Paradise Produce Market- 8175 Del Dios Highway, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067This sun is shining so bright outside on my balcony this morning, the glare is too bright. My two faithful dogs, Fibi and Fortune are here with me during this time I call “Coffee Time.” I have learned that pets just like humans thrive on daily habits that fill their days with structure and happiness.
The pressure dial has been turned up. The level of stress that my husband and I have worked through since the quarantine happened at our Open Air Market (now a big thing I guess!), which is technically a fruit stand but with a bit more building to it, do think real structure, beautiful green awning and lots of produce from everywhere…not just seasonal but flown in to a produce company in Los Angeles, then driven down to us with big bright stickers that say ORGANIC.
Oh that was the big trend before Covid-19. Is it Organic? Is it local? Where is it from, the fruits the vegetables, the produce, where does it grow? We understand those concerns, because running a business like this you have to understand the nitty-gritty of the Dirty Dozen and what that means to fruit and vegetables and like what’s the difference between Commercially Grown Organic and Small Grower -not Organic but way less ORGANIC PESTICIDES – and healthier.
I’m going off here on what I am wanting to write about. However, maybe not. Maybe this is just what you need to know. How the world in our little micro world of the fruit stand welcomed all of these questions and answered them with ease. Our fruit stand is more like a produce shop–a mini version of a health food store like a Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Paradise Produce Market is no longer just a produce shop with seasonal vegetables and fruits grown by local growers with specialty items to sell.
No.
My husband had this vision of growing his business into a produce mini-shop for the locals that live near Lake Hodges and surrounding neighborhood nearby don’t have to drive 20 minutes to find their food.
Five years ago, he began the foundation beginnings of a new business model that entailed ordering Organic Produce 
from Los Angeles to give the customers more choices besides seasonal ones, which includes examples like:
Bananas- Organic Sticker from Ecuador or Papayas from Hawaii.
Each week I watched the semi-truck pull up next to our roadside market and park on the side of the road because the semi truck is too long to park in the designated parking spots.
I remember thinking, “How are we going to sell all of the produce? What is Robin thinking?”
These are my thoughts this morning, remembering the beginnings of Paradise Produce Market and the new model of business and discerning what Second Sight fully means.
Each week, my husband would try and guess, “How much produce this week? Will it go to waste? Will it be too much?”
I never told him my true worries. I just supported him.
I’m about to take a break a do my Yoga Zoom Class Online because that’s how you do YOGA in COVID-19 World.
That’s where this is leading to…how for five years I watched my husband methodically stick to his new business model without wavering with faith bigger than a mustard seed.
On March 14th, Robin and I received a text like millions of Americans stating the a quarantine lock-down was eminent; and wondered if there was truth to that? A few hours later, while we were out busy with our Monday Shopping Errands for the fruit stand, we tuned into the announcement of two week quarantine from the President.
WE HAD NO IDEA HOW THAT WOULD IMPACT OUR LIVES. We. Had. No. Idea. How. That. Would. Impact. Our. Lives….
Will write more tonight after ZOOM YOGA, and the Sunshine Club with my furbabies. I hope your Wednesday is swell.
Ma-shel- Machel
Publisher of Mango Jane Books