We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tasha Trujillo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tasha below.

Alright, Tasha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I started beekeeping in 2017 with the intent of running a business with my bees. Live bee removal and selling bee products were my main focuses. It sounded like the perfect idea for me and I loved knowing that I was saving bees across South Florida. However, after the pandemic started, I felt a huge shift in myself. I wasn’t happy with running a beekeeping business and I needed to pivot. Growing flowers had always been apart of my business as it helped my bees immensely. The difference this time was that I wanted to grow them on a larger scale and hopefully supply them to people as well as helping the local pollinators.

In 2021, I took a huge risk and focused 100% of my time on farming a small plot at our apiary. I grew flowers that I was familiar with and that I thought would sell. Little did I know that I would fall deeply and madly in love with flower farming. Fast forward to a year later and I am flower farming full time. I sell directly to florists and sometimes to the public.

Taking that risk to take a step back from beekeeping to start a new venture was extremely difficult. It was one of the scariest things I’ve done and I truly struggled with thinking it would work! However, it is truly the best decision I have ever made. Now I am feeling much happier with my line of work and I am so proud to be helping pollinators and local businesses by growing flowers in Miami!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Tasha and I am the co-founder of Palm Pike, a farm business located in the Redlands of Miami, Florida. Back in 2017, I started beekeeping with my partner as a way to help our environment. With a background in Sustainability, I really wanted to make a difference on this planet. Beekeeping sounded like a great way to do that so we began performing live bee removals across South Florida while selling raw honey and beeswax.

However, in 2021, I decided to pivot our business into a flower farm. My mission to help bees was the same but it now included hundreds of other pollinators too like our native bees and butterflies. Now we grow and sell cut flowers to local businesses using organic and regenerative practices.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

You don’t have to do it all to be successful.

Part of the reason for my burnout from beekeeping was due to trying to do it all. I was trying to save as many beehives as possible by doing live bee removals but I was also selling bee products. Aside from that, I was trying to educate the public on pollinators, educate myself on beekeeping and queen rearing, and blogging. There’s a reason why I wasn’t enjoying beekeeping and it’s mainly because I stretched myself thin by trying to do it all.

Now as a flower farmer, I am only focusing on growing flowers and getting really good at that craft. Once I feel comfortable and have more help, I will probably begin other projects for the farm! Unlearning this was difficult but I’m really glad I’ve made it a point to be patient and focus on one thing versus trying to do it all.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I’m lucky enough that my business partner just so happens to be my life partner. Jovany and I met over 10 years ago while out with mutual friends. We started hanging out often and the rest is history. We’ve grown together as a couple and now own a business together. Jovany is a very busy man and has 2 other businesses he runs so unfortunately he can’t dedicate much time to Palm Pike at the moment but he definitely helps me with moral support and is there whenever I need him.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://palmpike.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palmpike/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/palmpike

Image Credits
Ciara Ali Khan