From the rooftops of Washington D.C. to the schoolyards of New Orleans, the South is home to some of the country’s most innovative urban farms that are helping teach students about healthy eating, giving their cities access to local produce and eliminating blight from their communities.
Birmingham’s Jones Valley Teaching Farm, the South’s most dynamic urban farm, is investing in one of the South’s most beleaguered cities by empowering thousands of young students to change their live. With vegetables.
They’re involved in every part of the process from growing to harvesting and even selling their produce at the downtown farmers market.
It is said that the original parrot tulip was traded for property in Holland over 100 year ago. A property that in today’s standards was worth several hundred thousand dollars! Unfortunately, the plant died within a year, due to a virus which was cause of the unusual blooms.
Today we can enjoy these beautiful flowers for a great deal less, and, from the benefit of hybridization – not virus!
Limes are used for nutrition, as medicine, and, for aesthetically pleasing accents. But, have you noticed? Limes have all but disappeared from your local grocer, corner store and flower markets. Where have all the limes gone!
A case of limes used to cost as little as $30; prices have shot up to as high as $200. And the limes are smaller — golf-ball-size fruit that doesn’t produce much juice.
Mexico is now the world’s largest producer and exporter of limes, and provides some 95 percent of United States supplies. Generally, the lime harvest is smaller and prices are higher from January through March, but in November and December severe rains knocked the blossoms off lime trees in many areas, reducing lime exports to the United States by two-thirds. California, with just 373 acres, is now the largest domestic lime source — but it produces less than 1 percent of national consumption, and its season is late summer and fall, so it’s no help right now.
Other factors may also be squeezing the lime market. Since 2009 a bacterial disease that kills citrus trees, huanglongbing (HLB, also known as “greening”), has spread across many of Mexico’s lime-growing districts.
As a result of high prices and rampant lawlessness in some Mexican regions, criminals who may be linked to drug gangs are plundering fruit from groves and hijacking trucks being used for export.
All of this suggests an uncertain fate for limes, a fruit we’ve taken for granted for so long. This time the crisis is likely to be temporary. As new crops mature, prices should be back down near $30 by June, and there should be plenty of limes this summer.
Oleg Oprisco is a brilliantly talented photographer from Lviv, Ukraine, who creates stunning surreal images of elegant women in fairy-tale or dream-like settings.
There’s one significant difference, however, that sets him apart from other artists who create similar work – Oprisco shoots using old-school film photography.
A chance encounter one rainy afternoon between Carla Bassi of Che Bella Fiori and LaVonne Crawford of Adorations Botanical Artistry blossomed into mutual respect and friendship, and, has now become an exciting new business partnership.
B|Brooks Fine Flowers member Garden Style European Flower Market in Tyler, TX, will pick a lucky winner from those who LIKE and Share their Facebook page this Mother’s Day. Pay it Forward!
Kim Foren of Geranium Lake, OR, a long time B|Brooks member florist, shares some star-studded photos and fun news about a recent event hosted by Grace Hightower and Coffees of Rwanda. This company supports the farmers of Rwanda by buying their coffee, allowing them to create sustainable businesses. The event was also sponsored by Robert De Niro’s new VDKA 6100.
