Known to many for my incredible ability to organize- “Obsessive, is that a bad thing?”- I tackle gardening and life with equal verve.  I grew up on a farm in far northern California, just thirty minutes from the Oregon boarder, north of majestic Mt. Shasta.  I learned canning and pickling from my mother and great grand mother at an early age, and how to care for livestock and plants from my dad.

Educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz and California Institute of the Arts, my professional experience is as an Executive Producer, managing advertising, marketing and promotional companies in design and animation. 

After a long stent in Los Angeles, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2001, just as the area food movement was blossoming.  Since then the upper midwest has seen a boom in urban agriculture, cottage industry, community supported agriculture, community gardens, farmer’s markets, microbreweries/distilleries, sustainable land management and local farm to table food systems. 

Influenced by my farmer/ag teacher dad and artist/preserver/art teacher mother, my feet are firmly rooted in both worlds, with my head in creative media, my heart in food and my hands in the dirt.  A cultivator at heart, my passions lie with food preservation, gardening and connecting to my local community through blogging, food and urban agriculture.  I  grow, forage, can, dry, pickle, ferment, brew, age, cook and eat from my garden, backyard, roadsides, hillsides and local farms.  I eat well and love to feed others as often as possible.

My mission is to share what I know about food from the perspective of homemade and do-it-yourself.  There are so many foods we consume that we leave up to corporate production, that can easily (or with a little instruction/knowledge) be done at home.  This has a huge impact on our heath, our environment, our local community and often times, our pocketbook.  I’m here to demystify many food processes and show how easy, accessible, healthful and delicious gaining control of your personal food system can be.