(LISTEN NOW: 10 mins): Flowers aren’t merely decorative—they’re part of the ecology, agriculture and everyday beauty that make a place feel alive.
In this episode, Clark Wolf and Daedalus Howell start with the seasonally ubiquitous naked ladies before wandering into sunflowers, farmers markets, pollinators, crop rotation and the interconnected life of a working farm.
Inspired by the Gravenstein Apple Fair’s sunflower theme, Clark explores the surprising culinary possibilities of sunflowers—from petals tossed into salads to young heads prepared something like artichokes—and recalls his concert-pianist mother cracking sunflower seeds while she talked.
The conversation eventually blossoms into something more personal: flowers bought at farmers markets, roses and produce echoing one another’s colors, and Clark’s late mother continuing, in a way, to buy him flowers through the sale of her beloved costume jewelry.
Along the way, Clark offers one simple prescription for living locally: when you visit the farmers market, if the budget allows, buy flowers. They support growers and pollinators, connect us to the agricultural landscape—and, perhaps just as importantly, make life a little more beautiful.