Finca Filidelphia has been a coffee plantation since 1874, part of a plan to bring the region out of economic hardship at the time. I think before then it was avocados. It sits about 20 minutes outside of Antigua.

Just Birds of Paradise… as a foundation plant…. no biggie.

One thing that surprised me is this whole ta-do about ‘shade grown.’ Turns out it doesn’t mean anything important. Arabica coffee plants (except new engineered varieties) need shade to optimize production. So any farmer wanting to produce the most coffee berries is going to grow their coffee in some shade. How that shade is achieved is where farms differ. And there’s really no ‘shade grown’ certification or stamp of approval to determine which is which.

Some smaller or family run farms can plant coffee into existing forests, preserving the native trees, understory, and multitude of other plants and epiphytes living there. The benefit of this is that it is low-cost for the producer, habitat is most preserved, water use and pesticide needs are minimized, and erosion is minimized because trees aren’t removed. Coffee grown in these situations can be certified ‘Bird Friendly’  The downside is that coffee berry yields are lower because the shade is too dense. Production oriented larger farms clear out the existing forest, and plant trees that can be managed easily to give the coffee plants the optimal light levels. The bummer here is that part of the forest is clear-cut which would lead to erosion. Non-native trees are brought in, and there is the potential for more water use and possibly pesticides/ fungicides. Once matured, these plantations can provide some habitat. The non-shade grown use no trees and is typically high in water and pesticide use, low in habitat viability. These are usually robusta trees instead of arabica bushes.

Filidelfia includes coffee fields in dense forests on the accessible-by-foot hillsides, and managed non-native canopy coffee fields in the more accessible valleys. The trees are from Australia and can take a heavy pruning to achieve the optimum canopy cover percentage. The wood from the trees are sold as firewood and the clippings and branches cover the coffee fields in a rich, thick layer of duff- an excellent mulch. With this much thick duff on the ground. Filidelfia only has to water for a very short period in the hottest months, and doesn’t use pesticides/fungicides. Yay.

And you thought this post wasn’t flower related. Here’s a coffee flower.

That ONE coffee berry is almost ready for picking. Coffee picking is CR-AZY. All arabica plants are hand-picked. As if that weren’t difficult enough, the berries aren’t mature at the same time and each individual berry has to be carefully removed from its tiny petiole, the little branch attaching the berry to the main branch. If this little guy isn’t still attached to the branch once the berry is removed, it will no longer produce berries. Ever. So imagine a coffee berry picker wants to fill their baskets fast (they are paid by weight) and strips all the berries off in one swipe… dead coffee bush. For this reason, the same berry pickers are typically hired year after year. Here they are mainly women since the fellas go off to harvest sugar cane near the coast. The ladies bring their kids, the kids learn to correctly harvest the berries, and they often take over for their parents.

Here’s the inside of a coffee berry. Apparently I had a freak berry (figures) that had three beans. Usually they have two.

The protective casing or parchment of the bean is sweet.

Arabica bushes are finicky and susceptible to rot. Here is where they graft arabica beans onto hardier robusta root stock to make for some stronger plants.

This process is amazingly low tech. I thought grafting necessitated lab coats and furrowed eyebrows…

…but the process only involves a deft, razor-wielding woman and wax.

Here are the arabica bushes with the severely hacked Australian canopy tree. Guatemala is especially well suited to grow good coffee given its elevation, climate, and super rich, volcanic soil. This wood is piled by the road and carted off by truck, or on foot to be sold.

Tillandsia!

Avocados! Did you know there are over 20 different varieties of avocado?

Here’s where the beans go to dry.

Grey beans ready to roast.

Here are three sizes of beans. Before roasting, the beans are sorted. The middle bean is just right, and the other beans are either tossed, or sold cheap. Remember the three beans that were in my berry? Only the one bigger one would have been allowed into this farm’s cup of coffee. If the beans are all about the same size, that ensures that they will all roast consistently, so some won’t impart an over or under-roasted flavor.

This is where beans go to roast.

My Americano. Muy rico.

And here’s a window with a wheel in it. Neato.

And a happy canna. One that probably doesn’t turn to black smoosh in the winter like it does up here.

So in summary, shade-grown schmade grown and go to Antigua, Guatemala.

Here’s some more info on shade grown coffee from Wikipedia

Shade-grown coffee – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This event was held at Pravda Studios on Capitol Hill and was catered by Lisa Dupar Catering. Red Sparrow Photography kindly came by to shoot some pics of our lovely arrangements pre-event.

Intermingled driftwood branches! You really don’t need much else for a striking shape and focal point.

Have I mentioned how much I love Pravda Studios? The light in here is amazing.

We used local water-lily dahlias in lieu of more costly and less available lotus blossoms. Bamboo stands in and outside of the water basin and mimics the Seattle skyline. The bamboo is painted in red enamel.

Half of the tables had the bamboo and half included these shiny black stones. This is the mountain part.

We always have a hard time staying inside the container.

Each table had one black napkin. That was the groom’s idea.

Hooray!
Another great thing about these event arrangements? No waste- well, maybe the candles. Everything is either a reusable, or a compostable.

PS, check out Lola Floral in this season’s issue of Seattle Bride in the “Paper Parade” article.

As it turns out, the entire trip along the 10 or so miles of the Ozette Triangle was a joy. Surprise, surprise. The Ozette Triangle is three segments of looped trail. the first leg through forest and wet meadow, the second along the beach, and the third back up through the forest. Not only did it not rain, the wind was at our backs, the sky was blue (a strange sight anywhere in Washington this time of year), and the temperature was downright pleasant. The trail is easy to walk with not a lot of grade change. Not sure if this beautiful day on the coast was a reward for slogging through 2011 or the forecast for a sunny 2012. Maybe both… probably both.

Deer Fern: Blechnum spicant

I love these happy, floppy ferns.

Confined, sheltered places into large a large open expanse… It has that light through the clouds- choir singing effect. Also one of my favorite design tricks to create a sense of arrival into specialness.

Evergreen Huckleberry: Vaccinium Ovatum

Seaweed is so cool. Unless it’s in the water touching you. Then it’s disgusting and scary. But here, interesting.

Heh, Triangle, get it?

dreamy.

and back up into the forest.

Sneaky mushroom

Soft white underbelly

And the lichen encrusted  bridge brings us back home.

Thank you Cedarbrook Lavender Farm for the stay in your lovely Vacation Rentals.

That is until my beloved bro moved with his family of huggable ragamuffins to Franklin, Tennessee. I’ve been a few times and now love, love, love it.  One of the big delights? The people are so nice. Downright neighborly and helpful. Unbelievably more than keep-to-yourself- observe-and-assume Seattleites. Another delight? Decorating is kind of a big deal.  Here are a few decorations that caught my eye while walking down Main Street and around downtown Franklin.

Gallery 202 has an amazing display featuring luxurious swathes of fabric, and simple evergreen garlands adorned with lemon chains and antlers. Beautiful.

I squealed when I saw these velvet pumpkins with real stems at Avec Moi.

I love the comfy elegant feel of Lulu with this leaf garland made from old books, and a woven felt christmas tree.

This fruit wreath adorned someone’s house just outside of town. So lovely!

This little experiment is for an idea I will be showing a March bride this year. We’re trying to keep costs down and thought maybe an inexpensive way to get a lot more interest would be to dye the water varying shades of purple. She likes aubergine, but in the interest of testing some samples, we’ve done some cooler violets, too. I found all my colors in the baking section of the grocery store.

First experiment (above)- shorty wine glass is one drop of purple food coloring.

To the left, one drop of blue is added… then two drops of blue on the far left.

To the right of the shorty is one drop of violet and one drop of red.- Barfola!

let’s switch to pink. To the right of Barfola is one drop of violet and one drop of pink. I like where this is going.

Next is Two drops of violet, one drop of pink and the far right is three violets and one pink.

This is just one drop of violet, one drop of pink, and one drop of blue- mixed with increasing volumes of water. Very nice.

I liked the pink violet combo- Here is an expanded spectrum each with one drop of increasing violet. (there is actually much more variation in the darks than is seen here).

We’ll have to incorporate candles or lighting trays.

Very nice.

Ubermind:

Dynamic, young, edgy- How about we use some unusual shapes and unexpected additions

Innovative, resourceful- How about some smartly up-cycled elements.

Young and bold- um… chili peppers?

Smart and creative- All this dynamism could easily get away from us, so let’s make sure the creative impulses are wrapped in an orderly, measured way that conveys some elegance and organization.

Seattle- Something tells me there’s a lot of facial hair and bike riders over in Ubie Land. Probably weekly meetings are at coffee shops and instead of costco pastries, they have organic, vegan donuts in their conference room- Great effort has been spent to make their conference room less conference-room-like. It probably is very open and friendly with semi reclining furniture and tactile things to play with. (Mr Potato Head?) They probably have a resident Beagle or Blood Hound. Definitely a Blood Hound… named Blossom. (sigh) so definitely some local/ organic flowers are in order.

Hooray!

The curly fabric is recycled rags. Peppers are from the Pike Place Market.

Wahoo!

It helps when your walk-about is around a picturesque mountain river.

Here’s a photographic account… Also, it’s also kind of a study of steel blue, rust, and desaturated orange colors in nature.

Cowlitz River?

two of my favorite beards.

Why so sad rock? It's Thanksgiving.

Things growing.

steely blue and desaturated orange- the perfect colors of fall.

fuzzy guy.

lichen... so pretty.

another lichen?

more lichen.

evergreen?

]]> http://flowerbrained.com/2011/11/30/how-to-make-room-for-more-food/feed/ 0 Flower-Brained mountain river2 mountain river beards unhappy rock things growing rain on rocks pool orange rock mushroom muddy rocks moss lichen3 lichen2 lichen leaf gold fern dougs mountain river3 http://flowerbrained.com/2011/11/23/what-are-you-making-turkey-flowers/ http://flowerbrained.com/2011/11/23/what-are-you-making-turkey-flowers/#comments Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:07:53 +0000 Emily Ellen Anderson http://flowerbrained.com/?p=826 ]]> Have you ever experienced something like this? You are surrounded by materials that are just full of potential to be a gazillion different things. Your brain chooses a direction and your hands take off- adjusting and remaking as you fly. The creativity is so thick you have to stop to smear it off your glasses. Finally, you rest. The fruit of your labor is glorious. It’s simple and clear but has a little of something extra to reward those who look closely. It glows. You stand back and say, “It is good. My people will enjoy it.”

You hold it high and present it to those who wished it into existence, and they say…

“Oh, it looks like a turkey.”

(sigh)

Not a turkey… a glorious flower arrangement.

“Oh, look at it’s pretty tail.”

Not a tail. trailing gloriousness.

(sigh)

And here it is.

Front and Back

and

closeup

Now if there’s anything I learned in sculpture school, I learned this. My intention doesn’t really matter. People are going to interpret it how they are going to interpret. Might as well embrace that.

How would you like THIS on your Thanksgiving table?

And let me take a moment to give thanks to the technology that generated so many search results with this as the input: Pilgrim Riding a Turkey.

As my pilgrim, I chose this patriotic chubby kid.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First is… I got this.

My old boss told me once that I don’t like being wrong. He was incorrect. I can care less if I’m wrong, but I am very skeptical of those convinced they are right. I’ve found that I’ve got a pretty tuned tweak-o-meter. Some people call it intuition. Mostly it’s just the observation of a lack of a sufficient information and a whole lot of presupposition. Combine that with an innate desire to fill in the blanks, figure out why something is or how it works,  and a brain that can pick a creative solution out of a big pile of wtf?- you’ve got a puh-ritty fierce scrabble opponent.

In the past however, I’ve suffered from expert complex. That somewhere out there is a bit of information that somebody has who knows better than me that I should listen to. I’ve convinced myself that the solution I came up with is underwhelming compared to the potential that this all-seeing master can do. Turns out… not quite so. This has lead to money spent on workshops and education, time wasted waiting until I felt I’d gained enough expertise, and numerous “I already knew that” thumps to the noggin.

Turns out… I’m probably more right on than not. And if I’m not, I’m pretty sure I know how to get there. And it usually starts here… with a sketch.

Brain plus Action With Hands and Feet plus Malleable Parts Equals OH YEAH!

Second thing: Creativity is a happy kind of a thing.

It is not a happy place kind of a thing, but something that thrives when you are doing pretty well in the happy, healthy, safe departments. It’s mostly about action. It’s all about freeing up, giving space and time mentally and physically, and moving your body parts. Not about stopping and judging, more about moving through and adjusting.

Any wise bits you’ve learned in this last DOOZY of a year?

Run by some of the same peeps that run the Tacoma Wedding Walk in February, this event was at the Thea Foss Working Waterfront Maritime Museum. When draped off, basically like a big beautiful warehouse with a ceiling that does wonderful things when drenched in light. This was the premiere for this event and it was magical. That means next year will be mind-blowing. Lola partnered with Sensorium Event Productions on this space and had help from Trendy Event Rentals and Olalla Production Solutions (do look into them).

Our space was a little challenging. It was skinny and long, and centered in the entire event space. Our theme was to have a groom’s side and a bride’s side- or a more masculine side and a softer side. Guests would walk into the space and see our spot first. So it kinda had to be cool- and somehow coherent. Lola pulled the two spaced together with two tables mirrored and offset into the center of the ‘booth’. Gobs of purple fabric was billowed into a bustle toward the fiery side, and the fiery side, billowed lava-like folds, and gobs of red roses petals toward the soft side.

They were further pulled together with a backdrop made of paper garlands. Super rad and easy.

Each side had its own custom made chandelier (ehem, by yours truly). They were my favorite parts. The drippy fabric chandelier that looks like a sea creature is actually a grey to white ombre effect. A little lost here, but in the future I will use a bolder color transition for a more successful effect. The best part for you? We are expanding our inventory and color choices for these chandeliers to rent to your for your event. Ditto for the fiery branch mass that also looks like a sea creature.

And on the purple side we had multi height arrangements as well as low arrangements on tables and cocktail tables. Flowers included lush, bold orchids, roses, ranunculus, beautyberry, amaranthus, fringe tipped tulips, dahlias, purple anemone, and dusty miller.

The groom’s side? Textural, moody and fiery. And this crazy, fiery mass of branches.

Flowers for the fellas included parrot tulips, burgundy gerberas, ranunculus, and red garden roses.