Flour/Flower Event

Easter Pop-up at Ponsford Bakery! 

Ponsford Place
(Bakery and Innovation Center) http://ponsfordsplace.com   

This little bakery is close to my neighborhood off a heavily trafficked road. It's on an inconspicuous side street that is still residential. It's unexpected location adds to it's charm. This bakery sells light and flavorful whole wheat and gluten free breads and pastries in the french tradition with a lot of unexpected twists on ingredients and savory fillings such as : Crème of Nettle Mushroom with or WITHOUT Speck and Rancho Gordo Domingo Rojo and Vaquero Beans with Cumin, Shishito Peppers, & Potatoes. The chocolate croissant won me over by the complexity of it's flavor and generosity of dark chocolate, something I have to have quite often!

It's a destination bakery as people come from afar for the Craig Ponsford and sister Elizabeth's baked goods. They use heritage grains that are grown and milled  locally along with other ingredients sourced from our local farmer's market. Craig participates an International competitions and has won the Gold medal at Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris. I was thrilled when he said yes to a pop-up feeling a kindred sense of working on one's craft. I discovered in one of our brief conversations that we both source from the same grower, Front Porch Farms https://fpfarm.com/ for for some our flour/flowers.

In honor of Easter I came up with  rustic Easter tins that included a bouquet and a bag of Ponsford chocolates.

 

Workshop revisited

The wedding bouquet I made in the  Little Flower Shop Master's Workshop early this week is way past it's prime. All the flowers are collectively involved in their graceful demise. The two long silk ribbons tied around it's collar act as wicks, pulling water from inside the vase it's sitting in to slowly travel down the ribbons to drip, drip on the dining room table Jon built. I catch the water each time before it does any damage, finally just jamming the whole ribbon ensemble inside the vase. Maybe I'll keep this bouquet forever-  for awhile anyway, like a bride.

I'm holding on to it, because I'm holding on to the experience. In a way it was like a wedding for the participants; a group of designers, landscape architects and crew from lovely Scribe Winery in Sonoma, our workshop location. It was a commitment ceremony between us, the flowers and this flower design business, tightening the screws. 

Every person walks away with their own experience. It was especially profound for me for a few reasons: It was a luxury experience I rarely allow. I was pretty satisfied with two out of three of the pieces that I made, pushing myself to work with many more flowers than this minimalist is inclined to use. I got to spend time with other designers as many work in a rather solitary fashion. Also I got to spend a little more time with Sarah and Nicole, two of my favorite flower heroes. Nicole is immediately warm and nurturing. Sarah is a little more bristly at first, but also extraordinarily generous. Their style is very composed and very loose at the same time. Closest to my heart is their palette which is much more muted and browned out than is typically used.

 I have a special affection for Sarah, the Saipua portion of the Little Flower School. I found her blog out of the ether when a dear friend passed away a number of years ago. I was feeling raw, so very raw and nothing gave me solace, not even making art. Late at night one night I clicked on her journal. I had no idea flower journal's even existed. The beauty of her work, and the honesty of her writing was the door to a  community of flower artists. They got me through that time. The blog discovery recalled my experience with flowers many years prior when I briefly worked for an amazing floral designer in Colorado Springs who was the designer for society clientele in Colorado Springs, a beautiful  mountain town in it's last vestiges of boom town money from silver and gold mining from the late 1800's.

 Terry Gentry was an incredible talent, ahead of his time in making naturalistic bouquets. We had flowers delivered from all over the world several times a week. I worked there only a brief time prepping flowers and soaking it all in. The studio needed a delivery girl, not an apprentice and I was impatient and didn't want to wait. I went back to being an artist. Life took me down a few other flower related roads till I came back around.

Master's Class with the Little Flower School

  

I'm shaking in my boots from excitement.  I'm a little afraid too- but the best things in life are a mix of both- right?  

This evening I head up to Sonoma to reacquaint myself with the gals who run the Little Flower School out of Brooklyn, NY: Sarah Ryhanen of Saipua and Nicollette Camille of Nicollete Camille Designs. They joined talents and started the school several years ago. Of course they won't remember me at all as I am one of hundreds that have passed through their popular workshops that are held around the world. 

I first met them when they came through 4 or 5 years back on an earlier round of workshops on the West Coast. That was a two hour workshop and now I have two days to pick their brains at a Master's Class Workshop. http://littleflowerschoolbrooklyn.com/coming-soon-sonoma-ca/ .


It is a huge leap of faith because of the investment. But the last time I attended their workshop, I came away with the notion that I could teach, even though I was absolutely terrified of getting up in front of people and talking. I had cleverly and strategically avoided public speaking through college graduation (what you can do when you put your mind to it....) 

I'm now coming up on my third year teaching. Haven't quite tamed the jitters beast, but I love, love teaching and watching the results unfold for those who come back time again to practice this art and craft.  And now it's my time to be the student again and learn more to move my business forward and share in workshops to come!

Ranunclus Explosion at Front Porch Farms!

When you cut the stem of a flower and hear a crispy snap, you have one fresh flower.
That's really important in the flower biz when you're working on orders and are wondering how long the flowers are going to last after you've delivered them and bid them adieu. I gave up including ranunculus in orders unless I was able to get them from a certain vendor in the SF flower Mart because they have been unreliable; meaning they wilt, don't open, and get the bends. Even in a ultra fresh batch a  few flower heads will just nod over about 4 inches down from the flower. I don't know of a Viagra equivalent for these flowers  at this point, but you can just cut these short and enjoy them in small containers.

We are so lucky to have the Marin County Farmer's Market right down the highway, where several Bay Area flower growers bring their offerings twice a week.  Of these growers (all of whom have really nice flowers), Front Porch Farm in Healdsburg  https://fpfarm.com/is knocking it out of the ball park with their spring ranunculus, raised by flower grower, Zoe Hitchner. They are fresh, long lasting and come in every color. I buy them every week and really just want to scoop the whole inventory on display and bring them home.

So if you're local, get yourselves down there, ya'll- and don't put them in deep water because they don't like it and the stems will rot. A few inches will do.

One of the wonderful features of ranunculus are their bendy, wonky stems, hidden in more dense arrangements. To hold these up I used "pin frogs, heavy metal discs covered with metal pins (where did my pin frog picture go?) that support the flowers inserted on the pins.

Above us and below us

Is beauty. 

There were so many variations in this watercolor sky on the drive home from Tahoe. It held us spellbound.