Long before Bang & Bloom was a vision, I was a young child with dirt beneath my fingernails, spending time in the shade of my parents’ towering golden sunflowers. As a kid, the outdoors - and the garden, in particular - were the places I felt most alive and most at home. It’s funny, to reflect on the interests and hobbies I’ve loved since childhood and to see how they all connect now in adulthood - nature, flowers, public health, gardening, mental health, writing, and eating well.
Fast-forward to 2019 (and many years after childhood): 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 to 2020: After returning to the States during the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself in what felt like a zillion Zoom calls a day, all regarding global and public health research. Yet, I found myself daydreaming, like so many others, about what it would be like to own my own land, to learn how to sew, bake my own bread, and adorn everything with those lovely little flowers I saw at the cafe in Lima. While I have succeeded, in some way or another, in accomplishing these daydreams, I kept getting stuck on the edible flowers. Every time, I ended up on websites that offered flowers from unknown sources.
Which brings me to…
Now(ish): While living in Colorado, I attempted the 30x30 challenge, a commitment to spend 30 minutes a day outdoors for 30 consecutive days, inspired by a research article I had read that highlighted the benefits of nature on improving our happiness. By the end of this challenge, my daily walks around the city pond filled me with a sense of belonging I never even knew I craved. It became quite clear: we are inherently apart of nature.
Yet, 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. As a professional in public health and clinical social work, I've dedicated my career to understanding how our environments shape our well-being and creating intervention programs designed to reconnect individuals and communities with the natural world.
With this vision in mind, I am so proud to say that I founded Bang & Bloom so that you don’t need a gigantic garden of your own or a 30-day mountain challenge to feel connected to nature.
Love,
Alexa
Ready to bring the garden to your table?