Welcome to Emerald Farm.

My name is Lee Christie-Irvine. I’m a farmer and carpenter living in Bovina, NY. I was born and raised on a sheep and cattle ranch in central Wyoming, and moved to NYC in the late 1990’s. I’ve been working as a builder and manager in the local entertainment industry since 2000. 

Growing up a ranch, I was fortunate enough to learn quickly what it means to have a strong work ethic centered around care and compassion. Since a very early age I was involved entirely in the daily work that kept the ranch moving. We would leave the house at 5 in the morning, spend the day riding and working with the livestock, and get back home around 7. The days were tiresome; we would return to the house starving and aching to rest our tired legs. However, before we took care of ourselves, we first had to take care of our horses. Dinner, rest, sleep; none of that could happen if I didn’t make sure your horse was fed, hydrated, and comfortable. That which allowed us to work and live our daily lives had to be nourished just as much as we did. In college, a similar lesson came to me through the writings of Adam Smith, who taught me that the value of anything was marked only by how much labor and effort you applied to the final output.

Later in life, my experiences in the Iyengar Yoga world, as well as my practice in Tibetan Buddhism, brought me to a deep realization of the interconnectivity of our universe. I realized that what I desired most was to care for the planet and the people on it in a meaningful, deliberate way. Thus, our farm began to take shape, beginning as a way to work regenerative agriculture into our small patch of the earth. Through this practice, we intend to nurture the planet, assist in carbon sequestration, and nurture our own community in the Bovina area.