When we lived in the Dandenong Ranges just outside of Melbourne, Australia, we used to discuss operating a B&B with no real seriousness, and it was only ever raised when someone else would suggest it. The idea was toyed with, but they were discussions filled with a lot of hot air that would have dissipated by the following day.
It was only when I went looking for a vegan B&B for Scott and I to go to that the idea became more than a fleeting one.
Why couldn’t I find any listed on the internet? My search got broader and broader until, out of frustration, I decided to search for any listing over the whole of Australia. Still nothing! I have got to be the most technically challenged person I know, I thought to myself!
I did manage to narrow down a few places that catered for vegans and vegetarians, but they were more health retreats, not a basic everyday B&B. And I did not want to risk seeing dairy or eggs and definitely did not want to sleep on a woollen underlay or under a feather down quilt. From the moment I felt a shift of conscience move me to a compassionate lifestyle, I found all such items quite upsetting. I remember, a day or two after my shift, racing out to purchase throw rugs for the leather lounge suite we once owned.
Being the only vegans I knew, we were oblivious to the vegan community out there. I thought we were the only ones and remember thinking how we should introduce this lifestyle to people in Australia. How’s that for living in a bubble? The concept of opening our own B&B had been planted, but the Dandenong Ranges are filled with B&Bs, so the idea drifted onto a shelf.
It wasn’t until the desire for a lifestyle change did the idea start to stir on that shelf. Whilst we went about selling our house, quitting our jobs and frightening the bejeezus out of family and friends with this sudden decision, I believe the B&B idea started to take its form. We just didn’t know it then.
What we wanted was a few acres of land in the country to feel we had space to move and breathe. Somewhere where we would never feel claustrophobic or that people were watching or listening to you. Plus after adopting a few hens the desire for more required extra land.
The house we are in now is the first house we looked at. I was sold at the main gates. I remember saying to Scott, “Wrap it up.”
I loved the fact that the house was over 100 years old. It has so much character and timeless beauty about it. Then seeing the old dairy that the previous owner had started to work on, I knew straight away it would be a great little dwelling for family and friends to stay in when they visited.
After we moved in we went about fixing it up enough to give people privacy when they came to visit. As the property is hours away from family and friends, no one ever just calls in for a coffee. Overnight stays are required.
With the old dairy now filled with second-hand furniture and a mishmash of knickknacks it actually started to look quite cosy. But with so much else to do around the property, it was never really focussed on.
Then one day we decided to spruce it up for friends arriving from overseas. The more we ‘spruced’, the more the idea of a B&B started to pop into our heads. At first we thought we could book it out on weekends only but soon it was clear what the universe wanted us to do; complete it and open an all vegan B&B. Whilst we were initially dragging our feet with no real urgency, once the decision was made we really went into overdrive and worked ridiculously long hours. Both of us had secured full-time work so everything had to be done after-hours and on weekends only. I think back and honestly wonder how we did it! We must have had a lot of invisible hands helping us.
Scott went about renovating the ex-dairy and calling in tradesmen where needed. I went on shopping sprees to find furnishings that would suit the environment we were trying to create, which was a ‘cruelty-free’ one.
Once it aesthetically looked pleasing, we jumped the hoops with our local council to get everything approved. That was not as difficult as we had anticipated. In fact we found them rather helpful.
I became a regular blow-in at the Small Business Centre in town, learning what I could and asking a billion questions. Some may have seemed stupid, but we had never done anything like this before, so stupid or not, I asked and it paid off.
So how did we come up with the name? Easy. I posted a question on Facebook asking what ideas people had for an all-vegan B&B. There were so many wonderful responses! I clearly mixed in a circle of creative and talented people. It was my niece Karina that came up with Bed & Broccoli. Our second favourite was Hotel Cauliflower.
Next came the logo. Having learnt from the name exercise that two minds are better than one, I went to the broader community once again. This time I contacted our local TAFE and spoke to the teacher of the graphic art classes. After some discussion she invited me to put it to her third year students to come up with a logo for our business. I offered the successful students some restitution on their school account for their efforts. Whilst that may have been an incentive, it was the fact the exercise would be graded as a task assigned by the school which made the students take the project seriously.
Although not privy to the weeks of classes that followed, I was told by the teacher how it brought the class together over lengthy discussions about veganism and the way we treat animals. I considered that an added bonus.
With over twenty beautiful logos to choose from, it was a tough process of elimination. When we finally chose we asked how it was done. Very simply the student told us he rolled a piece of broccoli through paint and then onto paper. I loved the simplicity of it!
So there we were, living in a dairy food bowl, surrounded by dairy farmers with a converted dairy that is now a vegan B&B. We had council approval, a name, a logo and the desire to offer people a few nights away in a fear-free environment.
Through all of this we got to know a great number of other people that shared our lifestyle choice and it was through them, and word of mouth, that we received our first guests.
We are in our third year of operating, and like everyone we are still learning and continuing to grow. The idea of Bed & Broccoli, I am positive, was mapped out in advance, and we were gently nudged into its pathway.