Hi!
Long before Bang & Bloom was a vision, I was a young child with dirt beneath my tiny fingernails, spending time in the shade of the towering golden sunflowers my parents grew. As a child, the outdoors - and the garden, in particular - were the places I felt most alive and most at home. It’s funny now, to look back at the topics and hobbies I’ve loved since I was a child and to see how they all connect now in adulthood - nature, flowers, public health, gardening, mental health, baking, and eating well.
Fast-forward many years later: I’m walking home from my office job while living in Lima, Peru. I stopped by my favorite cafe (shoutout: Raw Cafe), and there, in the display case, I saw them - chocolate tarts adorned with delicate, edible flowers. I let out an audible gasp of delight (much to the amusement of the kind barista). It was a magical sight, like a small piece of the garden sitting right on a plate in the middle of a sprawling metropolis with ~11 million residents.
Fast-forward a little more: I returned to the States during the pandemic and was in the middle of my zillionth Zoom call of the day, daydreaming, like so many others, about owning land, learning to sew, baking my own bread, and adorning everything with edible flowers. Now I am grateful to say that I do all of these things; however, every search for edible flowers led me to websites offering flowers from unknown origins.
Present-day: As a professional in the fields of public health and clinical social work, I’ve spent my academic and professional career studying how our environments shape our well-being and creating programs that aim to connect individuals and communities to the natural world.
We live in an era where our communities are rapidly evolving away from the natural world, often at the expense of our mental and physical health. I don’t know about you, but I’ve grown tired of this disconnect. Smell the trees, walk with your dog around the block as you notice the birds, watch the full moon rise, spend an afternoon looking for four-leaf clovers, learn how to love the wintertime, and show your children how to notice the world around them. Life is short, let's go outside!
I am so proud to say that I founded Bang & Bloom to address the growing disconnect between the natural world and our everyday lives.
Thank you for being here!
Love,
Alexa
