WHO WE ARE:
Golden Well is weaving a community of people who care deeply about the Earth, it's inhabitants and the future of our living planet. We have a strong call to Spirit and honor the sacred in the everyday. We listen to the wisdom of the trees, bees, rivers, stars, moon and the Earth. We strive to improve ourselves and take time to witness and support each other's growth. We value connection. We take time to breathe, honor our bodies and to look within to deepen our relationship with the Spirit that moves through all things.
Our Founders:
Wife and husband team, Nicole Burke and Ryan Miller, are the stewards of Golden Well.
Nicole is a Community Artist, an organic vegetable farmer, beekeeper, shamanic practitioner, ceremonialist, visual artist, designer, writer, and a world adventurer. She has been working in the art & design world since 1998, the healing arts since 2006 and farming since 2012. For over a decade, she’s been deeply immersed in the Lyceum (formerly the Path of Pollen), a shamanic honey bee tradition based in England. She has also trained in Japanese Medicine and Acupressure, and Classical Shamanic Healing. Nicole honors and nurtures the wilderness of the soul. She is inspired to help people remember to follow joy towards living a more rich, interconnected life. Her work is guided by and deeply rooted in loving relationship with the Earth, all of its elements and inhabitants.
Ryan Miller is a maker, beekeeper, Kombucha brewer, teacher, homesteader, healer, and visionary. APIS Kombucha was created by and is brewed by Ryan. He is always looking to share his love of sustainable agricultural, healthy lifestyle, delicious food and drink with others. APIS Honey Kombucha was created as a gift of health to enjoy with our community. Ryan is also dedicated to Spirit and how it moves in all that he brings into the world. He has over 2 decades of experience with Martial Arts and teaches both Aikido and Systema and holds a deep respect for lineage and ancient traditions. He is also trained to lead Shinto Ceremony including River Misogi where he is able to meld his love of Nature and Spirit together in community. Recently, he too was initiated into the Lyceum (formerly Path of Pollen) and has found it to be a potent way to incorporate his healing and movement work with his love of bees and nature.
They are also proud parents to their son who was born in 2020 and their daughter who was born in 2013 and has grown up farming alongside the couple. She is their joy maker, official hostess to their events and the resident chicken whisperer. Their son has also brought much joy and they hope he grows to love the farm as much as his big sister.
How WE ENDED UP HERE:
Ryan Miller and Nicole Burke co-founded Golden Well Farm & Apiaries (now Golden Well Sanctuary) in New Haven, Vermont in 2012. Originally from opposite coasts, the couple met in New Mexico where their love of honeybees brought them together. There, they started 2 Wolves Holistic Center only 1 month after meeting after finding they shared the same dream of creating a community wellness center and retreat focused on connection to Spirit and Nature. Though Ryan and Nicole have a strong love for New Mexico and were building a vibrant community around their wellness center, they began to hear a call that would eventually lead them to move back East. After a tough year for bees in NM, pressured by drought, forest fires and bear attacks, was juxtaposed with their summer wedding in Vermont in 2011 (where Nicole's family is from, and bee forage is plenty!), they listened to that call and decided to move to Vermont to further pursue their love of beekeeping, start a family and a farm and to continue to grow their wellness center.
Ever since they first began keeping bees and growing food, their vision has always been to create a model farm where they could share their love of nature and sustainable agricultural with others. With their background in healing and movement arts, it was only natural to combine the two passions. They've been steadily working towards this vision and in 2011 began growing on their neighbor's land (until they were able to purchase the property with the help of VEDA and FSA in 2015) and have been selling vegetable as well as honey products at markets for the last few years as well as running their holistic center. In 2014, they started a successful vegetable CSA and in 2016 they received Organic Certification through VOF (Vermont Organic Farmers). Nicole is now also offering regular classes, gatherings, ceremonies and apprenticeship programs based on the Lyceum (Path of Pollen). Her apprenticeship program, Voices of the Well, runs every year and is a deep exploration into relationship between the sacred feminine and the Living Earth.
While the wellness center and farm started off in separate locations, with the purchase of the land in 2015 and the support of their community, they have combined these two pursuits in the form of Golden Well Sanctuary for Spirit and Nature, a place devoted to re-potentiating our Living Earth through cultivating deeper and more meaningful connections between Nature, Spirit, individuals and community.