In The Blood.

 

In 1981, Kimberly Bigelow asked her mother to cut a patch in the garden so she could grow her own vegetables.  She was six years old.  A few years later, she saw how her maternal grandfather had to re-learn farming after moving from Arkansas to Florida, adapting to the change in climate and soil.  She vividly remembers his farm in Southwest Florida growing huge watermelons and massive heads of cauliflower, providing food to the family every growing season.  Her mother and aunt co-founded a florist shop, making arrangements for weddings and funerals or corsages for prom.  Kimberly would step into the flower cooler after the bus ride from school to cool off from the hot Florida summers. The smells inside that cooler were mesmerizing, compelling enough to prompt her to ask what every single plant or flower was. Their botanical origin. What they once were, or what they would become.

Stems were flying in the maelstrom of cut flowers during high volume periods.  Kim’s mother and aunt worked long hours doing these days, but they found the work rewarding.  

The first thing Kimberly ever grew was red cabbage, and when they came up healthy, she’d found her passion. She’s done many things professionally, property manager, auto mechanic, bartender and stay at home mom (which she’s still doing). Her personal hobby launched a modest Etsy store, selling dream catchers, smudge bundles and incense, before it steamrolled into something with more momentum, selling seeds, bulbs and plants. Now that small business sells thousands of seeds a day in all fifty states, right out of that same little town in Southwest Florida.

 

(photo: Kimberly and her brother, Eric.)