Today we’d like to introduce you to Kanani Burns.
Hi Kanani, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
My homesteading adventure started when my family of 6 moved ‘back home’ with my in-laws after being evicted after a massive income loss. When I say our family, I’m talking about myself (Kanani she/her/we/our), Michael (he/him), Kel (he/him), Shon (he/him), Lea (she/her) and Atlas (he/him)
We set up a dwelling for our family on my mother in laws land and started raising chickens, and got our gardens started. At the time, I wasn’t thinking of a business but knew that I wanted to reconnect to the land and grow/raises as much food as possible to feed my family and friends.
When the seriousness of Coronavirus set in, we found ourselves in survival mode and made the leap to offer seasonal goods and services to our local community.
I was grew and sold plants, Michael made beautiful garden beds and decks and Kel & Shon, our teenage boys, started selling firewood. I hosted nature-based children’s yoga classes and educated people on how to forage for life everlasting. I helped over 20 people get their own gardens started by offering garden setups and sold over 250 seedlings to help gardeners get a jump start. Now, in 2022, we continue to offer all that and landscape services.
I filled a need for contact and comfort in 2020 by creating a unique experience by offering Bunny Snuggles Sessions and taking our rabbits to schools, homes, care centers, and businesses. This has become one of our most popular services!
I also cultivated a community of 1,200 Black Chicks with Chickens on Facebook that share the love for chicken tending and swap knowledge tidbits in a safe space.
We partnered with our church home and local non-profits to deliver food to families in our rural community and supported local efforts to make sure those disproportionately impacted by COVID weren’t forgotten.
I genuinely grow with the flow of things and it’s worked out.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing. In 2021, I was sick most of the year. At times, my iron was so low I’d need iron transfusions. Being so iron deficient made me tired, cranky, and physically weaker. Gardening was really tough. A lot of plants died and that was discouraging.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Grow with the Flow Homestead?
I’m affectionately known as the Bunny Lady in my community. I’m known for having rabbits and sharing them in my community through my Bunny Snuggle Sessions where folks can hold, pet, and feed the rabbits at a location of their choice. I’m also known for my viral TikToks about using spoiled milk in your garden and other gardening on a budget hacks.
First and foremost, we’re a Black woman-owned farm. Since Black farmers barely make up 1% of the existing farms, this sets us apart immediately. Seeing me out here doing farming, agritainment and landscaping gives other who look like me permission in a sense to take up space in the farming community. We’re offering unique experiences with our rabbits that I don’t see other farms offering. Where else can you schedule for rabbits to hang out and cuddle with for an hour? Third, we’re deeply family and community-driven. When you see GWTF out and about, our team is almost always my kids, me and my husband. GWTF supports and works with other Black woman-owned businesses like Motherland Essentials and Geechee Experience.
I’m super proud that our brand built a community-focused following that shows up for us as customers but they also show up as volunteers and donors to beautiful causes, like when we raised over $14,000 to get a bigger, more reliable vehicle and raised funds for women short on utilities. Our community has never had a fundraiser that wasn’t successful and we always have met our goals with days! We’re proud of the amount of local relationships we’ve made that enables us to make garden beds for schools in marginalized communities and offer fresh eggs from our pay what you can eggs cart in North Charleston. I never thought we’d be bringing rabbits to visit students in the Tri-county schools, places like Katie’s Krops and Charleston Place Hotel. I’m proud that I get to show other folks who look like me and have similar lived experiences that we can be farmers and make a living with creative agritainment offerings.
I want readers to know we are always doing the best we can with a small team and usually me, myself and I lead most of our projects. I always schedule rest on our calendar and we tend to book fast, so definitely boom with us sooner rather than later.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can support us by booking bunny snuggles or have us come by to hear how we can help you get your garden going at home. You can do that on our website: www.WeGrowWithTheFlow.com.
We welcome collaborations and encourage those who have a Collab idea to email us: growwiththeflow.homestead@gmail.com
Follow us to see how you can support our upcoming projects to build a community outdoor classroom and tool library.
Instagram: @we_growwiththeflow
Facebook: @wegrowwiththeflow
TikTok: iam_kanani
Pricing:
- Group Bunny Snuggles: $150
- Family Bunny Snuggles: $75
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wegrowwiththeflow.com
- Instagram: @we_growwiththeflow
- Facebook: @wegrowwiththeflow
- Other: TikTok: iam_kanani
Image Credits
Grow with the Flow Homestead
