Em moved out West in 2014, chasing big mountains and rivers and a more temperate climate than the Maine coast she grew up on. After many years in the food industry, she started volunteering through WWOOF in 2018 at Apricot Lane Farms in California.

After a winter volunteering, she moved back to Oregon to begin an internship program with Rogue Farm Corps at Mahonia Gardens in Sisters, Oregon in the spring of 2019. Over the next few years, Em would continue to work this acre of mixed veggies and herbal medicine, from intern to employee.

After three years of studying and learning the ways of growing in the high desert of Oregon, Em and her partner moved their tiny house to Bellingham to start a farm!

Sonder Farmstead was born out of a dream for organically grown produce and herbal soaps. Em started Sonder Farmstead at Cloud Mountain Farm Center’s incubator land in Everson in the spring of 2021 and farmed this leased land for two seasons.

In 2023, we moved the farm to the South Fork Valley, in Acme. We are living and growing on a new plot of leased land, living off-grid in our tiny house and soaking up the South Fork Valley sunshine.