Although longtime Montecito retailer Leslie Person Ryan closed her Coast Village Road stationery store in early 2022, her retirement didn’t last long.
The owner of Letter Perfect — a mainstay for custom stationery, wedding invitations, birth announcements and gifts — has jumped back into the world of retail with a new business venture in Summerland.
Farm to Paper combines two of Person Ryan’s passions: paper and farming. The quaint new shop at 2325 Lillie Ave. features freshly farmed goodies from local sources as well as artisanal crafts and items from around the world.
For loyal stationery customers worried about losing one of their favorite resources, Farm to Paper has a wide selection of Vietri and other handmade ceramics and glassware, Italian and Japanese papers, invitations, holiday cards, and personalized papers of all kinds, like fun monogram notepads and paper products in every price range.
Housed in a fully remodeled craftsman cottage between Botanik and Rusty’s Pizza, the shop also offers agricultural and art classes, providing another innovative and interesting facet for Summerland’s rebirth as a thriving, upscale shopping hub.
Person Ryan, a Summerland resident, was inspired after the deadly 2018 Montecito flash flooding and debris flows that cut off the community from Santa Barbara and essentially turned it into a food desert.
She devoted herself to feeding food-insecure residents with her staff of volunteers delivering produce to 40-50 families every week.
Among the items for sale at Farm to Paper are fresh flowers and produce from Sweet Wheel Farm & Flowers, the open-air farm cart located between the northbound Evans Avenue freeway exit ramp and Summerland Fuel Depot across from Summerland Beach Café.
Farm to Paper also boasts a charming outdoor patio to enjoy pastries and other locally sourced artisanal food, including jams, marmalades, chips, simple syrups and salsas, as well as fresh flowers. The oasis even has an array of all-edible landscape plants, including lavender grapes, passionfruit, artichokes and pomegranates.
Among Person Ryan’s favorite new items are pantuflas slippers, hand-dyed, woven and stitched from Oaxacan artisans; regeneratively farmed products; Oaxacan micro black beans; and creative jams with unusual herbs such as organic strawberry with a hint of fennel, roasted nectarine and Mediterranean Bay leaf.
There’s something for everyone at Farm to Paper, including classes to teach you how to compost and mill wheat. The program is funded by the Santa Barbara Agricultural & Farm Education Foundation. You may not know it, but Summerland has community compost bins at the Sweet Wheel Farm & Flowers farm cart and at 201 Temple St. The sites are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Monthly art classes include beginning italic calligraphy and beginning watercolor with Virginia Pierce and Andre Thomas.
For paper addicts, Farm to Paper has a high-end paper-wrapping table and youth 17 and under can use it for free with supplies left over from clients.
“It’s a real community win,” Person Ryan told Noozhawk.
Farm to Paper is open daily, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at news@noozhawk.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.