Meet Jelianny Soliman and Paola Aguilar | Co-owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jelianny Soliman and Paola Aguilar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jelianny and Paola, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
We both had a passion for healthy eating and wanted to share it with others. At the same time we were thinking of ways to be financially independent women and thought why not make our passion our business? That is when Semilla Nativa was born in an effort to bring healthy food to the community. From day one we also knew our business should be community centered which is why we decided to start selling at farmers markets primarily. This is a venue that allows us a lot of time to explain how to best use our products. The Semilla Nativa booth is in a way a center for healthy eating where you leave with both good products and knowledge.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Semilla Nativa is a brand that promotes itself as allergy friendly, plant based, and friendly to most dietary restrictions. We are most proud of being able to serve the entire family with food that they can enjoy together. Getting our business off the ground has taken a lot of work. We started selling to our friends and family, moved on to farmers market and then online as well. We have taken a step by step approach as we have grown. The most important thing to us as we grow is to remain in constant contact with our customers and local farmers. as they provide us the feedback to innovate, our products are for them. One of the main lessons we learned along the way is how hard it is to find food that you can feed your entire family with especially if some of the family members have dietary restrictions. We want the world to know that our products taste good, help your body stay healthy and can be eaten by everyone.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Miami is a city with so much culture and unparalleled nature. We would definitely want to start off by showing them the farming communities around the city. This would mean starting in Homestead and visiting some of the roadside farms to get some fresh food snacks and then having lunch at our favorite Mexican retaurant La Quebradita. We would then show them the museums in the city, such as the Broad and Science Museum. During a week here we would have the opportunity to take them to some of the farmers markets that have given us so much: Surfside Farmers Market, Coconut Grove Farmers Market, and more. We also get so much inspiration from the art in Miami which is reflected in our packaging. This inspiration comes from Wynwood and the design destrict something we have to also show them.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Semilla Nativa definitely owes a lot to the Farmers Market Community. The farmers who inspired us to create flavors that reflected the seasonal nature of the products that they were growing. The families who depend on farmers markets for healthy foods, getting to know them inspired us to create plant based products that met any allergy needs they have. We want to make sure that no matter what dietary restrictions your family has our product meets them. Learning from them pushed us to this.

Website: www.semillanativaus.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semillanativaus/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snativaus/