| The Flower Post... A newsletter filled with informative gardening tips, recipes, store specials and more Brought to you by Orchids & Ivy The Flower Post |
| Learning about Valentines Day |
| Volume 2, Issue 2 February 9, 2010 |
| Inside this issue: Headline Learning About Valentines Day 1 & 5 THE FLOWER MARKET 3-4 February Special 2 February Recipe 2 The Funny Corner 3 FREE GREETING CARD OFFER 5 FREE ROSE OFFER 2 |
| Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France. While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. |
| February Store Special I GIVE YOU MY ALL |
| Give love, beauty, color to someone you love on Valentines Day $54.99 WE WILL BE OPEN SUNDAY FEB. 14, 2010 |
| February Recipe Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque |
| Yearning It is bitter cold, all is white and grey, We haven’t seen the sun much these last few days, I sit by the fire just trying to evade the chill, Longing for warmer days and Spring blooms and still, I wish to see some color to feel the joy that it brings To hear the little birds chirping the cheerful songs they sing, I yearn for the moment I see bits of green peaking up from under the soil, The crocuses, the daffodils, the hyacinths awaking from their winter toil, I wait anxiously at my window for a robin to visit there, Knowing that the days will soon turn to summers without a care, Yes, I yearn for these gifts of color and signs of life to show the way, Beyond the frigid and desolate landscape that I see today Karla Perretta |
| 1 1/2 pound(s) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and quartered 4 1/2 pound(s) (about 3 medium) butternut squash, each cut lengthwise in half and seeded 1 large (about 10 ounces) onion, peeled and cut into quarters 3 tablespoon(s) olive oil, 1/4 cup(s) packed brown sugar 3/4 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon(s) ground cardamom teaspoon(s) salt, 1/2 teaspoon(s) ground pepper 3 can(s) (14 to 14 1/2 ounces each, or 5 1/4 cups) chicken broth Plain low-fat yogurt (optional), Fresh chives and coarsely ground pepper, for garnish Directions Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Divide apples, squash (cut sides up), and onion between two 15 1/2- by 10 1/2-inch jelly-roll pans or shallow large roasting pans; drizzle with oil. Toss onions and apples to coat with oil. In cup, mix brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle spice mixture over ingredients in pans. Place pans on 2 oven racks; roast 1 hour or until very tender and golden, rotating pans between upper and lower racks halfway through roasting time. Cool slightly. With spoon, scoop out flesh from squash halves and transfer to medium bowl. Discard any dark, tough bottom layers from onion quarters. Cut onion and apples into large chunks. In blender at low speed, blend one-third of roasted vegetable mixture with 1 can broth until pureed. Pour pureed mixture into 4-quart saucepan. Repeat 2 more times with remaining vegetable mixture and broth. Add 2 cups water to pureed mixture; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors. (If not serving soup right away, spoon into large bowl; cover and refrigerate up to 2 days. Or ladle soup into freezer-safe containers and freeze up to 1 month. Thaw in refrigerator overnight; to serve, reheat over medium heat.) To serve, ladle soup into individual soup bowls and swirl some yogurt into each if you like. Garnish with chives and sprinkle with pepper |
| Going Green with A New Flower Market |
| Lots of people have gone green. It used to mean green with envy, jealousy but now it means something entirely different. It means that we are taking notice of our health by eating less processed foods, reducing our waste, limiting our usage of Mother Earth’s resources and doing our part to ensure that our children and grandchildren still have a healthy and bountiful earth to live on. To me, it means making changes and looking at things differently than we have before, challenging our views on things and our way of life. I have been wondering what I could do to change some of my ways to make a difference both personally in my life and professionally with my business. There are the obvious things like recycling, limiting our travel to reduce gas and oil use, eating differently with more organic and less processed foods and supporting with our purchases companies who go out of their way to follow the same ideals. I thought however, to look to European flower shops to see how they conserve their resources. They have been a great model to look at because they reuse everything from scrap flowers to wire, branches, you name it and they figure out a way to reuse it or find a new use for it to limit what is being thrown away. They choose glass containers that customers bring back in to refill with beautiful hand-tied bouquets, they wrap in paper and raffia instead of plastic and items that don’t decompose. They don’t generally use flower coolers they make mini flower markets in their stores or outside their front doors to encourage their customers to touch and smell the beauty of flowers. Here the perception of fresh is that it must be cold, if the flowers our out of refrigeration they must be old. Following traditional business models we, small shops have been trained to buy in large quantities to keep prices down in an effort to compete with the grocery chains and Wal-Mart type chains of the world but usually selection suffers for small shops because they simply can’t buy as much. Small shops pride themselves in personal service and design skill to separate them from the big chains but they have to generally raise prices a little to accommodate for those services unfortunately a demand low priced pre-packaged flowers still dominates the market, especially in these poor economic times. We have lots of loyal customers who have supported us and understand that and we want them to know how much we appreciate their dedication and support. In Europe, flowers are displayed in antique buckets or glass vases much as you expect to see them spouting in a garden, out in the open air or nestled into beautiful grouping in their quaint shops. Customers select stems of flowers from the flower market and they wrapped European style with paper and raffia trim like bundles of nature’s bounty. They always have something different to choose from and they go to the big markets everyday to pick out the beautiful blooms everyday. The flowers are always fresh because their customers buy up the flowers of the day and are used by the designers to fill orders and nothing stays out long enough to go “bad”. It is hard to imagine a flower shop with no flower cooler but we are going to try this idea out. We would be a first in Columbus and we feel that this concept will give our customers more flower types to enjoy, focusing on flowers that they don’t see every time they are in a grocery or a big chain. We want to customers to pick what they want gather the blooms, picking their favorite colors, smelling them, enjoying their beauty the way we do. We are excited to bring new services to our community We are going to do things a little different this year and to start the first new thing you will see will be the flower market with Build Your Own Bouquets– ten stems for $9.99 and Spring flower classes on design, Bring Your Own Container Programs to encourage the recycling of containers you have around your house. One that I am really excited about, Wrapping up Feelings with Flowers– You tell us the feeling & we pick the flowers to express it. In Victorian times flowers were gathered into small bouquets called nosegays and each was made to represent the senders feelings. The recipient knew what it meant because the were versed with the meaning of flowers. You’ll receive a copy the flowers and the meaning as part of your special bouquet we wrap for you. More details will come soon. |
| Coming Soon Our New Flower Market |
| The Funny Corner |
The bountiful blooms, the fragrance tickling your nose, the color and texture abundant.. This is going to be a little piece of Europe right here in your neighborhood. We hope to change your perceptions of the traditional flower shop by using one of a kind containers with unique designs, introducing the use of vegetables and fruits into design in unexpected ways and giving you more to choose from. We want to excite you about flowers thru education and exposure to new varieties. We want the opportunity to show you in our own way how other cultures enjoy flowers as part of their everyday life. Stay tuned for more…. Karla Perretta & Julie Schneider |
| The European |
| Flower Market |
| Learning About Valentines Day cont'd To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois. In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America. According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap |
| Free Greeting Card with any local purchase Of $15.00 or more |
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