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About Lei Lani -The (Almost) Full Story
Plants
I picked up my love of planting and growing plants in the 70’s when I worked as a genetic technician breeding flowers for the Pan American Seed Company, located near where I grew up on Anna Maria Island, Florida. This love was fostered during my 20 year employment with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) at the North Florida Research and Education Center Suwanee Valley (NFREC-SV) in Live Oak, FL.
In case you’re wondering, NFREC-SV is a 300-acre farm well-known for its small farm, specialty crop, hydroponic, and alternative enterprise Extension programs that help everyone, big and small, who are interested in learning more about farming and agriculture.
I spent the first 15 years at NFREC-SV as Greenhouse Manager overseeing greenhouse and hydroponic research and demonstrations and later became farm manager. During that time, I also managed the fruit orchard and assisted in the orchard and field research.
Extensions are all about conducting research and then delivering the findings to help others, plus providing lots of education to all sorts of groups interested in what we were doing (this is why I always direct people to their local extension when they have questions about anything related to planting). I conducted and assisted in field days, workshops for garden clubs, Master Gardeners, children's programs, and in-service training. I loved it!
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Herbs became an alternative crop for hydroponics. There was not a good resource within University of Florida (UF) on this commodity, prompting support to send me to attend seminars and various training outside the UF community on the subject. Besides herbs, training also included organic and sustainable farming, fruits and Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
While managing the greenhouse and working with field projects, I learned to identify pests of the crops I managed and oversaw. From there, I learned how to manage various issues such as insects, fungus and bacteria. I also learned about beneficial insects and plants. Jumping ahead a little, after my early retirement I was asked if I would come back to do some consulting on two grants. One was setting up the ”Living Extension IPM Field Laboratory,” a specialized IPM learning environment to interactively demonstrate how to enhance agro-ecological systems for specialty crop farmers. If you would like more information about this, let me know and I’d be happy to share it with you!
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Because I was becoming known in numerous counties in Florida for my workshops, specifically in growing and using herbs through UF, I was being contacted by various private and community businesses, groups, and clubs to give presentations. This was the time I was asked to be a demonstrator at Stephen Foster State Park in White Springs, FL. With my knowledge and love of herbs, I conducted workshops and demonstrations on growing and using herbs as a volunteer at Stephen Foster, where I became known as the “Herb Lady.” It was at Stephen Foster that I took advantage of the many opportunities to learn new crafts, which satisfied my need to be creative.
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One of the recurring questions after presentations and workshops was "where can I get herb plants?” This prompted the start of my herb nursery, Heavenly Flower. When I had my nursery established, I would bring herbs with me to sell when I presented to groups. I also sold herb plants at various festivals.
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I took an early retirement from NFREC-SV and Beli Farms, which farmed five acres of hydroponic vegetables, called and asked me for help. For the two years I worked there, I oversaw IPM, food safety, and assisted the owner with nutrient management.
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In 2012 I was asked if I would return as a consultant with UF, which lasted until 2018, working on two grants, one was for IPM, the ”Living *Extension IPM Field Laboratory” that I mentioned earlier and the other was for food safety, which was a big deal at the time because this is when people were getting sick from various vegetables and even ice cream.
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At that point, my husband Wayne and I decided to sell our large piece of land in Live Oak and downsize to our vacation property in Steinhatchee, FL, so it was time to finally retire for good (at least until Heather asked me to launch this project with her!).
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I have always loved anything to do with art and crafts; I started with drawing in pencil, charcoal and painting with watercolors in the first grade. From a young age, I worked as a seamstress, sewing made to order clothing, making alterations for local shops and even sewed for an interior designer and made costumes. I started college as an art major in hopes of being an Art teacher, but life took a different direction!
Over the years I acquired skills in various crafts, like macrame, making mobiles from things from the sea, crafts using feathers, wood carving, pine needle basketry, jewelry, pressing flowers, making paper, crocheting, Pysanka eggs, pottery, things with recycled plastic bags, homemade beauty products and anything else that inspires me!
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Now that I’m retired, I still love to work in my home garden and on my crafts which I consider to be my “happy place.” With all of my expertise in the world of planting and crafting, my daughter, Heather de Paulo, thought it should be shared with the world, so she approached me and said, why don’t we share your knowledge with everyone? And that was the start of this mother daughter venture!
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If any of these topics related to plants or crafts interest you, please let us know and perhaps we will set up something to dig into it deeper!
Crafts
About Heather -The Brief Story
My Background
Let me first say that I'm NOT a green thumb! The creativity and plant whisperer genes definitely skipped me! I guess that's why I'm always so impressed with my mom and all the things that she does - and the reason I felt that she should share her knowledge to help people like me be able to grow their own food and gardens!
I'm a science geek and love everything related to food, health and wellness. I'm a registered dietitian and I have a Masters of Science in Dietetics and Nutrition. It all started many years ago when I spent 4 ½ years in the US Air Force as an inflight refueler. During that time, I realized that I couldn’t get enough of everything that had to do with nutrition, science, and biochemistry, so I decided to study what I was passionate about!
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When I became a registered dietitian, I floated around for a while, taking per diem jobs while I found my way, including working in hospitals, (which I quickly realized wasn’t for me), teaching nutrition courses at Johnson and Wales University, and working on a consultant basis in HIV/AIDS clinics and drug and alcohol rehab facilities. I finally found a perfect fit working in the nutrition division of a research company, doing nutraceutical and pharmaceutical research. I did all sorts of nutrition counseling, from weight loss to medical nutrition therapy, as well as coordinating numerous research studies, particularly related to weight loss, women’s health, and endocrinology. What I discovered along the way is that, while I enjoyed helping my clients achieve their immediate health and weight goals, what I really loved was witnessing their mindset shift, knowing that they’ve developed new lifestyle habits that will stick with them for the long haul.
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A while back, a co-worker called me a “foodie” when being a foodie wasn’t a thing. I said, “Well, if being a foodie means you love good, wholesome food, then that’s me!” No matter the diet trend or fad, I have always felt that if we eat as close to the earth as possible, watch our portion sizes, eat what we enjoy and allow ourselves to have a little splurge on occasion, we will reach our health goals. It’s about creating a lifestyle: nutrition, fitness, and mindset habits that we can maintain for a lifetime - that’s what I’m all about!
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You can imagine, then, that my mom's expertise in the garden and her passion for crafts fall right along those lines. I can remember visiting her when she worked at NFREC-SV and noshing on all of the wonderful produce growing at the moment, it was heavenly!
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So, along with sharing my mom's expertise on planting and growing fresh herbs, food and plants that make us all happy, I will interject any type of culinary or nutritional wisdom that I think is interesting or that may help you in some way.
If there's something you have a question about or would like more information, please do not hesitate to ask! I'm here to help and serve! ​​​
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My Philosophy
