Natalie is the founder and former director of the Firefly Gathering. She now focuses her energy on her family and her school, Wild Abundance, where she teaches tiny house building workshops, foraging classes, deer hide tanning, and permaculture design courses, where people can earn their permaculture design certificates.
She lives in her lovely, growing homestead nestled deep in community in the Southern Appalachians. She spends her time harvesting in the wild, building, gardening, planting, putting up food, growing, teaching, and scheming about how to introduce more people to Earth-based living, all while worshiping the beauty around her.
She teaches at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, the Maps meet, and Earthskills Rendezvous, and has given talks at FSU, Southern Adventist University, Tulane University, Ohio University, Vanderbilt University, Western Washington University, and many other places. Natalie was also featured in Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Freedom in America and appeared in the National Geographic series Live Free or Die. Natalie holds a B.A. in ecological agriculture and, more importantly, has studied with teachers who have deeply enriched her perspective, including Juliet Blankespoor, Margaret Mathewson, and Frank Cook.
She and her partner Frank also run an herbal apprenticeship, a natural building apprenticeship, and a permaculture apprenticeship. These days she is especially focused on women’s primitive skills, permaculture courses, and home building workshops.
