Sometimes taking a chance for you wife pays off for everyone.
That’s a part of Dave Palmer’s story. Today he has a robust social media following for the chef-like meals he creates for his four children. Healthy, tasty and easy to copy.
But that Dave, our Lead Dad of the Week from Paxton, Fla., is cheffing it up while home-schooling his children wasn’t something he had imagined when he and his wife Heather, an acupuncturist, met over a decade ago.
The first chance he took was relocating from Atlanta, Ga., to the Florida-Alabama line for love. “I moved to Paxton sight unseen,” he said. “At first, I was doing some merchant service stuff – my office was a hammock in the side yard.”
Suddenly in a small town, he realized he wanted to add what he missed to the community. He started a farmers’ market and then a café – “we realized our town needed one” – and he began making grilled sandwiches and big salads that were a healthy hit. But in 2019 he lost his lease at the same time his wife’s acupuncture practice took off, with a stream of referrals from the Veterans Administration. Add to that their fourth child was born as the family went head-long into the pandemic.
“I just started posting food content, and it started generating a buzz,” he said. “Then the kids came home from school during the pandemic. We had to do home schooling. We decided we liked it.”
As Heather’s career has been accelerating so has Dave’s – with several sponsors, including Misfits Market, backing what he’s doing. And Dave is able to structure his day so that when his kids finish up school, they can be together for the afternoon.
“Having fun literally puts food on the table for us,” he said. “And the best part of working online is I get to eat what I make.”
Welcome, Dave, to The Company of Dads and thanks for inspiring us with the chances you’ve taken.
