I was battling chronic fatigue and other stress-related illnesses when I met a gifted yoga teacher, Lisa Matkin, who helped me on the path to healing. She taught me the importance of treating your body as a temple, recognizing that everything you put into it matters. After 8 years, I became a certified ISHTA yoga instructor. My yoga teaching was focused on healing, and I realized it had to include diet. “Food as medicine” became my mantra. Follow this, I became a blogger for the Natural Health Magazine and learned more about nutrition from some of the luminaries of the natural health world.
During the winter of 2009, I attended a week-long biodynamic-farming seminar at Hawthorne Valley Farm. I learned that farmers needed to establish a physical and spiritual connection to the land to grow amazing food. I had grown up in the concrete jungle of New York City, but spent summers on Long Island where my Dad, a doctor, tended a vegetable garden. He lovingly provided the family with all kinds of fresh produce which my Mom cooked up into gourmet delights. Until the Hawthorne Valley Farm experience, I didn’t consciously realize the symbiotic relationship between us and the earth. By the end of the seminar, I had realized my true calling in life: to grow the healthiest food on the planet by becoming a biodynamic farmer.
So, in 2013, I purchased 130 acres of fields, woods, wetlands, and pond! It took 5 years of building infrastructure, from wells to fences, barns, greenhouses, cold storage, an outhouse, and a yurt, to turn it back into a working farm. Along the way I met a multitude of people who supported me and deepened my knowledge of biodynamic farming. Not only the directors of the nearby Hawthorne Valley Farm, but also the farmers at the Fellowship Community in Spring Valley and many others. In conjunction with a young farmer, I tried my hand at running a commercial livestock operation, but that proved too challenging for both of us since we lacked experienced in the many, complex facets of commercial farming.
In the spring of 2018, I signed a 10-year lease with Liberty Farms, a nearby NOFA-certified farm. I am comfortable with this arrangement, knowing their farmers come from the biodynamic farming tradition and will uphold principles I care so deeply about. Although my day-to-day farm work is done, I have added another dimension to my work on the farm — Lightforce Sanctuary.
Lightforce Sanctuary is the name I created for the wellness programs I run on the farm. At the present there are several ongoing activities:
- Growing spelt with the local Chatham Synagogue to make matzoh for Passover
- Leading groups on hiking trails I’ve created around the farm as a Kripalu Certified Mindful Outdoor Guide
- Hosting community events in the solar-powered yurt, including religious services, yoga classes, and Citizens Climate Lobby meetings
- Upholding the tenets of biodynamic farming by making biodynamic preparations and using them to tend the fields and crops
- Maintaining several beehives on the farm
- Renewing soil fertility by planting regenerative crops and trees
These activities feels like a logical progression as my connection to the land deepens. As its present-day steward, I hope will contribute to its ongoing good health.
Certifications
- Certified Kripalu Mindful Outdoor Guide
- Certified in Wilderness First Aid and CPR
- Certified 500 Hour ISHTA Yoga Teacher
- Certified in 100 Hour Yoga Anatomy and Alignment
Notable Experiences
- 25+ years of experience practicing and teaching ISHTA Yoga, specialing in yoga classes for women with breast cancer, senior citizens, and children’s yoga
- 7+ years of experience in biodynamic Farming, including becoming a greenhouse apprentice at The Fellowship Community and being taught hands-on compost making from Bruno Follador, a renowned byodynamic consultant
- 20+ years of experience in healing and herbal preparations, studying with Anne Marie Colbin, founder of the Natural Gourmet Cooking School; Claudia Kheel, founder of Arborvitae School of Traditional Herbalism; Dina Falconi, author of Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook