the Turtle Family
Our mission is to celebrate the connection between personal health and wild lands.
We manifest this goal through educating and practicing sustainable practices. A few examples of our work include growing and preparing local, wild, and living foods from the Turtle Lake Community farm, utilizing solar dehydrators, using a bicycle powered blender and bicycle wheatgrass juicer and sharing the great values of wild and local foods in the local school systems and in our greater community.
Meet Katrina
Katrina Blair began studying wild plants in her teens when she camped out alone for a summer with the intention of eating primarily wild foods. She later wrote The Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants of the San Juan Mountains for her senior project at Colorado College. In 1997 she completed a MA at John F Kennedy University in Orinda, CA in Holistic Health Education. She founded Turtle Lake Refuge in 1998, a non-profit, whose mission is to celebrate the connection between personal health and wild lands. She teaches sustainable living practices, permaculture and wild edible and medicinal plant classes locally and internationally. She is the author of a book titled Local Wild Life- Turtle Lake Refuges Recipes for Living Deep published in 2009 that focuses on the uses and recipes of the local wild abundance. Her latest book is "The Wild Wisdom of Weeds: 13 Essential Plants for Human Survival" published in 2014 by Chelsea Green.
Meet Kelly
Raised in the Northeast, spending many years on the southern West Coast, Kelly followed a still small voice to Santa Fe where she happened upon a glorious plant walk with a tremendously charismatic woman named Katrina Blair at a small festival. It was a revelation--so many edible plants, even in that dry area!
After attending Turtle Lake Refuge's Wild Permaculture Retreat the following year, she knew in her heart to move to Durango and learn more about wild plants!
She's held various beloved jobs: nursing home/elder/differently-abled care, health food co-ops & cafes, and many ecstatic years in childcare and preschool teaching.
Kelly absolutely adores co-creating in community at Turtle! Other passions include foraging, yoga, meditation, eating living food, singing, dancing, growing microgreens and riding a bicycle daily. She is deeply grateful for the opportunity to share work and love with so many shining soul
Meet Michael
Michael moved to Durango in 2011 to live with his grandparents. He studied engineering at Fort Lewis but became overwhelmed and was living a very unhealthy lifestyle. He began to get into mushroom foraging and spending more time in the wild.
​
Michael first heard of Turtle Lake Refuge from a friend and started going for the lunches. He began volunteering at the farm and cafe as well. He fell in love with the community here and was thrilled to be offered a job growing micro-greens and brewing kombucha. During his time here he has learned a lot about wild medicinal and edible plants. He has incorporated these teachings to help improve his own life.
Meet Cristina
"I am from Mexico. I grew up with a Nani who would always healed us with plants, who took care of us and cooked simple food for us.
Since then plants and cooking became very important for me. Life has guided me to cook for groups of people for over 53 years now.
I am vegetarian. I have been a mother and grandmother and have healed my children with the use of herbs. I have been a yoga teacher for 53 years and practitioner of qi gong.
I am currently involved in a qi gong teacher training.
I believe that our bodies can heal no matter what and Nature gives us the tools to do so.
I believe also that love and gratitude are also part of this healing.
All of us are waking up to this reality and regaining connection and trust with what we really are.
HUN YUAN LING TONG. Everything is possible."
Meet Catherine
Catherine ran away from the circus to join the Turtles! She loves foraging and making things with weeds. In a previous life, she was a professional makeup artist and travelled the country with a rock n'roll band.
Meet Jasper
Beloved canine buddy of Turtle Lake Refuge. He was found on the side of the road new Ridgeway and he looked like a cattle dog so we called around to find out which ranch he came from. We found the owner and the owner said that he was supposed to be a cattle dog but he is afraid of cows so they were looking for a new home for him. And now his home here with us with Katrina and Turtle Lake Refuge.
Meet Skylar
Skylar is a little new to Turtle Lake Refuge and enjoys music, dancing, rock-climbing, yoga, looking at plants and being with the trees.
Meet Aaron
Aarons helps out a lot at Turtle and enjoys bottling our kombucha
Meet Lisa
"I moved to Durango after living in Telluride for most of my life and owning a retail store, Picaya, for 25 of those years. I knew that the healthiest environment that I could find in the Durango area would be at Turtle Lake, so that was my first and only choice to work. My passion was then and still is today the importance of eating a whole food plant based organic diet. In 2017 I became certified as a raw food chef from the Tree of Life in Patagonia, AZ and am inspired touse and share those skills at the Turtle Cafe!"
Meet Tiffany
"I moved from California to Colorado with my parents in 1995 and have been living here ever since. I first heard about Turtle Lake Refuge through the Colorado Work Force and wanted to see what it was about, so I started as a volunteer here and found I enjoyed it. I'm a very creative person, so I feel that could possibly be a useful skill."
Meet Karen
bio coming soon
Meet Melissa
"Organic food has been a revolution in my personal healing journey. When I tasted the potent vibrancy of organic raw foraged food at Turtle Lake Cafe, I immediately wanted to contribute to the Turtle mission.
​
I mindfully craft raw cookies, crackers, and chocolate in the cafe kitchen. I stir blessings into everything I make, knowing that you will taste the collective love the Turtle Family puts into everything we create."
Meet Pat
bio coming soon
