I have kept myself young in spirit and physically active by reinventing myself several times in this lifetime.
In hindsight, it has been and still is a wonderful journey full of exploration, wonder, joy, challenges, and dreams come true. It has been a heart centered, soul searching and deeply fulfilling adventure, including marrying my dear husband twice.
I come from a visual and performing arts background, having been a painter in the late 1970s in Berlin and a soloist in the New York dance scene in the 1980s and 1990s. I conceived and choreographed multimedia dance works and toured internationally in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. I even played the role of the bald bartender in the Hollywood movie “Bright Lights, Big City”.
To this day, I love incorporating new skills and methods into my work.
In the 1990s, I took up a practice in Kundalini Yoga and studied to become a yoga teacher.
In my late thirties, I purchased a farm in my native country, Estonia (ever since I was little girl, I had this dream of one day living in the countryside) and have turned it into an art and wellness center, where I conduct yoga, wellness, and cooking retreats during the summer months.
As a passionate natural foods chef, I grow my own herbs and vegetables and personally oversee the quality and tastiness of all meals served to my guests. In order to better pamper my guests with delicious healthy food, I decided in my late forties to go back to school to study with world-renowned nutrition specialists at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. That was a life-changing experience and opened my eyes to the profound impact food and lifestyle have on our health.
I have written and self-published two cookbooks/nutrition guides – my first book “Essential Nourishment, Recipes from My Estonian Farm” exists in both English and Estonian editions. Creating the books was a wonderful opportunity to integrate my love for art, health, cooking, and beauty.
In 2019 I successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign to secure the funds to publish my second book in English. 2000 copies of “COOKING WITH MARIKA: Clean Cuisine from an Estonian Farm” were printed at TRT in Tallinn, Estonia and arrived in Beacon, NY on May 8, 2020.
Happy to report that my book has won 7 Book Awards: 4 Gold and 3 Finalist awards.
Winters I spend in Beacon, NY, in the beautiful Hudson Valley, where I meet privately with clients and develop online nutrition programs for my readership around the world. Summers I spend at my farm in Estonia, running my center and enjoying the magic of Estonian summers, filled with white nights, fresh vegetables straight from the garden, wild strawberries, blueberries and lingonberries from the forest, juniper groves and bogs, swims in the gentle Baltic Sea, migrating birds and the simplicity of life in the countryside.