Florida artists help Walt Disney World showcase sustainable food at Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

Which came first, the chickens or the eggs?

At this year’s Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, it was a tie. The gardens surrounding the Urban Farm Eats outdoor kitchen demonstrate methods for growing sustainable food in your own backyard, including raising different types of chickens and the eggs they produce. The display, which also explains the ecological benefits of chicken coops, was designed and built by two Florida artists who have been spreading pixie dust at the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival for years.

Sisters Vikki Yarborough and Ronda Maseman already are known for their dedication to using natural and recycled materials in their creations, so this assignment of building an Earth-friendly vignette was not a foreign concept. Still, they did research their subject by visiting a friend’s farm, where their desire for accuracy led them to measure the height of the chickens to be sure their own two-dimensional figures matched. The egg colors and size of the nesting boxes are spot on, too.

Urban Farm Eats, which is located on Imagination Walkway just past the Music Garden Melodies, embraces the concept of fresh foods with dishes made from produce grown right at Epcot in The Land’s hydroponic gardens. The popular Watermelon Salad with Pickled Onions, B&W Gourmet Farms Baby Arugula, Feta and Balsamic Reduction can be found at this outdoor kitchen, as well as the new Avivé Natural Peach Sparkling Wine. (You can find the full menu on our AllEars.Net page.)

Yarborough and Maseman are better known as the “fairy house ladies,” having created miniature fairy houses for the festival that were displayed next to topiaries of the Disney Fairies. This is the first year since the houses debuted in 2008 that none are on display in the gardens at Epcot. But for one special weekend, Yarborough and Maseman will have a booth at the festival so you can meet them and purchase unique pieces — and fairy houses! — from their company, the Prop Duster Dept. Their artist tent will be located on the World Showcase promenade during Art in the Garden weekend, April 1 to 3, and will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. all three days.

The pair work just like the Disney Fairies do — by recycling objects that humans have discarded and by collecting things from nature for their creations. “We love looking all over for supplies,” Vikki said. “We always have a bag to gather stuff, plus friends are always on the look out for us. We have things from as far off as Europe and Hawaii. Thrift stores and flea markets are always fun.”

Vikki and Rhonda told me about their company’s origins: “We are sisters that have been feeding off of one another’s ideas and imagination, creating things together for many years. Our current path began with making various props for gardens — wind chimes, stepping stones, scarecrows, bird baths, mosaic garden animals, topiaries covered in seeds and homes to attract fairies. The Prop Duster Dept. was born when someone said we make props dusted with pixie dust. The fairies then asked for more, so we took a side path to create these fantasy homes.”

The sisters also have styled props for other areas at Epcot’s Flower & Garden Festival: spice balls in Morocco; three pollinators – a bee, a snail and a butterfly – in a garden outside The Land; and small dinosaurs peeking through the foliage in the Prehistoric Garden near the Festival Center.

The Prop Duster Dept. is responsible for this year’s miniature gardens in Japan, as well. Yarborough and Maseman developed a Zen Garden, a Tea Garden and a Mountains Garden based on actual sites.

Can’t make it out to Epcot for Art in the Garden weekend? Yarborough and Maseman will be showcasing their fairy houses at Animal Kingdom during its Earth Day celebration April 21 to 24. You also can contact the The Prop Duster Dept. at [email protected].

Maseman lives in Central Florida and teaches art to children during the school year and summer art camp at the Mount Dora Center for the Arts. In her spare time, she loves to paint miniature watercolors.

Yarborough lives in Fort Lauderdale with her husband of 36 years and five dogs. She has two grown sons, one of whom works at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When she’s not creating pixie dust, she enjoys working with stained glass and other home projects.

Follow @Kristin_B_Ford

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