The Gargiulo family. Photo by Nick Shirghio
Sungazing. Cold plunging. Composting. Wellness chores. Red-light therapy. Drinking raw milk. These are everyday activities for Jeff, Kristi, Dewey, and Violet Gargiulo. By returning to the ways of their ancestors, this family of four aspires to live their healthiest lives.
Blame it on Jeff, who was born and raised in Southwest Florida. His grandfather was Naples-based tomato pioneer Dewey Gargiulo, who at one time was responsible for about 10 percent of the country’s entire fresh tomato production. Jeff’s father (and namesake) Jeff Gargiulo, who grew up growing and packing tomatoes, is today a Napa Valley vintner. “Farming is in my blood,” says the younger Jeff.
The Naples High School graduate went off to Nashville, Tennessee, for college, then moved to New York to work in the financial world. “I was a typical 20-something—working long hours, partying, and eating whatever I wanted,” he says. Though he was physically active, he remembers being prescribed unnecessary medication and experiencing frequent bouts of illness. “I wasn’t feeling good, and I didn’t feel good about how I was living,” he says.
Jeff Gargiulo. Photo by Nick Shirghio
Jeff discovered health gurus online, on Instagram, and on YouTube, including Dave Asprey, author of The Bulletproof Diet (Rodale Books, 2014), and Timothy Ferriss, author, podcaster, and promoter of lifestyle-optimization techniques. He began transforming his diet, “doing everything I once believed I shouldn’t,” he says. He reversed the food pyramid, cutting out grains and concentrating on consuming more red meat and saturated fats.
“I’m an all-or-nothing kind of guy,” he says, describing himself as hard-core, disciplined, and motivated. “I dove in.” Through his diet transformation, Jeff noticed he began feeling better. A few years later, he started engaging in light and cold therapies and began practicing Bikram yoga.
As he continued to feel better, he purposely stayed away from conventional medicine, resorting to regular blood tests as a barometer of his health. Unwittingly, Jeff became a biohacker—one who engages in self-experimentation to optimize health, performance, and longevity through small lifestyle changes or more extreme interventions.
Jeff Gargiulo reaps the benefits of a cold plunge. Photo by Nick Shirghio
In 2009, while on a sabbatical from global financial services company UBS, Jeff met wife Kristi on a boat outing in Naples. As she was able to work remotely, the Maine native made the move south that same year on the advice and invitation of a friend. When she first visited the Sunshine State, she wondered, “Why doesn’t everyone live here?”
The couple returned to New York for Jeff’s work. Son Dewey was born in 2012 and daughter Violet in 2014. Kristi surrounded herself with a community of young mothers dedicated to doing the best for their children. She had not yet embraced the same commitment to holistic living that Jeff had, but after a health scare, she plunged in, too.
Kristi embraces the benefits of the sauna, such as deep muscle relaxation, cardiovascular support, and detoxification. Photo by Nick ShirghioA Family Affair
The family moved back to Naples in 2017, relinquishing the desire to follow a typical American lifestyle. They purchased a 3-acre property east of town and began experimenting with regenerative farming (an approach that combines a variety of sustainable agricultural practices). They embarked on creating what they call the Gargiulo wellness matrix—a health and wellness platform designed to counteract the toxic influences of modern life through intentional practices of clean, ancestral living. Jeff says, “It feels right; I want to lead by example and show my kids how it can be done.”
Jeff and Kristi have designed wellness chores for their two children to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Photo by Nick Shirghio
A typical day in the Gargiulo household for Dewey might begin with a before-school visit to the garage converted into an impressive gym, followed by a healthy breakfast chased by a glass of raw milk. After driving the kids to Community School of Naples, Kristi spends her day meal planning, sourcing healthy ingredients, and working on the Gargiulo wellness plan while mixing in workouts and regular parenting activities.
Every morning, seven days a week, Jeff plunges into a 39-degree-Farenheit bath for three minutes. In the evenings, he does a 30-second cold plunge followed by a 20-minute sauna session to reset his body. He spends his days tending fruit trees, composting, researching the latest health news, and working out. He regularly leads what he calls a Caveman Club, touted on the Gargiulo Wellness website as “a club for men focusing on philosophy, fire, ice, wine, red meat, workouts, and messing around.”
After dinner together and cold plunges, the family likes to gather around the firepit to stargaze while Jeff strums the guitar. Not completely off the grid, they admit to regularly using their technological devices, though Jeff believes these “will be the death of us.” There is little pushback from Dewey and Violet on living close to the earth. Friends love to visit and engage in the pastoral activities, too.
Jeff’s gym, thoughtfully converted from a garage, is a space he uses to regularly train. Photo by Nick ShirghioSkin Deep
Striving for healthier items to put on and in their bodies and eschewing synthetic chemicals, Kristi started making the family’s soap and skin care products. After years of searching for truly clean skin care treatments that honored the body instead of harming it, Kristi found nothing on the market that measured up. She sought the oldest, most nutrient-dense moisturizer known to humankind: grass-fed beef tallow. Rich in the same fats human skin is made of and loaded with fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K2, it is considered deeply healing. Tallow became the foundation for Kristi’s business that she now markets under the Organic Violet brand.
“[Kristi] spent years in our kitchen perfecting small batches, blending raw honey from local hives, cold-pressed oils, and other ancestral superfoods until she achieved the desired texture and scent,” says Jeff. What began as a remedy for the family’s dry skin, eczema, and irritation is now at the heart of everything she makes.
Kristi founded skin care brand Organic Violet, which features beef-tallow based products. Photo by Nick Shirghio
Recently, Jeff and Kristi entered a business partnership in Costa Rica, purchasing a 69-acre regenerative organic farm called Vanilla Falls. The sustainable property is home to 1,000 cacao trees and numerous other fruits. They are currently in the process of creating an organic vanilla bean farm. “Indigenous to Costa Rica, vanilla is a very romantic fruit—it’s an orchid,” says Kristi. “We hope to go to production in two years’ time,” adds Jeff. To expedite that, Jeff would love to relocate the family to the country. They aren’t quite ready for a move, so instead they visit as often as possible.
By reclaiming a primal and vibrant way of life, the Gargiulos seek to discover their true human potential. They hope to streamline and share a way of life that is easy to choose, following the mantra, “Do as I do.”
Jeff and Kristi own a regenerative organic farm in Costa Rica, where they are in the process of farming organic vanilla beans.Thought for Food
When a blood test revealed Kristi Gargiulo was prediabetic, she panicked. The busy mother of two believed she led a healthy lifestyle so did not expect that news. She began paying closer attention to what she put in her body. She eliminated gluten, refined sugars, and seed oils from her diet and taught herself to cook meals that would better feed herself and her family. “I spent eight weeks trying a new recipe every night,” she recalls. In many of her recipes, Kristi substitutes ingredients found in conventional recipes. She shares this family-favorite she adapted from a fellow Neapolitan and mother of three, Allison Lubert, author of Baking You Happy: Gluten-Free Recipes from Sweet Freedom Bakery (Peter Pauper Press, 2014).
Kristi, Violet, Dewey, and Jeff. Photo by Nick Shirghio
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Dry ingredients
1 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose baking flour 1 cup coconut sugar2 tbsp. arrowroot
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Wet ingredients
1 cup pureed bananas
1/2 cup hot water (Kristi substitutes raw milk)
1/3 cup melted coconut oil (Kristi uses melted grass-fed butter)1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Add in
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium bowl, sift the dry ingredients and mix them together. In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Add the dry to the wet mixture, stirring until a smooth batter forms. Gently fold one-third cup chocolate chips into the batter until evenly distributed. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and fill each cup three-quarters full. Bake 15 minutes; rotate the pan and bake for 5 more minutes. Cool for 20 minutes before removing from pan.
Story Credits:
Shot on location at the home of Jeff and Kristi Gargiulo, Naples
