The Farmhouse Belize and the Customers Who Helped Build It

Daniel Dargel and his wife had lived in their new apartment in Panama for only a few months when they decided to leave.

“I was stable. I was comfortable, but I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t growing,” he says.

The move took them to San Pedro, where they eventually created The Farmhouse Market & Café. The shop combines a café with a market stocking Belizean products and selected imports. Its selection grew out of customer requests and the couple’s own experience of settling into island life.

What you can find at The Farmhouse

Daniel describes a business where you can stop for something to eat and pick up food for home:

• Breakfast and coffee: Breakfast croissants, pastries and coffee, including iced drinks.

• Sandwiches: The chipotle chicken sandwich is among the items Daniel says customers particularly enjoy.

• Belizean products: Locally made peanut butter, roasted coffee and dairy products from small producers.

• Selected imports: Ingredients such as olive oil, added in response to customers’ requests.

That combination developed gradually. When the couple arrived in Belize in 2019, they had come for work with Daniel’s uncle.

Leaving Panama for San Pedro

Daniel had spent eight years in his job in Panama. When his uncle, who ran businesses in Belize, suggested coming to work with him, he began weighing the opportunity against the comfortable life he already had.

If Belize didn’t work out, he believed his experience would help him return to Panama and find similar work. That made the risk easier to consider.

Moving between countries was familiar. Born in El Salvador to a German father and Panamanian mother, Daniel grew up in Germany before eventually living in Panama. This time, he went ahead of his wife, initially staying with his uncle while he found an apartment and got settled.

Daniel remembers the welcome from Belizeans warmly. Having family on the island helped, and he liked the activity around him.

Everyday life took some adjustment. Shopping and entertainment offered fewer choices than he was used to. Some things he had thought necessary turned out to matter very little. Others he and his wife still wanted, and they began learning where to find them.

A fruit stand with room for coffee

COVID interrupted the work they had moved for. After months without work, the couple decided to try selling fruit and vegetables. Daniel recalls that food retail could operate under the restrictions.

They opened in November 2020, in a small red building about a quarter-mile north of the bridge. The first day brought BZ$13 in sales. Four days of rain around the opening spoiled roughly half the produce.

As customers began coming in, they asked whether the couple could sell coffee. Daniel bought a small machine. Requests for pastries followed, then sandwiches.

He and his wife recognised a concept they had enjoyed on their travels: somewhere to buy food for home and have something to eat or drink while they were there. The requests gave them a reason to develop it in San Pedro.

To make room for the café, they used timber salvaged from a restaurant Daniel’s uncle had demolished. Daniel remembers working sixteen-hour days as they built up the business.

What their grocery trips taught them

The couple’s own shopping trips were shaping the market at the same time.

They bought the chicken they preferred at one shop, meat at another, and went elsewhere for pasta. Getting what they wanted could mean five or six stops. Farmhouse became a place to bring together products they had tried and liked.

Daniel found many small Belizean producers through Facebook. His original intention was to stock only local products, but customers kept asking for other ingredients. Selected imports joined the range.

Getting mainland products to the island was another part of the work. Ordering directly could mean arranging payment, paying freight and collecting the delivery. A whole box might justify the shipping cost, but a household could want just one jar.

Daniel uses peanut butter to explain it. In his example, a BZ$15 jar with another BZ$15 in shipping costs the customer BZ$30. A shop bringing in a larger order might sell that jar for BZ$18.

For people learning their way around grocery shopping in San Pedro, his experience suggests three useful steps:

• Ask producers about island stockists. Before arranging a mainland shipment, find out whether a shop in San Pedro already carries the product.

• Compare the total cost and the quantity you need. Add freight to a direct order and check whether you must buy a whole box. A higher shelf price can still cost less overall when you only want one or two items.

• Use Facebook to discover Belizean brands. Daniel found many suppliers there. Their pages can be a starting point for asking what they make, where it is sold and how to order it.

Farmhouse takes on the ordering and transport for the products it stocks. Visitors, Daniel says, also enjoy discovering goods marked “Made in Belize” that they might never have known to search for.

Finding The Farmhouse in San Pedro

At the time of the interview, Daniel described three locations:

• North of the bridge: The original shop, across from Mara Laguna, approximately a quarter-mile north of the bridge.

• Downtown San Pedro: Near Central Park.

• Mahogany Bay: The third location in the growing community.

The original shop’s listed contact number is +501 620-7516. For current opening hours or a particular product, contact the shop before making a special trip.

Room for something new

Daniel still sees plenty of room for other people’s ideas. He would like more businesses that add something residents want, and he has no wish to see every other café disappear.

“I don’t need to sell all the coffee in San Pedro,” he says.

He encourages people considering a business on the island to look for something residents still want. His request is straightforward: “Please bring something new.”

For his own business, three locations have meant learning to rely on a larger team. Daniel wants Farmhouse to keep growing, but his description of a perfect day off begins with the business managing without him.

If something goes wrong, he would like to hear about it the next day, after his team has handled it.

Then he would spend the day with his wife and daughter. It would involve water, whether the pool or the ocean. Perhaps they would pack a picnic, take some music and find a quiet place on the beach.