A blissful welcome to the spring season, surrounded by a sea of gorgeous ranunculaus the Field to Vase Dinner Tour brought good cheer to The Flower Fields of Carlsbad. Clear skies and perfectly tepid temperatures greeted guests as they enjoyed American grown flowers while savoring an artisanal meal prepared by a local chef, Jeff Rossman, of Terra Catering. A skilled, self-taught Chef of nearly 30 years, Jeff helped pioneer San Diego’s thriving farm-to-table movement by purchasing fresh, organic produce from local growers before it was en vogue. Travelling to farmer’s markets before farmer’s markets were cool.
The dazzling floral décor was designed by Flower Duet’s sisters, Kit and Casey, who blended a bounty of locally grown blooms into each centerpiece and display. Kit and Casey discovered their love for flowers at a very young age thanks to their parent’s beautiful garden. Creating custom pieces for special events, they also engage in teaching flower arranging classes at their studio in South Bay of Los Angeles.
The idea behind this dinner series is to help people connect the growing “farm to fork” movement to flowers, and to share why the flowers on the dinner table should be as fresh, local and sustainable as the food on your plate. There’s no better place to celebrate the season and make that connection to flowers than in the breathtaking Flower Fields!
"Local. Sustainable. Slow flowers. These are more than just buzz words, they represent the philosophy behind the growing movement of localizing the flower industry. Plain and simple: flowers that are sold stateside should be grown domestically to support the local economy and our local agricultural communities. That’s why we’re calling it the Local Flower Movement."
- Christina Stembel
Meet Christina Stembel, owner of San Francisco-based Farmgirl Flowers. As you can sense from Christina's quote above she's a strong and passionate advocate for domestic cut flowers. Through her company Farmgirl Flowers, she has become notorious for sourcing and promoting only local and seasonal flowers for use in her bouquets and designs.
Lately, when Christina's not working side by side with her amazing design team in the San Francisco Flower Market, she's been touring farms from California to Alaska meeting the farmers and learning about the flowers they grow. When Christina's travels brought her to Southern California she made it a point to stop by the farm and check out the special flowers we grow here in Rainbow. And, during her visit we were thrilled to discover she is passionate about Protea too! So, after a brief peak in the cooler to see what flowers are being harvested we headed to the hills to see how they're grown. Join us on our postcard tour:
Standing on a rock high above the flower fields - It almost feels like you're on top of the world.
Protea - there's so much to learn: the numerous varieties, they're seasons, how they're grown and harvested.
A trip into the fields is not complete without stopping to see the limo and yes, it's CAGrown!
Definitely a 'Farmgirl' - Christina even stopped to feed the goats!
It's all about 'Field to Vase' and 'knowing' where your flowers come from.
