Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The best Anniversary dinner ever.... :)

Last week, (March 6th to be exact) I got to celebrate 
28 years with this guy:)
Now usually he plans a lovely date for the two of us,
but this time I knew exactly where I wanted to go:)


I saw an advertisement for this Field to Vase dinner happening here in Carp and 
it just so happened to be the day before our Anniversary!
Score!!
I mean, I love food and I LOVE flowers so
this just sounded like heaven!


And oh my... it was! This dinner took place at Westland Orchids.
The table for 100 was set right down the middle of a greenhouse full
of hundreds of orchids.
AMAZING.... !!


So what I thought was going to be dinner of locally grown food 
amongst gorgeous flowers, ended up being such an eye opener for me.
The true meaning in all this is how important it is for all of
us to understand just where our flowers come from!!


Did you know....

California produces nearly 80% of all USA grown flowers?
Over 40 varieties in over 30 nurseries are grown here in Santa Barbara county alone!
The roots of some of these California flower farmers run 
generations deep!!


The family that owns and operates the Westland Orchids here in Carp have
been growing beauty for over 4 generations, the first starting out in Holland:)

When we walked into the Gerbera daisy greenhouse it took my breath away.
This picture just doesn't do it justice I tell ya!!


What I found astounding while on this tour is that while California
grows so many of America's flowers,
85% of Americans have no idea where the flowers they buy come from,
resulting in 80% of all flowers sold in the U.S. are imported!!
But... when given the knowledge and information, nearly everyone
chose to buy locally grown flowers!!

Who knew???


It was heartbreaking to hear these statistics coming from a flower farmer who clearly
had a passion for what he does!!
For the first time in my life it put a real human behind the bunches of
flowers I buy on nearly a weekly basis.


I try to be so mindful of eating local food, knowing where it 
comes from and all, but never once thought
about flowers in that way!


As we went to sit down, we were told it was open seating and to 
just find a seat.
Well it just so happened that I ended up with the best seat
in the house!!!


I sat next to Lane. I had to ask him his name like 30 minutes after talking
to him because he had me at Tulip Farmer.
I heard nothing else.
I later found out he was the past chair for the California
Cut Flower Commission and he grows all kinds of
loveliness on all his farms across California.

I told him besides having an ice cream shop,
I'm pretty sure he has the best job ever.
You know those tulips you buy at Trader Joe's?
Yeah, those are his:)


Well Lane taught me how important it is for us to look
for the California Grown label on the flowers we buy.
Because while they are grown in California,
the are AMERICA'S flowers!!

Another farmer at our table told us to look for the
lady bug sticker, those are from Carpinteria!!


This dinner just made such an impact on me! These hard working
farmers do their part in growing such beauty, we should in
turn do ours.
Look for the label above on all your flowers from local shops
to grocery stores. 


And if that dinner was fabulous enough, we got to take home
a vase of those beautiful locally grown flowers:)


Does this dinner sound like something you'd love??

Well if you just so happen to be anywhere near Carlsbad, CA on April 15, 2015
the next Field to Vase is going to be in a ranunculus field....
Like they are literally carving out a space in the middle of the flowers
for the dinner table!!
I'm going to try my darndest to get to that one!!
I mean come on! can you even imagine the beauty????

If you can't make that one because you're frantically doing
your taxes or something, well you're in luck! there are others:)
More info here:)

7 comments:

  1. WOW!! How beautiful, informative and fun. I love Gerbera Dasies and Ranunculus.

    ~ Happy Anniversary ~

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  2. hey, fellow cali girl, shall we go to the next one together? ???? what fun to sit next to the tulip guy - and who woulda thought? gives me another perspective to TJ's. i love orchids..have some me self that are very sentimental....and heck, nothing gets better than cali grown...can we give a what what???? just sayin'....

    and ....

    happy anniversary to you cutie patooties!!!!

    xxoo

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  3. I'll be checking flower labels now. I was grown in California, and that's good enough for me! Thanks for this great informative post.

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  4. That looks so amazing! The food on the menu sounds yummy too!! My hubby and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary this September..where does the time go..?
    Happy anniversary :)

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  5. Bought flowers this week from Trader Joe's!!!
    Terry in Milwaukee

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  6. Very interesting, I never knew to look for the California sticker! I usually buy my flowers from Trader Joe's so I'm happy to hear they are american grown.

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  7. First anniversary dinner flower looks fabulous and I liked those flower decorations too! Thanks for these photographs. On my birthday I also hosted a fun dinner party at my backyard and had original flower decorations. I had used online services of Bloom Flowers shop and was really impressed with their services.

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