Finding Teaquila Farm

Finding Teaquila Farm: 

It was exactly three years ago this month, March of 2020, when we found Teaquila Farm (TF). 

Of course it wasn’t named TF, but that’s a story for another day. 

The news of the pandemic was suffocating. 

We were all in lockdown and feeling the weight, confusion and fear of the world. 

Chad and I decided to go for a drive and daydream about buying a house, even though that concept felt absolutely impossible at the time.

It was either the worst time to buy, or the absolute best.

He hopped on Zillow and mapped out a few properties to explore around Ventura, Ojai and Casitas Springs. 

All of the shops were locked up, there was nowhere to eat lunch, and I remember peeing on the side of the road because even the gas stations were closed.

We knew we wanted to be close-ish to the ocean, so we quickly ruled out Ojai and Casitas Springs. 

We were making the final pass through Ventura (we were out of snacks) when we passed a blue house on the corner with a sign out front. 

A cobbled together wooden fence that looked to be 100 years old bordered the patchy front lawn with a few disheveled rose bushes. 

The siding was peeling, and the yellowed curtains were tightly closed. 

But there was something about this house. 

“What about this one?” I asked Chad and motioned for him to pull over.

He looked at the map and said “Oh yeah, I saw this one listed but didn’t add it to our map as I thought there’s no way in hell you’d go for this place!” 

We both laughed and hopped out of the truck. 

No one was home.

And more rickety fences bordered the driveway, blocking the view to the back. 

Chad peered over the fence, but I felt weird walking around someone else’s property so we decided to head home and do some detective work. 

We quickly learned the property was no longer listed with a realtor, it was a direct sale by owner. 

Even better.

Mike and Glenda agreed to meet us about a week later, and we drove back up to Ventura to get the full tour.  

They were a friendly couple in their 70’s, and were proud to have raised their family in this house.

It became too much to keep up, so they decided to move to a smaller second home, and this place had been vacant about a year.

Several of the windows were boarded up, old carpet lined the floors and the bathrooms had wallpaper.

But the vision for this place started to take shape in my brain, and I saw it as an inspiring blank canvas. 

Chad assumed I’d have the opposite reaction; we exchanged a few glances while walking through the house, but couldn’t get a read on what the other was thinking. 

And then they took us to the back lot. 

A half acre of land that I describe as Alice in Wonderland.

Quirky. 

Unusual. 

Enchanting. 

Keep in mind we were coming from a 500 sq foot apartment in LA where I cared for a single spider plant. 

A small orchard of orange, lemon, mandarin and pomelo trees was the first thing to greet us.

I gasped. 

Three old trailers were parked on the lot. 

Things were overgrown and junk was piled up in every corner, but after my brain stripped those things away, I saw so much potential with this beautiful land. 

We thanked Mike and Glenda for their time and politely parted ways. 

Chad looked at me with wide eyes, started the truck and asked me what I thought.

I looked at him and said “F*ck YES, let’s DO IT!”

We both laughed and felt alive again, and talked logistics all the way home.

I can’t help but feel like this was part of our plan all along.

To design and build out our own private sanctuary. 

A chicken coop here.

Some gardening space there.

A space that would eventually be a critical piece of Chad’s healing journey. 

As we started to pour our time, money, energy and love back into the land, it started to take care of us. 

An opportunity to learn to nourish ourselves more than we ever thought was possible. 

As Chad said in his recent newsletter, TF has become incredibly purpose-driven for us.

This place is our collective north star.

A project to help heal ourselves, the land, and hopefully our larger community at large. 

And this is how Teaquila Farm was born.