see if they had local flowers. None said they did.

There is Organic Bouquet.  They are an online company specializing in organic flowers for bouquets and for DIY’ers. They have Eco Standards, they buy organic-but most of their products are coming from outside of the country (as far as I could tell from the website). I could NOT tell where the actual arrangements were being shipped from.

And then, there is the option of not sending her flowers. (I’ll be visiting her next week-so I could take her out to dinner or something like that-but it’s not the same as flowers).

I’ve got to make my decision soon, since my mom’s birthday is Saturday and Mother’s Day is Sunday.

What would you do?

It’s Time for the Sunday Market!

I love the Sunday market. I would even go so far as to say-it’s my favorite market. Of course it has it’s downsides-no sunlight since it’s under a highway, it’s not year round, it feels sort of gritty…but so what!  I love it.

I love that all kinds of people in this still semi-segregated city of Baltimore come to shop at the market. It’s one of the few places you can hear several languages being spoken in the same place…Russian, Chinese, Spanish, English. And everyone is eating! Falafel, croissants, tacos, omelets, smoothies, Thai food …it doesn’t matter what time it is…people are eating!

At the Sunday market you are sure to see your friends, neighbors, colleagues and more. For me, it’s the perfect weekend social time with my friends. This morning, Marina and I met at Zeke’s stand for coffee and then made the rounds….asparagus, strawberries, chard, ciabatta, eggs…and pickles. We shopped till we ran out of money-and couldn't carry any more food.  After a busy week, it’s the perfect way to catch up.

And of course…who doesn’t love the bean man! Thank goodness for the bean man. I had to buy a freezer for the basement just to keep all of my frozen beans.

While there isn’t a cut flower grower at the market-that doesn’t mean that there aren’t cut flowers. There loads of produce farmers that bring bright, beautiful, cut field flowers…some of my favorites are the cosmos and gomphrena, snapdragons and dahlias.

It’s also, weirdly enough, a place that makes me feel really proud of Baltimore. I can’t really put my finger on it. The best way to explain it is to describe one of my favorite days at the Market-Opening Day of Ravens Football. That Sunday morning in early September is usually cool…it feels like it’s time for football. It feels like a relief after such a hot summer. Everyone at the market is wearing Ravens gear…they are hopeful, excited…happy…and they are buying vegetables, and cheese and coffee for their football parties. It’s one morning that everyone feels proud to be from Baltimore.

So if you haven’t been-the Sunday market is open Sundays, from 7-noon, under the JFX. Definitely check it out! And look for the LoCoRoll…and say hi!

7 days, 4 weddings…

This has been a crazy couple of weeks for LoCoFlo. In the last 7 days we’ve had 4 weddings! Each was unique in terms of style, color and design. Each  turned out great and was great fun to work on.

Mariko and Jeff’s got married at Irvine Nature Center. Using shades of white and green, we kept the bouquets, boutonnieres as natural as possible to compliment the beautiful surroundings at Irvine. At the reception at Linwoods, all of the centerpieces were potted herbs. The guests were able to take them home and enjoy them.

Jane Ann and Kent were married at Coradetti Glass Studio in Baltimore. Funky, colorful, artistic, elegant…all rolled into one!

Meghan and Chris were married at Notre Dame Chapel and Baltimore with a reception at Louisiana in Fells Point. The bride wanted, simple, elegant, spring flowers in yellow and white. We used mini calla lilies, tulips, ranunculus and anemones…simple and beautiful.

Finally, Emily and Jon. I loved this couple and their easy going, colorful, garden style. Jen Bryant made this amazing bouquet for the bride full of colorful spring flowers including mini calla lilies, gerber daisies, tulips, snap dragons and ranunculus.

And check out this cake and cake topper! The bouquet the bride is holding looks just like bouquet we made!

I’ll be sure to post more pictures from each of these weddings soon. Big shout-outs to my awesome “help”! Thanks to Marina and Jen for helping to design such great bouquets and arrangements! Thanks to Eric and Cathy for being great delivery helpers! You guys rock!

How I Spent Earth Day 2010

Happy 40th Birthday Earth Day!

I woke up yesterday thinking about all of the folks who have helped mold and shape how I feel about the Earth and nature and flowers: my gram, my Master Gardening friends, Kathy York, Marina…John Muir, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, Amy Stewart EO Wilson, …

I took time to read Mary Oliver.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

 And then I went and visited farmers and picked up  flowers. Some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen.

Poppies

Ranunculus

 

Gerber Daisies

Sweet Peas

Everyday is Earth Day!  Enjoy it!

Another Reason to Buy Local Flowers - VOLCANOS!

Everyone has heard about the volcano in Iceland. Ash is causing airlines to cancel flights all across Europe. Did you know that the international flower industry is among the hardest hit by the eruption?

The world flower trade is an amazingly efficient and complex business (see Amy Stewart's book, Flower Confidential). But, there is little room for disruption when working with perishable cargo. The volcano is forcing huge flower producers from the Netherlands to as far away as Kenya to dump literally tons of product and send workers home because of airport closures. Wall Street Journal reporter John Miller expects flower prices  to rise in the United States as imports decrease.

Another reason to buy flowers from local growers - they're volcano-proof.

Park Heights Church Going Local for Earth Day!

The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is almost here! To celebrate Earth Day and to raise awareness about the importance of Buying Local, members of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church in Park Heights ordered locally grown arrangements for their alter.

During the announcement and at the coffee hour after services, members and visitors passionately discusses the importance of Earth Day and Buying Local. How great is that! Passionate discussion at church about flowers-and where they come from and how they are grown!

Holy Nativity has inspired me  for ten years with their progressive stance on social issues as well as their commitment to the children of Park Heights. We have a long history together-too long to recount here. Suffice it to say, they have a special place in my heart. So I was honored to be able to make flowers for them these past few weeks.

Buying local flowers is a great way for churches, synagogues and mosques to show their support for local growers and local communities. It may seem like a small gesture, but it’s not small at all. It’s important to the growers, to their families, their employees,  to our communities and to the Earth.

As Earth Day approaches, give this beautiful planet of ours a gift-buy local!

Presenting…The LoCoRoll!

As many of you know, LoCoFlo bought a new Transit Connect a couple weeks ago. I’ve been keeping it on the DL until it got jazzed up.

Well, thanks to Young and Eric who put their design magic on it, thanks to all of you who took a look at the designs and voted for your favorite one, thanks to Mike and the great folks at hideyourride.com who made it look so fabulous and thanks to my friend Todd for naming it…

I now present to you…the LoCoRoll.

We decided not to go with paint-but to go with a custom vinyl wrap. It’ll be easier to repair if it gets damaged, it’s easy to customize and it looks great!

It really was like an episode of Pimp My Ride.

It started out cute, but plain.

Then it got it’s racing stripes.

And the back is awesome!

I am SO happy with the work Mike at hideyourride.com did! It turns out he also owns and runs and organic farm in Carroll County called Pure Earth Farms! Be sure to check it out!

Be on the lookout for the LoCoRoll in a neighborhood near you!