I first fell in love with nature when living in the Cloud Forest of Costa Rica as a teenager. I focused much time helping scientists collect botanical specimens and leading visitors through natural interpretation walks in the forest. For six years I traveled through the tropical forest and learned about their ecosystems and conservation as a naturalist guide.
In 2000 I left Costa Rica and attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wa. This is where I met my amazing wife and best friend, Amber, and we both studied science and natural history together. Olympia is also special to us because it is where our first daughter, Samara Paz was born.
We came to Tampa in 2005 to continue our adventure as an Earth conscious family. Our first visit to the farm we fell in love with the idea of living our ideals instead of just reading and learning about them. It took us minutes to decide to stay and live on the farm as apprentices. In 2008 we welcomed our second daughter, Sage Terra. We have learned many lessons as a family, from learning to grow and prepare food seasonally, canning, drying and making herbal medicine. Many vegetables were new to us like kale and kohlrabi and took us on a creative cooking journey. Our first season here we modified my family’s traditional Costa Rican tamale recipe to a vegan version using many veggies from the farm. As a farmer and scientist, I have come to appreciate the importance of creating healthy bio-diverse soil in order to grow nutritious food.
One of my favorite memories of Sweetwater is wondering why the broccoli in the fields had small bite marks in them only to find Samara eating it directly from the plant. Now that is eating fresh vegetables.
I am continually amazed at the quantity of food that is grown on such a small farm and the amount of families it feeds. This gives me hope of a future where all fresh food is grown in a way sustainable for the environment while benefiting the community in which it is grown. Not only is change possible, but we are already creating it. Peace.