About Beeline Blooms

We started Beeline Blooms Flower Farm in 2022 to bring color and joy back to our mountain community, devastated by the CZU Lightening Complex Fire two years earlier.

The response was incredible. People loved wandering among the rainbow rows, finding solace and inspiration.

We are thrilled to announce that in addition to several hundred varieties of naturally grown dahlias, Beeline Blooms is partnering with Smiling Soil to expand the regenerative gardening aspect of our project and share our combined joy of sustainable food production.

As before, visiting the dahlia oasis will be by sliding scale donation, 100% of which goes to support rebuilding the Alba Schoolhouse. All contributions to this effort are now tax deductible.

To support the farm itself -- and by overwhelming request -- we will sell flowers this year! Bunches, bouquets and by the bucketful!

Starting in August of 2023, our farm will be open on select Saturdays between 9 AM and Noon and possibly on other days/times. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for information about openings and educational opportunities.

And if you can't wait until then, volunteer opportunities abound at Beeline Blooms. Lend a hand and learn a few things!

Alba Schoolhouse

Built in 1896, the Alba School House, nestled in the redwoods near the top of Ben Lomond Mountain, was the last remaining one-room schoolhouse in the Santa Cruz Mountains, still in its original location and original configuration. Over the decades, it had been a school, an official branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library system, and, most recently, a community center where Karla taught most of her homesteading classes.

For over a century, this little building -lovingly cared for and maintained - had served the residents of this remote mountain community until it was tragically lost to wildfire in August of 2020, along with over 900 homes.

The rebuilding of the Alba School House means more to us than just the replacement of a structure, more than just restoring a beloved part of our history. It is the symbol of the re-birth of our devastated community, the touchstone of our healing.

You can support the Alba School House with a tax deductible donation by clicking the link https://account.venmo.com/u/albaschoolhouse

Our Story

In August 2020, our property in Ben Lomond, CA, was burned over by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. In addition to a barn, play structure, trampoline, outdoor stage, and bar, we lost most of our small orchard and nearly a dozen bee hives, about half our total.

And many, many big trees.

But our house survived due to a bit of preparation, some unapologetic defiance of evacuation orders, and a lot of luck (mostly luck). Very many of our friends and neighbors were not so lucky.

We disappeared into the desert southwest for a few months afterward, hitting the road in an attempt to turn lemons into lemonade and maybe dig up a few dinosaur bones. And, to be honest, postpone spending our days face-to-face with our formerly green mountain, now burned and brown.

But eventually, you have to come back home to face the music.

Upon our return, it became clear that over 100 large fir trees were dead or dying and would end up being taken down. Our small forest, complete with stick-forts and a zip-line and dreams of Lost-Boy-level tree-houses, was gone.

So… what do you do with a meadow that used to be a beloved forest? A formerly shaded and sheltered place that now gets full, blistering sun?

You make a flower farm, of course.

Beeline Blooms is our attempt to create and share some beauty with our devastated community. To remember and appreciate why we still love where we live. To rise from the ashes, literally, and remind ourselves that just because things are different doesn't mean they aren't still good.

Karla

Karla DeLong is a professional homesteading instructor and an expert in gardening, beekeeping, food preservation, and flower arranging. She can also throw a mean bowl if you let her near a potter's wheel. She spent several years as a Therapeutic Nutrition Culinary Chef Instructor at Bauman College in Berkeley CA, and has worked at Mountain Feed and Farm Supply in Ben Lomond for over a decade, where she is a teacher of all things homesteading.

She and Jessica Tunis host the weekly Instagram Live show "Homegrown Happiness."

Call Us

(831) 252-1807

Visit Us

220 Stephens Lane
Ben Lomond, CA 95005

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Welcome to Beeline Blooms!

Farm and Honey bee Haven

About Beeline Blooms

Alba Schoolhouse

Our Story

Before the Fire

After the Fire

Making the Farm

Special Thanks to Liz Celeste!

For more pictures visit Liz Celeste Photography.

Us

Karla

Daniel

Likes tractors and machines and building things.

Adaira and Shaelyn

Will someday realize how good they have it.

Sorrel & Indigo

Descended from Dingoes.

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