Sunbow Farm CollardsAbout Cheri Clark
Cheri was born in Fresno California in 1951. Her mother came from England 1945 as a WWII war bride where she worked for General Eisenhower and had been a model. Her father returned from the signal corps to a career in women's clothing window display and design. They moved to LA from Fresno. When Cheri was two her parents divorced.
Cheri grew up in Culver City, North Hollywood and around Sunset strip. Her mom had a nursery school and worked in accounting. She and her mom and her little brother moved to Huntington Beach where she graduated from High School. At that time Cheri was "totally a cheerleader".
Cheri left home, dropped out, and became a hippie as she realized that her whole suburban, southern California up bringing was the life style fueling the Vietnam war and other life-threatening, although commonly accepted, atrocities. She, like her whole generation, lived with a constant fear of nuclear holocaust. She began working in health food stores seeing clean and wholesome food as a way to bring about change. Eventually she went to work for Yogi Lajpatrai Sharma where she learned that he after all was only a man. With that disillusionment, she then began another channel of her quest and left for Oregon in 1975 with her first husband Geoff. They dreamed of a better life.
Via a decision to live in Bend in sunshine and cold, what was then a pristine small town, Cheri learned about snow and black ice. She and Geoff decided to move to Corvallis in 1976 through the Dorn family connection. In the small college town she worked restaurants, worked for a chiropractor, and helped her friend Ruby Moon established Light House, a health goods store, and an ethnic boutique called Golden Crane, and a co op vegetarian restaurant on the Willamette River known as the West Bank Café. Geoff has been working at New Morning Bakery for many years now as the soup chef.
Through a series of seeking adventures Cheri ended up in Wrangell Alaska. Her partner worked in the woods, she worked cafes and bars. They went to Petersberg working the fish cannery on salmon then crab. While there she had an ectopic pregnancy, which changed her life. She returned to Corvallis alone.
Cheri left Corvallis 5 more times over the next 23 years and always came back. Something drew her to the feeling of community and her friend Ruby. She was married to Larry, a mural artist, and they ran the business together. His work is displayed at First Alt Coop here in town. Her final move back was in 2000. She had lived in Seattle, Portland, Ashland and Grants Pass.
She met Harry MacCormack in 2001, although she had known of him when he and his wife made tofu at Sunbow Farm in the 70s. Cheri and Harry came together in April 2002 she fell for him when they went to Finley wildlife refuge and spent 4 hours sitting in a meadow talking. The first thing they did together was remodel his old farm house and landscape. They set up the Institute and a web site. Went to Europe one year and New Zealand and Australia the next.
Cheri's physical health started to really slow her down. She has been trying to work with MDs and ND.s to figure her issues out. She does a lot of medical research and has learned so much that it could fill up a book. If you have questions about your health- she'd love to help you. Harry and Cheri have 2 cats — her children — Princess and Sarah, 2 retired chickens, and 5 entertaining ducks. The new addition this year is a blue heron that hangs out and eats the mice.
For an update on Cheri's health, click here.