Kateen is a woman who loves to be working. In her past life, she was a Master Gardener, youth leader, seamstress, and home school mom.

After 20 years of teaching and mentoring, she decided to create something more. So, in 2007, she purchased 40 acres of land and built Compass Rose Farms, a biointensive family farm and homestead on the Olympic Peninsula. Two years later, in 2009, she began an internship program, effectually converting the farm into a Permaculture demonstration site. In 2014, she founded The Dirt Rich School, a permaculture education program dedicated to teaching the next generation to live sustainably. Kateen now manages the internship program, local lectures, workshops, and volunteers at the Dirt Rich School.
Most days you will find Kateen working in the garden, sharing her extensive experience in modern homesteading, holistic animal wifery, sustainable food production, and working with the weeds. When not outdoors, she is in the class room teaching Permaculture design, holistic systems thinking, and how to be a lazy farmer.


When asked what drives her she says, “empowering others to thrive, by showing them a life that is holistic, and in partnership with their ecology.”

Kateen has worked in Scandinavia, Mexico, Canada, Alaska, Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest.

Her most recent volunteer project was to design a Permacultural daycare for the children of Colonet, Mexico.

When Kateen is not teaching (she is sleeping) you can find her reading a book, sewing, or hanging out in her flower garden.

She currently lives with her fiancé, three “grown up” kids and the extended community at Compass Rose Farms in Port Townsend, WA.

Email [email protected]
Web www.thedirtrichschool.org
Phone 360-379-1443