PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM 117 flower Farms,” she recounts. Jenn’s skincare line sprang from her pastime of frequenting farmers markets with her sister and stocking up on botanical products. “I remember buying a rose lotion and thinking, ‘Well, this doesn’t even smell like rose. It’s a synthetic version of it.’” Knowing she could do better, Jenn made her own flower mists, perfumes and body scrubs for her sister and friends—“and you know, as everyone does, getting on Etsy for a minute,” she chuckles. It was a weekend diversion— until Belize. Initially it was just a trip, Jenn says of her first visit to the tropical country. “But my vacations are traipsing through ender smells heavenly, attracts bees and butterflies and possesses medicinal benefits. “It really balances out the central nervous system and helps bring you to a more balanced, calmer place.” Jenn’s foray into organic dry farming began at 16 when she heard about five acres of empty land owned by her school district. Even after she was told, “There’s a bunch of trash and mattresses and computers dumped on it,” she asked if she could steward the property. District officials agreed. “When I was 18, the day after I graduated high school, I went and got a business license to do Wildthe jungle and spending time in different communities,” she adds. Captivated by what she discovered, Jenn regularly returned to study ethno-botany in Belize over the next six years—expanding to jungles across Central America to learn about Theobroma cacao (the source of chocolate), vanilla and cardamom. “I learned to approach herbalism and working with plants in a very different way than the Colonial English gardening way,” she says. “It’s really interesting to see how different cultures work with plants, whether it’s for aesthetics or medicinally or spiritually or through just normal everyday use.” One mindset shift, Jenn says,
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