We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gigi Febres-Cordero. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gigi below.
Gigi , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I was eight years old when I found out the meaning of my legal name Georgia meant farmer and I was devastated. You see, I was the prissiest little girl. I always wore a dress, with a big bow in my hair and most importantly I did not sweat. The thought of working outside, as a farmer no less, was just not acceptable in my tinny little girl brain. Fast forward to August of 2020, I left my full time job as a salon manager to move out into the forest, go full time as an herbalist and start a farm. Yep, thats right yall, I grew up to be a farmer!
Heres the thing, I cant remember when the shift happened. I can’t remember when I decided I wanted to grow my own food and raise my own animals but I do remember when it went from an idea to a need and that was when the pandemic hit. Just like everyone else in the world we were scared. Scared of what was happening and scared of what might happen. It was then that my husband and I realized the time to buy land and start tending to it was now. However, on paper, we didn’t really look ready. Our finances weren’t really there and we were in a pandemic after all, unsure of when we would even go back to work. We didn’t let this stop us. Having a mother-in-law that’s a realtor definitely helped. June of 2020 we found a small 3 acre property and fell in love.
Buying a farm, quieting my job and moving into the forest felt a lot like jumping off a cliff. I grew up in a country club, I had no idea what I was doing but again, I didn’t let that stop me. I spent as much time as possible watching youtube videos of gardening and raising goats. I read books and found mentors. I learned from actually doing it, mostly poorly at first but as Joel Salatin says, “If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly first.” This has been our motto here on the farm.
Starting a farm is expensive, scary and a lot of hard work but as you can guess, we didn’t let that stop us. It was barely our second month here when we went looking for goats. We ended up bringing home two females a 1.5 year old and 6 month old that we named Lucy and Ethel. Unfortunately, 3 days later we had to put Lucy down because she was incredibly sick and should have never been sold to us. This broke me. I cried for days. I felt like a complete and utter failure. It took me some time to get over this but I did and we now have 11 goats on the farm. We have had pipes burst, septic tanks overflow on Christmas Eve, hard freezes kill our crops just before harvests, snakes bite our dogs, chickens killed by owls, bears flipping garbage cans, coyotes pulling 50 pounds bags of feed into the pasture. We have been through it. But we have also had 5 kids and 12 turkeys born on the farm, we have harvested 100s of pounds of food, we have celebrated holidays and made memories, we have problem solved and built infrastructure, we found healing and have fallen in love with a simple slow paced life.
Now we have over 3,000 sq, ft. of growing space were we grow all our produce for the year. We raise chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, goats, and we are set to get a cow very soon. I also grow a large medicinal herb garden and use those to make herbal remedies that I sell at local markets, along with farm fresh eggs, goat milk, cheese, and yogurt. I love being able to provide fresh local sources of food and herbs to my community.
Having just closed out our second year here I can happily say, I am finally getting it. It took me a long time to unlearn the corporate culture of production equals value. I struggled with depression a lot last year. Being out here alone, feeling cut off from the world. I thought that was what I wanted but it really is true that we are made to be in relationship. I have made an effort to get out more, to get back in a yoga studio instead of just a home practice, to connect more with friends and family. This has made a huge difference for me. Life is slow on the farm, the internet and cell service is horrible, we wake up with the sun and go to bed with the sun, we eat nourishing food we grew from seed, we work hard, and we do everything in our power to leave this land better than we found it.
Jumping off the cliff was the best thing I have ever done. I’v never worked as hard as I do now, yet I have never been as satisfied as a am now. Life isn’t just good on the farm, life is a dream come true.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have many passions in my life from growing food to formulating herbal supplements but my most rewarding passion and craft is as a women’s herbalist. I know first hand what it’s like to feel completely disconnected from your body. To have a bunch of symptoms that seem unrelated and to have no help from doctors figuring out whats wrong. It was from this place of despair that I dove deep into the world of the women’s hormonal health. I realized that it was up to me to heal myself, that the western medical system didn’t have any tools in its tool box to assist women in this area besides a band-aid in the form of a pill. So thats exactly what I did. I concentrated my herbal studies around the endocrine system, the gut micro-biome, and the systems of the body that play a vital role in hormonal health. Now, I am blessed to be able to help other women take their power back and heal themselves. I work one-on-one in a coaching container with women suffering from PMS, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, PCOS, PMDD, gut dysbiosis, painful menstruation, anxiety, depression and more.
Together we work on diet and lifestyle adjustments, we break down the female body and go through each system finding ways to support them daily with food and herbs. We create goals and action steps to get there. I provide food plans, and I formulate herbal remedies specific to their needs. Education is a huge part of my containers. It is very important to me that my clients understand why we are making these changes and what exactly they are going to do to the body. I want my clients to leave with a strong understanding of how their body works and the best ways to nourishing it well. It’s not about fixing a symptom, its about getting to the root cause and healing that. It’s about feeling your absolute best so you can show up for your life!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Once you start down the path of holistic health and healing there are many things you have to unlearn. Its extremely unfortunate but as woman we are taught very little about our bodies, especially our reproductive system. On top of that, what we are taught is usually wrong. From birth control being the best solution for painful menstruation, to the idea that fat makes you fat and herbal medicine is woo-woo. Science is constantly changing and sadly enough a lot of doctors don’t go out of their way to stay up to date with new data. Its because of this that I can’t stress enough the importance of educating yourself so you are equipped with the information to advocate for yourself. Just because someone wears a white coat doesn’t mean they know whats better for your body than you do. You are the one living with it, trust your gut.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Healing isn’t a linear processes, there are many peaks and valleys to the journey. My story is a great example of this. I was diagnosed with unexplained infertility about three years ago. They didn’t do much digging. My husband and I had been trying for a year with no success. Physically we were totally fine. They said they didn’t know why we weren’t getting pregnant but that we could always try IVF. This was an incredibly painful time in my life. I have always dreamed of becoming a mother and I wasn’t going to take no as an answer. As an herbalist, I knew there had to be other options. So I found a functional medicine doctor who actually took time to sit down with me and listen. She ordered a hormone panel that used my urine over a 24 hour period of time to test my levels. I quickly found out I had a huge hormonal imbalance, one she had never really seen before. She was a little thrown off by it but put together a protocol using herbs and acupuncture along with some dietary changes. Three months later, my labs come back the exact same. She was shocked. I was sad. My symptoms where getting worse and I was gaining weight with no changes to my diet. I had no idea how to proceed.
About a year later I found out the house I had lived in for the past 8 years had toxic mold and being locked in that house for the covid quarantine just exacerbated my symptoms. While this news was extremely heart breaking, at least I now knew what was going on and how to fix it. I started yet another protocol but continued to struggle. Anxiety and depression are very common for people with high levels of mycotoxins and I was feeling the full effects. I struggled a lot. I used alcohol as a coping mechanism and as you can guess that just made it worse. I had months when I felt good and saw progress and then months that I felt completely horrible and just wanted to lay around and watch tv. To be honest I still struggle from time to time but its my work with other women that gets me through. I wish I could say that now I have a beautiful baby to call my own but unfortunately thats just not the case. However, seeing the progress I have made and feeling the difference in my body, I know without a shadow of a doubt that a healthy, natural conception and birth is not far off.
I can now say I am grateful for these circumstances and the journey they have brought me through. If it wasn’t for it, I most likely wouldn’t be in my line of work. I think about the women I have helped and that alone makes it worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shoplunanueva.com
- Instagram: @gigi_livingwholisitic & @lunanuevafarms
- Youtube: Luna Nueva Farms
- Other: email: [email protected]