Up until the 70's California was the leading supplier of cut flowers for the US of A. Now the vast majority- around 80%, are grown thousands of miles away on different continents. The message set forth in the "The 50 Mile Bouquet" was a call to action: Buy locally grown flowers! Design with local flowers! Support local flower farmers ! Grow your own flowers! Become a flower farmer! The bounty of mouth watering blossoms pictured sold the concept handily- okay, okay! If you lived in the Pacific Northwest, ground zero for this movement, you were in luck. But sadly those flowers weren't available here in Marin County, CA just a bit further south. And when I looked northward to agriculturally inclined Sonoma County, I found little. So it seemed that the book had a a catchy title, a good marketing idea- but wasn't this a Portanlandia pipe dream?
Like a seed it took awhile for this new idea (following behind the Slow Food movement) of buying/growing local flowers to germinate across the country. Floral Designers became designer/growers. Farmer's expanded their crops. Specialty growers who had been there all along found renewed interest and and people wanting to be mentored. People want in on it, though the time, money, and learning curve will cull out all but the truly dedicated.
For any of you in the thick of all this, this is old, old news. But as I post this photo, it dawns on me how much has changed in only 4 years in my neck of the woods.
The flowers in this arrangement are not your standard fare. They are grown by a wave of flower farmers wanting to bring a whole selection of new and heritage flowers practically to our doors.
This year has brought a big shift in my purchasing patterns. I'm now buying the majority of my flowers, most of the year within 50 Miles! I know this is still not the case everywhere in this country, but slowly, slowly......
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