farm-to-table flowers

last weekend I had a ball designing centerpieces for a party with a 'farm-to-table' theme.

carrot

the host thought of the theme when she saw my farmers market booth at the westport farmers market.

she found vintage seed packets to use as table numbers and coordinated the seating chart accordingly, assigning guests to corresponding vegetable tables.

design by Kurt Gibson, Inergy Group

my challenge was to design rustic farm-to-table centerpieces integrating vegetables into the flowers.

lettuce & corn

eggplant

tomato

I shopped my thursday westport market for veggies, and raided my neighbors' patch for more. I felt bad snipping their first cherry tomatoes of the season! my neighbor at the happy hour market in willimantic on friday had the most beautiful greens: two kinds of kale and robust, sturdy collards. I knew I wanted to use edible greens as the base of the arrangements.

sweet pea

I snipped sweet peas, three kinds of basil, marjoram, oregano, fennel, dill, mint and two kinds of parsley from my own garden to use amongst the bounty of flowers.

radish

I wasn't planning on color coordinating flowers to vegetables until I started playing. the blocks of color helped to anchor the bright, airy room.

squash

it's so amazing to design when you have such an extraordinary selection of materials at the peak of the season. pure bliss!