Regenerating the Land
Fostering Resilience
My name is Rachael, and my story here began with a dream.
I’m not a farmer by trade or by training. I didn’t choose this path — I believe it chose me.
After nearly a decade in San Francisco working in tech, my soul was weary and my health was suffering. Something inside of me was longing for a change, to remember what it felt like to put my hands in the soil and to live in true connection with the natural world.
Driven to better understand and support my own health issues, I dove headfirst into an herbalism apprenticeship and began to learn about medicinal plants and their unique properties. This was an experiential journey that immersed me in the study of plants of all kinds, biodynamic growing practices, and right relationship with the land.
After volunteering on farms and trying (unsuccessfully) to grow medicinal plants in my tiny San Francisco backyard, I began to cast a wider net for a climate where I could cultivate the earth and weave myself back into the wider tapestry of life and harmony with the natural world.
It was through an incredibly fortunate series of events that I discovered this magical plot of land in Lovall Valley, where I now live and farm.
At the beginning, however, the work was daunting.
The land was covered in charred fence posts and piles of debris from having been burned in the 2018 wildfires. The soil was utterly depleted of essential nutrients — a cautionary tale of the impact of climate change and the increasingly uncertain conditions we face collectively.
Two year later, the land tells a different story.
Flowers bloom in abundance where scraggly weeds barely grew before. Honeybees forage and roam, pausing to take occasional naps inside flower faces turned up towards the sun. Monarch butterflies and a host of other insect life buzzes overhead while frogs hop and earthworms burrow through increasingly healthy, living soil.
And as the soil has improved season after season, so has my own well-being.
I return to the land day after day to remember that I’m part of something greater than myself. When I include myself in the living, breathing, ever-changing environment of the natural world, I remember that my life is but a blink in the longer arc of cosmic cycles. And from this vantage, I remember why I’m here — why we are all here — which is to share our hearts and our gifts in creative service on behalf of those who will inherit this land after we are gone.
In a world where so much doesn’t make sense, creating beauty is my own small act of rebellion. That the flowers are ephemeral, blooming only for a small, precious window of time is a reminder that this life is fleeting, and to hold dear those little pockets of joy and beauty — no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.
This flower farm is my love poem to the land, an act of defiance in the face of a culture that perpetuates separation from ourselves, the earth, and each other. It’s a reminder that when we heal the land, so, too, do we heal ourselves.
The indigenous people who inhabited this land many moons ago named it Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon.
May my efforts honor their lives and pay forward the many gifts this life has given me. And may it shine a light for anyone else who also, in their own unique ways, dreams of creating something beautiful.
In love and devotion,
Rachael
Investing in What Matters Most
Know your farmer, know your flowers.
When you buy flowers from the grocery store or your local retailer, more often than not, they’ve been flown in from outside the United States. All that jet fuel and plastic packaging aside, these flowers have been harvested days and sometimes even weeks before they reach you, meaning that by the time you get them home, at best, they have only a few days of life left in a vase.
When you buy from a local farmer, you’re not only investing in the economic well-being of your local community, but you’re also getting a higher-quality product. Local flowers are fresher, healthier, and last longer. Local farmers can also grow varieties that don’t ship well and can’t be cultivated using mass-scale industrialized agricultural methods.
We stand behind the health and quality of our flowers, and are equally proud of the biodiversity on site, from pollinators, to birds, to other mammals up the food chain — all indicators of a balanced, healthy, ecosystem.
“Rachael was amazing to work with from start to finish. We reached out for flowers for a non-profit luncheon Napa and were blown away by the beautiful, original creations she produced. She exceeded our expectations in every way! And the fact that she grows these flowers on land that was impacted by wildfires was a huge talking point for all of our guests.”
- Martha H., Events Customer