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Flower fields become dining rooms on award-winning 'American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour'

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour announced its 2018 destinations, inviting guests nationwide to dine among the exquisite fields of America’s most stunning flower and foliage farms.

The dinner tour is a cross-country series of elegant pop-up gatherings where seasonal, sustainable blooms dazzle on beautifully designed tablescapes, elegantly dressed by top U.S. floral designers, while scrumptious meals are prepared by well-known farm-to-table chefs.

At each unique meal and through the accompanying farm tour and floral design demonstrations, guests will make a personal connection between flowers and agriculture as part of America’s floral landscape. They’ll experience the age-old art and science of flower farming while being served platters of delicious, seasonal and locally grown fare through four courses, including specialty desserts accompanied by vintage wines, micro-brewed beers and floral-inspired cocktails.

Companions, old and new, will share lively conversation in the company of diners equally passionate about preserving American-grown flowers, farmland and the country’s floriculture heritage. While enjoying the seasonal meal, guests will be drawn to the botanical beauty of petals, stems, foliage, vines, buds and berries – all artistically arranged to bring multi-sensory pleasure to the dining experience. The attention is on the farmers, their flowers, their beautiful farms and on the floral designs they inspire.

Beginning its fourth year, the award-winning American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour is presented annually by Certified American Grown Flowers, a unified and diverse coalition of U.S. flower farmers, including small and large farms located in flower producing states around the country. Member farms participate in an independent third-party supply-chain audit to verify origin and assembly of the flowers they grow. When it appears on bouquets, bunches and other packaging or store signage, the Certified American Grown logo gives consumers confidence in the source of their flowers and is an assurance that the flowers they’ve purchased were grown on a domestic American flower farm.

“The Field to Vase Dinner Tour showcases the heritage of America’s flower-farming families,” Kasey Cronquist, administrator for Certified American Grown Flowers, said. “This very popular dinner tour spans the U.S. in five locations in 2018. With limited seating in stunning surroundings, accompanied by a delicious dinner and interesting guests, the meals sell out year after year, and we anticipate this season’s tour to be our best yet.”

The first artisan dinner in 2018 takes place April 7 at Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers in Fallbrook. Guests will dine among the steep hills of this heralded protea farm that also grows breathtaking varieties of pincushions, banksia, kangaroo paws, leecadendron and wax flowers.

The second stop on the 2018 tour is The Flower Fields, April 26 in Carlsbad, home of the tecolote giant ranunculus, also known as the Persian buttercup or ranunculus asiaticus. It is the fourth time the tour has hosted a dinner at the unique tour stop, making The Flower Fields a Field to Vase tradition where guests dine in a sea of flowers while looking out over the Pacific Ocean.

Other summer and fall destinations across the country include: the California State Capitol, June 13, as guests will dine with flower farmers from up and down the state who will come together and will arrive bearing flowers; Star Valley Flowers in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, Sept. 8, will dine among novelty flowers like lilacs, hydrangeas, zinnias and bittersweet and Green Door Gourmet in Nashville, Tennessee, Oct. 5, will serve guests among fields of 80 flower varieties including zinnias, sunflowers, celosia and dahlias.

Field to Vase dinners are generally held 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., depending on location. Attendees will leave with beautiful memories, gifts from the tour’s generous sponsors and a greater understanding of why fresh American-grown flowers in the home – and on the table – are important to health, well-being, local economies and good conversation.

These special floral-infused destination dinners generally sell out quickly. Seating and tickets are limited. For more about participating farms, floral designers and chefs – and for reservations, tickets and travel information – visit the website at http://www.americangrownflowers.com/fieldtovase, and sign up for the e-newsletter. For up-to-the-minute news, visit the American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour on Facebook and Twitter.

 

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