About Us

Karma Acres Farm is a small family farm specializing in raw, local honey and honey-related products and services.  It  is located just 30 minutes northwest from Jacksonville, Florida, in beautiful, natural Callahan.  We have 5 beautiful acres which we will be good stewards of.

   

How We Got our Name

My husband and I had been actively looking for a farm for long time (I had been looking all my life, but that is another story).  Our criteria were that it had to be at least five acres, have a house or mobile home that was rehab-able, and be within driving distance to Jacksonville where my parents/grandmother live, and I grew up.  My husband is a realtor, so he would find and send me the latest listings in the surrounding rural areas, and I would check them out.  Almost a year went by, and I nearly wore out my truck driving miles and miles down dirt roads looking at every property in our price range in multiple counties.  We looked all over Clay County, and put in offers on several properties, but the drive into Jacksonville is just horrendous, and it is probably good that our offers were never accepted.  It was a roller coaster, wondering if we would ever find “The Place”.

We never really looked in Nassau County, thinking that much of the area is low-lying, but since we do have friends and family who live there, we started to consider it.  The drive into town is much better, so we started looking more seriously.  We made offers on a couple of places, but again, none were accepted.

Then we found “The Place”.  The property was just the right size, great location (a little low-lying, but not bad), great price, and best of all, near the Four Creeks State Forest, where I could horseback ride, my heart’s desire.  I fell in love.

Unfortunately, the property was a bank-owned foreclosure, which meant that we would have to put in a bid along with other people and the bank would decide, based on the best offer.   We put in our bid, and I was so excited.  I just loved the place, and most of all the prospect of riding a few blocks into the 10,000 acre State Forest.  I was busy making plans for all the renovations and what we would do first.  I had my heart set on the place, certain that we would get it.

We lost the bid.  I was devastated, inconsolable, distraught in a way that really surprised me.  I had fallen in love and it didn’t work out.  I told my friends and they tried their best to make me feel better.  My friend Pat wrote in an email: “I know it sounds trite, but Karma has something better in store for you”.   Ha – I think not.

But the next day, my dear husband, always the optimist, said “Let’s keep looking, something else will come along”.

“No, I’m tired, I am never going to find it.  There is no farm in the world for me.  Forget it.”

“Let me see if anything else has come on the market in that area,”

“No, there won’t be anything; it took us months to find the one we didn’t get”

He checked anyway.

“There is a brand new listing, just came on the market today, and it is in the same area, more land, high and dry, and even closer to the Forest”.

No way.

It was Sunday night, and we couldn’t go see the property until the next morning.  Instead, we had to be content with doing all our research on-line, looking at aerial photos and maps on the Property Appraiser website.  First we noticed that, in addition to the address on Cook Drive, the property had frontage on two other streets.  It was hard to see the names on the on-line map.

“I think one is Marsh Road” I said, “The other looks like Karmal, but it hard to read.”

“Wait”, my dear husband said, looking more closely, “It’s Karma Lane!”…karma, not karmel.

We just looked at each other and started laughing, knowing wiithout even seeing it, that we had found our farm.

Some things are just meant to be.