I would not have achieved any of my successes without the love, creativity and support of everyone I have been lucky to know……and this is only an abbreviated list at best!
My parents for raising me in a place that made me connect more deeply with my environment and for giving me great love throughout my life! I am so lucky to have you both for my parents and I am forever grateful for our farm! And thank you mom for teaching me how to weed (for real) and make things grow!
For my first pony Storybook, who taught me to be tenacious every damn day!
Marmaduke who kept me and my garden safe for so many years. He was my phantom protector long before I realized it and I miss him every day.
For my brother Chris who knew how to follow his heart and loved us all freely and deeply.
Polly, my god-mother who tied her orchids to a very old orange tree in her front yard. I wouldn’t know what real citrus tastes like, had I not partially grown up in her South Florida yard, which was a wondrous jungle. She always championed her children and their novel ideas.
Toby, my god-brother who is very smart and has always made me feel very smart because he is generous.
Melissa has been my in-house counselor since we first sneaked off to smoke a cigarette together while working at our local homeless shelter! And I am not talking the mundane legal kind, I mean an effortless and terribly insightful therapist! Her husband, the engineer, while often bemused by my farming helped me sight the placement of my greenhouses. He was right, I should have placed them a little further up the hill! This problem of flooding didn’t come home to roost until the saturated year of 2018!!
Devon is my farmer/banker. He has supplied me with much needed small business advice and we have shared the triumphs and the tragedies of the small plots we farm!
Niki is my oldest and dearest friend and my greatest cheerleader-leader! I will never forget as we descended upon the greenhouses bathed in our headlamps’ light (because i didn’t have lighting yet!) in the evening to christen them, it was all I could do to stop you from breaking a bottle of champagne on the greenhouse…frankly I was just worried the bottle would win with your swing! You have always been such an inspiring friend and I love that you have always reminded me that any business is an adventure to be relished!
Manuel is the most generous person with his time and his great talent! I have learned so much from his years of experience - and I am grateful for all that he shared with me. He is true design consultant: he sees things that no one else does and we are all better for it!! He can be found at EyeManuelDesign.
Dave my best friend who is really good at philosophizing and drinking beer from the sidelines! He is the one who reminds me to get out of the fields and I am always so grateful to have a real hiking buddy!
Airynee and Joneve who taught me about larger scale food production and organization in the chaos of working with nature. They are both masters of their fields (estate gardener and farmer respectively) and I have learned so much from both of them. I also don’t remember ever having so much fun weeding and cultivating in the summer heat as I have with these two!
Salman who reminded me many years ago that mysticism and magic exist in the everyday.
Nate and Scott who remind me that life is short and to make it sweet.