Episode 629: Celebrating our 10th Anniversary! From the Slow Flowers Podcast Archives – an Encore of Episode 445 with Mara Tyler of Pennsylvania’s The Farm at Oxford
September 27th, 2023
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I hope you have been enjoying our 10-year retrospective as I have. It has been so fun to reconnect with one of our guests dating back to the Slow Flowers Podcast’s first episode in 2013, and pick up where I left off with one of our amazing Slow Flowers Members who appeared as a guest on the show.
This week, we turn the dial back to early March 2020, literally on the eve of the Covid 19 Pandemic. I interviewed Philadelphia farmer-florist Mara Tyler of The Farm at Oxford about her diversified floral enterprise and the word Covid did not occur in our conversation a single time. Just days (moments?) later, our lives changed dramatically. And in many ways, we still have not shed the ominous presence of the pandemic.
But the seasons continue to roll along, as witnessed with this past week’s Fall Equinox, the continued blooming of our floral crops and cutting gardens, and the awareness we all have of our dependence on nature and a healthy planet.
I re-listened to my 2020 interview with Mara last weekend, while walking along the Puget Sound shoreline. The earbuds delivered such an inspiring conversation—I was delighted to listen to Mara’s story once again and I can’t wait to share it with you as an encore episode in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Slow Flowers Podcast. I’ll be hosting an IG Live conversation with Mara today, September 27th, so check it out @slowflowerssociety – I’m excited to ask Mara to share an update about The Farm at Oxford with us. You’ll find all of my Slow Flowers Podcast 10th anniversary Live Chats in the archives there.
In This Week’s News
As soon as I wrap up my IG Live with Mara, I’m heading to the airport to pick up a very special Slow Flowers guest – Shane Connolly arrives today. We have eagerly anticipated Shane’s arrival from the UK to lecture about Sustainable Floristry, his recent commission to flower the Coronation at Westminster Abbey, and his seasonal approach to design. Shane will lecture this coming Friday, September 29th in Seattle and tickets are still available. Shane will be demonstrating several floral pieces after his lecture, and we are ready to be inspired.
Both of the weekend workshops are sold out, but I promise to post images of some of the beautiful florals that Shane and his students create over at our IG feed, and we will publish a recap story with photos in the fall issue of Slow Flowers Journal – stay tuned.
Thank you to our Sponsors!
This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 850 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
Thank you to our lead sponsor, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.
Thank you to Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnysseeds.com.
Thank you to Mayesh Wholesale Florist. Family-owned since 1978, Mayesh is the premier wedding and event supplier in the U.S. and we’re thrilled to partner with Mayesh to promote local and domestic flowers, which they source from farms large and small around the U.S. Learn more at mayesh.com.
Thank you to The Gardener’s Workshop, which offers a full curriculum of online education for flower farmers and farmer-florists. Online education is more important this year than ever, and you’ll want to check out the course offerings at thegardenersworkshop.com.
I love all this floral goodness and I am so happy you joined me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than one million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too.
If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
Music credits:
Drone Pine; Chymique; Turning on the Lights; Gaena
by Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue
Lovely
by Tryad
http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentals
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
In The Field
audionautix.com