by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 29, 2014 | flowers, garden show, nurseries, orchids, san francisco, spring, sunset
I’m still getting used to the newish location at the San Mateo Event Center, and while we felt the absence of a few designers and vendors this year, there was still plenty to see and buy at the 2014 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show. As usual, I snapped iPhone pics of everything that caught my eye as we wandered the grounds. Our visit was on Friday. Fridays are a good day to visit because the show is up and running, but you avoid the weekend crowds. The weekends get some of the best speakers and seminars, though, so it’s a trade-off.
It was around lunch time when we arrived, so we decided to fuel up first. We scoped out the food vendors, which included everything from kebabs to teriyaki, and decided to go with Indian food. Cheryl had the samosas and I ordered vegetable pakoras, which I was told contained no wheat.
With my newly discovered food allergies, I’d hoped the vendors would post allergy info on their menus. For the most part, they didn’t. Nor was I able to find this info on the website ahead of time. The pakoras were delish and not overly filling. I’m hoping they were dairy-free as well, but when you’re standing in line with people waiting behind you, you can’t spend forever grilling the counter person. I greatly appreciate restaurants that take the time to let patrons know which menu items are gluten-free, dairy-free (vegan), vegetarian, etc.
M’lunch!
Check out m’slideshow!
I exhibited my usual self-restraint at the vendor booths, but did come home with a wee haul.
M’haul!
By the time we left the show, it was just about the worst time a person would want to cross the Bay Bridge. I decided, in what was either a stroke of genius or complete madness, to take the scenic route home via the Golden Gate bridge and Napa. Well, it didn’t turn out to be a time-saver, but it was lovely and allowed us to meander through some cool neighborhoods over by SFSU. Traffic was so slow, we were also able to observe the native vegetation and identify an unfamiliar tree. The alternate route also afforded me the opportunity to take Cheryl, a native Sacramentan, on her first trip across the Golden Gate bridge!
We stopped for dinner at the Oxbow Market Pica Pica on the way back to Sacramento. Everything at Pica Pica is gluten-free and they will make it dairy-free as well.
Everything we make is 100% GLUTEN FREE, because our core ingredients –corn, yuca, plantains and taro root – are naturally so. We also offer vegetarian, vegan and non-dairy options with the same slowly-simmered, home-cooked flavor of our traditional offerings.
Respectful of nature, Pica Pica favors local and sustainable ingredients wherever possible and serves its take-out menu in 100% biodegradable containers. – Pica Pica
M’dinner!
If you have a chance to check out Oxbow Public Market, do. It’s an amazing enclosed food bazaar, with everything from oysters to ice cream. There’s often live music and it’s very family-friendly and offers ample convenient parking.
All in all, it was a fun excursion and we look forward to next year’s F&G Show. I do hope the missing vendors return. We missed seeing B&D Lilies, Annie’s Annuals & Perennials, the “silk scarf lady”, Patsy’s Pottery, Sunset Publishing, and several more artists and plant vendors. We also missed the scope and caliber of the designs from the Cow Palace era. It’ll be interesting to see how the show, under new ownership, evolves. Have to wait another year!
by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 25, 2013 | bulbs, fall, flowers, landscaping, pansies, tulips
I finally dragged my lazy ass out front to plant my tulips. They’d been chilling in the fridge since arriving from Colorblends several weeks ago. Had they been in there for the full six weeks? I don’t know. All I know is, we got a break in the rain and Thanksgiving is Thursday and I need room in my fridge for holiday food, not tulips.
“What? I thought these were shallots! They’re in the stuffing!”
First, I dug the planting hole. I skipped the bulb auger this time because I had a hundred tulips to plant and realized I should just dig out the entire swath of soil along the front edge of the bed. I actually only got ninety-four of them in the ground. That’s because my basil is still growing and I can’t… won’t… pull it until I make several more batches of dairy-free pesto.
I’ll plant the leftover bulbs in a container. As happens to me sometimes, strange things happened while I was out front. A homeless man walked by and turned back to ask me the time. I gave that to him, but then he… clearly not a neighbor and clearly emboldened by my politeness… asked if I know someone named “Laura” who lives on my street. Dude? Don’t. Even.
“Not at all.”
I replied in a voice that encouraged him to keep walking. When creepy drifter guy was gone, police helicopters started hovering over my street, announcing something from the loudspeaker that I couldn’t quite make out. I think it was about a missing boy. Then a police car cruised by, circled back and then took off. I don’t think the two unsettling events were connected; just random strangeness that punctuated what was otherwise a lovely fall day of bulb planting. Usually, my neighborhood is quite idyllic.
As the afternoon sun waned, the soil came out, the bulbs went in, the soil went back in, the pansies went in, my back began to groan. I didn’t add any granular fertilizer to the soil, so I will hit the pansies with liquid fertilizer in a couple weeks; these bulbs contain all the nutrients they need in order to bloom.
I decided to plant a flat of ‘Dynamite Wine Flash’ pansies over my bulbs. Meg and Michael at the nursery helped me settle on that color over ‘Antique Shades’, which I also liked. The flat sat untouched for a week since my mind was pulled in other directions by other distractions. You can tell by the roots that they needed to go into the ground… stat. It feels good to have tulip planting out of the way. Now we get to sit back and wait for the show.
Guarded within the old red wall’s embrace,
Marshalled like soldiers in gay company,
The tulips stand arrayed. Here infantry
Wheels out into the sunlight. — Amy Lowell, A Tulip Garden.
by angela@diggingbliss | Oct 18, 2013 | annuals, flowers, Fredriks, greenhouse, nurseries, nursery, perennials, recycling, vegetables, veggies
Wednesday, I was lucky enough to attend Fredriks Nursery’s “Customer Appreciation Day”. Since Fredriks is a wholesale nursery, its customers are retail nursery owners and employees from all over California. Audrey and Michael and I… who are beginning to feel like The Three Nursery Musketeers after our recent outings for Talini’s… made the one-hour drive from Sacramento to Ripon. Ripon, CA is a small town south of Manteca, CA.
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This was a great opportunity to see the growing operations of one of our primary suppliers of bedding plants, vegetable starts, gallon plants, mixed pots and hanging baskets. Upon entering the grounds, we were quite simply wowed. Fredriks is big. Fredriks is immaculate. Fredriks is well run. Fredricks’ employees are extremely personable. On top of all that… it’s chock full of horticultural color. Their thoughtful attention to detail at this event was impressive, and made us think a lot about how we do business.
We enjoyed our visit and the opportunity to meet everyone and see the greenhouses. It definitely helped to reinforce the reasons we carry Fredriks plants at Talini’s. On the retail end, we get so busy that we probably don’t take as much time as we should to become better acquainted with our suppliers. It was also really great to get a sneak peek at some upcoming plant varieties that will be showing up at local nurseries in Spring of 2014!
The Wake-Up Coffee
We had our choice of cookies, coffee and smoothies to start our day off right. Audrey enjoyed the cookies and we all enjoyed the coffee; I appreciated that they had soy milk as an alternative creamer but had to skip the cookies since I’m gluten- and dairy-free (wah!).
The Greenhouse Tour!
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