2009 Presenters
Workshop Presenters
Amy Barton Williams
Amy is a landscape designer and the co-host of the Community Idea Station’s production “Virginia Home Grown.” This is a monthly, hour-long television program that takes viewers to sites of gardening interest throughout Central Virginia, as well as offers them an opportunity to call-in with their gardening questions. She has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the University of Maryland College Park. Her undergraduate studies focused on landscape design, and her graduate work on drought tolerance and water relations of urban tree species.
Ken Bezilla
Ken Bezilla has worked on and managed CSA farms in Oregon. Then he moved, trading Oregon’s giant slugs for Missouri’s armadillos. In Missouri he managed East Wind Community’s garden for nine years. Now he’s in Virginia, where he juggles growing seed crops for Southern Exposure with being the seed business’s inventory guy.
He enjoys growing good salads to eat all winter long. When he moved from Missouri to Virginia in 2004, he foolishly moved in December, leaving behind a beautiful garden of lettuce, spinach, parsley, cilantro, kale, collards, mustards, carrots, parsnips, beets, salsify, turnips, rutabagas, radishes, and more. The first time he walked into a local grocery store to buy some veggies, he stared in horror at the winter produce prices, and bitterly, bitterly cursed the timing of his move.
Teaching folks about winter growing is one of his garden passions. Learning to grow winter veggies makes for healthier diets, and much less expensive grocery shopping! (Unless, of course, one is so foolish as to move in December. Hmff.)
Dr. David Bradshaw
David Bradshaw is professor emeritas of horticulture at Clemson University in South Carolina, with a close association with the South Carolina Botanical Garden. He is a lifelong lover of plants and collector of heirloom seeds and their stories. “I learned the art of growing things on the farm, and I learned the science in college… Before I started my studies, I did things because they worked on our farm. In learning the science, I realized why those things worked.”
Tom Burford
Tom Burford is a horticulturist, orchardist, nurseryman and now consultant specializing in restoration, re-creation, and design at historic sites (including Monticello) as well as, backyard and commercial orchards and private estates. He is the author of Apples: A Catalog of International Varieties (1991, 1998) and co-author (with Ed Fackler) of The Fruit Grafters Handbook (2001). He co-authored the Brooklyn Botanic Garden book The Best Apples to Buy and Grow (2005). Burford presents lectures, seminars and workshops nationally.
Kate Collier
Kate Collier is the daughter of two food entrepreneurs and grew up on a mountain top farm in Fauquier County, Virginia. At an early age she helped out in her father’s seasonally inspired restaurant and represented her mother’s shortbread and chocolate business, Hunt Country Foods, at Fancy Food Shows in NY, Atlanta and San Francisco. Following graduation from UVA, she moved to San Francisco to work in the specialty food distribution industry as a buyer and sales person to upscale restaurants and stores in the Bay Area. In 2002, she opened the food lovers haven Feast! in Charlottesville, Virginia which was selected as a Top 20 Cheese Shop in America by Saveur magazine. Kate is committed to sourcing and promoting the finest foods grown and made in Virginia.
Cindy Conner
Conner is the founder of Homeplace Earth, an Ecology Action GROW BIOINTENSIVE Sustainable Mini-farming teacher, and a sustainable agriculture instructor at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. Through Homeplace Earth Cindy has produced the DVD Cover Crops and Compost Crops IN Your Garden to show people how to manage those crops using only hand tools. She’s currently working on a new DVD about garden planning.
Peggy Cornett
Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants
Peggy Cornett has worked at Monticello since 1983, first as assistant director of gardens and grounds and since 1992 as director of Monticello’s Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, a unique program designed to preserve and propagate historic plants and to educate the public about the origins of garden plants in America. She is author of Popular Annuals of Eastern North America, 1865-1914, published by Dumbarton Oaks in 1985, and writes for numerous periodicals and publications. She is editor of Magnolia, the quarterly bulletin of the Southern Garden History Society and she edits and produces Twinleaf, the annual journal and catalogue of the Center for Historic Plants.
Ari Daniels
Ari Daniels, CMT is a Virginia native, an activist, environmentalist, and health care professional. He is a certified massage therapist, and has studied nutrition for many years as it relates to holistic health and wellness practices. Food is medicine, and most pharmaceuticals are poisons. He is passionate about getting and staying healthy using the most natural, sustainable methods possible, and living in balance with our environment. Before there were refrigerators, there were crocks and barrels full of fermented vegetables. Before there was G.T. Dave’s kombucha on the shelf of the refrigerated section of your local health food store, there were carts full of kvass in the streets of the Soviet Union. Learn the Old World ways from a “young old-schooler.”Dr. Jeanine Davis
Department of Horticultural Science at N.C. State University
Dr. Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at N.C. State University. For over 20 years, her program has been focused on helping farmers increase their profitability by diversifying into new crops and organic agriculture. Medicinal herbs are a specialty of hers and she coauthored the book “Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals” with Scott Persons. Jeanine is a founding board member of the Organic Growers School and the NC Natural Products Association, an advisor to the NC Herb Association and NC Tomato Growers Association, and on the advisory committee for Biotechnology in Western North Carolina.
Debbie Donley
Debbie Donley is the head Flower Gardener at Monticello and is responsible for her departmental seed program, where she harvests, cleans, and packages seeds from the Monticello gardens for the Heirloom Seed Program.
Peter Hatch
As Director of Gardens and Grounds for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Peter J. Hatch has been responsible for the maintenance, interpretation, and restoration of the 2,400-acre landscape at Monticello since 1977. He also oversees numerous educational programs, including the Garden Tours (for 35,000 annual visitors); the Saturdays in the Garden program of natural history walks, lectures, and horticultural workshops; the Historic Landscape Institute, a two week field school for students from around the nation; and the Evening Conversations series which honors the legacy of Thomas Jefferson with after-hours symposia on a variety of topics. He is the author of The Gardens of Monticello, the editor of Thomas Jefferson’s Flower Garden at Monticello (University Press of Virginia), and has written numerous articles, and lectured in thirty-five states, on Jefferson and the history of garden plants. His scholarly study of early American pomology, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of American Horticulture, was published by the University Press of Virginia in 1999. It was a Selection of the Garden Book Club.
Mark Jones
Early Fall Mushrooms
At Sharondale Farm, a small permaculture site in Virginia’s piedmont, Mark cultivates gourmet and medicinal mushrooms and perennial food and fiber plants. Because of their food value and essential ecological role as recyclers, mushrooms offer a way to integrate and optimize species diversity and provide multiple functions in gardens and landscapes. Mark’s focus has been on developing perennial gardening systems and is evolving to include farm waste management strategies, and developing methods that contribute to agroforestry and natural resource management plans, intercropping mushrooms with vegetable production for food and soil building; and using local strains of mushrooms for bio remediation.
Deborah Judson-Ebbets
Deborah has a BA in Social Science from Russell Sage College and an Associate Degree in Horticulture and received the Thoreau Award for Landscape Planting & Design in 1989. Deborah studied Shiatsu at the Boston School of Shiatsu and also has a certification in Chinese Patent Herbs. She has also studied herbalism with Michael Tierra and Jane LaForce. She has taught courses on herbs and plants at UVA School of Professional & Continuing Education, Ivy Creek Natural Area, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) Conference, and The New England Wildflower Society. Deborah has led wild edible and medicinal plant walks for the Sierra Club at Key West bluffs along the Rivanna River.
Terri Keffert has been a nature lover and treehugger since childhood, immersing herself in the woods near home for hours on end. She went on to get her BS in Biology with a Botany concentration and higher education in Environmental Science. She got her feet wet (quite literally) working in the estuaries and wetlands of the Mid-Atlantic coastal area before coming to Charlottesville. Terri is now in charge of the Heirloom Seed Program at Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, where she harvests, tests, cleans and packages the CHP seeds for sale as well as coordinating the retail sales faction of the Seed Program.
Sarah Lanzman
Sarah Lanzman has been a professional chef for over 30 years. For 16 years she and her husband ran their own company, Lorelei Caterers. Sarah is a Certified Natural Health Professional (CNHP) and has a holistic approach to health and cooking. Flavor in her dishes reflects the local, natural and organic foods she uses in every recipe. She is currently working as a private chef and nutritional consultant as well as the chef at Top Broccoli Catering, a JABA business.
Kathleen Maier
Director of Sacred Plant Traditions
Kathleen Maier, AHG. PA was introduced to herbal medicines while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chile in 1978. She has studied with indigenous cultures in Belize, Mexico and Costa Rica. She spent seven months researching botanicals of the Burren, County Clare, Ireland. Kathleen graduated from Hahnemann Medical School’s Physician Assistant program, and teaches physicians, nurses and other allied health professionals. She has had a private practice for almost 20 years, is a Reiki III teacher, and lectures nationally at symposia and conferences. As a devoted member of United Plant Savers, Kathleen is currently working on the creation of sacred space and botanical sanctuaries in “downtown” landscapes. Her school, Sacred Plant Traditions, offers classes ranging from one day events to the Three Year Community Herbalist Program.
Michael McConkey
After birth, Michael played in the woods. Before 10 he had a hillside his mother said he could plant. So besides bringing turtles home he also brought Tiger Lilies, Yucca and other native plants. By high school, music and performing occupied most of Michaels time. He’d go out of his way for black orchid corsages for special dates that also took up most of his time. In the 1970’s Michael fell into the “grow your own” movement. He built a yurt and set up a garden in his brother’s back yard. Michael grew everything edible he could find. He wrote songs about it, he went to school about it, and as fate would have it, he started a mail order nursery about it: Edible Landscaping.
David O’Neill
David and Lee O’Neill started Radical Roots Community Farm in 2000. The farm’s mission is to create a community farm that fosters connections between people the land. High quality, organic vegetables and herbs are grown in a sustainable way by managing the farm as an evolving ecosystem on 2 acres of intensively cultivated, beautiful garden soil, and 3,000 square foot greenhouse. Radical Roots sells produce and plants at the Charlottesville City Market, Staunton Farmers Market and through a 50 member CSA.David teaches permaculture design and organic gardening classes at Blue Ridge Community College and ha landscape design experience. He is the former director of the Arboretum at James Madison University and a vocal advocate for integrating permaculture design principles with sustainable agriculture practices.
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, The Complete Compost Gardening Guide, turns 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 The Herb Companion magazines, 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.
Alyson Sappington
Alyson Sappington, District Manager of the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District (TJSWCD), has been working for the TJSWCD for 22 years. She has a B.S. degree from Rutgers University in Agricultural Economics, and an M.S. degree from Virginia Tech in Natural Resource Economics. The TJSWCD covers Louisa, Fluvanna, Nelson and Albemarle Counties and the City of Charlottesville. The TJSWCD provides technical, educational, and financial assistance in natural resource management to the community.
Leni Sorensen
Leni Sorensen is 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 gardened in Albemarle County since 1983.
Patricia Stansbury of Epic Gardens
Patricia L. Stansbury is an organic gardener, marketer of wholesale and retail organic products, radio personality and educator. Her passion about natural foods and sustainable agriculture took root years ago when she became involved in some of Richmond’s first natural foods coops, and developed into a wide range of interests and services, all centering on creating and promoting an environment for helping people eat healthier, while sustaining the earth.
Patricia has spoken at schools, churches, military bases and civic groups on topics ranging from Environmental Stewardship as a Matter of Faith to Starting a Garden in Your Own Backyard. She spoke on growing Edamame according to G.A.O.P. (generally accepted organic practices, a phrase she coined) at the 2007 Virginia Biological Farming Conference in Harrisonburg, and at an international symposium on vegetable type soybeans at Virginia State University in September, 2006. She has taught seminars on topics ranging from eating low on the food chain for health reasons to how to start a garden. In July of 2009, she moderated panel discussions after two sold out screenings of the movie “Food Inc.”
EpicGardens.com is the source for Non-GMO Edamame Seeds.
Patricia Stansbury
Epic Gardens
Bon Air, Virginia
(804) 272-0725
Beans, Seeds & Words
Cofounder, Richmond Area Food System Council
Board Member, Virginia Association for Biological Farming
WRIR lp 97.3 FM Richmond Indy Radio producer and board operator
Marie Taylor
Marie Taylor is a retired business executive who traded in frequent flying for time to garden and to volunteer at The Center for Historic Plants at Tufton Farm and Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardening Program. 
One of 13 children, Marie learned to garden and to “put-up” the harvest early in life. An avid gardener, she and her husband have a mixture of formal and informal flower and herb gardens, a large vegetable garden, a variety of small fruits and a 5 year old orchard of heritage apple trees grafted by Marie.
Michael Twitty
Michael Twitty is an author and well-known interpreter of African-American folkways is a community scholar of African American food culture, a Hebrew teacher and an independent living history interpreter. He has been related to many projects related to food history and culture for respected institutions from the Smithsonian to Colonial Williamsburg. Iis first book is Fighting Old Nep: The Foodways of Enslave African Americans in Maryland 1634-1864. He is currently collaborating with Landreth Seeds on their new African American Heritage Seed Collection.
Ira Wallace
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Ira Wallace studied at New College Environmental Studies Institute. She has led Herb workshops at N.C. Botanical Gardens, Ontario Herbalist Society, and Dandelion Community. She is a Certified Plants Person with the Ontario Board of Horticulturists. She is currently the manager of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.Ira and herbalist Hildegarde Ott present a guided herb workshop at Twin Oaks Community in Louisa. Each year Ira searches for additional perennial onions to trial and reintroduce to gardeners.
Peter Warren
Peter is the unit coordinator of the Albemarle/Charlottesville Extension Office, and an extension agent in environmental horticulture and integrated pest management. He is the Master Gardener coordinator for the five-county area surrounding Charlottesville. Peter writes a weekly gardening column for the Charlottesville Daily Progress and is the go-to guy on garden insects in central Virginia. He is also the Chapter Advisor for the Rivanna Master Naturalists. He has a M.S. in Entomology from VT, and also degrees in math and public administration. He joined the Virginia Cooperative Extension in 1998 as an IPM Extension Agent in Orange County.
William Woys Weaver
William Woys Weaver is a well-known food historian and author who has devoted nearly 30 years of research into the the origins of American cookery and the traditional kitchen garden. He maintains the Roughwood Seed Collection, consisting of some 2,000 varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Through the Seed Savers Exchange, he has supplied seeds and plants to historic gardens world-wide.
Barbara Ann Wiederkehr
Clinical Psychologist
Professional Photographer
Guest Lecturer in a variety of venues specializing in Native Plants & Beneficial Insects
Personal Gardens are certified as National Wildlife Habitat
Central Virginia Master Gardener
Rodger Winn
Rodger Winn is a certified organic gardener growing heirloom fruits, vegetables, and flowers for seed, seed preservation, 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 Legacy Seeds.