About Do Right Flower Farm

The Land

Do Right is farming two acres of flowers at the northwestern tip of Santa Cruz County, California, just upstream Waddell Creek from the Pacific Ocean. Do Right’s field is adjacent to Big Basin State Park nestled in what is known as Rancho del Oso on traditional land of the Awaswas people. Surrounded by a forest of redwood, fir, pine, and bay, our valley is habitat for swooping birds of prey, grazing deer, and stumbling newts. Growing organically is a baseline for protecting the health of our surrounding flora, fauna and waters as well as our precious workers and customers. Do Right also strives to be good stewards to the land by contributing to the Amuh Mutsun Land Trust so that they can continue their vital work of conservation and restoration through traditional knowledge. Check out native-land.ca to learn about the land you are on and donate.

Birth Story

Do Right was born at the end of 2020, post Me Too, amidst a global pandemic and worldwide call for racial justice and an insistence that BLACK LIVES MATTER. These crises emphasized the need for us to follow our hearts and minds to create the future we want to live in.

Do Right is a gesture of that clarity.

Kelly Brown felt this strongly. After 11 years of gaining knowledge and experience at Blue Heron Farms in Corralitos, California, Kelly saw a massive need for local flower growers specializing in cuts for florists. Just as fine dining now features local high quality produce, floral trends were shifting to favor a more natural and garden-inspired aesthetic. This look can only be reached with small-scale locally grown blooms that would be destroyed if shipped from across the globe. Growing for florists and events is a great excuse to indulge in growing unusual flowers and an opportunity to connect to a passionate community of florists and small-scale growers.

Besides a deep love for flowers, Do Right was born with a desire to create a farm haven for other queer, trans and femme farmers to work hard outdoors without navigating the usual challenges of those workplace cultures. We want to shift the bottom line from increasing profit at all cost to creating work that is socially and financially supportive.

Photo by Jay Melena

Kelly Brown

For Kelly Brown (they/them), plant connection is a method for coming home into their body and feeling a part of the magic among us. As a kid, Kelly was magnetically drawn to plants in their mother’s garden in Saratoga, California, pruning roses and cutting posies for the house. There was nothing more stimulating than being a small person in the fragrant overflowing flower shop with their step mom in Palo Alto. The seed was planted, waiting to take root.

At UC Santa Cruz, Kelly was immersed in learning and organizing around the intersections of race, gender and class, focusing on the rights of sex workers, LGBTIQ folks, and access to harm reduction services. Anti-capitalist sentiment and a boy connected them to the Bike Church, a Santa Cruz cooperative bike shop. There Kelly learned to build their own bikes, started working as a bike messenger for the neighboring co-op and met friends with whom to explore the vast mountain roads and trails of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

They were stoked but broke and picked up a side job selling flowers at the farmers market for Blue Heron Farms. These flowers were unlike anything Kelly had seen outside of an actual garden and their childhood intrigue with plants was re-sparked, leading Kelly to the farm. Learning about growing, arranging and selling flowers and gaining connection to the community of professional farmworkers, chefs, florists and visionaries in its network, made Blue Heron a rich and life changing environment. Owner, Dennis Tamura, taught Kelly many things but perhaps most importantly that 1. The garden is a great teacher, 2. When all else fails, laugh, 3. Persistent noticing is the best tool of all, and 4. Dream big. Do Right is an experimental culmination of all of this, an attempt to truly come home.

Photo by Justine Grajski

Naomi Rose

Naomi has been with Do Right since early 2021, growing personally and professionally alongside the farm. They have been able to shape their roll as Florist Order Production Manager (FOPM), playing to their strengths in organization and detail holding as well as people and place tending. Moving into the 2023 season, Naomi is looking forward to strengthening the muscle of efficient adaptability in the face of continual change.
Elis Herman

Elis loves driving Do Right’s flowers around in the big white van! Elis is a lifelong fan of farms and has worked many places doing lots of things. Since becoming a parent and moving to the Santa Cruz Mountains, Elis has been tending to human and cactus seedlings and trying to finish folding the laundry. Nerd out with Elis about solar power, welding, and how hairy seeds are under a microscope 😮
Julia Gratton

Julia manages irrigation and fertigation on our farm as well as everyday harvest and planting tasks.
Ben Liddie

Ben manages propagation, applications, record keeping, and pest control on the farm on top of everyday harvest and planting tasks.