In honor of Kitchen Month, I have been thinking about the kitchen table as a nourishing altar to our meals and remembering a comment posted last week by someone who felt they could not afford to keep fresh flowers in their house. In response, a few readers made some great suggestions:
That's a great idea, and reminds me of one of my favoite tricks with cheap deli bouquets:
Most corner delis that sell flowers have mums for about $3 a bunch. Simply stripping off the paper wrapping and putting them in a vase makes them look, well, like a $3 bunch of mums from the corner deli.
I like to snip off each stem where it joins the main stem, getting up to forty 3"-8" stems. Then I arrange them with the tallest in the middle, circling out, into a tight little bouquet. Sometimes there are enough to make two - one for the kitchen table and one for the bathroom, or bedside. Tie a little ribbon around the bouquet and you have something even more sweet. (See photo above.) I keep a collection of ribbons from Kate's Paperie for this purpose.
Three dollars a week is something I think most of us can afford. Having fresh flowers on your table is one of the best ways to honor you table for what it is: an altar to your place of nourishment. SKGR
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Back when AT linked to the then-new Cottage Living, I checked it out, and while I haven't looked at it again, I've used their recipe for cut flower solution ever since! It works even better than the stuff sometimes included with bouquets. Also, it helps to clip the ends off every couple days, getting rid of the gumminess that builds up and prevents water absorption.
www.cottageliving.com/cottage/gardens/article/0,21135,682374,00.html
Amendment - not Cottage Living's recipe, but actually their reprint of Brooklyn Botanical Garden's recipe...
This time of year, deli daffodils are great. Buy them when they are closed up tight, two days later they are stunning. They too last all week.
Chris - good call on the daffodils. Just when Winter seems to be here forever there is this wonderful precursor to Spring. I picked up three bunches on Monday and have definitely gotten my $5 worth of enjoyment out of them.
I have not been able to afford fresh flowers for awhile. But I have discovered that a bouquet of silverware on the table in a pretty container is surprisingly refreshing. And it is great to have spoons within reach whenever you need them.
There is a fine line between a pretty bouquet of spoons and an awkwardly out-of-place one, I will admit though.