FOUNDER, ANAVO FARM · 501(C)(3)
Proud member of the Black Sheep Tribe
Jen Boulden.
Regenerative designer of home, land & life.
I've spent two decades building things in harmony with nature — on the land, in old houses, and in the world. Not because it was the easy path. Because I've always believed the same thing about soil that I believe about people: you can't extract your way to abundance. You have to regenerate.
THE ORIGIN
After 9/11 shuttered the startup I'd been building 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 stumbled onto 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 900,000 subscribers before being acquired by Disney. A formative chapter. But I always knew, not my final act. In 2016, I bought a small farm in the Santa Ynez Valley that had been calling to me for decades. 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.””
WHAT I BELIEVE
ON THE LAND
THE SOIL IS THE ANSWER
Body: 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.
IN OLD HOUSES
BUY NEXT TO NOTHING NEW
Across more than a decade of restoring historic properties — some storied, 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. What you find at an estate sale has something a big box store can never manufacture: history, soul, and a story that's yours alone
IN A LIFE
PAUSE. FEEL. ACT
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.
Damascus at daybreak, keeping watch. The animals and the land teach us everything
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 let nature inspire me.
Vanity Fair
Good Morning America
Forbes
NYT