DONNA MALTZ
Soil to Soul Entrepreneur, Author, Voice for Nature, SOULutionist, Eco-Bohemian 🌍
My roots stem from Closter, New Jersey, where I grew up as a middle-class Jewish American Princess. In 1973, at age 16, I took a cycling trip to Europe and realized there were more genuine ways to live. The European cultures had not been Americanized; no fast-food restaurants or shopping malls taking up space and robbing people of their resources and souls. The people and culture vibrated at a higher frequency. When I returned to Jersey, I saw how the American Dream was not sustainable for the environment and wreaked havoc on humanity. Times were changing, and I radically changed with them.
The 70’s sprouted an upwelling of environmental and social activism. I began my alternative college education in 1975. The years I spent learning, ignited a righteous passion for bringing justice forward, to the earth and humanity. I got my hands in the soil and began organic farming and studying Nature’s systems and cycles. I realized how I ate, lived, and consumed, affected me and all of lifekind.
My purposeful desire to help heal my soul, the soil, and Earth was unstoppable.
I got turned on to sourdough bread when I worked at a health food store in Vermont. I was 20. I met a baker and his wife, who owned a wood-fired bakery and lived like the future mattered. They were SOULutionist. After visiting them and sharing our passion for organic food and Nature, they gifted me with some mystic sourdough starter. Little did they know, the gift would ferment my career to rise to new heights and be part of the SOULution, not the pollution.
In 1982, I baked my way to Alaska selling bread for gas money. On this beautiful yet weary road trip across America, I found myself, and with blind faith, I opened the first natural foods bakery and cafe in the state. I was 25 years old and on fire! Two years later, I married my head baker, and together we grew the Fresh Sourdough Bakery & Cafe. At the peak of the restaurant’s history, we employed 45 people, served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and offered catering and wedding services.
1992 came around, and my precious son was born. During my pregnancy, I had an entrepreneurial surge. I published my first book, Yummy Recipes ~ Wilderness Wonders for Kids and Adults. I also created a line of baking mixes and the first national organic hot cocoa and chocolate syrup under the AH!LASKA brand. I was the CEO of AH!LASKA for ten years. The brand was a hit and connected me with many inspiring change-makers looking to transform the unethical food industry. The AH!LASKA syrup still delights chocolate lovers nationwide.
At 65, I live by these words, “why retire when I can inspire.” Nature, ethics, and sustainability remain at the forefront of my career and life decisions. I am actively writing, teaching, coaching, and mentoring others to build on-land and online regenerative careers and to gain health by living like the future matters; being a SOULutionest. We can build our immune system and the microbiome of the earth. We can develop economies around what we put in our mouths, our minds, and on our bodies. From medicine to meal - from biochar to the harvest, there are entrepreneurial opportunities and ways to build resilient bodies, souls, and communities. One bite at a time, one choice at a time, we make a difference.