Goeie dag, Mholo, Habari, Hola, Kon’nichiwa and Aloha  ( :

I’m Jacqueline (aka Jax, J, Jay, Hey You, Hey South African Chick), mother, activist, conservationist, wife, lover, beloved, friend, artist, student & teacher and constant 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 deeply 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 nature..

Two things you should know about me off the bat: 

ONE: Barack Obama is my favourite and 

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 experience and the lens through which I see myself and the world around me…..and that lens is LOVE.

My life’s purpose is to grow in unconditional love.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

~ Dalai Lama

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)

And I have just taken up Russian ( :

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 grandma Betsie was a 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 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 as many as I could.

Later I entered the great wide world and gave and gained pieces of myself through the years…..waitresses, washed windows, practiced Chinese medicine, worked in customer service, worked in sales, got married, bought a house, gave birth to my daughter, opened a pottery studio, renovated a house, gave birth to my son, studied photography, built a house in Riebeek Kasteel, fostered a special little girl, had a life changing accident, worked some more as a web designer and then as an apprentice chef…….and then only did I realized that my true passion has always been around the ethics around food and how our daily choices impact our environment.

I have always been intrigued by the community threads and traditions around food and the way that it brings people together.

All my life, wherever I’ve called home, I’ve nurtured and tended a garden of herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables.

I’m now 43 and my experiences have come full circle. I can see how each path that I’ve ventured has shaped the building blocks for the work that I do now.

And just for some FUN: 

My 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:

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.

Favorite season: 

Winter

Favourite food: 

Homemade salad & hot spicy Indian curry

Favourite animals: 

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. 

Favorite drinks: 

Tea (I LOVE TEA!), coffee, hot cocoa, IPA’s and my dear friend Caroline’s water kefir

Favorite Actors: 

Pedro Pascal, Jonny Depp and Angelina Jolie

Current Favourite Musician: 

Otis Redding

Favorite Comedians: 

Trevor Noah and Sarah Millican

Favorite Poem:

This poem moves me deeply and is written by someone I revere.

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

~ Maya Angelou