From a love of nature to Leaves for Life
I guess you could say I have always been drawn to nature and growing things. The first thing I remember wanting to be when I grew up was a farmer. Then I found out farmers had to get up at the crack of dawn, and I wasn’t quite so sure about that career choice anymore! 😂
I didn’t grow up on a farm—or even in the country. I grew up right here in Southwest Florida, near the beach. But I loved nature, animals, and being outdoors, and I always knew those passions would somehow find their way into my life.
I graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1990 with a degree in Human Development. From there, life took me to Western North Carolina, where I worked with troubled adolescent boys at an outdoor wilderness camp. After a few more years working in group homes, I eventually found my way to a veterinary clinic, where I spent the next decade.
While living in a college town in Western North Carolina, I became involved with a wellness center and began exploring natural health and alternative approaches to wellness. Some of it resonated with me, while some of the more spiritual and metaphysical aspects did not. I suppose I’ve always been a little too grounded for that side of things! I continued gardening—or at least learning how to garden—but it would be many years before my interest in natural healing returned.
During those years, I got married, had two children, and homeschooled them from beginning to end. We spent more than two decades in the eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina area, enjoying the mountains, hiking, gardening, and the clean air and water.
Eventually, life brought us back to Florida.
Finding a New Direction
Moving back to Florida opened the door to exploring natural health again, and it also gave me something I hadn’t expected: the opportunity to grow.
During the pandemic, when concerns about food availability had so many people thinking about growing their own food, I started wondering:
Could I grow a garden here?
I was intimidated by Florida’s heat, humidity, bugs, and completely different growing seasons. Then I discovered the concept of a food forest, and I was hooked. What started as curiosity became a project, and that project became a lifestyle.
I learned that much of what I was reading about food forests and regenerative growing was actually common sense—and that I knew more than I thought I did. Eventually I realized that if someone else could do the work, so could I. The projected cost of having someone install our food forest was also a pretty effective motivator! Call me thrifty, economical, or cheap…whatever works. 😂
Two things really got me started: visiting another food forest and getting my hands dirty, and some very good advice I found online: “Just plant something somewhere.”
So I did. And that was all she wrote.
From Food Forest to Leaves for Life
As our food forest grew, I began learning that many of the plants we were growing had uses beyond their fruit, vegetables, or culinary value. Their leaves, flowers, and other plant parts could also be used to make botanical infusions.
At the same time, after years of homeschooling my children, I finally had the freedom to explore a new path for myself. Someone suggested I make and sell teas. The lightbulb went on.
I spent the first year learning the business side of things—taking small-business courses, forming Leaves for Life, learning about Florida’s Cottage Food laws, and experimenting with the plants we were growing to see which could be combined into flavorful botanical infusions.
The following year, I began selling at small festivals and local events. The response was far greater than I expected. People loved knowing that the plants were grown right here on our property. They loved the unusual tropical ingredients and, thankfully, they actually liked the taste, too!
My husband, Glenn, started seeing the potential and became involved.
It went from me to we.
Today, Glenn and I work together growing, harvesting, drying, blending, and packaging our plants into tropical, flavorful botanical infusions.
Where We’re Going
As I began talking with customers at the farmers market, I realized how much more there was to learn about the plants I was working with. People weren’t just interested in the teas—they were asking questions about the plants themselves and about natural approaches to wellness. I knew I needed a deeper education.
That led me to Traditions School of Herbal Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I am continuing my formal education in Western herbalism. I chose the school because of its combination of classroom learning and clinical experience, as well as its attention to plants that actually grow in our subtropical environment.
My long-term vision for Leaves for Life is to continue creating healthy, flavorful botanical infusions from plants grown locally and without synthetic chemicals, while eventually expanding into individualized herbal education and services for local clients.
Local is important to me.
I would love to help everyone, but I also believe in knowing my limits. We have a finite amount of land, a finite number of plants, and a finite amount of time. I want to grow responsibly and give my customers the best experience I can—not simply grow as large as possible.
For now, that means Leaves for Life remains a small, local business, rooted right here in our food forest. And honestly, I think that’s exactly where it belongs.
