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We have started posting on a new blog and hope you will follow us there.

Please check out our new postings at: www.flowerstoeatblog.wordpress.com

See you there!

Happy Unique and Bizarre Month

Do you know what 'month' June is?

Well, according to Holiday Insights, June has 10 different unique and bizarre things the month is named for.

Some are cute and totally unknown to probably everyone except other people who search on 'holidays' and find this site. June is Candy Month, Dairy Month, and Aquarium Month. Did you know it is also "Flight of the Filthy Fly Month"? That is the most unique and bizarre one and I don't think I want to know any more about it.

As a retail fruit and vegetable bouquet shop, I was happy to see that June is also National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month.

 Here in Florida, we have been enjoying local fresh fruits and vegetables for several months now. Starting the year with oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes and going to strawberries, blueberries and tomatoes. My little garden was full of fresh broccoli, cucumbers and leaf lettuce this spring. Yum!

Our friends further north are a few months behind us in having ripe, fresh fruits, but even in the far north you can see the lush growth, flowering and subsequent delicious fruit growing. Personally, I can't wait for farm fresh peaches from Georgia and South Carolina, they are coming soon!

Check out our website for our newest creations. The Citrus Burst is a refreshingly light combination of pineapple, oranges, honeydew and cantaloupe with a surprise topping of Key Lime. It is so summery to look at and delicious to eat.

Enjoy your favorite fruits and vegetables during Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month!

It's Blueberry Season!

When I was growing up, my mother used to talk about going blueberry picking in Connecticut with her mother and sisters. She used to tell me how sweet those little berries were as they picked and ate as many as went into the pails.

Here in Florida we have U-Pick-em farms for blueberries as well as strawberries. And because our climate is so much warmer than Connecticut, our blueberry season is just about over. But the berries are readily available in stores, full of antioxidents that are good for you, and still very sweet.

Along with your blueberry muffins, pancakes, pies and on your cereal, I thought you might like this Berry Parfait recipe from  Self Magazine.

BERRY PARFAIT
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
• 2 cups skim milk
• Juice and zest of 3 lemons, divided
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1 pint blueberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
PREPARATION
1. Whisk milk, juice and zest of 2 lemons, sugar and cornstarch in a pot over medium heat until mixture thickens, 3 to 4 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes. Whisk in yogurt. Cook blueberries, juice and zest of remaining lemon, and sugar in another pot over medium heat, mashing until a chunky sauce forms, 2 to 3 minutes. Divide graham cracker crumbs and sauce among 4 glasses; top each with 1/2 cup yogurt pudding. Chill 1 hour.
The skinny
243 calories per serving, 1.7 g fat (0.4 g saturated), 51.8 g carbs, 2.6 g fiber, 7.5 g protein

Enjoy the fruit bouquets from Flowers to Eat™

Healthy Gifting with Fruit Arrangements

The winter holiday season is over, but there are many other occasions throughout the year when you may want to give a gift to someone.

Giving gifts to others requires a delicate touch that not only needs to take into account the recipient's life style choices, but your own creative abilities as well. It simply isn't enough to hand over a ho-hum gift to others, particularly when the gifts are in a corporate environment. This can be a challenge to many people, since they simply don't know where to find or create the type of gift that is thoughtful, appropriate and is part of health gifting.

So many people today are seeing the benefits of eating and living healthy. This can make it a challenge to provide the right kinds of gifts to family, friends and co-workers. You still want the personal touch, yet want to give a gift that will actually be enjoyed and used. Thankfully, there are many ways to use creativity along with healthy living choices to come up with a perfect gift.

Fruit arrangements are one of the best gifts for any occasion. Not only can they be arranged in an aesthetically pleasing form, but they are a gift that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Depending on your personal preferences and resources, you can create an arrangement made of delicious gourmet fruit that resembles a gorgeous flower arrangement, you can use chocolate dipped fruits like chocolate strawberries to create a delightful, thoughtful and beautiful arrangement that tastes as good as it looks.

When it comes to making the perfect fruit arrangements, you need the best and freshest ingredients. For example, when making chocolate covered apples, you want to make sure you use crisp, juicy apples, the sweetest chocolate and also, as the final touch, you need to employ beautiful decorations atop the outer layer of chocolate. Or use a variety of tropical fruits to create a tangy and delicious and tasteful arrangement.

By learning to carefully combine the colors and tastes of fruit, you can create stacked arrangements that also follow the basic rules of floral arrangements, and thus create a work of art. The rules for flower and fruit arrangements are quite similar, and you can employ techniques to build height and visual stimulation with color, and as an addition, fruit baskets also allow you to challenge the taste buds as well. You will need to take into account the colors, shapes, tastes and decorations of a fruit arrangement in order to make a unified whole that makes the absolutely perfect gift.

Click here to view the many Flowers to Eat gifts

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