Presenters
Nancy Adamson
Nancy Adamson, Ph.D., works jointly as the Pollinator Conservation Specialist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). She studied native bees important for crop pollination while earning her Ph.D. in entomology from Virginia Tech and has devoted much of her career to habitat restoration. xerces.org
Pat Brodowski
Pat Brodowski, shares her passion for saving seeds and growing heirloom vegetables as a culinary link to history as Monticello’s Vegetable Gardener. A gardener since childhood, she graduated from Cornell University in agriculture, and created a three-century kitchen garden at Carroll County Farm Museum in Maryland. Her articles are published by regional magazines and newspapers. carrollcountyfarmmuseum.org
Tom Burford
Tom Burford, “Professor Apple,” is an orchard consultant, apple historian, and author, specializing in restoration, re-creation, and design at historic sites, including Monticello. He works with private estates, commercial and backyard orchards, and academic institutions. Tom is the author of Apples: A Catalog of International Varieties and The Fruit Grafters Handbook. He is the co-author of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s The Best Apples to Buy and Grow. His book Apples of America, a comprehensive work on varieties, culture and uses, will be published by Timber Press in the fall of 2012. Tom presents lectures, seminars, and workshops nationally. vintagevirginiaapples.com
Karen Bussolini
Karen Bussolini is a lifelong organic gardener and lover of nature whose talks inspire audiences from coast to coast. Her garden photography and writing have been published in hundreds of books and magazines, with six books as sole photographer. She is a NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional. The Naturescaping Workbook
Shannon Carmody
Shannon Carmody has been at Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) since 2009. As the Public Programs Manager she runs outreach and educational programming, events, tours, and SSE’s Annual Conference & Campout. She is also the editor of SSE’s membership publication, The Heritage Farm Companion. After graduating from Beloit College, Shannon worked as a naturalist and environmental educator. This fall she pressed her first batch of cider from russet apples grown in SSE’s Historic Orchard. seedsavers.org
Andrea Chesman
Andrea Chesman is a food writer, cookbook editor, and gardener. Her books include The Pickled Pantry, Recipes from the Root Cellar, and Serving up the Harvest. She lives in Ripton, Vermont.
Robert V. Clickner
Robert V. Clickner, Lic. Ac., has a local practice in Chinese Medicine. His interest in health and natural therapies has led Robert to study the role of food in health and disease. Robert has a special interest in traditional foods and food preparation that are largely forgotten. BlueRidgeOriental.com
Ben Coleman
Ben Coleman is a passionate steward of Mountain Run Farm, in Sedalia, Virginia, where he and his family raise grass-fed cattle, pigs, and chickens, for a growing, delighted customer base. His approach to herd management rebuilds the soil instead of depleting it. Learn how to increase nutritional content and taste in your animals, while simultaneously creating topsoil at lightning speed. MountainRunFarm.com
Cindy Conner
Cindy Conner founded Homeplace Earth to provide permaculture education with an emphasis on sustainable food production. She researches how to sustainably grow a complete diet in a small space at her home near Ashland, VA, and has produced the videos Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan and Cover Crops and Compost Crops IN Your Garden. Cindy, a former market gardener, was instrumental in establishing the sustainable agriculture program at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Goochland,VA, where she taught from 1999-2010. Cindy is now working on how to get food from the garden to the table using the least fossil fuel and has built and is using solar food dryers. HomeplaceEarth.com
Peggy Cornett
Peggy Cornett, Curator of Plants, has worked at Monticello since 1983. She graduated from The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (English and botany), and the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware. Peggy is a writer, published author, and frequent lecturer specializing in the history of gardens and plants. She edits Magnolia, the publication of the Southern Garden History Society.
Jeanine Davis
Jeanine Davis, Ph.D., is a North Carolina State University horticulturist located in the western mountains of North Carolina. She helps farmers diversify into new crops and organic agriculture. She coauthored the book Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal, and Other Woodland Medicinals. Jeanine’s current efforts are focused on medicinal herbs, hops, truffles, and organic agriculture. ncherb.org
Pam Dawling
Pam Dawling writes for Growing for Market magazine. She has been growing vegetables at Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia for over 20 years, where the gardens feed 100 people on 3.5 acres. This winter will see publication of her book Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres. TwinOaks.org
David Deardorff
David Deardorff, Ph.D., and Kathryn Wadsworth are the authors of the award-winning best seller What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?). As free-lance writers and photographers, they travel extensively to hold popular classes across the country. Deardorff’s doctorate in botany and years of experience as a plant pathologist and Wadsworth’s experience as naturalist and author illuminate the connection between our gardens and the natural world and inform their shared expertise. ddandkw.com
Deb Donley
Debbie Donley, Monticello’s Flower Gardener, designs and maintains historic flower varieties (both native and ornamental) in the restored gardens at Monticello and coordinates the Monticello Gardens historic seed program. For Monticello’s Saturdays in the Garden Series, Debbie conducts seed saving workshops and teaches painting and sketching in the garden.
Kevin Fletcher
Kevin Fletcher, founder and owner of Countryside Organics, is a powerhouse of holistic knowledge about how to most effectively sustain and honor our animals and soil. Supplying some of the highest quality feed and seed available, Kevin also devotes significant energy to keeping our policy makers aware and respectful of the growing trend towards sustainable farming in Virginia and around our world. CountrysideOrganics.com
Lily Fox-Bruguiere
Lily Fox-Bruguiere is the Garden and Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Historic Plants at Monticello. A Charlottesville native, she attended the University of Virginia for both her undergraduate and graduate studies, with four years of gardening in New York City and three years as a gardener at Monticello in between. Lily received her master’s in architectural history, with a focus on landscape history, as well as a Certificate in Historic Preservation. She is a co-founder and advisor to the Thomas Jefferson Demonstration Garden (TJDG) at the University of Virginia’s Hereford Residential College. The TJDG is informed and inspired by Lily’s master’s thesis on Jefferson’s plans for a botanical garden at the University.
Kerry Gilmer
Kerry Gilmer, Monticello’s Fruit Gardener, cares for hundreds of historic fruit varieties in Monticello’s restored orchards and vineyards. He conducts Saturdays in the Garden workshops on fruit tastings, apple grafting, and cider making. He is also a vendor for Charlottesville’s City Market and grows herbs and bedding plants.
Wesley Greene
Wesley Greene, founder of Williamsburg’s Colonial Garden and Nursery, has researched historic plants for 30 years. He studied botany at the University of Maine, and became Garden Foreman at Colonial Williamsburg’s Governor’s Palace in 1981. Since 1996, he has worked at the Colonial Garden, interpreting 18th-century plants, tools, and cultural techniques. Rodale Press recently published his book, Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way: 18th-Century Methods for Today’s Organic Gardeners. The Colonial Nursery
Christine Muehlman Gyovai
Christine Muehlman Gyovai is the Principal of Dialogue + Design Associates. She also teaches permaculture and helps facilitate community resilience and regeneration in Virginia and central Appalachia. Christine holds a M.P. in planning from the University of Virginia and a B.S. from Burlington College. DialogueandDesign.com
Brian Hartsock
Brian Hartsock is the Operations Manager at The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello. Brian received his B.S. in horticulture after serving in the U.S. Naval Submarine Force. He oversees all nursery operations at the Center and teaches several workshops on a wide variety of horticultural subjects. Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.
Peter Hatch
As Monticello’s Director of Gardens and Grounds, Peter Hatch has been responsible for the maintenance, interpretation, and restoration of the Foundation’s 2,400-acre landscape since 1977. He has authored several books on Jefferson’s gardens, including The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello and “A rich spot of earth”: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello.
Guinevere Higgins
Guinevere Higgins is owner of Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest, which provides design, installation, maintenance and consultations for home-scale edible gardens and low-maintenance ornamental landscapes. She is a lifelong organic gardener with a background in ecology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental philanthropy. She is a founding member of the Charlottesville League of Urban Chicken Keepers (CLUCK) and serves on the board of the City Schoolyard Garden. Guinevere is passionate about helping people grow their own food, and lives with five chickens, three mushroom logs, and a strawberry patch in her own downtown Charlottesville backyard. BlueRidgeBackyard.com
Marie Iannotti
Marie Iannotti is the Gardening Guide for About.com. Her garden writing is featured in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and she has been a guest on Martha Stewart Radio and Public Radio. Marie was a Cooperative Extension Horticulture Educator and blogs about her own garden at PracticallyGardening.com.
Kathy Jentz
Kathy Jentz is editor and publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine. A life-long gardener, Kathy believes that growing plants should be stress-free and enjoyable. Her philosophy is inspiration over perspiration. Kathy’s work is featured in numerous area publications including The Washington Examiner, Pathways Magazine, and Washington Women magazine. In addition, she appears on regular gardening guest spots on Channel 9, Channel 4, and WAMU radio. WashingtonGardener.blogspot.com
Mark Jones
Mark Jones, a local mycophile and gourmet, cultivates mushrooms and useful plants at Sharondale Farm in Cismont, Virginia. Mark teaches workshops about mushrooms and permaculture. He is a founding member of the Firsthand Farmers Cooperative, which operates a diverse farm CSA program in Charlottesville. sharondalefarm.com
Joe Lamp’l
Joe Lamp’l is one of the country’s most recognized and trusted personalities in gardening and sustainability. In 2011, The American Horticultural Society selected Joe as the recipient of the Society’s B.Y. Morrison Communication Award, which recognizes effective and inspirational communication—through print, radio, television, and/or online media—that advances public interest and participation in horticulture. That passion is evident to a nationwide audience who has watched Joe as host of the popular series, Fresh from the Garden on DIY Network and GardenSMART on PBS. Today, Joe combines his national television experience and expertise of gardening, environmental stewardship and eco-friendly living, as host and executive producer of the award-winning series, Growing a Greener World® on public television. GrowingaGreenerWorld.com
Paul Legrand
In early 2009 Paul Legrand and his wife, Mary, moved to the Charlottesville area from a town 50 miles north of Manhattan, where they lived for 31 years in a 200-year-old farmhouse. Paul became a bee keeper 21 years ago, and three years ago offered to start and maintain a bee yard at Monticello to help the pollination process of the gardens and orchards on the property. This spring he is expanding the project to include a second bee yard at Tufton Farm.
Susan Leopold
Susan Leopold is the current Executive Director of United Plant Savers. She has a doctorate in ethnobotany from Antioch New England, and a master’s in Environment Landscape Design from the Conway School. Currently she lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where she raises goats and grows medicinal herbs. Read her blog at unitedplantsavers.org
Michael Levatino
Michael Levatino owns Ted’s Last Stand, a 23-acre farm near Gordonsville, Virginia, that he has operated for the last ten years with his wife Audrey. They sell cut flowers, vegetables, eggs, honey, hand-made jewelry, and crafts at several markets in the area, including the Charlottesville City Market. Michael works off the farm at a major publishing firm? house? to support their rural transition. Their book, The Joy of Hobby Farming: Grow Food, Raise Animals, and Live a More Sustainable Life was published last April. tedslaststand.com
Terry Lilley
Terry Lilley lives at Shannon Farm Intentional Community in Afton, Virginia, where she started Heart Root Farm, ecologically growing medicinal and culinary herbs as well as produce. She is the organizer of and a teacher for the Blue Ridge Permaculture Institute. She received her certification in permaculture design in 2007.
Cheval Force Opp
Garden writer Cheval Force Opp takes Washington Gardener Magazine readers into local gardens with her garden day trip column. She is a frequent speaker at local garden clubs, garden shows, and for Elderhostel. She is currently completing a historical novel about William Spence, the gardener at Mt. Vernon for George Washington in his retirement. As the owner of Garden Tours she hosts custom garden trips, and as a fearless traveler herself she takes every opportunity to photograph and write about the gardens she visits.
Barbara Pleasant
Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Barbara Pleasant is “one of America’s most trusted garden writers” (Cheryl Long, editor-in-chief of Mother Earth News magazine.) A three-time winner of Garden Globe awards given by the Garden Writers Association, Barbara has written numerous books on a wide range of subjects, from vegetables to weeds. Her newest book, Starter Vegetable Gardens, leaves no excuse for newbies not to grow a garden. It’s a fine follow-up to her 2008 title, The Complete Compost Gardening Guide, which turned composting upside-down by moving it from the shadows to the heart of the garden. Barbara is a contributing editor for Mother Earth News, and she also covers the southeast region for Gardening How-To magazine. She lives in Floyd, Virginia, where she grows vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers. BarbaraPleasant.com
Krista & Rob Rahm
Rob and Krista Rahm live in Louisa County, Virginia, and purchased Forrest Green Farm in 1992 with the desire to raise their children learning how to produce their own food. The Rahm’s use herbs for daily nutrition as well as culinary accents, medicine, crafting, and beautiful gardening. They specialize in growing and selling culinary and medicinal herb plants, heirloom vegetable plants, and flowers. The Rahm’s also raise pastured poultry for egg and broiler production and Miniature Hereford cattle for breeding stock and grass-fed beef. Educating others has become an important mission for Forrest Green Farm. ForrestGreenFarm.com
Gabriele Rausse
In 1984 Gabriele Rausse first grafted Jefferson’s 1807 wine varietals for Monticello, and eleven years later he joined the staff as Assistant Director of Gardens and Grounds. Gabriele, a native of Vicenza, Italy, graduated in Agricultural Science from Milan University. He first worked for the Tenuta Santa Margherita winery outside Venice and was then invited to Virginia to begin what is now Barboursville Vineyards in 1976. Gabriele, “the father of Virginia wine,” has helped to start over 40 vineyards and ten Virginia wineries, and was nominated the Virginia wine industry’s Man of the Year in 1996. In a recent talk by noted wine critic and author, John Hailman, Gabriele was called "the nicest guy in the Virginia wine industry." Add to that, "the most knowledgeable.” virginiawine.org/wineries/gabriele-rausse-winery
Janisse Ray
Writer, naturalist, and activist Janisse Ray is a seed saver, seed exchanger, and seed banker. She has gardened for thirty years. She is the author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, as well as other books of nonfiction and poetry. She lives on a sustainable farm in southern Georgia. JanisseRay.weebly.com
Joel Salatin
Joel Salatin, 54, is a full-time farmer in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. A third generation alternative farmer, he returned to the farm full-time in 1982 and continued refining and adding to his parents’ ideas.
The farm services more than 3,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs with salad bar beef, pastured poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits, pastured turkey and forestry products using relationship marketing.
He holds a BA degree in English and writes extensively in magazines such as STOCKMAN GRASS FARMER, ACRES USA, and AMERICAN AGRICULTURALIST.
The family’s farm, Polyface Inc. (“The Farm of Many Faces”) has been featured in SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, GOURMET and countless other radio,television and print media. Profiled on the Lives of the 21st Century series with Peter Jennings on ABC World News, his after-broadcast chat room fielded more hits than any other segment to date. It achieved iconic status as the grass farm featured in the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA by food writer guru Michael Pollan.
A sought-after conference speaker, he addresses a wide range of issues, from “creating the farm your children will want” to “making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country.” A wordsmith, he describes his occupation as “mob-stocking hervbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization.” His humorous and conviction-based speeches are akin to theatrical performances, often receiving standing ovations.
Nicole Schermerhorn
Nicole Schermerhorn owns and operates A Thyme to Plant at Lavender Fields Herb Farm with her husband Stanley. Nicole is a native of Sydney, Australia, and has been living in the United States for 13 years. Stanley is a Glen Allen native. Their two children, Luke, 9, and Ellen, 6, are the 6th generation on their 40 acre farm, USDA Certified Organic since 2009, in Henrico County. Nicole & Stan grow 250+ varieties of USDA organic herbs and vegetables in their 11 commercial greenhouses and supply stores in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC. They installed a commercial kitchen at the farm in 2004 and opened a tea room in 2009. The also offer cooking classes in their onsite commercial kitchen and other herb related classes. lavenderfieldsfarm.com
Gary Scott
Gary Scott, of Twin Springs Farm, in Nelson County, Virginia, is a local, organic farmer who supplies individuals, numerous Charlottesville groceries, and a thriving CSA, with vibrant, healthful produce, throughout the year. TwinSpringsFarmVA.wordpress.com
Leni Sorensen
Leni Sorensen is the African-American Research Historian at Monticello. She is particularly interested in the material culture, culinary history, and agricultural lives of whites and blacks in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. After farming for eight years in South Dakota, she and her husband have lived and gardened in Albemarle County since 1983.
Suzanna Stone
Suzanna Stone is an herbalist residing in Scottsville, Virginia. She is a graduate of Sacred Plant Tradition’s three year community herbalist program where she is on staff and serves as a guest lecturer. She founded Owlcraft Healing Ways where she offers clinical consultations, nine month outdoor apprenticeships and day classes in plant medicine, traditional foodways, and drumming. Her passion for the drum led her to Senegal where she studied traditional West African drumming and dancing. Suzanna was raised in a home where herbal medicine was used and whole foods were eaten. For over a decade Suzanna has focused on learning from the plants themselves. SacredPlantTraditions.com
Dawn Story
Dawn Story is an aspiring homesteader, earth steward, permaculture enthusiast, and bona fide fermentation freak. She is the creator of Farmstead Ferments artisanal fermented foods and New Moon Naturals herbal teas and elixirs. She is inspired by sharing her passions within her community, preserving the past as a bridge to the future. FarmsteadFerments.com
Jerry Therrien
Jerry Therrien has an extensive background in ecology and specializes in native plants and birds. He has conducted flora and fauna studies, bird surveys, led interpretive nature walks, and interned with ornithologist David Sibley. Jerry moved to Charlottesville in 2011 to work at Monticello as a garden guide, parkway ranger, and nursery associate at the Center for Historic Plants.
Michael Twitty
Michael Twitty is a food historian, community scholar, and living history professional. He is webmaster of www.michaelwtwitty.com, a site dedicated to his work preserving African-American historic foodways. Michael’s blog “Afroculinaria” celebrates his passion for food and its relationship to cultures of African descent around the world. He has lectured and given open-hearth cooking demonstrations to more than 100 groups, from Colonial Williamsburg to the Symposium on Food and Cookery at Oxford University. Michael currently lives in the Washington, DC, area. Michael’s book, Fighting Old Nep: The Foodways of Enslaved Afro-Marylanders, 1634-1864, was recently published. afroculinaria.com
Harvey Ussery
Harvey Ussery and his wife Ellen produce all their own dressed poultry and eggs, year-round, on three good acres in northern Virginia. Harvey writes for Mother Earth News, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside & Small Stock Journal. His book, The Small-Scale Poultry Flock (Chelsea Green, 2011), sets a new standard for holistic poultry husbandry. Visit his website at themodernhomestead.us.
Kathryn Wadsworth
David Deardorff, Ph.D., and Kathryn Wadsworth are the authors of the award-winning best seller What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?). As free-lance writers and photographers, they travel extensively to hold popular classes across the country. Deardorff’s doctorate in botany and years of experience as a plant pathologist and Wadsworth’s experience as naturalist and author illuminate the connection between our gardens and the natural world and inform their shared expertise. ddandkw.com
Ira Wallace
Ira Wallace is a Central Virginia (Louisa) Master Gardener and serves on the board of Organic Seed Alliance. Ira also is a worker-owner of the cooperatively managed Southern Exposure Seed Exchange where she coordinates variety selection and seed grower contracts. Southern Exposure helps people keep control of their food supply by supporting sustainable home and market gardening, seed saving, and preserving heirloom varieties. In addition, Ira is a member of Acorn Community which farms over 60 acres of certified organic land in Central Virginia, growing seeds, alliums, hay, and conducting variety trials for Southern Exposure. SouthernExposure.com
Heather Wetzel
Heather Wetzel is an apothecary manager and staff teacher at Sacred Plant Traditions Center for Herbal Studies in Charlottesville, VA. She practices energetic herbalism to support women’s and children’s health. She is a graduate of SPT Three Year Community Herbalist Program and has a master’s degree in education from the University of Virginia. She offers herb classes in Charlottesville and Northern Virginia through her practice and Heather’s Herbals. SacredPlantTraditions.com
Hank Will
As a farmer, scientist, author, and editor in chief of GRIT magazine, Hank is known for seeking creative solutions to problems as varied as moving genes between species, to working the land without huge investment. He’s published hundreds of articles on a range of topics and four books on antique farm machinery. grit.com
Betsy Williams
Betsy Williams has been teaching about herbs since 1972. An entertaining lecturer with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations, her gardens, floral work, and articles have appeared in many books and magazines. Betsy is the author of several books on the uses and history of herbs and flowers. A member of the Herb Society of America and Garden Writers of America, she is Herb Chair for the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. Her column appears in their magazine. She teaches at Northern Essex Community College and Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusettes. betsywilliams.com
Rodger Winn
When not at his day job with the local power company, Rodger Winn is a certified organic gardener growing heirloom fruits, vegetables, and flowers for seed and market. Additionally, he teaches sustainable vegetable gardening to local garden clubs and the extension service master gardener program with emphasis on incorporating flowers and herbs in the vegetable garden. In 2008, Winn was named Seed Saver of the Year by Southern Seed Legacy.
Alexis Zeigler
Alexis Zeigler is the founder of Living Energy Farm (LEF), a zero fossil fuel school and community based in Louisa, Virginia. Employing old and new techniques, LEF offers ongoing, hands-on learning opportunities geared towards petroleum free farming and living. LivingEnergyFarm.org
Lisa Ziegler
Lisa Mason Ziegler is a commercial cut-flower farmer, author, frequent speaker, and renowned expert on cut-flower gardening. Lisa’s sustainable and organic experiences have been gathered from everyday life on her cut-flower farm nestled in the city of Newport News, Virginia. Lisa’s programs incorporate her simple methods that inspire and delight. thegardenersworkshop.com