Listen to the interview here!
Susanne Fiori
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Susanne Fiori. Welcome to the Project, Susanne!
Susanne Fiori: Thank you for inviting me.
Toni: So Susanne, tell me what you do.
Susanne: I opened Nature’s Garden Natural Foods and Shoes back in 1977 – 35 years ago. It’s been great ever since.
Toni: Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Susanne: Thank you.
Toni: Let’s go into the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Susanne: Inspiration means many things to me. Inspiration is something that you can almost get out of the air. It’s like love. It’s ever-present, and you just have to tune yourself into it. When I wake up in the morning, the sky is blue, and I hear the birds chirping, I just get inspired to have a great day and to do great things for people. When people show kindness or consideration to others, I think it’s very inspiring to me that people can help one another and pay it forward, so to speak.
Toni: Wow – that’s a great answer to that question. It really is. How do you put that into practice here in Berks County?
Susanne: I just try to be the best I can. I really enjoy spending time with my customers and listening to their cares and concerns, and helping them make nutritional decisions. I think we need to inspire one another to keep working forward to bring a better sense of well-being to ourselves, to our community, to our earth and our planet, because I think for so many years we haven’t really taken care of ourselves and our yards and our planet. We really need to work together now and come together – families, neighborhoods, and small towns – we really need to start thinking outside of the “me too” and really work for the betterment of everybody.
Toni: Can you give me an example of how putting that into practice has changed someone’s mind or changed what they practice or had them learn from you? I’m sure you have those examples every day with your store.
Susanne: I think it’s so important, because I’m very against putting lawn chemicals on your lawn. I don’t see the problem with a few dandelions, so I’m always encouraging my neighbors to go more organic and stop the heavy use of pesticides and herbicides in their lawns. I try to encourage people to buy local, eat organic, and I think when you just take very small steps, it can make a huge change overall.
Toni: Have you been inspired recently?
Susanne: I am inspired every day by the people I meet, books that I’ve read, interviews that I’ve listened to. I think there’s a conscious awareness shift going on. I’m involved with the anti-fracking movement and the group that’s working out of Berks, and I think they’ve done incredible work trying to get the word out. I don’t have a particular person, but I try to be inspired by the common courtesy and being kind to one another.
Toni: That does lead us nicely into that third question – who in Berks County inspires you?
Susanne: I would say my staff is very inspirational. They work selflessly. They work long hours. They’ve really come together recently. I think my business partner, Cindy, and although this person doesn’t live in Berks County, Dr. Michael Murray is a naturopathic physician. He has written many books, and he comes to Reading every fall for our anniversary. I think because of his passion and his dedication to natural medicine, he has been a long-time person that has inspired me.
My mom inspired me tremendously. She’s passed on, but she lived with me for six years. She was a huge inspiration in the way she carried herself and went about her life.
Toni: Can you give me an example of that?
Susanne: Out of the four children, three of us have our own businesses, and it wasn’t anything she specifically said, it was just her work ethic and the way she motivated herself. She was a pioneer. She worked outside the home in the 50s, which women back in the 50s didn’t. She was always a real happy go-getter.
Toni: So there’s that ever-present that you used in the first answer, that inspiration is ever-present. I’m wondering, is she ever-present today, her spirit?
Susanne: Absolutely. I’m going to tear up now. In springtime I think very much of her. She loved to garden, and we gardened a lot together. When I go to my favorite nursery, she is right there with me. I use her phrases. I ‘hot foot it down’ because she was always saying, “Let’s go hot foot it down to the nursery!” She inspired me to learn to love to dig in the dirt, in the soil. I have a huge organic garden, and she is with me in spirit all the time.
Toni: So she helped you to pay that forward.
Susanne: Yes.
Toni: And put your own inspiration into practice.
Susanne: Absolutely.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Susanne: I think my legacy is that I opened Nature’s Garden at the time when it was somewhat unheard of for a single woman entrepreneur in Berks County. It was very challenging back then. I would like my legacy to … you know, we made these Yogi-Hoagie sandwiches, that’s a cool legacy, but just that I think I was a pioneer in the education in the natural food movement in Berks County.
Toni: That’s your living legacy today, isn’t it?
Susanne: Yes.
Toni: Absolutely. Thank you so much for taking your time. I appreciate it.
Susanne: Thank you for having me.
