Meet an urban floral forager

Vicki Prosek, Florist-@-Large

While creating The 50 Mile Bouquet, we’ve visited, interviewed and photographed some incredibly inspiring talents – floral designers and farmers alike.  Baylor Chapman of Lila B. Floral & Event Design and Max Gill of Max Gill Design, two gifted Bay Area floral designers we will feature, told us about Vicki Prosek and her sister Valerie Prosek. The designers have come to count on the women’s business, Florist-@-Large, for uncommon, un-farmed, wild ingredients.

I’ve been wanting to learn more about these women and their wild-foraging endeavors, so I reached out to them. The sisters are a little tough to locate. They don’t do the Internet and when you check the directory of vendors at the San Francisco Flower Market, the directory lists Florist-@-Large’s home as “Booth 84,” with just a phone number (and PS, that phone number doesn’t appear to take messages!).

Finally, I emailed Baylor to ask for her help. She sent me Valerie’s home phone. I reached Valerie a few days ago and she gave me her husband’s work e-mail address so I could send background information about our book. I’ve since realized that Vicki and Valerie prefer to do business the old-fashioned way.

It makes sense, when you watch this amazing slide show I stumbled across. It was produced by a photographer named Hillary Jones-Mixon and posted on YouTube (and on a 2010 blog called HVJM SoMa Project).  We’re excited to list Vicki as a resource in our upcoming book.

This piece documents a day-in-the-life of an urban floral forager:

http://www.hvjmphotography.com/p635039014#h1a43dd44

In the past few months, we’ve been very busy putting the final touches on The 50 Mile Bouquet. I’m up to more than 50,000-words of completed and edited text (yes, I’ve been glued to the keyboard since mid-September). David has been editing and selecting hundreds and hundreds of photographs that designer James Forkner will use to create the 144-page book. You will be able to hold it in your hands by early April 2012.

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon. Sadly, the book jacket art for The 50 Mile Bouquet has not yet been posted, but we promise that it will show up soon! If you’re inspired to support this project, please go ahead and pre-order one or multiple copies! Thank you.

Tagged as: Baylor Chapman, David Perry, Debra Prinzing, Florist@Large, Hillary Jones-Mixon, Lila B. Floral and Event Design, Max Gill, The 50 Mile Bouquet, urban flower forager, Valerie Prosek, Vicki Prosek