Heidi's note : A few weeks ago, I approached Shyla from Love Shyla for her take on the "slow flower" movement. Enjoy her perspective below, and better yet - come out on Sunday to see her for her first week back at the market!

 

There is a movement circulating the globe around sourcing & enjoying things locally. It celebrates the present culture’s unique expression and beauty of what’s in season.

 

Many are familiar with the term “slow food;” food that is produced or prepared in accordance with local culinary traditions, typically using high quality locally sourced ingredients.

 

It is similar with flowers. Debra Prinzing proposed the shared term, “slow flowers” in her recent book and challenges others to create floral work out of what is in season in the garden locally.

 

Seasonal flowers really are the most exquisite flowers. You can order a café au lait dahlia grown in a greenhouse anytime of the year but one in season locally (that doesn’t have to be shipped) is a true work of art. Also, flowers and food, grown locally, tend to have a greater aroma/ flavor as well!

 

Slow food/ flowers is the idea of taking your time. We are so rushed in our current age that, taking your time seems like a sort of luxury, doesn’t it? I think we can consider it, rather, a way of simplifying.

 

[ IT IS A WAY OF USING WHAT YOU HAVE AND CHERISHING IT ].

For example, you may not grow a commercial garden, can your own food or sew quilts for your beds. You don’t have to do it all or even do it large, but you can enjoy what you do. The slow food and flower movement is not meant to create more tasks for your to do list, but encourage you to take notice of what your doing with the time you have in ways that might help you connect with nature and beauty and flavor.

 

[ IT IS A WAY OF REMOVING PRESSURE ].

You don’t have to make something just like someone else, or create a replica of something you’ve seen online. Rather, draw inspiration from what you have and use your own creative interpretation to make something new! You’ll find it much easier and I’d say, much more beautiful/ delicious.

 

“The slow food and flower movement is meant encourage you to take notice of what your doing with the time you have in ways that might help you connect with nature and beauty and flavor.”

 

Growing things & watching things grow in nature is one of the great examples of the slow movement. It involves watching something develop from a small seed into a set of leaves, a blossom and then fruit over several months, admiring & nurturing each stage. Then finally, harvesting an amazing beauty that you can’t quite believe could come from a piece of dust in your hand and then enjoying it on your table or dish.

 

Flowers are an amazing miracle to me. It is the colors and details of each bloom that gets me. It can appear that each one is hand painted and really not anything that I did, except nurture along the way. The tiny seed planted, had all of the unique information that the specific flower needed to become. What a miracle.

 

I encourage you to grow things (even city dwellers can raise herbs in pots at their kitchen window), source things locally, and enjoy the beauty, scent and experience of them.

 

The next time you take a stroll at the farmers market, without a plan in mind, browse the produce stands and see what piece of fruit invigorates your senses. You may pick up a tomato with several colors and big uneven humps, draw it to your nose and dream of a slow cooked Bolognese sauce simmering for hours in your kitchen; filling your home with the richest, most butter-filled aroma. That evening or the next day you’ll sit down to a table with fresh flowers and enjoy it over a plate of pasta & a glass of wine with a friend. Then, after a slow conversation, finish off the meal with a few fresh berries & cream that you placed in your basket at the market as well.

 

I hope to see you at the market this week. This will be the first week we open our flower stand at BFM for the season, the garden is just filled with blooms and we are so excited to bring them for you on Sunday!

 

Each of the flowers that you’ll find wrapped in paper at my table this year is grown in my garden (90% from seed). I started planting them in January and nurtured them into each step, transitioning into the greenhouse, transplanting into the garden, pinching, staking, fertilizing, deadheading, until, finally they were cut, thoughtfully arranged with you in mind and placed in your arms to enjoy.

 

“The practice is timeless. The gesture is universal. Inspired by the exquisite beauty of a garden or by the sentiment of a special occasion, we gather flowers, foliage and branches, placing their stems in a vessel to display in our homes or give to another. Floral design is a three-dimensional art form that blends horticulture and nature with sculptural composition. At its best, bouquet making is a personal expression unique to the designer’s tastes and point of view.” Debra Prinzing

 

Love, Shyla