![]() “I said we could only stay until 11 o’clock. “We kind of got lost in the garden,” Way said. Vallarie Way, a first-time volunteer from Live Oak, said she wanted to bring her mother and friend to experience the farm. What states have the most natural disasters? Despite Maui wildfires, it’s not Hawaii Vega fire prompts evacuations near Pajaro Sounding the alarm: Santa Cruz County emergency responders strengthen communications Many of those who contribute their time were affected in some way by the fire, she said. ![]() Wednesdays also have evolved into the farm’s “volunteer day,” DeLong’s favorite day each week, she said. In its second year, the farm has begun serving as a $28 you-pick garden for the public on specified hours, but is open to community members who lost their home in 2020’s CZU fires to wander in at any time, DeLong said. “Some place that feels like things can grow again.” Evolving into a sustainable future “The garden provides kind of some solace,” London said. London agreed that the area’s entire landscape was altered in the fire’s wake. “I started this farm specifically to bring people back into the burn zones in a way where they could be comfortable. “Just having an outdoor space became so obvious with COVID and everything,” DeLong said. Searching for a healthy recovery model, the Mountain Feed instructor who teaches topics ranging from beekeeping to homesteading opted to lean into her love of gardening and dahlias. “We went from five hours of sun in the summer to literal surface of the sun.”ĭeLong said that as her family began to recover from the fire’s effects, they agreed they did not want to live in a burned-out landscape. ![]() “The fire, it came within 3 feet of the house,” recalled DeLong, who has shared land with what was once a Christmas tree farm for the past 16 years. The farm’s name, in part, was inspired by DeLong’s many beehives on the property and paid for through insurance money from the farm’s fire-demolished barn. The fire inadvertently cleared space for what is now home to Beeline Blooms Flower Farm, co-run by DeLong and sister Katrina London. “And in some regards, it feels like no time at all,” DeLong said during a visit late last month.ĭeLong, offering a tour of her Stephens Lane property, pointed to where the forest line had receded, revealing what is now a sunny and sprawling mountain meadow. Colorful dahlias are harvested at Beeline Blooms dahlia farm in Ben Lomond. BEN LOMOND - For Karla DeLong, the 3-year-old memory of how the CZU Lightning Complex fires scoured both her family’s land and the greater community seems like a lifetime ago.
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