Quaintrelle Farms- Santa Cruz Urban Farm

Quaintrelle Farms began as a tiny seed of passion. Courtney Rosiak-Quinto’s love for plants has blossomed into an incredible journey.

The journey began many years ago in a little floral design studio in the Santa Cruz area. It was her dream come true, being able to play with flowers all day, and learning the basics of floral design as an apprentice, while being allowed hone her own design style. After years of this work, Courtney decided to open her own floral design business, following the same principals she was taught about the floral industry. As parenthood became more of a focus, Courtney closed that design business to focus on her children. And thus, became a weekend warrior gardener who delighted in flowers, but became much more interested in learning to grow vegetables.

After years of dabbling in homesteading, but never having quite the right set up, Courtney moved to a new property, and an entirely new world was unveiled as her family began working the land. The property had just the perfect exposure, just the perfect micro-climate, and some might even say, a little bit of spirit that blessed the soil.

After few years of integrating flowers into the vegetable beds, it became apparent that Courtney had been bitten by the flower bug again, and now with children who are little more grown, wedding and event design has come back into focus. Only this time, she approached it with what she had learned about the floral industry as a farmer. She is committed to integrating principals and values that will help change the way our society views flowers, and the people who grow them.

And thus, Quaintrelle Farms was born!

Quaintrelle Farms connects clients to uniquely curated flowers grown specifically to highlight the shimmer and dance of the bloom. Rather than work against nature, the farm has regenerative approach working towards building healthy soil that produces happy, and healthy, plants. The farm keeps it local by utilizing compost made right here in Santa Cruz County from forest debris that is nutrient rich. The farm keeps it safe by only using kelp emulsion foliar as the fertilizer to feed the flowers throughout the season.

When it comes to wedding and event design, clients can expect a custom non-traditional, non-retail florist experience. Refusing to accept that beauty is only found in typical flowers, the design focus remains on airy and lush blooms designed to create the unusual, layer in the romance, and steal your heart.

Interview with Courtney Rosiak-Quinto; Boss of Blooms at Quaintrelle Farms:

• Shemeika: Hello and welcome. Today we are at this amazing urban farm, Quaintrelle Farms with Courtney, and I’m gonna botch your last name, so you,
• Courtney: Rosiak-Quinto.
• Shemeika: See? Believe it or not right on the upper West Side.
• Courtney: We are a quarter acre, very lucky to have a quarter acre corner lot which allows us to actually grow in this space. A quarter acre could be very awkward if you had neighbors on both sides. So because we’re southern facing, we get just a ton of natural light that really kind of just cooks the plants which they want to happen. Which is a great thing. So I think it was a real blessing to be able to find this property and turn it into what it is today…
• Shemeika: Paradise.
• Courtney: and hopefully to continue to work the land.
• Shemeika: Yeah. So how’d you get started? Like, what inspired you to decide that you wanted to be a farmer?
• Courtney: Yeah, so we used to live in Midtown in Seabright and I had a 10th of an acre there and talk about being awkward. I had houses that had, you know, big, tall houses on both sides of me. I had a ADU behind me that also blocked out the light. So while I had the land, I didn’t have the light. I also didn’t have the knowledge or the skill. So I considered myself really a weekend gardener just randomly putting things in and like buying things from the nursery and like, “Hey, let’s put this in the ground.” And I started to get very serious where I realized I can actually grow a lot of my own food even though I didn’t know what I was doing and I killed a lot of my own plants and I still do, by the way.

• Shemeika: It’s not you, it’s the weather. Nature.
• Courtney: Yeah, something like that. It’s really, it’s just circumstance. It depends. There’s a lot of factors that go into growing. But I just wasn’t very successful there and we knew we wanted to have another child, at the time I just had one. And so we happened upon this property. We didn’t think that we needed it but I fell in love with it because when we first moved in everything that you see here was not here. It was just grass. It was grass from all parts of the foundation.
• Shemeika: Crab grass too, probably.
• Courtney: Crab grass, Bermuda grass, clover, creeping Jenny, which is a really invasive, obnoxious weed. Some people love to plant it in their garden, but it was really awful. So we bought the house. We were surprised we got the house being, on the west side, and we started working the land. And we scraped the lot and we started putting the effort in to putting in the foundational pieces. And it was very much a hobby at the time ’cause I was still thinking I was just gonna grow food for myself. I put a farm stand that was donation based out in the front and whenever I had extras I kind of just threw ’em out there. There not a lot of thought process around it. And that went on for a couple of seasons. With Covid and shelter in place I had the time to start growing for production and I started realizing how much of a need there was to actually feed the community. And it was a hotspot. People came to the farm stand all the time, mostly because I think they were excited to get outta their house, right? But also because there was a lack of food, there was a lack of access to food.
• Shemeika: Yeah, yeah.
• Courtney: And so, when that became that hotspot I had this light bulb moment of I should be growing food for my community. So that rest of that year I focused on growing food. I started working for another farmer and using them as my mentor. And at the time they were asking me what I wanted to work on and I said, “I wanna learn how to grow more food. I wanna grow food for the community.” And we were deadheading flowers in the field. And they said to me, they’re like, “Well, you know a lot about flowers.” I’m like, “Oh yeah.” And I’m like dadadadada, talking about them and they’re like “Could you maybe grow flowers for us instead?” And so I spent the rest of the season working in their flower fields and doing their CSA bouquets, and it lightened the light bulb moment. I’m like, why am I growing food? I should be growing flowers. So with a background in floral design, I don’t know why I never thought I would grow flowers but I realized I needed to turn the property into a flower farm, so here we are.
• Shemeika: Flowers and food.
• Courtney: I’m 90% flowers, 10% food at this point. I used to be 90% food, 10% flowers. So I just,
• Shemeika: Oh, interesting. And so are you now mostly just feeding your family? Are you providing some food to the community as well?

• Courtney: So there is a little bit of food that goes out on the farm stand but it is like minimal compared to the flowers. The flowers are really where my passion is. And I think where I probably have the best skill. You know, growing food is very, very hard. And to me, I can cure a plant that is a flower. Like if it has a disease or something like that. And when it’s food, I just give up. I just tear it out. I kind of like, I just give up on it and I know that it can be replaced. So the flowers bring me a lot of joy and I also see the joy that it brings people.
• Shemeika: Yeah.
• Courtney: This season in particular has been extremely powerful for me in that way where I’ve had an opportunity to really just make an impact on people’s lives.
• Shemeika: Why, what do you think is the difference? Just this, like?
• Courtney: I think food people assume that it is a necessity, which it is. And flowers are a luxury. And there’s a sentiment when flowers are given to somebody. And there’s also an emotion that flowers trigger in people. And so you’ll see people and I’m sure you’ve probably done it yourself, you walk up to something that is so beautiful and it’s very visceral. And like, very primal the way that you have this association of reaction to a flower. And I do it every day. I walk out here and I’m like, “Oh, hello, you’re so beautiful.” I talk to them. But yeah, there’s just something about flowers that I think bring joy and beauty into people’s lives. And not that food can’t, but because I think we just we get food every, single day. Three times, four times, five times a day. Whatever it is for you and your diet, it’s not the same as when you see something so stunning that you don’t get to see that often.
• Shemeika: Yeah. That’s really cool. So now you, if I recall correctly, you’re self taught.
• Courtney: Mm hmm. That’s correct.
• Shemeika: So you had a passion and you decided, “Well I’m gonna turn this passion into a business and I’m gonna create this little urban paradise of a farm.” So how did you get to this point? How long did it take you? Obviously you’re still learning, everybody who’s good at anything is always gonna be learning, for the rest of their lives. But like, how did you get to this point? Was there any one person or book or like pivotal moment that you just were like, again an aha moment where you like switched from food to flowers or something that was just so inspiring to you?
• Courtney: Yeah, so I’ll touch a bit on the books. I have read every, single urban farm book, homesteading book that is out there. And that really did like, you know was the catalyst for the journey overall into farming. As to the switch of production to flowers, it was the work that I do for Common Roots where they asked me to come in and bring the expertise in the floral design industry and help them build out a better flower patch is essentially what they wanted to do. They wanted their fields to have really high quality flowers, that florists would want to buy from them. And then there are customers who are CSA who do get the CSA flower shares, they have an opportunity to enjoy something really spectacular and beautiful that you would see in high end design. You know, versus like the bouquet at the grocery store. Although there is definitely a market for that too. So I think that that’s really what triggered this for me. And they have just really energized me. They fill me up and every time I’m on the property not only is it about the flowers, but it’s about the people.

• Courtney: So a bit of background of Common Roots is they are a farm that is owned by several families. They all have adult children with various disabilities. And essentially the idea is that it will give the adult children with disabilities somewhere to work because it is very hard to hold a job when you have, whether it’s a physical or a mental disability, it’s very hard to hold a normal job or even to get a job. There are some companies out there that are very supportive of it, but right now it’s just, it’s really tough. And when you have someone that is wheelchair bound that is a lot harder, they need to have an aid with them. And so these families came together, bought this property, which used to have Dirty Girl farms on it. So they used to lease that land. It was owned by some old Italian family. I’m sure you can figure out who it was if you look back through the records. But they bought the property and they’ve been slowly turning it over. They are a low till, meaning that they really don’t use very much machinery. They work on building up the soil. And they’ve taught me to do that here. And they have able body, and you know, disabled body, all kinds of abilities are there on the property, farming this food for this community. And yes, they have a small flower production as well but every time I go there it’s like magic. I just can’t explain it. That just to see community come together in such a beautiful space and to produce such a beautiful product, it’s like, honestly, like you can see I have chills right now. Like I absolutely love them.
• Shemeika: Nice! That is so cool.
• Courtney: And so that, they have just been really the centerpiece of everything that I do. And they inspire me to continue to push myself and I push them too. I try to get them to grow things that they’re not used to growing and that are hard to grow. Or maybe dangerous to grow. ‘Cause toxic flowers are never an ideal thing to have, sweet peas. I’m like, We’re growing sweet peas next year. We are growing sweet peas.
• Shemeika: Really? Are they toxic?
• Courtney: Mm hmm. If a lot of them are ingested, yes they’re toxic. Yeah.
• Shemeika: But they smell so good.
• Courtney: I know, I know. So it’s hard for them with their liability insurance and stuff to want to do that. But I still push the envelope with them. And try to get them to think a little bit outside the box in a sense.
• Shemeika: That is so cool. I didn’t realize that they, well I didn’t know anything about it. But I used to work for like a job coaching company but I worked with disabled adults to help place ’em and then like coach them through jobs in the community. And it is very hard to get the job and to hold the job and to do the job. And there’s a lot that goes into it.

• Courtney: So the kids, you know, my oldest Willowette, she was very young when I started this process and has really grown along with me. She helped me dig all the irrigation in the front yard, in the last, or two Februarys ago, Valentine’s Day, she was my Valentine and we just dug, trenches the entire day. And she hung in there.
• Shemeika: That’s so cute. She didn’t complain?
• Courtney: No. For a six year old, she was six at the time, it was pretty incredible.
• Shemeika: Wow.
• Courtney: So she helps me with all kinds of stuff. And right now we just opened up a new brand, Bella Lavanda which is Italian for “beautiful lavender”. And she has been helping me with these lavender plants which are, you could use ’em for culinary but we’re using them only for floral design. And so she’s helped me continue to nurture these plants. And so it’s kind of her little segment of the business to try to encourage entrepreneurship in young children and women, especially girls especially. So she’ll be selling the dried lavender bunches and lavender sachets at the holiday markets this year. And then the twins want to help.
• Shemeika: That is so cute. But how old are they?
• Courtney: Four.
• Shemeika: So what do they do?
• Courtney: They try to help. They dig a lot of holes they’re not supposed to, they pull out a lot of plants they’re not supposed to, they cut flowers, shorter stems than they’re supposed to so.
• Shemeika: They’re learning.
• Courtney: They’re trying really hard and it’s hard to be mad at them. But there is parts of me that are like, “Oh. why did you cut that so short? I can’t do anything with it now.” But speaking of that, because that was such a problem this last winter when they really started getting into it with me and they were more able bodied to do so, I learned to start pressing the flowers. And so then I make those press frames that I will use throughout the entire year. So when I do get short stems, whether it’s from my children or just the plant itself is a shorter stem I’ll press the flour, dry the flour, and then that way I have a different product line as well. And this past winter I finally gave in because I had so many requests for dried flowers. So that I preserve everything that, I talk about very little waste. If I really, truly can’t use it in a bouquet or something like that, it still gets harvested and it gets dried as long as it’s an appropriate flower to dry. So that I have that for winter.
• Shemeika: That’s cool. So let’s talk about that. Like, how much waste do you see from your garden that you produce?
• Courtney: So from a flower perspective, well, so we’re permaculture practice and so that’s a concept of layering. And so everything is stripped in the field and left to be part of the earth. There are parts of food that will go to either the rabbit or to the chickens. And so we kind of try to keep the, I know we have a city composting program now but that was prior to that. We really tried to keep everything out of the green waste and out of our own trash. And then even food that we bring in from outside too, like we’ll still give to the animals, but there’s not a lot of waste unless there is, you know, a poor weekend of sales. And so at the farm stand, any bouquets that are still viable and I know will have life left in them, I do donate those to an organization over the hill that delivers groceries to homebound seniors. And they bring my bouquets to them as well.
• Shemeika: I just got the chills about that. That’s so sweet.
• Courtney: Yeah, so I try to really reduce the waste. And that is part of the permaculture practice is, what is considered waste goes back into the earth back into the soil, and what is not waste is just utilized somewhere else off the property.
• Shemeika: Yeah, and then do you harvest, like there’s beans but do you harvest like every bit of food that you have on the property, you’ll harvest so that you can use the seeds next year to replant?
• Courtney: Yeah, so that’s another part of the reduction of waste. You know, certain seeds you do need to buy every year. So squash, they’ll cross pollinate. And I just, you get surprises and that’s great. But if I’m growing for a specific variety I have to buy the new seed every year. And I make sure that I buy seed from reputable suppliers that are getting them from farmers who are doing breeding programs as opposed to just, Joe Schmo seed company. But these ones, the ones that are heirloom that don’t cross pollinate, I do collect these. And so what I will do, particularly with seed that I can collect, is I will utilize as much of the harvest for consumption as I can. And then every plant, we all know this, I think we all know this, reaches a point where it’s at its pinnacle and then it starts to decline just because it can’t produce anymore. The cells are telling it, “We’re done.” So I will let things go to seed and that’s all of what this is. And so I’ll collect all of this and then I will keep it and use it next year. So not only is it easier for me, I don’t have to source seed again, there’s seed supply issues. I can monitor the quality of it too ’cause I’ll only take the highest quality looking seed and then replant it, and on top of that, I’m preserving the heirloom nature of the seed. And so a lot of these seeds that I have go back to like the 18, 1700s, back in Europe and Asia.

• Shemeika: Wow, holy cow.
• Courtney: So there are specialty seed companies out there that will work on that preservation. And I feel a responsibility buying from them to continue that preservation. So that’s what I do.
• Shemeika: That’s so cool. You’re so cool, I’m moving in.
• Courtney: Pillars of this business overall, sustainability, which we’ve talked a lot about. Scalability, being an urban farm, being only a quarter of an acre, most people would assume that they can’t produce anything. They’re like, “Whatever, I’ll just grow a perennial garden and I want it to be drought tolerant.” which is a good thing to do if you don’t wanna grow food. But given the fact that we do have food shortages despite being within the salad bowl of America and somewhere where we can produce food year round I think it’s really important for people to understand where their food comes from. And it doesn’t always come from the grocery store, it comes from a farmer, it can come from your backyard. You can have little pots on your patio. And so one of the things I’m hoping to inspire is lots of people want tours of the farm, and I definitely, I give them all the time. You can do this with a small pot. You can do this with a galv tub. They sell those at all the hardware stores. You can just get in there and you can grow. And it’s amazing what you can produce if you really think about it. There’s a concept of square foot gardening and there are urban farmers out there, and I do a little bit of this, but square foot gardening is utilizing every single square foot of your particular garden.
• Shemeika: Wow.
• Courtney: So on a horizontal plane that works out to like every square foot. But then what about vertical? And so when we designed this backyard, we designed it with a lot of vertical trellises where we grow our tomatoes and our cucumbers in the spring, or over winter, sweet peas on those. And also edible like snow peas and snap peas will go up on those. And then I grow things underneath. So I’ll grow the root vegetable crops underneath in the winter. Or in the summer I grow the tomatoes, the tomatillos, the beans. So I’m trying to utilize all layers and really maximize the space. And not everybody can necessarily build like a giant trellis or anything. But the option is there if it’s something that you want to do. And you have a lot more growing space than you know at your house.
• Shemeika: So how do you know what can grow well next to each other, below something, that’s just trial and error or books that you’ve read or training?
• Courtney: Yep, yep. So I personally have just done the research. There’s a lot of farmers out there that have put out publications whether it’s articles or actual books themselves, you can learn a lot from your fellow farmers. And so just getting into the industry and saying like, just a simple Google search, “What grows well with tomatoes?” is gonna come up with marigolds. It’s gonna come up with basil. And there’s all these things that you can put together and that I have put together back there so that they do benefit each other. And so while things quote, unquote, “benefit each other” they should, they don’t always. And that’s just the circumstance of growing and farming in general. This should work this way but it doesn’t always work that way for you on your property. And so a little bit of it is trial and error as well. There’s no tried and true method of how to do things. There’s guidelines and then you get in there and you do it and you experiment and you figure out what works best for you and your site.
• Shemeika: I suck at gardening. I was gonna say a lot of late nights on YouTube University is what it is. Very early mornings on YouTube University. Where do you see this going?
• Courtney: Where do I see this going? Well, I would like to continue to farm on a small scale. So urban, or micro is less than five acres which is a lot of acres.
• Shemeika: Five acres is a lot. If you can get all this done in a quarter of an acre, five acres would be like so intimidating.
• Courtney: Yeah. Yeah. So the goal is to get me a full acre of production. I would like to have more land than that just to be able to utilize it for how I see fit. Whether I wanna have an orchard or not. Quaintrelle is an old timey word that basically it was like a very vain, not something you wouldn’t wanna be associated with in the 1800s. It was a woman who lived her life through the pursuit of passion, beauty, and just like somebody who would be materialistic almost. Like somebody who always had to look proper. And in more modern times, it has really morphed into this concept of just passion and beauty, is not so much of the like, have to always have the most stylish things.
• Shemeika: I like passion and beauty.
• Courtney: Yeah. I want it to be small and approachable and fun. I want people to be able to have fun here. I don’t want people to be put off by straight lines and stuffiness and scary, like, you know, machinery and stuff like that. It’s like I want people to feel like it’s a sanctuary for them.
• Shemeika: It does, it feels like that. You’ve nailed it.
• Courtney: Thank you. Thank you very much.
• Shemeika: Cheers to you. And your big dreams. You’re gonna do ’em.
• Courtney: Cheers. Yeah? Hope so.