Jennifer Garner is one of the most loved celebrities because of how relatable and approachable she seems. Her Instagram account is brimming with wholesome content about being a mother and navigating through life.
Patricia English Garner is Jennifer Garner’s mother. As a young girl, Patricia had a
lot of sweet memories of growing up at a farm in Locust Grove, Oklahoma.
She even recalls how her parents bought the piece of land that has stayed in their
family for generations. Her parents bought the piece of land in 1936, with a bonus
her father had received from fighting in World War I.
The family had only $700 to purchase the land at the time. She recalls how
her veteran father and mother did not even have a car at the time they bought the
land. They had to hire someone to take them to the property.
“My parents didn’t even have a car, so when they heard about the land that was for
sale, they hired someone to drive them to the property. The farm consisted of a
two-room house and 20 acres–minus 1 acre at the heart of the property, which was
a Native American cemetery,” Patricia said
Mother told me the story of Dad leaning on his heels and negotiating all day over
$20. When they finally agreed on a price, the deal was sealed, and the land was
purchased. It’s been in our family ever since,” she ended.
As expected with a structure from that time, it did not even have running water or
indoor plumbing. Jennifer’s mother had memories of growing up on that 20-acre
property.
Over the years as everyone grew up and moved away, the farm did not have one
set of owners. It kept switching ownership from one family member to another as it
was bought and sold repeatedly. Then finally, in 2017, Jennifer Garner decided to
purchase the farm herself.
And she did not just purchase the farm for the sake of memory but she had the
vision to turn it into a profitable business once again. To do so, she hired her uncle
Robert and aunt Janet, who had previously owned the farm to help her with it.
It had been 40 years since the farm had been planted and tended to. In the past,
her mother and her siblings had been avid farmers and sold pecans as well as grew
lettuce, radishes, and potatoes
And Jennifer wanted to bring that back. She established “Once Upon a Farm” with
co-founders Ari Raz, John Foraker, and Cassandra Curtis. The idea was to grow
organic fruits and vegetables that could be made into nutritious food for children.
She said she had been dreaming about the project for a while, “once upon a time…
we dreamed of bringing baby food back to the roots with organic fruits and
veggies harvested from local farmers, blended with love and served fresh from the
fridge. We dreamed of feeling less stressed about mealtimes because we could
feed our little ones foods that give them all the nutrients they need – and then
some!”
Jennifer says giving busy moms access to nutritious food is important to her.
The company was started in 2018 and since then has been majorly successful. Their
products are stocked at some of the biggest retailers in America and are also sold
online on the company’s website.