We recently connected with Rachel Nafis and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I’m self-taught and learned to grow flowers through 15 years of experimenting in the garden. Almost every aspect of growing can be acquired through trial and error and attentive observation. Reading a lot of books on the subject also helps. In hindsight, a more direct and less winding path to successful farming would have been to apprentice with a farmer or work on a farm. I think I felt restricted in this area by my prior career as an ER nurse. It was a difficult decision to finally leave my nursing career behind in 2021 and pursue farming full-time. Keeping my nursing career alive while also farming (and raising three small children), was an especially challenging period in my life, but also an invaluable part of my story.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am the owner of Psalter Farm Flowers, an urban flower farm in San Diego, California. Our farm is unique because we creatively solved the problem of land access in the city by growing flowers in my neighbors’ yards. Thanks to the generosity of my neighbors, we grow flowers in eight different locations in my Ridgeview-Webster neighborhood, all within walking distance of where I live. The work we’re doing of planting flower gardens is revitalizing our urban soil, feeding pollinators, capturing rainwater, sequestering carbon, and beautifying and cooling our neighborhood. The fruits of our labor are beautiful flowers for our community.

Every year we offer Flower CSA Shares to our community. A Flower CSA Share includes one bouquet of seasonal flowers per month, February through August. Our flowers and gardens evoke joy, and help connect city dwellers to the land and seasons in a unique and meaningful way.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

If every family unit would designate a portion of their budget toward supporting small farms it would make a huge impact! For example, our family receives a “Double Share” of fresh, locally grown vegetables every week from the Foodshed in City Heights. Receiving a CSA box every week encourages us to eat more vegetables, bolsters our health, and also keeps this money in our local economy. And we are supporting small farms while eating well.

As a flower farmer, my hope would be for every family unit to spend just two percent of their grocery budget on fresh, locally grown flowers. This seems like a reasonable investment with a huge return on quality of life and mental health.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My social media strategy thus far has been to connect with my followers through engaging with their messages and comments timely and thoughtfully; posting consistently, which I think helps build trust with my following; and communicating about my farming work in a way that feels transparent and real.

Social media can be overwhelming and there is so much noise. Personally, I want the content I’m making to be beautiful and/or or add value by helping SoCal gardeners in some way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Psalterfarmflowers.com
• Instagram: Psalterfarmflowers

Image Credits

Portrait by Anthony Pleva