SCENTS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Garden Dreams founder and Snowvillage Inn co-owner Jennifer Kovach ’93 inspires community building and better living, all while providing patrons with a much needed respite from the daily grind.

BY Karen Saatkamp Gerboth ‘93

Sometimes life’s detours lead to the best destinations as business owner Jennifer Kovach discovered back in the early ’90s. Fresh out of Wittenberg, the Oxford, Ohio native spent the summer after graduation driving across the country before joining a small sales and marketing firm in Columbus, Ohio.

PHOTO BY Jason Margolis, The World

The call turned into an invitation to join Stone Environmental School of New England (SESNE), a private, nonprofit offering environmental education and experiential eco-adventures for elementary and middle school students in the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire. Kovach quickly signed on and soon found herself instructing and coordinating a range of programs and activities, including group dynamics and sensory awareness, forest and wetlands ecology, natural history, and more. The opportunity to educate young people about the Earth and its vast natural resources aligned in many ways with Kovach’s own interests and upbringing. “In my early years, my family lived in a farmhouse and off the land so to speak. We grew our own food, made our own bread, and bought from the local co-op,” explains Kovach, whose late father, Raymond “Ray” Kovach, headed Wittenberg’s Office of Advancement for several years.

Through those experiences and her work in New England, Kovach’s passion for sustainable living only grew stronger, so much so that she eventually sought out an apprenticeship at a long-established organic Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation, the Earle Family Farm in nearby Conway, New Hampshire.

“During my stay, we grew the CSA to 100 families per week and added a summer camp for children. Between SESNE and the Earle farm, I learned, taught, and lived sustainable living,” she says.

She also studied with herbalist Corinne Martin, taught herself soap-making skills using the extra goat milk from the farm, and laid the foundation for her first entrepreneurial venture, Garden Dreams, a New Hampshire-based artisan skincare company.

“I make my products and then sell them at farmers markets, agricultural fairs, juried artisan shows, and health food stores,” Kovach says.

To date, her best-selling products are goat milk soap, Beautiful Skin face cream, Starry Eyes rejuvenating eye cream, and her newest product, CBD oil and salve.

Her quest to help others appreciate the outdoors and what nature offers – something she grew to appreciate from Professor of Geology John Ritter’s classes – has also led her to a little piece of paradise in Eaton Center, New Hampshire: Snowvillage Inn. A modern country respite and restaurant tucked away in the White Mountains, Snowvillage Inn has been welcoming guests since 1948.

“The Snowvillage Inn is an extraordinary New England country home built as a summer home in 1916 by Frank Simonds, a Pulitzer-Prize winning author known primarily for his five-volume history of World War I. An expansive house set high on the lower slopes of Foss Mountain, the Snowvillage Inn has a commanding and memorable view of the White Mountains,” notes the inn’s website. Kovach and her fiancé/business partner Kevin Flynn, who previously owned the inn before selling it in 2005, purchased Snowvillage together in 2012. As the inn’s stewards, they have brought in many modern amenities while still upholding the historical beauty and integrity of this unique property with a stunning view of Mt. Washington.

Inspired by Wittenberg Professor Emeritus Gene Swanger’s Chinese Religious Traditions course, which Kovach called “influential,” the couple is also building community at every turn, recognizing that the world, as Swanger stressed, has a diverse mixture of beliefs and that those differences should be embraced for a fuller, richer life.

“Community building is important to me. Without it, there is a disconnect for folks,” Kovach says.

To help create connections between guests and the community, Kovach and Flynn offer everything from locals’ nights to a sold-out special “Art to Farm to Table” dinner to highlight area art and locally grown food. Each opportunity engages guests in new ways following days spent skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, antiquing, shopping, or merely taking in the beautiful mountain vistas on the inn’s expansive screened-in porch.

“We want folks to feel like they can unwind and be themselves. Coming here is like heading to a good friend’s house,” Kovach says.