Debra Prinzing

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Episode 678: Slow Flowers Visits France (Part 2) – a tour of Les Singulières Ferme Florale with flower farmer Coralie Vinet

Wednesday, August 28th, 2024

We know that there’s been widespread embrace of the Slow Flowers Movement across the world, especially in countries that have seen their flower production move overseas. While the concept of Slow Flowers started right here, the term and philosophy have been adopted and embraced worldwide – and we definitely take credit! It’s inspiring to meet folks across the globe who are bringing local flowers to their communities – and today, you’ll meet Coralie Vinet, an organic flower farmer and farmer-florist in Western France, whose farm I recently visited.

Last week, you joined my visit to the magical place called Mill on the Rock with Tara Kolla, as we discussed her journey from owning Los Angeles-based Silver Lake Farm to her idyllic destination venue in Western France.

A day on a French Flower Farm
A day on a French Flower Farm, with Debra, Tara Kolla, and Coralie Vinet of Les Singulières Ferme Floral
Coralie Vinet and Debra Prinzing
Coralie Vinet and Debra Prinzing

And this week, I’m sharing the other stop on that trip – to visit to Les Singulières Ferme Florale and a conversation with organic flower farmer Coralie Vinet.

Floral design by Coralie Vignet (c) ELISEGD
Floral design by Coralie Vignet (c) ELISEGD

After fifteen years as a florist working in various craft shops in the Grand-Ouest region of France, Coralie returned to the origins of plants, driven by her human and ecological convictions. She created “Les Singulières” a flower farm in April 2022. Now in her third season, Coralie writes this on her website:

Flowers by Coralie Vinet of Les Singulieres
Flowers by Coralie Vinet of Les Singulières

“We cultivate seasonal organic flowers in the Vendée climate, respecting the soil and its biodiversity. Our production technique has a low ecological impact as we produce unique, imperfect and poetic flowers. We offer farm bouquets, naturally composed of wild flowers. Inspired by SLOW FLOWERS, our floral production respects the environment and its resources.”

Floral Art Workshop at Mill on the Rock
Floral Art Workshop at Mill on the Rock

In this interview, you’ll also hear the voice of Tara Kolla, who both introduced me to Coralie, she also provided French-to-English translation for the interview. Let’s jump right in and get started – and meet Coralie and Tara.

You’ll also find links to details about the upcoming Flower Art Workshop, taking place at Mill on the Rock on September 28th.

The session includes lessons in hand-held bouquet-making, wreath creation and vase composition. Lunch and snacks are included, plus tips for growing your own as well as a flower foraging as you are invited to wander through Tara’s garden at Mill on the Rock. 

If you’re in Europe, it’s just a day’s trip to attend – and I encourage you to check it out!

Find and follow Corlie on Instagram and Facebook


Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 750 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.

Royal Anthos Lily Bulbs

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you to the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative committed to providing the very best the Pacific Northwest has to offer in cut flowers, foliage and plants. The Growers Market’s mission is to foster a vibrant marketplace that sustains local flower farms and provides top-quality products and service to the local floral industry. Visit them at seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com.

And thank you to Longfield Gardens, which provides home gardeners with high quality flower bulbs and perennials. Their online store offers plants for every region and every season, from tulips and daffodils to dahlias, caladiums and amaryllis. Check out the full catalog at Longfield Gardens at longfield-gardens.com.


Slow Flowers Podcast Logo with flowers, recorder and mic

I’m so glad you joined us 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


Debra in the Slow Flowers Cutting Garden
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography

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; Gaena; Rue Severine
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

Episode 677: Slow Flowers Visits France to catch up with former Los Angeles flower farmer Tara Kolla of Mill on the Rock

Wednesday, August 21st, 2024
Tara Kolla, former LA flower farmer (Silver Lake Farms) and now owner of Mill on the Rock in Western France
Urban flower farmer Tara Kolla, owner of Silver Lake Farms in Los Angeles.

When she owned and operated Silver Lake Farms, Tara Kolla was one of Los Angeles’s pioneering urban flower growers.

She helped change legislation to approve backyard flower farming and was a popular vendor at Hollywood Farmers’ Market.

In 2016, Tara and her husband dramatically reimagined their lives and moved to the La Rochelle region of France. They bought a 18th century stone millhouse and poured just as much love and care into its renovations as Tara had once devoted to growing flowers.

Earlier this month, I visited Mill on the Rock and today, I’m sharing a beautiful conversation to catch up listeners on the next chapter of Tara’s floral story.

This iconic photo is showing up everywhere and I am so lucky it's mine! So symbolic of American Grown. Design and truck: Tara Kolla, Silver Lake Farms (Los Angeles) (c) Debra Prinzing
This iconic photo is showing up everywhere and I am so lucky it’s mine! So symbolic of slow, locally-grown flowers. Design and truck: Tara Kolla, Silver Lake Farms (Los Angeles) (c) Debra Prinzing

Today’s episode is a very special one as we reconnect with former Los Angeles organic flower farmer Tara Kolla – consider this a new installment of our collection of “where are they now?” follow-up shows!

Fans of the Slow Flowers Movement first met Tara in 2012 in the pages of The 50 Mile Bouquet, the little book that launched so much awareness around local, seasonal, and sustainable flowers. I featured Tara in a chapter called “Flower Patch Politics,” profiling Silver Lake Farms, her urban, organic food and floral enterprise. Hers is an inspiring story of transitioning from a career in PR and Marketing in 2003 to become a farmer growing a diversified mix of flowers, organic greens, and vegetables. Tara’s story not only wowed our readers, but wowed her customers across the City of Angels. She became a passionate advocate who revived a 1940s-era “truck gardening” ordinance that neighbors insisted only permitted residential gardeners to sell the excess food they grew – NOT their flowers.

We captured Tara’s story with photography by David Perry, and I’ll share a PDF of the full chapter as a bonus in today’s show notes for you to download and read. In April 2014, Tara also appeared as a guest on the Slow Flowers Podcast, Episode 314.

By then, I was living in Seattle, so I managed to stay in touch with Tara long-distance. She visited us in Seattle once; I visited her in Los Angeles; IG was just taking off, so of course we followed one another – and then, to my surprise, in 2016, Tara posted that she was moving to France! I was enthralled by her story – seemingly ripped from the pages of Peter Mayle’s bestseller, A Year in Provence, about the renovations of an ancient edifice and a new life built around it.

Mill on the Rock potager
Mill on the Rock potager
Roses at Mill on the Rock
Roses at Mill on the Rock

If you followed Tara’s Silver Lake Farms account on IG, you also saw news of her transition to Mill on the Rock. Today, you’re in for a treat because I visited Tara when I was in France earlier this month – and we recorded a laughter-filled episode that continues her amazing tale.

Floral Art Workshop at Mill on the Rock
Floral Art Workshop at Mill on the Rock

Flowers are (of course) part of the story, and Tara’s upcoming event at Mill on the Rock, a retreat venue in France’s La Rochelle region, is at the heart of it. Learn more about the upcoming Flower Art Workshop, taking place at Mill on the Rock on September 28th.

The session includes lessons in hand-held bouquet-making, wreath creation and vase composition. Lunch and snacks are included, plus tips for growing your own as well as a flower foraging as you are invited to wander through Tara’s garden at Mill on the Rock. If you’re in Europe, it’s just a day’s trip to attend – and I encourage you to check it out!

Stay tuned for next week’s Episode 678 – you’ll want to watch and listen to Slow Flowers Visits France Part Two, and tour Les Singulieres, a French flower farm that Tara took me to. I can’t wait to share it with you!


Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 750 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.

Royal Anthos Lily Bulbs

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you to Store It Cold, creators of the revolutionary CoolBot, a popular solution for flower farmers, studio florists and farmer-florists. Save $1000s when you build your own walk-in cooler with the CoolBot and an air conditioner. Don’t have time to build your own? They also have turnkey units available. Learn more at storeitcold.com.

Thank you to Red Twig Farms. Based in New Albany, Ohio, Red Twig Farms is a family-owned farm specializing in peonies, daffodils, tulips and branches, a popular peony-bouquet-by-mail program and their Spread the Hope Campaign where customers purchase 10 tulip stems for essential workers and others in their community. Learn more at redtwigfarms.com.


Slow Flowers Podcast Logo with flowers, recorder and mic

I’m so glad you joined us 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


Debra in the Slow Flowers Cutting Garden
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography

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; Gaena; Le Marais
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