Naturally drawn to organic foods and environmental sustainability as a youth, I knew there was more than just buying organically.  Growing up in Hopkins, Minnesota, I didn’t have access to small scale organic farming methods that I was craving in my adolescents.  So the day I graduated high school I packed my bags and moved to Northern California.  There, coupled with my love for yoga, I began to learn small scale organic farming in a community of yogis.

That began my decades long pursuit of organic farming, yoga & mindfulness, and living simply with the land.  I moved to Vermont where I spent eight years pursuing these passions.  While in Vermont, I earned my bachelors of science degree in holistic health, creating a major that suited my passions.  In between semesters at university, I apprenticed with the well-known herbal company, Herb Pharm, in Williams, Oregon igniting my love for growing medicinal herbs.  Both in school and after, I had the pleasure and privilege of growing herbs while living in eco-villages that focused on eco-psychology, sustainable farming, herbalism, yoga, meditation, and nonviolent communication.

Since then, I have had many incredible opportunities of travel, study, and collaborate all over the world.  I followed my passions of Ayurveda to the island of Kauai, Hawaii where I earned my Yoga and Ayurveda Teaching Certification with Myra Lewin through Hale Pule. Shortly after, I was hired to manage an organic herb farm on the island.  Eventually I left the garden paradise of Kauai to take an opportunity to live and study with a healer and herbalist in Mexico.  

I completed my Ayurvedic Health Counselor degree from Kripalu School of Ayurveda in 2016. During my clinical internship portion of Ayurveda School, I attend an extended meditation retreat in my home state of Minnesota.  Here, at the Prairie Farm Retreat Center, the idea for an Urban Monastery was born.  Since I was 15, I’ve had a daily meditation practice, attended multiple silent meditation retreats per year, and lived in various forms of monastic households.  I was ready to take my practice to the next level and infuse my day with as much practice as possible with other dedicated yogis.

It was in this setting, in a semi-monastic household in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Herban Ayurveda was born. A housemate at the Urban Monastery had been farming a certified organic property for a few decades and invited me to join. So in 2016, I quit my day job working as a wellness analyst and started farming full time. Even though farming and running my own business have been the most challenging work I’ve ever done, I feel so grateful that I’ve found my way to be of service to this earth and community.