Send us a text

Today we are chatting with Donna Del Rey, owner of Relish Culinary Adventures.

Relish Culinary Adventures (love the name!) is a culinary program that brings together talented chefs and fabulous cuisine at a variety of captivating rural locations including farms and orchards, to create one-of-a-kind authentic cooking classes, culinary tours and excursions, and catering services.

Based in Healdsburg, California, in the heart of the Sonoma County wine country, Relish offers culinary events on a wide range of topics from wine country cuisine to ethnic specialties, cheese making to wild mushroom foraging - the mushroom foraging is one of my favorites! . In addition, Relish hosts activities that bring people together in the kitchen, such as private cooking parties and corporate team-building events.

Donna has such an authentic and transparent nature. Owning your own business is hard and requires a lot of resiliency, risk, leaps of faith, and strategic thinking and planning. But it sometimes requires you to react and do things that are not aligned with the initial vision and plan. And when you need to do this, you sometimes feel a sense of desperation, that you are doing everything to make your business survive, even if it doesn’t completely align with the vision. However, I believe that pivoting and diversifying is sometimes necessary in order to survive and eventually thrive. And that is what happened to Donna. She pivoted, she diversified her income streams…she survived…and now she is thriving once again. That is the real journey of an entrepreneur.

And, although Relish Culinary and its mission to connect people to where their food comes from is at the forefront of our discussion, I think Donna’s openness about her business challenges and ability to be flexible, are truly at the heart of our discussion and is such an important story to be told.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Donna!

Relish Culinary Adventures
Relish Culinary Calendar of Events
Culinary Tours
Relish Culinary Instagram
Relish Culinary Facebook
Dry Creek Peach

The Global Agritourism Network (GAN) was created to support agritourism worldwide through education, research, and advocacy. Everyone with an interest in agritourism is welcome to join for free by completing the form online at Global Agritourism Network (GAN) Registration (google.com).

Thank you for taking the time to listen to The Agri-Tourist Podcast, for supporting our inspirational guests, and for sharing my personal journey back to agriculture.

• Agri-Tourist.com
• HeartBeet Farms
• Instagram
• About Jen Ross, The Agri-Tourist Podcast Host
• Global Agritourism Network

Send us a text

I have been doing a lot of local traveling, really digging into the northeast US where my agriculture focus seems to be currently taking me. I visited a bean festival at a farm in Sheffield, Massachusetts (MA), located in the southern part of the Berkshires. The Berkshires or Berkshire County is located in Western Massachusetts, with New York State very close to the west, Connecticut to the south, and Vermont to the north.

Before going to the festival I met a friend for lunch at the Berkshire Food Coop and explored the downtown area of Great Barrington, MA. Kind of fell in love with the vibe of the whole area - the energy, the outdoor air, the agriculture focus….everything about it. Of course I grabbed a few brochures related to farming and local businesses and came across something called Berkshares…a local Currency Program. BerkShares is the best-known contemporary example of a place-based currency. They have over 300 participating locally-owned and community-minded businesses that support Berkshares to keep money circulating in the region, thereby contributing to a greater local multiplier effect. My marketing and business development mind immediately recognized what a brilliant marketing and loyalty program that this currency program really is.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jared Spears, the Marketing Director of Berkshares. Berkshares is a program that came out of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. They work to envision the elements of a just and regenerative global economy, undertake to apply these elements in the Berkshires; and develop the educational programs to share the results more broadly, thus encouraging replication.

Stay tuned for an interesting history on how the Berkshares local currency initiative got started and transformed out of some previous programs including Deli Dollars and Berkshire Farm Preserve Notes. Jared provided me with a good understanding of the local economics that contributed to the launch of this local currency. Enjoy my conversation with Jared Spears.

Berkshares
Berkshire Community Land Trust
Farmstead for Farmers Initiative
Schumacher Center for new economics

The Global Agritourism Network (GAN) was created to support agritourism worldwide through education, research, and advocacy. Everyone with an interest in agritourism is welcome to join for free by completing the form online at Global Agritourism Network (GAN) Registration (google.com).

Thank you for taking the time to listen to The Agri-Tourist Podcast, for supporting our inspirational guests, and for sharing my personal journey back to agriculture.

• Agri-Tourist.com
• HeartBeet Farms
• Instagram
• About Jen Ross, The Agri-Tourist Podcast Host
• Global Agritourism Network

Send us a text

We left New York and it was 27 degrees Fahrenheit and mild. We arrived in Grenada a little over four hours later and it was 78 degrees, partly sunny and fairly humid. Earl, our driver, was awaiting our arrival. He drove us in his car to the ‘countryside’ on the north west side of Grenada. The roads were thin and very windy with spectacular views of the Caribbean Sea. Houses were located on both sides of the road – some on stilts overlooking the water and others embedded in the mountainside of green vegetation. This was the beginning of our agriculture adventure in Grenada…

An hour later, we arrived at Crayfish Bay Organics, a 200-year old, 15-acre cacao farm. We met Kim and Lylette Russell – owners of the estate and Crayfish Bay Chocolate. Kim, a very entertaining, determined, and hard working man of English descent, lived most of his life on the water in the Caribbean and most recently settled down in Grenada. Lylette was originally from Guyana, South America and lived a good part of her life in St. Lucia. Kim and Lylette connected online and live and work their estate at Crayfish Bay.

Their land produces cacao, bananas, plantains, oranges, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, guava, mango, passion fruit, grapefruit, avocado, star fruit, and so much more.

This trip to Grenada was truly an agricultural immersion and adventure…which included cacao growing, chocolate making, tree and farm to table food, spice tours, hiking, tons of exploring….and, most importantly, connecting with such dedicated people. These are the things that keep people coming back and visiting Crayfish Bay year after year.

Enjoy my conversation with Lylette Russell from Crayfish Bay Organics.

Crayfish Bay Organics
The Little House, Crayfish Bay Airbnb
The Tree House, Crayfish Bay Airbnb

The Global Agritourism Network (GAN) was created to support agritourism worldwide through education, research, and advocacy. Everyone with an interest in agritourism is welcome to join for free by completing the form online at Global Agritourism Network (GAN) Registration (google.com).

Thank you for taking the time to listen to The Agri-Tourist Podcast, for supporting our inspirational guests, and for sharing my personal journey back to agriculture.

• Agri-Tourist.com
• HeartBeet Farms
• Instagram
• About Jen Ross, The Agri-Tourist Podcast Host
• Global Agritourism Network