The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers

By Debra Prinzing, with photography by David Perry (St. Lynn’s Press, 2012)

8-inch x 8-inch

Hardback: 144 pages and 150+ full color photographs

price: $17.95

ISBN-13: 978-0-9832726-4-9

 When it comes to the food you grow, buy from a farmers’ market, cook at home or order at a neighborhood restaurant, people are enthusiastically thinking “local.” The Farm-to-Table movement is a lively, flavorful one that celebrates farmer and chef alike. So when it comes to decorating with and enjoying flowers, more and more people are realizing that the arrangements adorning their tables should be just as local, seasonal and mindfully grown as the food. When we know where our flowers come from and who grew them, we make a personal connection with the unique, seasonal crops in our own backyard or community farms.

For the past three years, we have been documenting a compelling cultural shift to using locally-grown blooms. We’ve gathered stories of farmers who grow gorgeous flowers, foliage, stems and pods that inspire seasonal arrangements by innovative eco-floral designers, brides and party hosts. These growers are motivated by a belief that local flowers offer consumers a fresher, more uniquely beautiful alternative to imported varieties that have traveled thousands of miles and were treated with fumigants and other chemicals before being allowed to enter U.S. ports. Our storytelling parallels what the culinary world has witnessed for decades – the embrace of local, seasonal and sustainably-grown ingredients.

The first volume of these stories, titled The 50 Mile Bouquet, will be published April 2012. (Here’s a link to our book/blog: www.the50milebouquet.com.)