In an industry that strives to continuously evolve and develop the newest, most innovative skincare products and ingredients, Jared and Velisa Pickard, founders of skincare brand Be Here Farm + Nature, choose their homegrown plants over trending ingredients. A collection of biodynamically organic herb- and plant-based products sourced from the founders’ farm in California’s wine country and personal garden in Texas, Be Here Farm + Nature brings something nearly impossible to find in the beauty industry: thoughtfully prepared products.
How this organic skincare line came to be reads like a movie script. As a young finance professional on Wall Street, this isn’t where Jared saw his life heading. Following in the footsteps of his father and brother, Jared embraced the fast-paced life of a financier, living and indulging in big-city life while suffering the physical and mental effects that came with the job. His work with a wellness coach was the start of a complete overhaul, in which he began to see the relationship between mind, body, and soul—and himself as a holistic entity. “Through mindfulness practice, I became aware of what I liked and didn't like for the first time in my life. I realized I couldn’t wait another 20 or 30 years doing my Wall Street job before going after the type of life I’m interested in.”
Jared met Velisa, a yoga instructor, while he was on Wall Street. They found they shared a passion for healthy living and made it their focus; organic food was pivotal in pushing them in the right direction. A desire to eat higher-quality food drove Jared to learn more about farming and farm-to-table cuisine. “I realized that it was less the restaurant business and chef lifestyle that I was attracted to, but the agricultural lifestyle,” Jared said. Applying this lens of mindfulness to his food led to a new shift in his life. “Now, for vacation, instead of going to the Hamptons or nightclubs, Velisa and I go there to drive around to various farm stands to buy illegal raw milk, just so we can make some fresh ice cream and butter at home. It became our entire lifestyle.”
Jared and Velisa bought a 300-acre property in St. Helena, California, with the intention of setting up an agriturismo (a working farm with overnight accommodations and farm-to-table dining) where people can learn about and experience what happens on farms. Jared and Velisa wanted to offer their guests a culinary experience straight from their gardens and livestock, a spa experience sourced from their land, and other services that round out a fully holistic, original experience. After 10 years of fighting to secure the necessary land-rezoning permits, the couple was on their way to achieving their dreams. Towards the end of this 10-year waiting period, while the zoning permits were being acquired, the Pickards launched an exclusive program. “We developed a 24-week members-only club for the farm, where each week members would receive a cornucopia of different fruits and vegetables, herbs, and flowers, and one experimental product that we were developing.” The products would be boxed and delivered, or clients could come to the farm to pick up their goods, Jared said. This was precisely when they developed the brand’s first product, the Summer Solstice Serum.
On one uneventful day in 2020, Jared had an inexplicable impulse to stock the family RV with the oils needed to make 400 units of the Summer Solstice Serum. Seven hours later, wildfires exploded in Northern California, ripping through Sonoma and Napa counties. When the couple received their evacuation notice, they grabbed their go bags and some coconut water and loaded the family and the dogs into their RV. Driving south to escape the fires, Jared couldn’t help but see how serendipitous it had been to load the oils into the RV just hours before. “The only thing we had were those glass jars, sweetly serenading us from behind in the RV as we drove off the mountain, ‘clink, clink, clink, clink,’ a chorus of glass. And I just felt like Noah's Ark. I’ve got two of every oil, and I'm riding off this mountain, and these things are going to somehow carry my family forward. And that's, essentially, how we became a skincare company."
“The dream didn't burn down; I guess that’s the punch line, right? The grounds for the agriturismo burned down, the mountain burned down, but my dream wasn't to develop the world's best hotel." The farm burned down, all the way to the pipes that carried water to the gardens, but the vision to continue the family business did not.
“We drove down to Santa Barbara, stopped at a hotel on the way, and my farm director, at the time, met me there and we bottled our first 400 units of the Summer Solstice Serum,” Jared said. Then they launched the serums on sunpotion.com, the brand's first retailer other than the local farmer’s market. Jared recognized that what was truly important, in addition to his family and the dog, had been in the car. They didn’t have a physical piece of land on which to build their hospitality business, but they had their imagination and the world around them to help them build it. Jared was bemused: “I was kind of like Johnny Appleseed with my serums. I brought the serums to every luxury hotel and spa we passed on that journey: Auberge du Soleil in Napa, Nobu Ryokan in Malibu, and Alila Napa Valley. Those are still the majority of our wholesale accounts.”
After driving to Texas to be closer to friends and family and to put down new roots, Velisa became more active in developing the skincare line to meet her own skincare needs. After struggling with hormonal breakouts, she dabbled at home, searching for a solution through whole-food remedies. Simultaneously, they found that, miraculously, after the fires, the abandoned farmland in Sonoma had returned to prosperity, blessed by sunshine and plentiful rainfall to grow from the ashes—no human hand needed. Between the farm in Sonoma, in full bloom, and the home garden in Texas, the Pickards were armed with a bounty of plants and herbs, as well as ideas for how to use them, including pickling vegetables and jarring jams. But at the forefront was the couple’s passion to expand their skincare line. Slowly, from the original private membership club’s 24 products created before the fires, the cream of the crop rose to the top, and nine recipes went on to be incorporated into today’s skincare line.
When asked whether they have any ambitions to expand or grow the business globally, the answer is an emphatic “no.” As Jared said, “That is simply not possible because we are a 100% family-owned business, and we have no desire to sell portions of our company to investors. This was conceived as an heirloom family business, so if my daughter is so inclined to manage it one day, she would have the opportunity to be the owner. The intention is that the business grows and becomes more robust than it is today while maintaining our integrity.”
Currently, almost 100% of the ingredients are grown and harvested by hand. The brand sources olive oil and grass-fed beef tallow from other farms that uphold the same standards of integrity. The flowers and herbs are picked and jarred in small batches to allow for the highest-potency extraction. As Jared explained, “Right now, the ability to scale involves increasing the size of our garden or collaborating with partner growers who share our values. Both of those are entirely possible, as well as hiring as many people as we would need to help package and ship those products. It's not complicated to scale this business. What becomes complicated is scaling it into a factory setting to produce tens of thousands of units. I would quit today if I thought that was the end goal.”
Cosmetics are not out of the question for the brand. Jared said that branching out in that direction could potentially be part of the brand’s future. Undoubtedly, the cosmetics would need to be produced with the same care and purity as the skincare line, Jared said. Products would need to deliver not only a wash of color, but also the same beneficial ingredients and principles that their current skincare products uphold. It’s a rabbit hole that would have to be explored, Jared explained. “Many times, cosmetics involve rock powders, and I’m not sure where they come from, how they're extracted, or how good they are for us. I just don't know well enough, at the moment. Whereas I know all the ingredients that go into any of our products are currently so good for you. I don't know that much about the clean cosmetic industry, and I'd have to spend a year or two really looking into it and experimenting to see if it’s a possibility.” However, Jared confirmed the upside of high-quality skincare as an alternative to cosmetics. “A lot of our clients start using less makeup and find no need for foundation. Various changes happen, and they find, for lack of a better word, their natural ‘glow’ is all they really need.”
What cannot be denied is the steadfast vision with which Jared and Velisa have run their company. At a time when “conscious luxury” is becoming a popular concept, Be Here Farm + Nature is poised to be an MVP in this fast-growing market focused on purity and integrity.