Dream Earth Bowls
The tiny acai (pronounced ah-SIGH-ee) berry is packed with antioxidants and may help protect against cancer.
Discovering more about acai’s health benefits while working on an organic fruit farm in Hawaii transformed Ashley Yamamoto’s life mission. She was taking part in a gap year when she decided to work at the Kahumana Organic Farms near Honolulu, where she learned more about healthy eating and living. Having practiced gymnastics while growing up in Cape Coral, Yamamoto could easily understand how healthy food can both taste delicious and help keep the body in tip-top shape.
The farm where she worked had a café and served acai bowls. If you’re not already familiar with them, acai bowls are what Yamamoto describes as a “healthy ice cream,” with a thick, smoothie-like base on the bottom made from frozen acai purée and often a nut butter, and then topped with fresh fruit, granola, or superfruit toppings like cocoa nibs or goji berries. They may be topped off with a drizzle of honey or other ingredients.
Yamamoto got inspired to experiment with some of the ingredients. From there, the seed of her business idea sprouted.
She decided to return to Southwest Florida to open Dream Earth Bowls, running her business at area farmers’ markets like the Sarasota Farmers Market and the Farmers’ Market at Lakewood Ranch.
“The response was really positive,” Yamamoto says. “A lot of customers said, ‘You should open a store here.’ I felt something was needed as there were not a lot of healthy places around.”
As success for Dream Earth Bowls grew at the markets, Yamamoto began to look around for a storefront location. She ultimately found one in North Sarasota right on North Tamiami Trail, just minutes away from the Sarasota Farmers Market. The bricks-and-mortar location opened last year and has had steady business, she says. A second location could be in the works not far from the Lakewood Ranch market.
The primary attraction at Dream Earth Bowls is those gorgeous earth bowls, with the eponymous one the most popular. The Dream Earth Bowl includes acai, banana, strawberry, organic granola, and honey. Recommended add-ons for the Dream Earth Bowl include coconut shreds, goji berries, and house-made vegan hazelnut spread. (We’re getting hungry just typing this.)
The second-favorite is the Earth Bowl, which combines acai, peanut butter, organic granola, banana, blueberry, coconut shreds, chia seeds, and almond butter.
Some of the other acai bowls include names like the Million Dollar Bowl, Coffee Crunch, and Flower Power.
Dream Earth also sells smoothies, avocado toast, and power toast (a combo of almond butter, banana, bee pollen, cocoa nibs, and a drizzle of honey). Yamamoto plans to add salad bowls and grain bowls soon.
Dream Earth Bowls’ storefront also has a dream wall, where customers use index cards to write down and share their dreams with others.
Dream Earth Bowls donates 1% of its profits to the United Nations World Food Programme, which helps feed families in food crisis around the world.
