Hi ( :

I’m Jacqueline (aka Jax, J, Hey You, Hey South African Chick), mother, activist, conservationist, wife, lover, beloved, friend, artist and constant gardener (that’s me on the right). I love food, music and books. I’m a Permaculture facilitator and designer, with a passion for soil rehabilitation and natural medicine. My work is not only an expression of self, but also of the world around me and my reverence for the sacredness of all life.

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’m creative in the way that I approach life and regenerative projects. “A mover and shaker!” as my friends would say. I absolutely love engrossing myself into the different cultures that I find myself in through my work and play. I consider myself an activist at heart and will stand strong for what is true and just.

Two things you should know about me off the bat, ONE: Barack Obama is my favorite 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.

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 (18) and Troy (16). In 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 amazing!

BESIDES IMPLEMENTING OUTREACH AND COMMUNITY PROJECTS, ENGAGING IN PRIVATE DESIGN PROJECTS, Consulting AND RUNNING COURSES AND WORKSHOPS, I HAVE BEEN BUSY BUILDING UP MY SKILL SET:

2024: ANSI Food Safety & Food Handler Training

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 Extention Office, as well as establishing the Food Forest demonstration garden. Guest speaker at community and educational events.

2019 – 2023: Master Naturalist UF|IFAS – Freshwater Systems, Coastal Systems, Upland Systems, Conservation Science, Habitat Evaluation, Coastal Shoreline Restoration, Invasive Plants of Florida

2019: Primary Rainforest Observation, Cocoa Research and Micro Vanilla Framers – Ecuador 

2018: Advanced First Aid

2018: East African Permaculture Convergence in Sanje, Uganda where I met incredible team of people from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Rwanda, Australia and Belgium. 

2017: Snake Awareness and Venomous Snake Handling with the African Snakebite Institute (ASI) with Johan Marais

2018: Agro-ecosystems Design and Temperate Climate Polyculture Designs with Daniel Halsey 

2016: Permaculture Facilitators – East London, SA

2016: Lifeline Training

2015: Introduction to Permaculture, Permaculture Design Course – East London, SA

 

ABOUT ME

My youngest memories growing up are of me around age 5 growing food with my grandma Betsie in her tiny garden in Muizenberg. They 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 pulling at the potatoes beneath the earth. A miracle! I remember how in my late teens living in Scarborough, how I fed my thirst for knowledge by reading amongst many others, Margeret Roberts’s books on the healing properties of various herbs and their various growing characteristics and requirements……..and 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 I realized that my passion has always been around the ethical consumption of food and how our daily choices impact our environment.

I have always been fascinated by the community thread and tradition 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 42 and I have come full circle. I have found my shape and form. I can see how each path that I’ve explored has given me the foundation and building blocks for the work that I do now and how it has provided me with the insight and depth for the path that lies ahead.

I’m deeply passionate about soil rehabilitation, habitat/ecosystem conservation and restoration and  working with farmers in developing countries.

 

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, Forest Primeval: The Natural History of an Ancient Forest

JUST FOR FUN ( :

Favorite movies right now: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Lion………..The Proposal (yes yes I know….don’t judge)

Favorite books:  The Witches Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 

Favorite vegetable: brussels sprouts and any ferments (most disliked vegetables green beans and peas)

Favorite fruit (I LOVE FRUIT): overripe bananas, papaya, oranges, mangoes, persimmons, lychees and pineapples……and all the new ones I’m discovering here in Hawaii.

Favorite season: Winter

Favorite food: salad & hot spicy curry

Favorite animals: bears, bees, elephants, lions, raccoons, birds (at the moment, Sandhill Cranes) and foxes

Favorite activities: gardening, eating good food, reading, cooking good food for others, learning, dancing, listening to great music, camping, morning swims in the ocean, driving and time with my partner and our children. 

Favorite drinks: tea (I LOVE TEA!), coffee and hot cocoa.

This poem moves me deeply, written by someone I deeply admire, 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.