A Year in the Garden

April 1st will be our official anniversary here at Ike & Eli's. We are one year past leaving a successful career to plant organic produce, to teach our community how to become self-sufficient and healthy, and to grow our faith. One year of setbacks due to weather, insects, our beloved Ike's passing, and one year of deep consideration of whether we were doing the right thing by becoming business owners.

We have had such an incredible year full of learning experiences that we thought a recap would be fitting. Entrepreneurship is a scary leap to take from corporations, but when you look at the grand scheme of things, the accomplishments far outweigh the trepidation. When we started out we had a somewhat clear vision of what Grow Your Nutrition would be for clients, and it has morphed into so much more!

-- Zero-Waste Produce speaking engagements at Coppell and Ennis Farmers Markets

-- Cooking parties featuring organic, seasonal food and fun

-- Management training for a great company based in North Texas using my retail roots

-- Greenhouse structuring

-- Enough organic produce grown here to satisfy the needs of our neighbors at local food pantries

-- Zero-waste classes here onsite

-- Urban farming classes here onsite

-- Individual client holistic nutrition services

-- Creation of Love & Dignity Homeless Outreach, which distributes hygiene and food bags to Dallas' street homeless

-- Opportunities to work with our community in shelters and food pantries, identifying and directly addressing needs of our fellow humans

Going forward, our mission at Grow Your Nutrition will be to address clients' needs and to continue working with our neighbors in need, beginning with our work in community gardens organized by the Dallas Hunger Coalition. Another goal we'll be adding this year is at least one mission trip to a country where women in need will be taught gardening and cooking skills in order to provide for themselves and their family. (This is already in the works, so stay tuned for more info!)

Will Grow Your Nutrition become an incredibly lucrative company? Yes - if you're measuring it as we do: we are rich with faith, joy, and love. That's all that matters. We hope you'll follow your dreams too.