Employee Spotlight- Julie Rice #5

Julie Rice – Senior Reconciliation Specialist

Julie Rice grew up in La Mesa, CA. She was a bit of an overachiever, skipping 7th grade, and taking extra classes in high school (Monte Vista) to graduate at 15. After that, she went to SDSU and double-majored in Philosophy and Political Science and graduated at 18.

Besides FLORES work and animal chores, Julie’s garden is everything to her. When she first moved into her house, the yard was basically a parking lot of red cinder (rock) with about 10 freshly planted (and suffering) fruit trees from the prior owners. She now has over 500 species on the property, mostly food-producing, and is still planting more! Over the last two years, she begun converting the fallow back 1/3 acre of the homestead into a thriving syntropic agroforest. (Syntropic agroforestry is a regenerative agricultural methodology that utilizes high density planting of diverse species to mimic forest ecosystems with consideration given to stratification (placement of plants), ecological succession (timing), and human intervention to accelerate natural processes and create abundance!) So far, she has planted eight rows in the agroforest and has just two more to go. She says it honestly seems unreal sometimes to look out at the garden and recognize that she (and nature!) is responsible for just about everything out there; it’s definitely her happy place. After being in Hawaii now for six and a half years, the list of plants and trees already in and coming into production is extensive. While there may not be a lot of interesting novelties, Julie is realizing she’s most excited about some of the more everyday-type staples in production. To name a few: vanilla beans, black pepper, coconuts, cacao, coffee, avocados, bananas and jackfruit.

Julie grew up in a real estate family and got her mortgage broker’s license at 19, which she still holds today. However, she never particularly liked the sales aspect of real estate. Sometime after leaving the family business, Julie got a job working for a real estate agent who was also the CFO of a lead generation company. She recognized she liked the accounting side of the work much better than the real estate – not long afterwards, Julie applied at FLORES and hasn’t looked back.

Julie mentioned that there are always a million things to do out in her garden and on the homestead, that one of her absolute favorite parts of working for FLORES is the ability to have an incredible work/life balance. Due to the time zone difference, she is able to start work early, so I can sign off early and get outside. Something else she really appreciates about FLORES is that everyone is just sincerely kind and makes a point of working together, not in competition with or against each other. Julie never dreads signing onto work for the day; saying she genuinely feels she has her coworkers’ backs, and they’ve got hers as well.

Julie’s human family is somewhat limited in comparison to her fur and feather family these days. She considers herself a proud childless cat (and dog, bird and maybe fish) lady. She currently has five cats (Domo, Bird Purrson, Snarfie, Beans and Chupa Chupa), two dogs (Blue and Baloo), and 28 Muscovy ducks (Dino, Godzilla, Pterazord (Ptery), Grimlock, Reptar, Barney, Gene, Tina, Louise, Andy, Ollie, Zeke, Katie, Bonnie McMurray, Mary Anne, Betty Anne, Anita, Lovina, Gailor, Rosie, Tanis, Yumulack, Aisha, Korvo, Jesse, the Pupa, Patty and Selma). There’s also a small fishpond with unnamed guppies and a few wild chickens who leave eggs every so often. Julie says having such a large animal family makes it pretty difficult to find a sitter for traveling much, but she does try to get back to the continent every so often to see her brother and her 98-year-old grandfather. She says she is more than content most of the time with the fulfilling life on the homestead.

Julie’s favorite quote is: “I’ve got to be true to myself.” – Ziggy Marley

This quote resonates with Julie because for much of her life, this wasn’t necessarily something she had the luxury to uphold. But as she distanced herself (quite literally) from certain influences, she had the opportunity to express herself authentically to the point she would never think of going back.

Julie says what makes her feel accomplished depends on the context. Sometimes, just completing the task at hand can feel like a big win, while other times, really nailing the assignment feels best. She likes to execute tasks with a plan, but also with an open mind. Julie states she is a follower of rules and instructions but always like to keep an eye out for ways to improve processes. She thinks collaborating with others can be a huge help, as it brings in more perspectives from a variety of backgrounds.