The Aquarian Health Store Story – Rewind

Welcome to this blog about the Aquarian health store, Cahersiveen. I’d like to tell you how it came to be, where it has been and in what direction it is going. I hope you’ll enjoy what this blog will become and will communicate with me on topics published.

Let’s rewind …

I grew up in Nurnberg, Germany with Turkish roots. I knew from a young age that I had to travel. And I did. In 1992, after having been to the other side of the world and several places in between, I landed in Cahersiveen, County Kerry for what was just meant to be the summer season with Club Med Waterville. As life would have it, I settled in this small town on the Ring of Kerry with my husband Anthony and my two lovely children Simon and Yasmin.

At the time of the much anticipated Millennium Year 2000 (and after having called Cahersiveen my home for 8 years) most people in Ireland had several jobs to make a living. For me it was teaching German and Italian in local primary schools under a pilot project while also owning a driving school. With Ireland heading into its first ever economic boom, people seemed to have more disposable income which allowed them to better their living standards. Learning to drive and getting a car, which had been quite rare until now, was part of this. At the very least, it meant people could avoid the wet and the cold while commuting.

‘What has that got to do with anything?’ I hear you think. Well …

During this summer of 2000 I met a German family who returned to their holiday home in Ireland each year and whose daughter took some lessons with me in preparation for her driving test in Germany. One day they asked me if I’d help them promote their products in Ireland and this was my first introduction to hemp, the plant with such a great story.

I knew nothing about hemp but very quickly became fascinated by its versatility and also by its ‘dark side’. Hemp is in the Cannabis family and, even today, is often criticised or brushed off as a mind-altering drug to be avoided and scorned. But, in actual fact, hemp is a fascinating gift from nature. With its 20,000+ uses, the narcotic side is only one. To find out more about hemp and all its versatility, Google is your friend. There is just so much to learn about it …

Having decided to get the word out about hemp and its nutritious by-products, I made it my mission to tell as many people as I could about this wonderful hemp plant with so many uses. My sales trips took me throughout most of Ireland where I met the health store owners in almost every town (and what wonderful and exciting people they were! Dedicated to the cause first and foremost, just like I was) and attended many trade shows and holistic fairs in Dublin and the rest of Ireland where I met with the consumers directly.

The whole operation was based in my family home. We had hemp tea in my son’s wardrobe, boxes of hemp seed oil behind the sofa, the chocolate was hidden well and all the other products stored in any available corner around our small house. By 2002, as you can imagine, I had truly outgrown our home as a store room.

What next? A warehouse? But why not combine it with some other products and sell to the public too? A shop? With stock and all that? Scary. Yet, here I was. After declining an offer in 1997 to take over the then local health shop in Cahersiveen, I decided to open my own now. I rented a little shop at East End of town. My husband shelved it and the health store journey began.

To Be Continued …

Suzan