Gaia's Garden was founded in June 2022 based on the belief that regenerative agriculture is the intersection of environmentalism and human rights. Living in the suburbs without much access to land, our founder Ariela, started an urban garden, named it "Gaia's Garden" at a vacant building in the Bronx, NY. "Gaia" after the Greek Mother Earth Goddess. The urban garden was great! The added green space alleviated the urban heat island effect that often plagues historically redlined neighborhoods. Community members loved stopping by the garden to find out what was growing and to ask questions about gardening techniques! It was a small space however, and was not economically viable. An expansion was necessary. A second garden was founded but it was still too small a space to profitably grow food.
Our first garden, shown above.
Always someone who loves to make things herself, Ariela knew she wanted to create value added products as well, for example canned tomato sauce from her home-grown tomatoes. For her value added goods, she needed to start with something that did not require a lot of space, had low barriers to entry to begin production, ingredients could be sourced directly from farmers, was a necessary good, was entirely consumable (no pollution at end of life), and could be produced easily at any time of the year. Soap seemed to fit that bill pretty nicely. After several months of research and development. Gaia's Garden released its first good - handmade soap!
Soap R&D!
In August 2022, about 2 months after the launch of Gaia's Garden Goods, Ariela and her family (cats Espinoza and Jafari and farm hand and boyfriend Jake) relocated to Lake Wales, Central Florida to a small farm. From August 2022 -February 2024, we busily worked to improve our soil health, grow heathy food, and make high quality soap in line with our ethics and principles. We worked on planting a food forest, focused on trees and perennials as food sources, utilized and planted native plants, integrated animals and a diversity of species on the farm, and loved every step of the way!
- Written by Ariela Gomez