May 1, 2011

Have Woodland Meadow, Will Travel

Last Friday, Silverado Vineyards hosted one of the four "distinctive, multi-vintner, multi-course dinners", to mark the beginning of the Stags Leap District's V2V Weekend. Prepared by Chef Sarah Scott, co-author with Connie Green of The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Foods and Recipes, the meal featured foraged Napa ingredients such as elderflowers, chanterelles, fennel and black walnuts.  (It smelled amazing . . . I suspect butter was also involved.)

I had the pleasure of designing appropriately wild centerpieces to match, which incorporated calla lilies, maidenhair fern, thistle, and oak from Napa, foxgloves and passion vine from Petaluma, lilac from Stockton, and Icelandic poppies and sweet peas from Half Moon Bay. Right. Up. My. Alley.





 Here's trusty Buck, packed to the gills with flowers- a veritable woodland meadow on wheels.

4 comments:

  1. Adore your flowers, but also adore your brick and broom in the back of your car!! Transportation of flowers continues to cause my pulse to race - so I have decided to forego any attempts to transport paper wrapped bouquets in water, I drive so slowly I am a danger on the roads!

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  2. You've made calla lilies look WILDFLOWERY!!! I am so inspired.

    When I was a little girl in So. Cal. folks had white callas growing in their gardens everywhere and we used to pick them and whack them on the sidewalk until the heads came off. I shudder to think now.

    Beautiful photos Jaime.

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  3. Shelly just made me laugh out loud.

    Your arrangements are so perfect-ly you.

    xo Jane

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  4. Whoa, sorry for the delayed response, everyone! It's gettin' busy here ; ).

    Belinda- I know how you feel! Luckily the road to town from my place is SO winding that no one can really go that fast, so I feel a little protected from getting rear-ended. Oh, and do you see the blanket in there? It's a recent improvement to absorb spills ; ).

    Shelley- Whoa, you're a SoCal girl??? My worldview has shifted.

    About mistreating callas - apparently it is more widespread than a florist likes to think. My mother, who grew up in Berkeley, associates them with abandoned lots and neglected gardens, and so has banished them from ours. She was scandalized by how much people paid for them out in Boston . .. The ones for these arrangements may or may not have been foraged from (a friend's) ditch.

    Jane- Aww shucks. And ditto on the effect of Shelley's comment ; ).

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