FOUNDER, ANAVO FARM · 501(C)(3)
Proud member of the Black Sheep Tribe
Jen
Boulden.
Entrepreneur, regenerative farmer, and renovator. I've spent my life building things in harmony with nature — on the land, in old houses, and in the world. Quietly, and with as little new plastic as possible.
The origin
After 9/11 shuttered the startup I worked for in New York, I followed a gut feeling — a one-way ticket to Ireland, where I spent three months mucking stalls on a horse farm. Somewhere between the manure and the mist, I found a Celtic word: Anavo. Harmony. I wrote it down and knew it would become something.
That clarity led me to co-found Ideal Bite — a daily green living newsletter that grew to nearly a million subscribers before being acquired by Disney. A formative chapter. But the truest version of the Anavo dream had always lived on land, not in an inbox. In 2016, I bought a small farm in the Santa Ynez Valley that had been calling to me for years. I named it Anavo Farm.
““And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.””
The origin
The soil is the answer
Regenerative agriculture sequesters carbon, grows healthier food, and heals land depleted by a century of industrial farming. At Anavo, our goats, sheep, alpacas, and chickens free-range and fertilize. 400+ guests have felt what it's like to live this way — and many leave changed.
Buy next to nothing new
Across more than a decade of renovating — some historic, some just unloved — I've followed one rule: salvage, repurpose, source reclaimed. Every home has a soul. Ripping it out to chase a trend is both wasteful and a little sad.
Stop performing. Start living.
The same instinct that drives regenerative farming drives a regenerative life: less performance, more presence. I'm developing a TEDx talk called The Quiet Rebellion — because a lot of us are building someone else's life and wondering why it doesn't fit.
A QUESTION I RETURN TO EVERY DAY
What would nature do?
Nature doesn't force. It doesn't perform. It doesn't extract more than it returns. It rests, regenerates, and trusts the season. Every decision I make on this farm — and increasingly, in my life — starts here. When I don't know the answer, I go outside and watch what's already working. The land has been doing this longer than any of us.
Vanity Fair
Good Morning America
Martha Stewart