https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EdhR47SiWo




If you’re a regular listener, you’ve heard the announcement about our first ever international Slow Flowers Summit heading to Banff, Alberta, Canada in June 2024.



Not only are we super excited about bringing our seventh annual Slow Flowers Summit to Canada, we’re also proud to announce that all of our speakers are Canadian-based Slow Flowers members, designers and flower farmers, and Canadian sustainability experts.



The new film series includes a short feature about the important Toronto-based flower hub, The Local Flower Collective



One of our speakers is longtime Slow Flowers member Jaime Reeves, a Toronto-based floral designer who five years ago co-founded The Local Flower Collective. A wedding and event florist, Jaime owns Leaf &amp; Bloom, a design studio that specializes in weddings and events. At the time of the founding of The Local Flower Collective, she partnered with her studio-mate Carrie Fisher of Roadside Florist.



Proud to feature all Canadian SpeakersTop row: Heather Henson, Lourdes Still, and Hitomi GilliamMiddle row: Melanie Harrington, Janis Harris, Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed, and Cynthia ZamariaBottom row: Lorna Jackson, Jaimie Reeves, Cara Scott and Becky Feasby



Carrie is no longer involved with the project, but so many others are! Today, you’ll meet Jaimie and enjoy a preview of a panel presentation at the Slow Flowers Summit. The panel will cover collective and cooperative flower selling and features Jaimie along with Lorna Jackson and Carrie Scott of Island Flower Growers in Victoria, B.C.



A few weeks ago, I accelerated plans to bring on Jaimie as a Slow Flowers Podcast guest when Open Food Network Canada reached out to share news of their documentary series featuring a film about The Local Flower Collective. I wanted to learn more about OFN’s new series, “Women Leading Change,” and its first film in the series, about The Local Flower Collective.



Women Leading Change includes video profiles celebrating the role that women entrepreneurs and grassroots organizers are playing in building sustainable food and farming systems in communities across Canada. From rural farmers’ markets, to urban buying clubs and coops, the series explores how digital technologies are supporting the formation of regional distribution hubs that help farmers and consumers connect in new ways. Funding for this project was provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the AgriCommunication Program.







The first episode of Women Leading Change focuses on The Local Flower Collective, a specialty cut flower hub that supports ecological flower growers and high-end floral designers into a thriving short-chain distribution network. The film introduces The Collective and six of its flower farms. OFN will release four additional videos in this series and you can find out more details about that in our show notes as well.



Let’s jump right in and hear all about it

Episode 641: “Women Leading Change,” a new video featuring Toronto-based The Local Flower Collective, with cofounder Jaimie Reeves, filmmaker Craig Conoley, and David Thomas of Open Food Network Canada

Episode 641: “Women Leading Change,” a new video featuring Toronto-based The Local Flower Collective, with cofounder Jaimie Reeves, filmmaker Craig Conoley, and David Thomas of Open Food Network Canada

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