About us
and the story
of Hengarth
How we fell head over heels for this former tree farm in Prattsville, and why we built this space.
This is us!
We took the cover photo the day our offer was accepted on the farm. While Ted is a lifelong New Yorker, originally from Upstate, I first set eyes on the Catskills much later in life. I moved to NYC from Wales in 2017 for work, which is how we first met.
From different backgrounds, Ted and I both found ourselves in the NY start-up tech world (me an arts graduate turned marketer and consultant, Ted a history graduate turned finance analyst and then software operator).
Our Catskills obsession really began in summer 2018. We visited every village, mountain and trail we could. Hengarth was already more than a glint in my eye by then, and as I increasingly split my time between the NYC start-up community and the Catskills, I only became more certain.
As we reached the dead-end of a mountain road on a rainy spring morning in 2020 , all the spaces we’d envisaged for Hengarth, and more, came to life. Today, we have small-scale farm we built from scratch. Ted still works full-time in tech, mostly remotely, while I run the farm, hospitality and consultancy. As custodians of 101 acres, plus a farm, and a toddler, we certainly have our hands full — but wouldn't have it any other way!
x Jen
[Hengarth Founder and Chief Shepherdess)
Our Why: The Vision behind Hengarth
Creating space to step back, reconnect with the land, and think differently.
Hengarth grew from a simple idea: to create spaces and experiences that inspire — for us personally and for others.
For more than twenty years I’ve worked with startup teams, founders, and leadership teams, helping guide and execute the decisions that build companies. The most meaningful work almost always happened when we stepped away from daily routines — when we had the time and space to think more openly about what comes next and why.
Over time I realized that I needed more of that in my own day-to-day. I wanted to reconnect with the land, breathe a little more deeply, and find a way to do meaningful work in a different rhythm.
I also wanted to be a novice at something again (everyone should try it!), and learning how to breed sheep and manage acres of land was — if a little unorthodox — exactly that.
When we found this property in the Great Northern Catskills, it was an opportunity to bring it all together — a place for us to breath, and a space that could bridge my background in startups, growth, and events with my passion for nature, sustainability, and a deep connection to place.
This was the place.
Farming, working with the land, and reconnecting with the seasons has a way of slowing things down. It changes how you think.
Ironically — but perhaps not unsurprisingly — I’ve never worked harder and we’ve never been busier. But the perspective changed. Fresh air brought fresh thinking - and momentum.
From the start, I knew that the same conditions that helped me slow down and think differently were something worth sharing with others — a place where people could step away from the pace of everyday life, spend time outdoors, reconnect with what matters, and find new perspective.
Sometimes, it turns out, the best way to move forward is to step back for a while.
Our Hengarth Journey
2017: The Idea
I’d had a dream of a sheep and fiber farm for a while; wanting a way to reconnect with the land, its natural resources and seasons, and to find a space to create experiences and events I could share with others. One rainy evening, in my one-bedroom East Village walk up, I daydreamed this into a full business plan.
When I eventually pitched it to Ted he thought I was crazy, of course. But he was equally as excited. We talked to friends about wool and sheep and cardigan brands to more than a few raised eyebrows. But it was still a pipe-dream; it didn’t have a place. Until I discovered the Catskills.
2018: The Place
In Wales, we have a word for a longing or essence of home - “Hiraeth”. It’s hard to describe in English as the Welsh doesn’t directly translate [and I am no fluent Welsh speaker]. One attempt to describe it in English is "a nostalgia to be where your spirit lives". Sometimes it’s used for the beauty of the Welsh landscape, and it’s the feeling I had the first time I visited the Catskills.
In the Catskills, just as in Wales, the mountains hover around 3,000 ft. Lush valleys are cut with fresh running rivers and scattered with woodland streams. Add to this the good dose of rain and unrelenting greenness in the spring and summer, and the Catskills conjured the feeling of Hiraeth to a Welsh person far from home. There was just one thing missing though: sheep.
2020: The Leap
After years of planning the business in my mind, it was now or never. We had the offer accepted on the Prattsville farm in late Fall of 2020. By Spring 2021, I handed in my notice and headed back to the green green grass of home to apply for a new visa dedicated to the new venture. A US visa is not an easy or quick process in the best of times, but still firmly in the midst of a global pandemic, I found myself in Wales for just over 9 months.
I spent precious time with family and old friends, enrolled in Cornell’s small farms program to soak up everything I could about keeping sheep and I even got hands-on shearing at a local farm. I also worked with two of my oldest childhood friends as they launched their amazing pick-your-own fruit farm experience and café to soak up all things agri-tourism. Meanwhile, Ted never ceased to amaze me with his ability to hold down a full-time tech job and help project manage site-work in his spare time as we built out the farm operation. I arrived back in NY at Christmastime, to a working small scale sheep farm and a ton of excitement.
And so here we are. A full barn renovation, many lambing seasons, a ton of sitework, and approvals and a lot of blood, sweat and tears later.
2022 - our son Sam arrived, 2023 - we launched my consultancy and finished the barn rennovation, 2024 - completed full site-work and had our Fall glamping launch, 2025 - our first year of glamping was complete, and now it's 2026 already - and corporate offsites and events are launched!
As always, more to follow.
