About Us...

Michael and I began importing over 15 years ago. It started as a fluke, I was a visual arts teacher and Michael was teaching theatre. We went down to Costa Rica for an amazing 3 week vacation (links to some great places to visit below). Every place we seemed to go had these wonderful rocking chairs. We had our driver/guide- now our exporter- took us to the town where the chairs are made and we ended up bringing 6 of them home with us on the plane. The original plan was to try to sell enough to keep us going back to Costa Rica and eventually live there.

So that was the beginning. We drove around with the rocking chairs in the trunk of our car, and tried to find stores to take them. Every vacation we took for years to come, included visiting stores to try to get them to carry the rocking chairs and eventually wooden boxes and ceramic vases. Some of those stores still work with is to this day! Talk about building relationships. In the beginning, our backyard with tarps, was our warehouse and I carved a stamp of a tree, and stamped paper as our letterhead.

Slowly over the years, through many bumps in the road, and gray hairs, our business grew. Finally, Michael left teaching all together and when we moved up to Whidbey Island I left my teaching position. We are still a small mom and pop business. Which I love. When you call, you will probably get one of us on the phone. We still travel to all of the countries that we work with and have very long standing relationships with all of our artisans. We now bring in Fair Trade products from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Colombia. We host fund raisers for our artisans and their communities we revel in the stories about how our artists and artist co-ops are growing. We love doing work that matters and makes a difference in peoples lives, especially ours.

Cusco in Peru

Definition of Fair Trade as defined by FINE, an informal Association of the four main fair trade networks (Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, International Fair Trade Association, Network of European Worldshops and European Fair Trade Association):[4] Fair trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, which seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers - especially in the South. Fair trade organizations (backed by consumers) are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.

La Chamba in Colombia

So here we are living our island dream. If you are in the Puget Sound area, look us up. You are welcome to stop by our warehouse, or come to one of our fundraisers or warehouse sales. (Call first, we may be at one of our kid's basketball games or walking the dog on the beach!)

Thanks for Stopping By,

Kris and Michael Barker
La Vida Verde, Inc.

Nicaraguan Sunset	Cows on the road- typical for the Nicaraguan countryside
Costa Rican sunset	Volcan Poas in Costa Rica

Links to places in Central America, South America and Fair Trade Practices