Let’s grow Honey Blossom Farm!

Marie here, owner of Honey Blossom Retreat Garden, an organic certified and regenerative farm located in the heart of Carmel Valley. You might have picked up my plant starts in their biodegradable containers at Whole Foods or at Staff of Life, purchased my pastured eggs, fresh herbs, or produce at Jerome’s Carmel Valley Market, or my handcrafted artisanal skin care products or GOURDgeous ornaments around Christmas time. You see, just like one of the keys of regenerative farming is to ensure biodiversity, I do my best to create a resilient farming model by diversifying my production.

Last year, I was able to secure the purchase of my farm based on my financial projections following this regenerative model. The support I received from the USDA was particularly validating at a period of my life when I was experiencing a difficult breakup both at the personal and the professional levels.

Now Honey Blossom Retreat Garden is the steward of a pristine 195-acre property prime for becoming a living sanctuary dedicated to planting the seeds of a positive, abundant legacy that ensures a healthier planet for our children. Its mission is to reawaken our relationship with nature and with the source of our food in an exceptionally sublime setting where lush forests, gardens, and optimism thrive.

To achieve these goals, I have created a regenerative land management plan that fosters practices inspired by permaculture and biodynamics. The objective is to produce abundant organic gardens and orchards while maintaining open space, preserving pure streams, riparian and wildlife habitat, sequestering carbon, and providing other ecosystem services.

The next phase of this land management plan includes several large projects:

- The planting of over 2000 ft. of native hedgerows for pollinator habitat,

- The fencing of additional rotational pastures for the holistic management of livestock and poultry,

- The implementation of rainwater harvesting measures to increase water tables and provide for agricultural use,

- The planting of three more orchards and aromatic herbs market gardens.

All of these projects will help prevent erosion, mitigate the effects of drought and fire hazard, and accelerate the succession of native plants and wildlife, while increasing and further diversifying the farm’s production. Here again, the Natural Resource Conservation Services of the USDA have validated my efforts by granting me their assistance within several of these projects.

Today, I am turning to you for help. This startup farming enterprise was born 4 years ago from a long-cherished dream. To this day, it is a one-woman show, but it is not how I intended it to be. It has been a challenging road to get where I am, and I cannot do this alone. This farm was created to serve our local community, and so I am reaching out to you, my neighbors, for help and support in realizing its wonderful potential.

There are two ways you can help launch these projects in time for the first rains of the fall:

1. Get involved! Come volunteer on one of the upcoming planting days (dates to be announced for Saturdays in October), lend a skill that you may have to the marketing, branding, etc. of Honey Blossom Retreat Garden, or reach out to me to see what is needed.

2. Make a donation and help me move these projects forward: Your contribution will fund the purchase of the plants, fencing material, equipment rental, irrigation, etc. needed to make progress on the regenerative land management plan.

With each donation of at least $100, I will offer to put together a gift basket filled with my luxurious skin/hair care products. You will have a choice to pick it up at the Sunday farmers market at Mid-Valley or have it shipped to an address of your choice.

Thank you wholeheartedly for your support.