Our Story
Where I am from in southwest Florida, you’ll notice coconut palms with sudden twists and contortions from damage they received in a hurricane. What I admire, is that though set back, they endure without complaint or bitterness. Cassie and I set out together to start a farm 10 years ago with negative money, few skills and little experience. I grew up as a landscaper in my family’s business and she worked retail. We met at school and got married. I took up many different jobs from carpentry to cake decorating and she became a barista to pay off our school debt and we did. Then we saved up to buy a small plot of land to start our farm and had our first daughter Abigail. But after half a season, we decided to sell our land due to salt water intrusion in our well..
Then we were able to rent a different piece of ground with access to a pond for irrigation and had our second daughter Rebekah. So we set out to start our second farm. I spread over 90 yards of compost by hand, built caterpillar tunnels, and quit my job. But two weeks later hurricane Irma swept through the area and killed most of our crops. Thoroughly discouraged by back to back disasters, we decided to postpone starting the farm until the following season. So I doubled down learning the trade of carpentry again.
In the meantime we began to consider moving to a whole new place with good water, no flooding and fewer hurricanes. Soon a 5 acre parcel in Monticello, FL came up on foreclosure, which was the only way we could possibly afford anything, and we were able to buy it for cheap. A few months later, we learned that our youngest daughter had to have open heart surgery to close a major hole in her heart which had not closed naturally. So now we had a sick daughter, were broke, had our dreams dashed, and just had to trust in the Lord. Over the course of the next few years, our daughter was fixed, we were able to become financially stable again, and we had a farm again.
When we had paid off the house and completely remodeled it (remember that carpentry trade I learned) we moved to start our third farm and had our third daughter Sarah (we don’t purposefully have a daughter every time we start a farm). So now we’re here and ready for whatever comes next, whether our coconut palm goes for another twist or just grows straight we are thankful for God’s grace and mercy to go through the storm. Hopefully we are personally an encouragement to you and our vegetables are a blessing. Thank you for your support!
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the grace of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”