Thanksgiving marks the last big holiday in the fall season. Without a doubt, it’s one of my favorite holidays because it combines so many of my favorite things – getting together with friends and family to share a savory meal and a daylong celebration centered on the bounty we receive from the earth. To get in the holiday mood, I like to fill my house with lots of beautiful materials from nature. I usually begin by creating a festive fall arrangement, a profusion of flowers in a pumpkin.
To create your own display, cut a circle from the top of the pumpkin, scoop out the interior, and insert a plastic liner with saturated floral foam. Using care to cover the raw edge of the opening, arrange stems for a lively tribute to fall.
Fall is a very popular time of the year for outdoor markets and fairs of all kinds. And when garden opportunities arise we always try to participate in the local favorites. Autumn also happens to be the best time to plant perennials, shrubs, bulbs and even wildflower seeds. Did you know that plants established in the fall and winter grow faster in the spring and require less water when summer comes?
This month we ventured out to the UCR Botanic Gardens nestled in the foothills of the Box Springs Mountains on the east side of the University of California, Riverside Campus for their 35th annual fall market and plant sale. This spectacular event features an exciting collection of plants with many varieties including drought tolerant California Native plants as well as plants that attract hummingbirds or butterflies and plants that are suitable for vegetable or flowers gardens.
It’s also a fabulous time of year to visit the UCR Botanic Gardens - not only to enjoy this living plant museum with more than 3,500 plant species from around the world, but to wander through the four miles of scenic trails or just relax on a bench and enjoy the beauty.
A warm and sunny afternoon played host to the San Diego Floral Association’s Family Fair held at the popular Mission Hills Nursery. The organization welcomed the season of apple pies, and colorful leaves with a festive event that included friends and neighbors, sweet and tasty treats, fun for the kids, and pumpkins in every size and shape.
Artisans from around the county were invited to join in the fall fun by creating a marketplace and vendor fair. The fair, setup in an outdoor area next to the nursery, was surrounded by vibrant flowers, autumn displays and lots of colorful pumpkins. The marketplace included Lazy Acres Natural Market with an apple pie making booth and vendors with antique furniture, hand-crafted gifts and, of course, us with plenty of protea.
Visitors had a chance to create their own pumpkin terrariums. Chef Miguel from The Red Door provided a “farm to fork” cooking demonstration and families watched as their kids lined up for special Halloween costume competition.
The fair’s finale… our favorite farmer, Mel, who dazzled the audience while demonstrating the art of making a hand-tied bouquet and chatted about growing and caring for protea.
All proceeds from the afternoon’s activities will benefit the San Diego Floral Association’s Community College Scholarship Fund and the new School Garden program.
This month Resendiz Brothers had the pleasure to host the California Protea Association’s (CPA) Fall meeting. The topic was – the International Protea Association (IPA) 2017 Conference and Pre-Conference Tour. It was our opportunity to shared what we learned while attending the conference in South Africa with the farmers here in California. The meeting started with the Area Report that Mel presented during the IPA Grower’s Day covering California’s current status of protea production and future outlooks. A second slide-show followed with pictures taken during the IPA Conference and Tour, highlighting the farms that so graciously welcomed us.
However, the evening wasn't just about IPA and South Africa, it was also about gathering together and catching up on what’s happening on the farms here in California. We prepared the typical ‘Resendiz Feast’ of Carne Asada, of course and dined outside on the patio.
It was a delightful evening filled with good conversation, scrumptious food and beautiful flowers … all shared with friends who love farming as much as we do.
The floral industry hit the streets on October 11th to Petal It Forward, and Fallbrook was among 459 cities in all 50 states, plus DC and Canada where florists, wholesalers and farmers brightened the days of random passersby. It was all part of the nationwide ‘Petal it Forward’ program, in partnership with the Society of American Florists (SAF). This program is in response to SAF’s 2015 omnibus research which showed that while 80 percent of people said flowers make them happy, even more, 88 percent said that giving flowers makes them happy.
Petal It Forward teams from 459 cities not only spread happiness to lucky people who received the flowers, but armed the recipients with the tools they needed to Petal It Forward and spread happiness to others: An extra flower bouquet to share with the person of their choice. We joined in on the fun and headed to the local cafe where we spread some happiness too!
This was a win-win for all the happiness ambassadors but, more importantly, it was a win for creating positive buzz around flowers in the communities that were reached.
While I’m usually content wandering the fields with my camera photographing flowers... this week Tracy Sellers, Host/Producer, of California Bountiful TV visited our farm and made my field trip extra special!
A weekly, 30-minute show, California Bountiful, is produced by the California Farm Bureau Federation in Sacramento. They educate folks on where their food really comes from... basically the whole “farm to fork” concept is brought to TV each week! It's syndicated throughout the state, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Fresno and more. California Bountiful can also be seen nationally on satellite station RFD-TV. To view recent episodes of the show, visit: www.californiabountiful.com A new season starts in San Diego this month on KUSI, Sundays at 11:30 a.m. through the Fall and Winter. Stay tuned… we’ll keep you up to date when to watch for the Resendiz Brothers episode!
Thanks to Tracy and Scott for featuring us in the up-coming season of California Bountiful TV!
