Laura Mewbourn

OWNER OF FEAST & FLORA

Laura Mewbourn grew up in the southern gardens of her father and grandparents. In 2015 on a lark, she applied to a sustainable agriculture program. After an apprenticeship with another local grower, she was hooked. Laura has been farming ever since.

She began floral design coursework in 2016 and found an untapped talent and passion in the world of cut flowers. From there, the decision to focus on commercial cut flower production on was easy. If only all of farming was that way!

Laura works to educate people on farming, sustainability, and how to reconnect with the earth that grants us so much. Her work embodies a wild aesthetic, that "freshly gathered" look that requires so much more than drifting through a field and plopping the bounty in a vase.

In her scant free time, Laura enjoys hanging out with friends in Charleston and trying to curb an addiction to TikTok. She lives with her son Charlie, farm dog extraordinaire Ollie, two cats, and a hamster.

Sarah Robinson

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Sarah has been with Feast and Flora for almost three years. She moved to Charleston after a stint in Baton Rouge, LA where she worked in student development for a non-profit at LSU. Before that, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Art Management at Appalachian State University.

Growing up on her family’s hydroponic vegetable farm in Fort Mill, SC, Sarah developed a fondness for growing, a tolerance for getting messy, and a knack for fixing (or trying to fix) anything that is broken. If she can’t fix it, she calls up her farm-genius father who usually has a helpful trick or two up his sleeve.

Sarah runs the on-farm operation at Feast and Flora, planning for incoming crops, building beds, tending to seedlings, inspecting for pests and disease, installing electric fences and irrigation systems, and occasionally pulling tractors out of ditches. She also facilitates the harvest and sale of our fresh-cut flowers to other florists in the Charleston area. Sarah loves a good system, and although organization doesn’t always come naturally to her, she can’t resist the prospect of creating a new-and-improved spreadsheet to track planting and harvesting each season.

When she’s not raking out new rows or coordinating with wholesale customers, Sarah enjoys shark-tooth hunting, climbing, running in Hampton Park, dancing in the kitchen, and developing her side-hustle of linocut printmaking. She’s currently taking classes in Horticulture Technology at Trident Technical College, and hopes to soon have every woody ornamental committed to memory.

Heather Duby-Tharpe

FLORAL MANAGER

Growing up in the heart of very rural California, the central coast in all its agricultural and wine country glory was my playground. I spent my days in a very tiny 2 room school house that taught grades K-8 and afternoons and evenings caring for livestock, gardening or learning the many lessons taught in 4-H. It was one particular project of ornamental horticulture in 4-H that brought to life my love for flowers. I decided at the age of 14 I wanted to learn everything I could about the floral world and took a holiday job with a little flower shop in Cambria, California on Valentines Day. My first day ever seriously working with flowers, arguably the busiest day in the floral world, challenges included, was by far one of the most pivotal moments in my career. Over 25 years later and I am still in this crazy floral world and would not change a minute of it.

After career highlights such as working on flowers for events like the Emmy Awards, weddings for high profile athletes, plus designing arrangements for stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore, and Betty White just to name a few, life had new things in store. My Charleston native husband brought up the idea to come back home. So we made our way back to Charleston nearly 10 years ago and have settled back into the small town, city life we love in the Lowcountry.

When I'm not working with flowers, you can find me at my jewelry bench engrossed in what I like to call my therapy, playing with my torch and banging on metal.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

We welcome everyone

We are excited to work with a diverse array of clients and customers.

Whether this is your first marriage or fourth, whether you are from Charleston or abroad, whether you're LGB, straight, or trans, regardless of race, religion, gender, or any identity, you deserve beautiful flowers that will represent you and your special event. This may sound like an unusual statement coming from a farm and floral design studio, but it is important to know how much we value you for YOU--not for the money we may earn but for the beauty your differences add to this earth. Obviously, there are plenty of farmers and florists who feel the same way, but we felt so strongly about this point that we felt the need to be clear and upfront on the matter. You are safe and welcomed here at Feast & Flora. We look forward to the day when we can take for granted that all people feel the same.

Feast & Flora strongly opposes racism in all its many forms. We are committed to educating ourselves and our community about these concepts within the broader world, particularly our home community of Charleston.

We are committed to providing a safe space for us and our clients, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, or disability, and we reserve the right to suspend a relationship if these values are not in alignment with another vendor, client, or other entity.