Edenic: What on Earth Does it Mean?
A brief story about why we named our business "Edenic Smoothies".
“Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.’” – The Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 29
You are opening up your own business. It’s your dream career – what you’ve always wanted to create with your own hands, sweat, and labor. What would you name it?
On the surface, this is a very fun question to entertain. However, Ash and I can tend to overthink things. Too much thinking can quietly wreak havoc on dreams when one is trying to start a business. My dad once told me, “The difference between those who start a business and those who don’t, is the people who started a business actually started the business.” In other words, my dad was telling us to stop thinking, talking, and considering our idea… actually do something about it.
Within a week of marriage, we had decided to start a smoothie truck together. (You can read that story here.) Now, we had to actually do something about it. Ash knew what she wanted to do – she wanted to drive around in a bus, selling smoothies to Ventura. She knew how she wanted to do it – she wanted to purchase a bus, renovate it, and partner with local businesses.
But why did she want to start a smoothie truck? That’s what mattered. If the sole purpose was to make money, Ash would still be working in aerospace. Why did we do this?
Here’s a quick flashback story to help you understand our “why”. From August 2020 to August 2021, I had very severe sinus problems. After loads of prescription antibiotics, steroids, and even failed surgeries, Ash convinced me to see a doctor who had a more natural approach. This doctor was a naturopath, which meant she would prescribe “natural” remedies, such as organic supplements rather than steroids created in labs. I was skeptical, yet I was also out of options.
When I went in for my visit, I mentioned to the doctor that every time I felt like I might get better, I seemed to relapse into a worse condition. I complained to her that I had spent a ton of money trying to fix a problem that couldn’t be solved. The doctor responded with a faint, ironic smile and quipped, “There isn’t much money for pharmaceutical companies if they actually heal you, is there?”
My mind was blown, as the kids say these days. Ash giggled the whole way home as I realized that perhaps God had given us natural remedies in His creation that could help me more than an artificial, man-made combination of chemicals ever could. Sure, modern medicine has its place and its time, but I learned that day that creation has more than enough to help us heal.
The same concept applies to food. What do you think is better for your body – something made in a factory, or something that came from the ground?
When we looked around Ventura, we saw a need: there were plenty of smoothie shops, but most of them used artificial ingredients like ice cream or sherbet in their recipes. Those are tasty treats indeed, but Ventura needed a smoothie shop that could serve a product that made both your tummy and your taste-buds feel good. We wanted to fill that need.
Why did we decide to open a smoothie truck? We desire to sell smoothies made with ingredients from God’s creation. Since God provided everything that man needed to eat in the Garden of Eden, as He tells us in Genesis 1:29, we want to provide smoothies with ingredients that would’ve grown in that garden – natural and real.
The name Edenic Smoothies was naturally derived from that mission. By God’s grace, we came up with the name on a camping trip in the Sequoias back in August, 2021, and have rolled with it ever since.
