Greetings all, I have been interested in the natural world as long as I can recall. As a young child growing up in Southern Wisconsin, my extended family often called me “nature boy” and I could often be found looking for snakes, salamanders, and other creatures wherever possible. I grew to greatly appreciate time spent in the great outdoors and always loved camping, fishing, and getting out even if just in the backyard. I often envisioned being a biologist or the American Steve Irwin as I grew up.
Later on, I went to college to study environmental science and came to the realization that one of the largest ways humans affect the ecosphere is through our agricultural relationship the land. I got into organic farming in school and participated in several garden and farm projects in my time there to learn more about plants and how we can grow abundance in a good way. Ultimately from there, I went on to do a variety of jobs working predominately in small-scale agriculture and landscaping while living in Minneapolis.
I moved out to the West coast starting in 2018 where I began studying herbalism in a more
concrete way that I had previously. I worked with my friends at Dandelion Botanical Company, an apothecary previously located in Seattle, where I got a chance to get hands on with a wide variety of medicinal plants and meet people who related to these plants. At the same time, I was doing online coursework and eventually received a post-secondary degree in clinical herbalism from the Maryland University of Integrative Health. Looking back, I’d say I was seeking out more ways in which we can relate to our natural world as humans.
A few years later, I met my now wife Julia while visiting Southern Oregon and made the move out this way shortly thereafter. We ended up on a small rural acreage where we steward goats, chickens, pigs, cats, dogs, plants, and more. I began working with Oshala Farms whose producing some of the highest quality medicinal herbs on the I’d come across, who I had originally come across during my time at the apothecary in Seattle. Today we bide our time with the endless projects of keeping up with our dependents and the rural life and couldn’t be happier to be rooted on the land and learning more every day.
