Welcome to Caralavi

Our Story

​​We are Allen and Carol Rienstra—a husband-and-wife team, lifelong gardeners, and stewards of a historic Southeast Texas homestead that has been part of our family for six generations.

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Our journey has taken us from managing nurseries to teaching subsistence farming in sub-Saharan Africa, experiences that deepened our appreciation for the quiet lessons found in cultivating the earth. Those lessons eventually led us home.

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In 2020, we returned to Beaumont where we were honored to become the next chapter of the story for our family's 1890s farmhouse, nestled on a portion of the original Walker Family Farm in Rosedale. Rather than simply restoring an old home, we felt called to restore a way of life. We wanted the land to once again be a place of cultivation, beauty, hospitality, and abundance. From that vision, Caralavi Farm was born.

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Every flower we grow is thoughtfully selected to thrive in Southeast Texas and is cultivated using gentle, earth-conscious practices that honor both the land and the wildlife that live here, too. We believe healthy gardens begin with healthy ecosystems, and that beauty is richest when it exists in harmony with nature.

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The name Caralavi is woven from our family's own story—

Carol, Allen, and our daughter, Avie. It is a reminder that this has always been, first and foremost, a family endeavor. We began this journey during the uncertainty of the pandemic, when hiring help was nearly impossible. Armed with determination, countless hours of research, and more optimism than experience, we renovated our historic farmhouse ourselves. Along the way, our young daughter enthusiastically offered opinions on paint colors, helped care for seedlings, and grew up with muddy boots and flowers never far from reach.

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Long before we arrived here, gardening had become a shared language between us. Together we transformed our first home's backyard into a thriving landscape filled with native plants, butterflies, birds, and life. That small garden became the beginning of something much larger—a belief that beautiful places have the power to bring people closer to one another and to the natural world.

Today, that belief extends far beyond the farm itself.

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Whether we're designing flowers for life's meaningful occasions, tending and learning from the gardens, helping others bring their own garden dreams to life, or sharing the seasons and stories of the farm through the Farm Journal, our hope remains the same: to cultivate beauty, foster connection, and encourage a more thoughtful relationship with the places we call home.

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​We're grateful that your path has crossed with ours and hope you'll follow along as Caralavi continues to grow. The farm is still becoming what we believe it can be, and in many ways, so are we. We look forward to sharing the seasons, the lessons, and the stories still waiting to unfold.

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XO -

Carol & Allen