About Summer Foods
Aloha, my name is Sommer, and I am the creator of Summer Foods! My vision is that Summer Foods embodies the feeling of simplicity, pureness, and health and inspires others to create and enjoy more plant-based meals.
The organic growth of my business has mirrored my belief that everything happens in its own time naturally and that we should never take more than what is needed and always have gratitude for all that we are given! These are some of the key components that I envisioned while I purposely and consciously move through the world of operating my small business.
My journey in understanding the connection of what we put into our bodies and how it greatly affects us started when at the young age of 20, I was blessed with the most beautiful gift I’ve ever received, my sweet daughter, Pulelehua. Pulelehua means butterfly in ‘Olelo Hawai’i, and as the butterfly grows and forms wings to fly so was my life-changing and growing with her.
A few months after she was born, she developed what the doctors diagnosed as eczema, unexplained patches of red skin on different parts of her body. They prescribed creams and topicals, and all saying it wasn’t anything to worry about and that she would most likely just outgrow it at some point. Not once did any of the Doctors ask me what I was eating and that perhaps she was sensitive to something in my diet which was being passed to her through my breast milk. When she was a little over a year and she started to eat solid foods, one morning I decided to feed her a little cheese. She ate one little chunk and within moments her face and chest became splotchy and she started sneezing and swelling almost unrecognizable and her breath became ragged. She was raced to the ER, where they immediately gave her an anti-histamine shot and we discovered that she was highly allergic to dairy. That was the first of many incidents that forced me to learn to scan all the ingredient labels for milk/dairy/whey, and I started to see how so many of the processed foods were filled with them.
Around this time there was a growing movement that I became aware of to pass a Kaua’i County law that addressed excessive pesticide use by GMO companies on our island and to create a buffer zone from the spray of pesticides near schools and neighborhoods. This is when my awareness and education of what GMOs were and how processed foods were filled with them.
We were blessed to live on a beautiful piece of mature fertile land up in the mountains where we grew some of our own foods. Being exposed to the bounty of all the fresh foods that Kaua’i puts forth, coconuts, avocados, oranges, kalo, sweet potato, kale, bananas, sapote, and with this abundance growing and surrounding us, the plain simplicity of each fruit and the immense flavor that could come from a single plant were so amazing and inspiring. The awe of how delicious the plants are with barely any help from us at all has never left me and continues to be part of the way I like to present my meals to others. The least amount of processing as possible and allowing the plants to be beautiful as they naturally are.
Aside from being a Mommy and a business owner, I am also a triple Libra, so having balance in my life is exponential. Taking the time to make good memories and enjoy great experiences are important in my life. I am also an avid animal lover! I have my 1 horse, Manalele, 5 silkie chickens, and 6 very spoiled bunnies. I love dancing Tahitian & hula, and longboarding, practicing yoga, hiking, or walking the beach, mainly anything that gets me outside and moving in the elements 🙂 Gratitude for everything & everyone!