Who is Orange Grove Road?
I grew up in Washington state, blessed to have parents who loved to garden and preserve abundantly. This girl completely took it for granted and often questioned why my father thought it was worth it to spend so much time outside in the garden after a long day at work. It wasn’t until I had health challenges, and my own family, that I began to realize the value of homegrown food.
Due to poverty, my father and his 7 siblings survived by eating weeds, milking a cow, hunting and gardening. On occasion rattlesnake was on the menu. He worked hard, becoming a pharmacist to give our family a better life. Life was really pretty easy for me growing up.
By the time I was 15, our 1/4 acre home had reached a “Garden of Eden” semblance. I was genuinely surprised when friends would come over and enthusiastically harvest fruit. I only saw it as an allergy inducing torturous chore!
Tides change
It was right about then that we moved to a small town to live on 6 & 1/2 acres in the forest. My father constructed a beautiful pond filled with koi fish and lilly pads. A majestic maple tree sat along the main trail which led to a swampland that rested just at the end of our property. One morning I remember looking out my bedroom window to see a doe with her fawn appreciating the apples from the enormous tree in the front yard. Inconceivably, somehow I remained unimpressed.
Some years later as my final college year was coming to an end, I found myself becoming increasingly fatigued with the smallest tasks. I had unexplainable pain in various places in my body and I became embarrassingly forgetful. At the tender age of 25, I was branded with this weird condition called “fibromyalgia” or FMS. I feared that I would never have the endurance to have a family.
Orange Grove Road is a place to express my gratitude by sharing knowledge
I tried in vain to just eat “healthy” and I exercised a lot, which unbeknownst to me was making things much worse because I was overtaxing my endocrine system. Thankfully, one blessed day I met Brenda. She was a landlord of the building that I had just set up my fitness studio in, and ended up being an answer to my prayers. She was in the process of creating a support group for people with FMS! This was not a group for complaining, but rather a place to research and find real answers. Her research led me to a symptom free life…and to a place of deep appreciation for the lifestyle that my father had exemplified.
Her website, fibromyalgiarecovery.com, explains a lot of what she found, which empowered us both become symptom free for over a decade now.
Proof is in the puddin’
Now we’re converting a 1-acre mono crop orange grove into a permaculture oasis homestead in the Sonoran desert. I’m grateful to say I have the gumption to be a wife and mother, homesteader, cook from scratch, and enjoy fitness. I’m hoping to raise my children to appreciate each blessing and be good stewards of the earth.
This creation is place to gain and share knowledge with each other. I’m not an expert in anything. I have been blessed to be surrounded by wise souls who have been kind enough to share some of their knowledge with me. I’m very grateful and excited to have an opportunity to pay it all forward.
My amazing dutiful father, helping us get our place in working order.
My complete FMS recovery details
You can read more about Liz’s story of recovery from FMS @kellythekitchenkop.com: Part 1 here. Part 2 here.
Please enjoy and pass it along to anyone you know who could benefit or contribute!
Best Regards and welcome to Orange Grove Road.
Liz Graduated from Central Washington University with a degree in Family and Consumer Sciences. She opened a fitness studio where she worked as a personal trainer, helping clients achieve their fitness goals while developing a passion for holistic health. After having children, Liz became a full-time homemaker. She went on to complete all but a few classes toward a degree in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College when they mysteriously shut down, leaving her unable to complete the degree. She now uses the knowledge gained, caring for her family and her little homestead, as holistically and sustainably as possible.
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