Goeie dag, Mholo, Habari, Hola, Kon’nichiwa and Aloha ( :
This Is Me.....
I’m Jacqueline, mother, environmental and social activist, conservationist, wife, lover, beloved, friend, artist, student & teacher and a constant soul gardener.
I’m a Permaculture facilitator (Agroforestry & Regenerative Ag) and designer, with a passion for soil conservation, habitat restoration and natural medicine. My work is not only an expression of self, but also a reflection of the world around me and my deep reverence for the sacredness of all life.
I started in Biodynamics about 19 years ago and then merged into Permaculture not long after that. I obtained my Master Naturalist in Florida in 2019 along with completing the Florida Master Gardener program and I continue to learn and add to my skill set, as I will for the rest of my life. I am currently enrolled in the Hawaii Master Gardener program where I volunteer my time and skills.
I have been identifying and implementing outreach and community projects for over 20 years, engaging in private consulting, design and project implementation for small to medium farms, developing and running workshops and have been an instrumental speaker at events and smaller gardening clubs and gatherings.
I have a deep spiritual connection to Mother Earth. I know that I can make a difference to the world and to the lives of people around me, wherever my feet may touch the ground. I am creative at heart and in the way that I approach life. “A mover and shaker!” as my close friends would say. I absolutely love engrossing myself in the different cultures that I find myself in, either through my work or play. I consider myself an activist at heart and will stand strong for what is true and just.
My most influential teacher is and always has been Mother Nature.
Two things you should know about me, RIGHT off the bat:
ONE: Barack Obama is my favourite and I’m super excited about Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
TWO: I am not a Christian. I believe in God, but I am not a Christian. It’s important for me to say this, as my work is greatly influenced by my life’s experience and the lens through which I see myself and the world around me…..and that lens is and will always be LOVE. My life’s purpose is to grow in unconditional love.
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
STUDIES & PROJECTS
Current
Our current projects on the farm, Big Island Vanilla, include 20 acres of invasive species removal, and additional 10 acres of soil remediation and rehabilitation, nursery installation and building up plant capital, solar power installation, water security, implementing roads and infrastructure., Cert. Sylvotherapy Practitioner (Oregon, USA), Family and Community Herbalism with CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism.
Completed 2025
Cert. Medical Cannabis (Hawaii, USA), Cert. Grant Writing (Hawaii, USA), Cert. Complementary and Integrative Health (Hawaii, USA), Cert. Mindfulness (Hawaii, USA), Cert. Food, Nutrition, and Health (Hawaii, USA)
Completed in 2024
CTAHR East Hawaii Master Gardener Program at the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (Hawaii, USA), ANSI Food Safety & Food Handler Training (Hawaii, USA)
2020-2023
UF|IFAS Master Gardener Program 600+ volunteer hours, chairing committees, coordinating and maintaining the Pollinator and the Ground Cover demonstration gardens at Seminole County Extension Office, as well as establishing the Food Forest demonstration garden. Guest speaker at community and educational events. (Florida, USA)
2019 – 2023
Master Naturalist UF|IFAS – Freshwater Systems, Coastal Systems, Upland Systems, Conservation Science, Habitat Evaluation, Coastal Shoreline Restoration, Invasive Plants of Florida (Florida, USA)
2019
Primary Rainforest Observation, Cocoa Research and Micro Vanilla Framers (Ecuador)
2019 – 2023
Public Relations & Creative Director for my husbands company Native Vanilla
2018
Advanced First Aid – Levels 1, 2 and 3 (Cape Town, South Africa), East African Permaculture Convergence in Sanje, Uganda where I met an incredible team of people from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Rwanda, Australia and Belgium. (Sanje, Uganda), Agro-ecosystems Design and Temperate Climate Polyculture Designs with Daniel Halsey (East London, South Africa)
2017
Snake Awareness and Venomous Snake Handling with the African Snakebite Institute (ASI) with Johan Marais (Paarl, South Africa), Chef Apprenticeship at Four & Twenty (1 year)
2016
Cert. Permaculture Facilitators Course (East London, South Africa), Lifeline Training (Cape Town, South Africa)
2015
Cert. Introduction to Permaculture, Permaculture Design (East London, South Africa)
Get to know me.
In 2018 I moved to Florida from Cape Town, South Africa with my beloved Daniel (to whom I’ve been married to for 19 years now) and our two children, Sarah (now 19) and Troy (now 17).
In mid 2023 we became the custodians of 30 acres of land in Hakalau, Big Island, Hawaii. We are LOVING Hawaii! The people and the food are incredible!
My youngest memories growing up are of me around age five, growing food with my maternal grandmother Ouma Betsie in her tiny little garden on the sandy coast of Muizenberg. My grandparents grew most of what they ate and fished the ocean for the rest. My maternal grandmother Betsie was a trek fisherwoman.
I remember my excitement at digging my fingers into the soil and pulling at the potatoes beneath the earth. A miracle!
I remember my late teens, living in Scarborough and how I fed my thirst for knowledge by devouring books on medicinal herbs, companion planting and beneficial insects. Margeret Roberts’s books on the healing properties of various herbs and their growing characteristics and requirements was my bible……..and I remember the joy I took in collecting and growing each herb.
I have always been deeply touched by the unity of sharing food, ‘breaking bread’……the sharing of a meal together and the threads that weave food, tradition and humanity together.
All my life, wherever I’ve called home, I’ve nurtured and tended a garden of herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables.
And just for some FUN.
Favorite Quote
“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”
~ Chris Maser
(Author of Forest Primeval: The Natural History of an Ancient Forest)
Languages
Able to read and somewhat understand German and Spanish but not able to respond with speed ( :
I am currently learning Hawaiian and I wish I was fluent in French.
Favourite Colour
Favourite movies right now
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Lion and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Favourite Books
The Witches Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Favourite Vegetable
Brussel sprouts and any ferments
Most Disliked Vegetables
Green beans and peas (I was forced to eat them as a kid)
Favourite fruit (I LOVE FRUIT)
Overripe bananas, papaya, oranges, mangoes, persimmons, lychees and pineapples……and all the new ones I’m discovering here in Hawaii, especially abui and durian.
Favourite Season
Winter
Favourite Food
Homemade salad & hot spicy Indian curry
Favourite Animal
Bears, bees, bats, cats, elephants, lions, raccoons, birds (at the moment, Sandhill Cranes) and foxes…….I LOVE ALL ANIMALS
Favourite Activities & Hobbies
Gardening, eating good food, going to farmers markets, reading, cooking good food for others, learning, dancing, listening to great music, camping, morning swims in the ocean, scuba diving, driving and quality time with my partner and our children.
Favourite Drinks
Tea (I LOVE TEA!), coffee, hot cocoa & IPA’s
Favourite Actors
Pedro Pascal, Jonny Depp and Angelina Jolie
Favourite Music
Otis Redding, Classical & Metal…..and Drum & Base
Favourite Comedian
Trevor Noah and Sarah Millican
This poem moves me deeply and is written by someone I revere, Maya Angelou.
When Great Trees Fall
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.