11 years ago, we lived in a cold city and we huddled together for warmth when the wind blew too quickly.
John had left Belize 11 years prior, finding home in many different places in pursuit of his PhD in immunology. After living in Gainesville, Florida, and a short stint in Lille, France, he eventually found himself working in Toronto.
I had returned from my life in Paris, disenchanted with Toronto, the city I grew up in, that I studied art in, but now felt so distant from. I worked to launch an eco-friendly pop up shop with other young creatives, but my pursuit of beauty alongside sustainability seemed to only make space for more questions.
John was working at The Hospital for Sick Children at the time. I was working at a vintage shop because I needed something easy on my heavy heart. After 2 years of hospital visits, my father had finally passed away.
So when we met, it was magic.
A crack in the cement, where the tiniest seed sprouted, and soon the whole grey world seemed to lack greenery.
We filled our tiny apartment with as many plants as we could. We ate only organically and supported locally and ethically-produced products as much as we could. We were voting with our dollars and trying to be active in making change, but still something else was churning.
After many conversations, we decided to leave- our jobs, our friends, our tiny apartment.
We packed our things into Cutiebubs (our car) and headed down the East Coast from Toronto to Miami (with lots of camping, surfing and detours along the way). We hopped on a plane, and finally, we arrived in Belize.
We made it home.
What we didn’t know: this was only the beginning. We set up this beautiful dream and left in 2018 to answer so many other questions that remained. Pandora graciously stepped in. Sometimes, the spiral of life is necessary.
We had to head to London, UK so John could finish his post-doc at the Francis Crick Institute. We had to move to Canada, where our daughter Penelope was born, where John is still a professor of Immunology at the University of Calgary. We needed all this time because sometimes dreams this big need time. The trees we planted in our field seven years ago have matured into a forest. We’ve returned to a new microclimate for growing and new opportunities for stewardship at Kunahmul and at Silk Grass Wildlife Preserve.
Why so personal, you say? This is personal because this farm is personal.
From sifting the soil to seeding to weeding to mulching to picking To packaging to delivering, this has been and continues to be a labour of love. John and I built the field with our own two hands, with the help of our amazing farmhand and friend joel. today, we manage a small the dedicated team and help on weekends (because we are back and forth between silk grass wildlife preserve and simply can’t be there everyday).
When you support our farm, you are not only supporting sustainable practices, you are also directly supporting the promotion of indigenous species, the conservation of diversity + the local belizean economy. And, of course, you are supporting love.
Thank you for reading about our journey. We hope to share food and stories with you in the near future!
xxx
A & J
