Bonnetta AdeebUjamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance and Ujamaa Seeds
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Dani BakerThe Enchanted Edible Forest at Cross Island Farms
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Ryan BlosserShenandoah Permaculture Institute and Waynesboro City Schools
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Mary CushFarmer Yoga
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Michael J. Carter, Jr.
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Ben Casteel
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Cindy Conner
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Pam Dawling
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Chelsea Belle GravesBee’s Wing Farm
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Renee FosterHampton Roads Urban Agriculture
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Jean-Martin (JM) FortierMarket Garden Institute
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Natalie GreenHandmade on the Homestead
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Sheila GuarnagiaHolistic Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine, Flaming Pearl Mystery SchoolSheila Guarnagia, M.Ac., L.Ac., Dipl.Ac., Dipl.C.H., holds a B.A. in Biology from Smith College, a Master of Acupuncture from the New England School of Acupuncture, and is certified by the NCCAOM as a Diplomate in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology. She has worked and published in the fields of ecological and biomedical research and completed over 4 years as an apprentice home birth midwife in Arizona. Since 2004 she has studied and integrated Appalachian Folk Medicine and Traditional Western Herbal Medicine into her healing arts practice. In 2018 Sheila completed the Eagle Condor Council Healing Intensive, went on pilgrimage to Peru, and stepped into training to become a teacher and lineage carrier of this traditional Andean Spiritual Healing modality. Sheila carries the Teqse Ñust’a Qarpay, an initiation that bestows, serves, and strengthens our connection to the Feminine Healing Forces of Nature, the Fourth Level Hatun Qarpay received through Juan Nuñez del Prado and Ivan Nuñez del Prado, and completed a year long training with and initiation by the Paqos of Q’eros through the Wiraqocha Foundation. She now transmits these teachings with the blessings and encouragement of her Teachers, for whom the offering of their traditions to Westerners is a fulfillment of sacred prophecy. Sheila’s exploration of these ancient yet vital streams of knowledge continues as she seeks to integrate and weave together the deepest essences of these enlightened wisdom traditions of our Ancestors and their guidance for a harmonious future for humankind. |
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Gwynn HamiltonStonecrop Farm
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Sam Hedges
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Ashleigh L HobsonHazel Witch Farm
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Cerruti Hooks
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Zackary Jones PhDAggrego Data
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Mark Jones
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Patrick JohnsonNanih Farm and Garden
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Charlie MaloneyDayspring Farm
Charlie is a graduate of Duke University with undergraduate and graduate degrees in religion, ministry, and pastoral counseling. After practicing psychotherapy for 25 years, he devoted himself to full-time farming. He has been on the adjunct faculty of The College of William and Mary for the last 15 years teaching the course “Sustainability and Agriculture” in the Environmental Science and Policy Department. He was the 2016 Virginia Small Farmer of the Year, awarded by the Small Farm Outreach Program at Virginia State University. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and the Virginia Association for Biological Farming and is currently serving on the Advisory Board of the Small Farm Outreach Program at Virginia State. |
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Stewart Lundy and Natalie McGillThe Josephine Porter Institute & Perennial Roots Farm
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Joseph MartinezRockbridge Cider Vinegar
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Meredith MorganQuality Certification Services
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Trevor PiersolShenandoah Permaculture Institute
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Julie Rawson and Jack KittredgeMany Hands Organic Farm
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Dr. Steve Rideout
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Lee Rinehart
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Mark Schonbeck
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Adam TaylorVirginia Tech Catawba Sustainability Center
Adam is a native of Tazewell County Virginia, and earned his B.A. in Environmental Studies at Emory & Henry College, and a Masters of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University. He has worked as a farm intern for author Barbara Kingsolver and husband Steven Hopp on their 100+ acre farm in Meadowview, VA producing vegetables for restaurants, and tending to sheep, turkeys, and chickens . He also served two years in the Peace Corps as a Forestry Extension Agent in Mkushi, Zambia installing demonstration plots and leading workshops on conservation agriculture in an effort to increase food security and prevent deforestation. He worked with local community members and introduced sustainable agricultural practices for row crop production, incorporated agroforestry tree species into their production methods, established tree plantations, and led bio-intensive gardening workshops. Before joining the ranks of Virginia Tech, Adam worked as a project coordinator in West Virginia for both the WV Farmers Market Association and the WV Food & Farm Coalition. There he designed and delivered agricultural workshops geared toward production for direct to consumer markets, as well as advocated for state policy change to support the state’s local food economy. Adam is also the co-owner/operator of Singing Spring Farm with his wife Eliza and son Luke. Located in the Sinking Creek Valley of Craig County Virginia, they manage a diversified homestead operation involving dairy goats, wool sheep, pastured poultry, annual vegetable production, and many different perineal fruit and medicinal tree and shrub species. They offer a “full diet” CSA to customers comprised of dairy, meat, eggs, fruits, and vegetables. Eliza Spellman TaylorAgrarian Trust
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Chris Smith
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Cam Terry
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Emilie Tweardy
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Ira WallaceSouthern Exposure Seed Exchange
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Callie WalkerCentral Virginia Agrarian Commons
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Stesha WarrenEliana’s Garden & Appalachian Sustainable Development
Robert WhiteCrickhollow Farm
Steven WilderMeadow Path Eco Farm
Anna WillsBramble Hollow Farm
Scott WilsonFull Quiver Farm
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John Wilson aka Farmer John
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Erin Worrall
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Leilani Zimmer-DurandProgram Director for the USDA Transition to Organic Partnership Program for the Northeast
Gary ZimmerOtter Creek Organic Farm
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Bonnetta Adeeb, Founder & President of STEAM ONWARD, Inc, a 501(c3) non-profit organization based in Southern Maryland. STEAM ONWARD’s major programs include Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) and Ujamaa Seeds, as well as our Youth Programs in the Environment and Natural Resources. Through our Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance program we recognize the need for increased diversity in farming in general, and diversity in the $15 billion dollar U.S. seed industry in particular. To this end, the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance is working to bridge the gap between prospective growers and seed companies. UJAMAA SEEDS is the entrepreneurial fundraising arm of UCFA. Ujamaa, a Swahili word, means ‘extended family’. As a principle of Kwanzaa, ujamaa means ‘cooperative economics’. This principal tasks us to build our own businesses, and control the economics of our communities. As a commodity, seed farming can be a lucrative business opportunity for farmers, gardeners, and growers as demand far outstrips supply. On just a small plot of land, growers can make a profit from seed farming.
Dani Baker is a self-taught organic farmer and edible forest gardener who began planning and planting the “Enchanted Edible Forest,” a permaculture-inspired acre of over 300 different food-producing plants in 2013. In May of 2022 her book, “The Home-Scale Forest Garden: How to Plan, Plant and Tend a Resilient Edible Landscape” was published by Chelsea Green. Dani loves to inspire others: homeowners, homesteaders, farmers and landscapers to landscape their plots, large or small, with perennial food plants incorporating the permaculture principles that reduce their labor going forward while increasing the abundance of their harvest year after year.
Ryan Blosser is a writer, educator, farmer, and former clinical mental health counselor and certified organic market farmer. He is cofounder, partner, and lead instructor at Shenandoah Permaculture Institute. In addition he is the farm educator for Waynesboro City Schools where he runs the Waynesboro Education Farm program integrating the core instructional curriculum from k-12 into the one acre outdoor learning lab and production farm at Berkeley Glenn Elementary School. In his free time he coaches high school basketball and dreams up new projects for his former market farm turned family farmstead – Dancing Star Farm.
We all strive to be comfortable in our bodies. With proper alignment and movement skills, we should be able to perform all of our farming duties without experiencing pain at the end of the day. I enjoy inspiring others to improve their wellness by realizing their own personal power to integrate their body, mind, breath and spirit. With my science education background and farming experience, I am able to incorporate sound anatomy and physiology aspects into the daily physical exertion of farming, focusing on movement that is accessible to everyone. After my initial 200 hr training at Asheville Yoga Center, I have continued my education with Cyndi Lee, Jivana Heyman, Paul Grilley, Bernie Clark, Doug Keller, and Ester Gokhale’s posture course. I teach private classes that address individual needs, community yoga at the Pamplin Depot and started a prison yoga program at Nottoway Correctional Center.
Michael Carter Jr. is an 11th generation farmer in the United States and is the 5th generation to farm on Carter Farms, his family’s century farm in Orange County, Virginia where he gives workshops on how to grow and market ethnic vegetables. With Virginia State University, he works in the capacity of the Small Farm Resource Center Coordinator for the Small Farm Outreach Program. He sits on the board of directors of the Virginia Association of Biological Farmers (VABF) and Virginia Foodshed Capital respectively. Michael was recognized as a 2020 Audubon Naturalist Society Taking Nature Black Regional Environmental Champion, and the 2020 VSU Small Farm Outreach Agent of the year. He acquired an agricultural economics degree from North Carolina A&T State University and has worked in Ghana, Kenya and Israel as an agronomist and organic agricultural consultant. Michael presently consults with numerous governments, organizations, and individuals throughout the region and nation on food access, food security/insecurity, market outreach, social and economic parity/equity/evaluation programs, racial understanding, immersion, history and cultural trainings, among other areas. Carter Farms has birthed Hen Asem (Our Story) and Africulture, the 501 c3 arm of Carter Farms that teaches, shares and expounds on the contributions of Africans and African Americans to agriculture worldwide and the many stories that history almost forgot.
Growing up in Appalachia on the border of Tennessee and Virginia in Bristol, watching pasture turn into pavement inspired Ben to connect more with the natural world. Gardening with his Grandmother’s, hiking and identifying wild plants with his mother and friends were how he spent much of his free time growing up. Trained as a horticulturist starting at Virginia Highlands Community College, then travelling and learning in the high desert of Arizona and much of the West coast, his educational journey came full-circle as he returned to teach and coordinate the horticulture and agriculture programs at VHCC. He is now board chair of Appalachian Sustainable Development and co-founder of the Highlands Pawpaw Growers Association in addition.
Big Lick Conspiracy is Roanoke’s premier (and also only) improv comedy troupe. Big Lick Conspiracy presents hilarious, improvisational comedy based entirely on audience suggestions and little to no forethought. Fast-paced, occasionally smart and accidentally funny, Big Lick Conspiracy performs live across and beyond Roanoke.
Cindy Conner is a biointensive gardener and permaculture teacher located in Ashland, VA. A former market gardener and community college instructor, she has written Grow a Sustainable Diet and Seed Libraries. Her current interest is growing cotton and flax/linen and making it into clothes. Her book Homegrown Flax and Cotton: DIY guide to growing, processing, spinning & weaving fiber to cloth was released in 2023. 
Pam Dawling is the author of two books: Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres, and The Year-Round Hoophouse. She also writes for Growing for Market and Mother Earth News. Pam has grown vegetables for over 25 years at Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, where the gardens feed 100 people on 3.5 acres. She blogs at www.sustainablemarketfarming.com and www.growingformarket.com 
Niaz has been a community organizer for over 30 years. The life changing moment came in 1994 when as a Greenpeace campaigner she switched from organizing in communities fighting for environmental justice to organizing fishing communities. From the start she recognized the similarities between family farmers’ fight for a more just and ecologically responsible land-based food system and that of community-based fishermen fighting to fix the broken sea-based food system.
Christine resides in Stamford, CT and is a paralegal and certified compliance professional. After working in law firm and corporate settings for years, Christine obtained a master’s degree in Food Studies at NYU, which has allowed her to employ her legal skills and background in support of efforts to transform the food system and support the U.S. farming industry. As a legal services and policy manager, she is gratified to be assisting FTCLDF members with their contract and other legal needs.
Liza (any pronouns), owner of Yarrow Springs, is a flower farmer and florist in Floyd County, Virginia. Their small farm is grown with organic practices, and their business model includes farmers market, CSA, consignment sales, wholesale, as well as wedding and event floral design services.
Chelsea has over fifteen years of tending to vegetables, flowers, animals, and temperamental farm machinery. She has operated her own cut flower operation, Bee’s Wing Farm, since 2014. Her Certified Naturally Grown farm grows for a large farmers’ market in DC, a wholesale cooperative, and her own wedding floral design. Her farm employs Chelsea, her husband, and their three-year-old son full-time. Nothing makes her happier than a truck bed full of flowers with her kid and dog riding shotgun.
Mallenia Foster (Renee), a Navy Veteran, currently serves as the Founder & CEO of Hampton Roads Urban Agriculture and Severs on the USDA County Committee for Urban Agriculture. She cooperates as an urban producer of vegetables and fruits for over the years. Renee started Hampton Roads Urban Agriculture after attending the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Program at Virginia State University and has spent over 10 years helping others create and maintain community gardens; she also serves as an Advisor for a National Women Veteran Leadership Program. Renee’s vision is to see urban agriculture play a key role in maintaining a strong food system. She also believes that urban agriculture can also be part of the social and economic growth of a community. Renee’s idea of a thriving Food System in an urban area is one that includes agriculture and regenerative agriculture practices. She is a seasoned speaker on incorporating regenerative agriculture practices in urban areas to include urban farms and community gardens. Renee’s passion is to serve her community. She has served on various boards and worked with organizations to help build and sustain community engagement, in 2020, she received the Trailblazer/Change Maker Award from the Virginia Department of Veterans” serves as the Founder & CEO of Hampton Roads Urban Agriculture and Severs on the USDA County Committee for Urban Agriculture. She cooperates as an urban producer of vegetables and fruits for over the years. Renee started Hampton Roads Urban Agriculture after attending the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Program at Virginia State University and has spent over 10 years helping others create and maintain community gardens; she also serves as an Advisor for a National Women Veteran Leadership Program. Renee’s vision is to see urban agriculture play a key role in maintaining a strong food system. She also believes that urban agriculture can also be part of the social and economic growth of a community. Renee’s idea of a thriving Food System in an urban area is one that includes agriculture and regenerative agriculture practices. She is a seasoned speaker on incorporating regenerative agriculture practices in urban areas to include urban farms and community gardens. Renee’s passion is to serve her community. She has served on various boards and worked with organizations to help build and sustain community engagement, in 2020, she received the Trailblazer/Change Maker Award from the Virginia Department of Veterans
Jean-Martin (JM) Fortier is a farmer, educator, entrepreneur, and best-selling author specializing in organic and biointensive vegetable production. His award-winning book, The Market Gardener, now published in 14 languages, has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide to reimagine ecological human-scale food systems. With over 20 years of experience, JM Fortier has dedicated his career to developing, testing, and perfecting biointensive growing techniques on microfarms such as Les Jardins de la Grelinette, the Ferme des Quatre Temps, and the Old Mill. His teachings have been adapted to different online organic farming courses that support over 3400+ growers in over 90 countries. In 2020, JM founded Growers & Co. a farm tool and apparel company that focuses on empowering all growers. His message is one of empowerment with the intention to educate, encourage, and inspire people to pursue a career and lifestyle focused on growing food with care, by and for people who care.
Natalie is a homesteader, farmer, educator, and advocate of farming small. She is the proud operator of Handmade on the Homestead, a 1-acre farmstead located in Varina, Va. where she raises poultry, rabbits, goats, and pigs along side her husband. She also operates and on farm general store as well as a plant and produce CSA. After transitioning away from teaching middle school, she has continued her love of teaching others through expanding her various workshops and other events to empower women in the ag space. Natalie encourages others in her community to use the space they have, no matter how big or small to achieve their goals of growing growing their own food. She is also passionate about learning and sharing old ways of harvesting and cooking both the vegetables and meat products a small homestead can produce. Natalie shares her journey in hopes to inspire others that feel they may not fit the typical homesteader mold. She truly believes in homesteading where you are!
Stonecrop Farm celebrated 20 years of farming in 2023. Over the course of these decades, Gwynn and her partner Bert Webster have evolved from a vegetable farm with a few flowers to a flower farm with a few vegetables. They sell their products through weekly bouquet subscription, farmers market, weddings and events, and workshops. Stonecrop has sent five of its many former team members out into the world to begin their own farms, and Gwynn hopes to continue to share the results of her experience.
Sam Hedges works for the Local Environmental Agriculture Project as a grant writer and as Director of Operations for the Virginia Fresh Match Network. Sam joined Big Lick Conspiracy when he moved to Roanoke in 2018, after farming for five-years in Albuquerque. It was while farming that Sam discovered his love of improv. With hours to spend hand weeding alongside his farm team and those hot, long harvest days that melted his brain, there was always impromptu comedy. Since joining a professional improv troupe, Sam has often felt that there is nothing he can make up that is as absurd as what he’s seen go down during breeding season on a goat farm.
SeRena Hill, Navigator Project Director, believes in the power of public service. She began her journey in
Ash Hobson is a first generation cut flower farmer growing on 1 acre for specialty wholesale, luxury events, and a retail CSA, focusing on palette driven, ephemeral varieties.
Cerruti RR Hooks is a Professor & Extension Specialists at the University of Maryland in College Park. He has a BS degree in Biology from North Carolina Central University, MS degree in Weed Science from NC State and PhD in Entomology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His areas of interests and specialisms are conservation biocontrol, sustainable agriculture and organic farming. He works in agronomic and horticultural farming systems. His research is multidisciplinary and spans the entomology, nematology and weed science disciplines.
Regenerative Farm Consultant and Director at AEA, has 10+ years experience of Holistic Orchard Management
Zack is a microbial ecologist with a passion for science and sharing information. He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 2017 with a PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering. His graduate studies primarily focused on exploring microbial communities in wetlands with DNA sequencing to optimize water treatment processes. Starting in 2019 he led the Vermi-Microbiome Project to investigate the microbial communities of vermicompost from around the country. He is the owner of a small business, Aggrego Data, which provides DNA sequencing and microbial community interpretation for vermicompost, teas, and other biological amendments.
Mark Is the owner and mycologist at Sharondale Mushroom Farm. The farm provides organic mushrooms and mushroom spawn, tools, and workshops about growing mushrooms.
Patrick Johnson has been an advocate, activist, and practitioner of permaculture, organic and sustainable agriculture for over 30 years. He served as an agricultural volunteer in the Philippines where his work received national and international recognition. He has helped start two non-profit organization one of which had an impact on helping African Americans address historic discrimination in agriculture. He is a graduate of the prestigious Agroecology Apprenticeship Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz and holds a master’s degree in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University. He is currently a permaculture farmer and consultant.
Charlie Maloney has farmed for over 30 years at Dayspring Farm in King and Queen County Virginia where he grows a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and strawberries. He and his wife, Miriam, and children developed their 18 acre farm around a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model that now serves over 200 households in the Middle Peninsula, Williamsburg and Yorktown areas. He also sells produce to several restaurants and local stores. Committed to sustainable, regenerative agriculture, Charlie is passionate about the renewal of small-scale farming and its contribution to the health of our land, bodies and communities.
Stewart Lundy is a soil alchemist, lifelong student, and avid reader. As of 2023 Stewart is the Creative Director at the non-profit Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics. They have been farming since 2010 at their own sustainable biodynamic operation, Perennial Roots Farm, where they raise cattle, sheep, and hogs, as well as run a market garden and CSA. Stewart and Natalie can be contacted for consultations.
I have been an orchardist and an apple cider vinegar brewer for 40 years. On our farm in Rockbridge County Virginia, I currently grow a variety of apples and process those apples in a state-inspected Vinegar Brewery. We practice organic methods in our orchards and are “Certified Naturally Grown”. We sell our value-added apple cider vinegars locally and throughout the state on a modest scale.
Meredith Morgan (they/them) is the Service and Support Manager for Quality Certification Services, a USDA accredited certification body. Meredith’s background in client service and design position them make sure that each client has the tools they need to confidently approach certification. They enjoy learning about their client’s operations and pride themselves on being able to turn regulatory jargon into easily understood steps and actions. Based out of Richmond VA, they can usually be found with their hands in the dirt, doing the important work of removing their lawn and planting natives.
Trevor is a farmer and permaculture designer from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The big questions that drive his work are those at the heart of good permaculture design: How do we live happy, healthy lives in harmony with the earth? How can we blend traditional and modern knowledge to consciously design a better world? How do we move from where we are to where we want to be using practical solutions? In 2017, after many years of learning, planning, and working on other farms, Trevor and his wife Jenna started Wild Rose Orchard in Mount Sidney, VA – a diversified pick-your-own orchard producing fruits, berries, herbs, and pastured pork using organic practices. Their vision is to develop a living laboratory for permaculture design including a commercial-scale food forest, silvopasture system, passive solar greenhouse, farm-scale water catchment, multifunctional riparian buffer, and more. Trevor holds a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia and received his Permaculture Design Certificate from the Blue Ridge Permaculture Network. He is a graduate of the Allegheny Mountain Institute fellowship program and has a certificate in herbalism from Sacred Plant Traditions. Trevor’s 10+ years of experience in agriculture include managing multiple regenerative farms and training with some of the top designers in the permaculture field including Dave Jacke and Darren Doherty. Trevor’s favorite thing about teaching permaculture design is connecting with the fascinating and diverse students who are drawn to this incredibly important (and fun!) work.
Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson will discuss the nuts and bolts of living a life that centers around trust in nature and natural processes. When young they organized for social change from the streets of Chicago, Washington DC and Boston. For the past 40 years as New England organic farmers they raised four healthy children on the basis that food is medicine, pioneered no-till and soil carbon sequestering methods, took direct action against sludge, malathion spraying, GMO’s and glyphosate, and spoke out against censorship, lockdowns, social distancing and mandatory vaccinations. As owners of the certified organic 55-acre Many Hands Organic Farm, they led the Northeast Organic Farming Association as editor and publisher of The Natural Farmer, program and conference coordinators for the NOFA Summer Conference, and executive director of the Massachusetts chapter. Still farming, building a strong farming community, researching and writing about current events, their book “Many Hands Make a Farm” will be published by Chelsea Green on November 16.
Dr. Steve Rideout is a Professor of Plant Pathology within Virginia Tech’s School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. Steve was born on a family farm in Dinwiddie County and is an alum of NC State, Virginia Tech, and University of Georgia. He started his tenure with Virginia Tech in 2005 at the Eastern Shore Ag. Res. and Ed. Center (ESAREC). He served as the ESAREC’s director from 2011-2020, before relocating to Blacksburg in July 2020. Since 2005, Steve has served as the Commonwealth’s research and extension vegetable plant pathologist focusing on all aspects of plant disease management. In 2018, Steve received a Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Virginia Potato and Vegetable Growers and in 2021 was awarded the Virginia Tech’s Alumni Association’s Excellence in Extension Award.
Tim owns and operates Second Mountain Farm outside of Harrisonburg, VA. In 2018, with 10 years of farming experience, he started Second Mountain Farm focusing on outstanding produce, economic sustainability and work/life balance. In 2023, he worked on the farm three days a week, trained for a 65-mile gravel bike race, enjoyed a couple weeks at the beach, spent way too much time birding and paid his experienced employees $18/hour. He’s a proud dad of two elementary-aged girls who both know how to house some autumn-olive berries and identify an Eastern Pewee by its call. He’s proud of the farm that he and his crew have developed and is happy for an opportunity to share their story.
Adam Taylor works with Virginia Tech faculty members and graduate students to implement and maintain research projects and demonstration plots on the ground at CSC. The most recognized work of the CSC has focused around agroforestry sites that include multi-functional riparian buffers, silvopasture, nutrient management, alley cropping, and non-timber forest products, and the agricultural practices that compliment them such as grass finishing beef and crop production.
Eliza’s work with Agrarian Trust supports land-based livelihoods, healthy farms, de-commodifying land, and legal tools for equitable land access and shared stewardship. Eliza lives in southwest Virginia where she co-operates a diversified farm in the Sinking Creek Valley, called Singing Spring Farm. She raises food, fiber, and medicine. As a farmer and acupuncturist, her life centers on nurturing and healing with the land and human communities that depend on it. This process of healing requires deep transformation of the soil, our bodies, and our communities, especially racialized harms and capitalism. Eliza holds bachelor degrees from UVa,, a J.D. from Vermont Law School, and a master’s degree from Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine.
Chris Smith is executive director of the Utopian Seed Project, a crop-trialing nonprofit working to celebrate food and farming. Within this work, Chris collaborates on The Heirloom Collard Project, hosts a seasonal Trial to Table event series, and publishes Crop Stories, a crop-specific multimedia project. His book, The Whole Okra, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2020, and he is the co-host of The Okra Pod Cast. In 2023 Chris received the Organic Educator Award from The Organic Growers School and was named a Champion of Conservation by Garden & Gun. More info at blueandyellomakes.com and utopianseed.org.
Cam Terry has been operating an urban farm, Garden Variety Harvests (GVH) for 6 years in Roanoke, VA. The farm was started in a dispersed small plot model, cultivating urban backyards for direct market sales. Most of the yards have been taken out of production as
Owner operator of Vanguard Ranch Natural Gourmet a sustainable and organic farm in Gordonsville Va. Our focus is on value added production . We raise free range meat goats, process and retain our goat meat and retail it through our mobile concession trailer as ready to eat goat burgers, goat kabobs and curried goat. We also raise heirloom organic vegetables and herbs. I am a lifelong student of agriculture. I began in the Future Farmers of America back in the late 1960’s. I have served as President of The Virginia Association for Biological Farming, on the Minority Farmer Advisory Council of the USDA and several other Agriculture related boards. We built a stage on our farm and hosted music and food festivals for 4 years as an agritourism venture
Emilie is an Agroforester, Farmer and Permaculture Teacher based in Fluvanna County, Virginia. She grew up in Northern Minnesota, and moved with her family to Virginia in 2015. She’s a creative at heart who loves to problem solve and brainstorm, especially through the lens of Permaculture Design which is fundamental to her work as both a teacher and a practitioner. She’s excited to be working in Agroforestry to help demystify practices and techniques, revitalize our communities’ connections to each other and the Earth, and empower individuals to see the exciting possibilities in their woodlands.
Logan is the co-owner of ShireFolk Farm located in Palmyra, Va. He has been raising animals on pasture and in the woods for the last 7 years on this diversified, regenerative family farm. He’s spent most of his farm years so far focused on pastured poultry (broilers, hens, turkeys and occasionally ducks), cursing the weedy garden, and washing eggs. In recent years his focus has shifted towards raising sheep, improving pasture, and working in GIS. His most recent project is training his Komondor sheep dog, “Zoya the Destroya”.
Ira Wallace is an organic grower, author, speaker, visionary and worker/owner of the cooperative Southern Exposure Seed Exchange where she co-coordinates outreach, education, and new seed grower contracts. Southern Exposure helps people keep control of their food supply thru seed saving and sustainable gardening. Ira serves on the board of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming. She was named a 2019 Great American Gardener by the American Horticultural Society and is a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award Finalist. She is author of the Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast. Her new state specific book series including, Grow Great Vegetables in Virginia, are available online and at booksellers everywhere
Callie Walker is a Methodist minister in rural Amelia County. She is a founding board member of the Central Virginia Agrarian Commons, and donated her land for BIPOC farmers to live and grow on. She believes that reparations and restitution can take many forms.
Stesha Warren received her B.S. in Agricultural Education from NCA&T in 2010 and is currently pursuing her M.S. in Natural Resources with an emphasis on Agroforestry with University of Missouri. Stesha has spent over a decade teaching foraging skills, primitive living techniques, forest farming, wild mushroom identification, and more for local colleges and universities, contract organizations, and independently. Stesha also co-owns and operates Eliana’s Garden, LLC, an educational farm that utilizes agroforestry practices wherever possible to enrich community and sustainable, profitable production.
I grew up in Richmond Virginia and then moved west for college and culinary school in Arizona. After a career in both hospitality and the mortgage business, I started Crickhollow Farm in 2015. The farm is a one man operation located in Palmyra, Virginia and has equal amounts of pasture and woods so I am able to cast a wide net of offerings to my local customers. Embracing diversity both with my animals and produce is instrumental to the overall success of Crickhollow Farm and the land’s long term sustainability. I keep my farm small and our animals moving so as not to overwork the land, and provide balance. In addition to regenerative farming methods, Solar energy is used to power 86% of our farm. As a former chef, I am passionate about good food. During my career in hospitality, I began to realize that the quality of my food directly correlates to the quality of my ingredients. As I used more and more local farms in the restaurants where I worked, my passion shifted from cooking the food to growing the food. I have carried the Certified Naturally Grown certification since the inception of the farm and am a huge supporter of the model and methods that we all hold ourselves and each other accountable too.
Steven Wilder is the owner and steward of Meadow Path Eco Farm located in Clifford, Virginia, a small startup multi-strata agroforestry farm. Steven earned his PDC-Pro from Oregon State University in 2022 and offers ecological yard transformation designs through his design practice, Yard Evolved. He is a farmer-in-retirement after spending his pre-farmer life as college professor, public school teacher and administrator, attorney, real estate appraiser, and Army officer. As a professional educator, Steven focused on cooperative learning and project based learning. Steven’s farming passion is in perennial cropping systems with primary focus on chestnuts, hazelnuts, pawpaws, berries, edible tree leaves, and tree fodder.
The Wills family has been raising pastured poultry at Bramble Hollow Farm in nearby Bedford County, Virginia for 19 years. For the last seven years the Wills have focused on breeding New Hampshire chickens, colored egg layers and their own breed of pasture and forest based meat birds. Anna heads up the breeding program which supplies locally bred hatching eggs and hatched chicks to like-minded poultry farms and New Hampshire breeders in Virginia and across the country.
Scott and his wife Alison along with their children have been practicing regenerative agriculture for 20 years on their 25 acre farm in South Eastern Virginia. They have been full-time farming as a family for 16 years. They sell their produce and pasture raised meats and eggs at farmers markets and deliver their products across South Eastern Virginia. Some of their biointensive and organic methods include compost, compost teas, living soil, mycorrhizal amendments, high tunnel season extension, foliar applications, and organic fertigation. FullQuiverFarm.com
I opened and operated New Earth Farm since 1995, growing organic vegetables, herbs , flowers fruit, raised chicken and sheep. I started making compost the same year having studied first with the Leubkes of Austria. I took an online course of study with Dr. Elaine Ingham in 2014-2015. I have been a member of the VABF advisory board.I have won numerous awards for my work creating eco-systems on the farm. In December 2022, a book of my columns from The Princess Anne Independent News titled From the Ground Up was released. I continue to write for the PA Independent News, and also speak on compost and other topics and work with local school gardens.The book was reviewed by Pam Dawling on the VABF website. Currently, I am starting a new non- profit making compost locally here in Virginia Beach with others. The business is called Drishti Compost.
Jesse (he/him) leads conservation policy work for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). He grew up working as a laborer on various farms and holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College and a Masters in Food and Agricultural Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. After undergrad, Jesse served as an Americorps VISTA developing programming for local food farms and businesses in southern Minnesota. Jesse transitioned from that role to leading a nine-county agricultural resilience study while coordinating programming for the Feast! Local Foods Network. Before coming to NSAC, Jesse worked with the Nature Conservancy in Ohio to improve water quality and carbon outcomes by promoting conservation practices to farmers.
Erin is a market farmer and mom of four, cultivating a 1/2 acre mixed produce farm in Blacksburg, VA. She services a 30+ member CSA and sells weekly at the Blacksburg Farmers Market in the main season, and manages a small on-farm stand year-round. Passionate about connecting people with the joy of eating seasonally, she teaches classes and workshops to build skills and confidence in the garden and kitchen — growing food, to grow community. 
Leilani Zimmer-Durand is a farm consultant, ecologist and agronomic educator with 15 years’ experience in biological and organic farming. She is currently working as Program Director for the USDA Transition to Organic Partnership Program for the Northeast, working to support farmers through the transition to organic process. She has written and spoken widely on soil health and fertility. Leilani is the former VP of Research and Development at Midwestern BioAg where she developed and tested carbon-based fertilizers.
Gary Zimmer is a world-renowned farmer, author, speaker, and biological farming consultant with over 35 years’ experience in agriculture. He has helped thousands of farmers to improve their operations, starting with the soil and building to a profitable, successful farming operation. Gary is the founder of Midwestern BioAg, and runs Otter Creek Organic Farm together with his family
