Brei Olivier
The thing about using locally-sourced flowers, points out Chris Turner-Neal in his feature on New Orleans’ Nightshade Flower Farm, is that you can get the more delicate stuff. The finnicky, particular blooms that don’t tolerate travel well: dahlias, for instance, and snapdragons. You also get the weird ones, the strange eruptions of nature that your neighborhood flower farmer, such as Becca Greaney, is especially fascinated by: false Queen Anne’s lace, starflower, Salpiglossis café au lait.
The point is: you don’t have to look very far to be enchanted. In fact, from our very particular “here,” so many special things do grow. This year, our May 2022 “Embrace Your Place” issue taps into the riches emitted from and inspired by this Gulf South region and the intriguing folks who call it home. The flowers are grown on Rabbit Street, just down the road from where Tennessee Williams wrote his grand opus A Streetcar Named Desire. In Baton Rouge and Natchez, local culinary experts become educators, sharing the traditions of this region’s tastes by way of storytelling, and encouraging their students to take those stories home. On the Northshore, a viticulturist couple is dreaming of distinctly-Louisianan wines. And against the flow of the Mississippi River—Como Plantation is hosting retreats, escapes from the business of daily life; experiences designed to reflect on one’s inner self in this world, in this place.
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