Farmstead Fest Presenters

Shalom Farms
shalomfarms.org

Amber Albee (she/her) has been growing vegetables and stewarding land for over 10 years, specializing in regenerative practices and no-till methods that enhance soil health and sustainability. Her dedication to sustainable farming has shaped her approach to food production, prioritizing the well-being of both the land and the community. She currently is the Northside Director of Production with Shalom Farms, a nonprofit farm and food justice organization in Richmond, VA.

Session: Crop Planning

Mountain Run Permaculture
mountainrunpermaculture.com

Mark Angelini has spent the past the past 15 years immersed in the realms of local food systems, regenerative agriculture, permaculture & ecological design, traditional woodworking, herbalism, wild foods, and fermentation. He co-owns Mountain Run Permaculture with his wife Allison where they work with gardeners, homesteaders and farmers of all skill-levels, acreage, and experience to design and implement regenerative food producing systems that maximize ecological outcomes.

Session: Soil Savvy

Bramble
bramblecollective.xyz

Strings (they/them) lives, plays, and works at Bramble, a collective homestead project in Bumpass, Virginia. Strings identifies as a chaotic-good anarchist, gardener, musician, maker, learner, and unschool parent who loves to hang out in the woods and make mild mischief. Fiber arts and crafts rank high among their favorite fidgets.

Session: Mending Circle

Maroon Grove Farm
Maroon Grove Farrier Service
maroongrovefarm.com

June is a farmer and barefoot farrier based in Sussex County, VA. They raise equines, small ruminants, poultry, and a small crew of dogs. They also grow cut flowers and attend farmers markets in the Richmond and Southside VA area. They are passionate about rural community building, mutual aid, and donkeys!

Session: Goat & Sheep Hoof Trimming

ReWild Spirit
ReWildSpirit.com

Liz is a mentor, breathwork facilitator, and earth medicine woman devoted to helping others reconnect with their inner wisdom and the rhythms of the natural world. Her path—spanning from disconnection and pharmaceuticals to off-grid living, sacred ceremony, and ancestral remembrance—infuses her offerings with depth, creativity, and soul. Through breath, herbalism, ritual, and grounded space-holding, Liz invites others to shed old patterns, rewild their spirits, and remember their sacred place within the great web of life.

Session: ReWild Breathwork

Open Door Homestead
OpenDoorHomestead.com

Open Door Homestead LLC is a family operation located in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. We are committed to providing families with quality products. Our focus is doing the very best for our animals so that the end-product is the very best for our customers. We also believe in educating our customers and answering all questions so that customers can make good, educated decisions when feeding their families. We are currently offering pork, beef, eggs, and dairy herdshares. We also will be offering Homesteading workshops throughout the year. We have a passion for teaching others to be self-sufficient on small acreage.

Session: Decipher the Cut Sheet

Bramble Community
BubblesCuckoo.com

Bubbles has been teaching for the last 20 years, as well as carpenting, restoring boats, and coaching a robotics team to the world championships. These days they are obsessed with natural living in tiny homes, and spend a lot of time building structures out of the materials found on the land I steward. Bubbles studied at VCU arts and loves making art out of natural materials.

Session: Making Paint Out of Nature

Poet, Editor, & Educator
leiadarwish.xyz

Leia Darwish is a poet, editor, copywriter, and educator with creative writing degrees from University of Colorado Denver and VCU. She has served as managing editor for a couple top-tier literary journals, taught creative writing as adjunct professor, and currently works the corporate grind editing a financial literacy blog for PenFed Credit Union. In creative work, she focuses on the poetry of place and the relationship between self and the homeplace / environment. Her poetry and nonfiction can be found in diode, The Journal, PANK, RHINO, The Paris-American, and elsewhere. She lives in Richmond, VA with her partner and young son.

Session: The Poetry of Place

SeggYoga
seggyoga.com

Sarah Garrett weaves Meridian Yoga Therapy into her yoga practice, blending the wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine with the movement and mindfulness of yoga. By working with the body’s energy pathways (meridians), this approach helps release blockages, restore balance, and support physical, emotional, and energetic well-being. Her teaching is rooted in meeting you where you are, creating a space where you feel supported, empowered, and free to explore your practice at your own pace.

Session: Meridian Yoga: Aligning Energy & Balance

Mermaid City Flowers
Black Flower Farmers
mermaidcityflowers.com

Dee Hall Goodwin, a Norfolk based florist and urban farmer blends eco-consciousness with artistry through locally grown, seasonal blooms. Inspired by her grandmother's garden in St. Lucia and her childhood in Brooklyn, Dee founded Mermaid City Flowers to celebrate nature's beauty while supporting community-sourced farming. As the founder of the Tidewater Flower Collective and Black Flower Farmers, Dee champions sustainable practices and diversity in floriculture. Her work has been featured in Black Flora, Garden and Gun, and Country Living, reflecting her dedication to floristry as a blend of art, nature, and heritage.

Session: Herbal Bouquets

Kate Hopkins LLC
KateHopkins.co

Kate Hopkins is a Craniosacral Therapy Practitioner, Childbirth Educator, and Labor & Delivery Registered Nurse. Menstrual health has been a five year hyperfocus area of interest for her, guided by her own health journey working with burnout, mental health, and Somatics. She believes our bodies are our greatest ally.

Session: Cycle Syncing

Redd Cabbage Farms
Redd Cabbage Cares
@the.joneses

Dwayne, a self-proclaimed handyman turned farmhand, is a Richmond native with a passion for gardening and farming. After spending about 15 years as a novice gardener, he decided to take things more seriously over the past five years, driven by the desire to create a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle in the face of today’s uncertainty. When he's not pulling weeds, petting pigs, or hunting for eggs, you’ll find him in his workshop searching for drill bits—though he's convinced the chickens are hiding those too!

Sessions: Easy Build: Chicken Tractor
(3 Sessions)

Pinebrook Farms
PinebrookFarmsLLC.com

Fern Joseph is a certified organic farmer with four years of experience growing a variety of vegetables, herbs, and hemp. Passionate about sustainable farming, Fern supports her community through CSA programs and vegetable giveaways. She believes in food sovereignty, advocating for access to clean, non-GMO food. Inspired by the Elders in her community, Fern also creates value-added organic products, including hemp healing ointments for pain, CBD oils for sleep, hot sauces made with her own herbs, and handmade soaps, including lavender, lemongrass, and hemp varieties.

Session: Organic Healing Salve

Andrew Kotsch is a multimedia artist and all around green thumb haver with experience in giving workshops on fermentation, bread making, and a variety of subjects like leatherworking and woodworking. He can be found tending to his various bubbling cauldrons of superfoods, outside in the garden, or on a long bike ride.

Session: Chem Kitchen: Food Fermentation

Revercomb Farms
RevercombFarms.com

Mindy Lipinski left her 12-year career as a microbiologist for big pharma in 2022 to pursue small agriculture, full time. Since then, she has expanded her tripled her pastured poultry operation to a flock of 1000, grown her pastured pig operation, and keeps a waiting list for selling piglets. Mindy hosts on-farm classes on a variety of topics from cooking to home processing with the intent of bringing people closer to their food source. She is a proud one-woman show, and receives help from a fellow female farmer, and some good friends.

Session: Raising Meat Chickens

Garden with Grace
@AGardenWithGrace

Grace Littlejohn is a home gardener from Fauquier county with a passion for all things sustainable, beautiful, and productive. She specializes in designing and planting food forest systems, wildlife habitat, and drought tolerant landscapes. She hopes to make low maintenance beauty and food accessible for all gardeners and homesteaders!

Session: Plant a Food Forest

Gewd Botanicals
GewdBotanicals.com

Malique Middleton is a biologist, urban farmer, and entrepreneur. Malique’s lifelong love of science is deeply integrated within his work as the Founder of Gewd Botanicals. Malique grows the botanicals himself and partners with local farms to cultivate these ingredients while growing food. Through companion planting, his ingredients protect crops from pests and boost their yield. We donate the harvested food to RVA community fridges to do direct social GEWD for the community. Gewd also offers youth gardening programs to low-income public housing units. We believe it’s essential for young people to learn about plants and access gardens for stress relief, nutrition, and to combat food insecurity. This while subconsciously inspiring the next generation of farmers and scientists!

Session: Worming101: Vermiculture

MysticPine Farm
Mysticpine-Farm.square.site

Stephanie Miller of MysticPine Farm; hailing from Philadelphia, wears multiple hats as a disabled organic farmer, herbalist, and chef. With over two decades of experience cultivating food in diverse spaces, she embodies afro-indigenous land stewardship by nurturing crops using only natural means. MysticPine Farm, located in her ancestral community, is where she grows sustainable heirloom produce, forest-farmed mushrooms, and medicinal botanicals. The farm also serves as a catalyst, helping her community combat health disparities through access to therapeutic farming. Stephanie’s commitment extends beyond the soil; she advocates for equitable food access while dismantling barriers faced by black farmers.

Session: Crafting Herbal Teas

BonnyClabber Cheese Co.
Sullivan’s Pond Farm
@sullivanspondfarm

Rona & Cole Sullivan are a mother-and-son duo with a rich history in farming, cheese-making, and music. From 2000 to 2020, they worked together on their farm, creating a lush food frest and producing artisanal cheeses using natural fermentation techniques (without rennet). Rona began researching farmstead cheese making in 2000 and was deeply involved in every step of the farm's operations, caring for the herd and experimenting with old-world cheese-making techniques. They started selling cheese locally in 2007, quickly gaining a loyal following. Both Cole and Rona are talented musicians and perform in the greater Richmond area.

Session: Old World Cheese Making

Fonticello Food Forest
Holy River
holyrivermusic.com

Laney Sullivan is a musician and community organizer from Richmond, VA. She is the co-founder of the Fonticello Food Forest and Earth Folk Collective. Laney’s work centers on building community, from organizing grassroots concerts and festivals to managing the gardens and free food pantry at Fonticello Food Forest Community Garden. Through her efforts, she combines music and activism to foster connection and sustainability within her community.

Session: Freeform Vine Basketry

Lillian Lee Farm
LillianLeeFarm.com

Tim Vaughan is a small-scale hog farmer focused on sustainable, regenerative practices. His upbringing on a homestead instilled a strong sense of independence, and an appreciation for raising his own food, which led to establishing Lillian Lee Farm in 2018. Along with his wife, Becky, they raise and produce 2,500 pounds of pork annually. Their unique approach centers around rotational grazing and silvopasture to rebuild soils, clear understory, and create a thriving ecosystem, all while minimizing infrastructure costs. Tim’s expertise spans from sourcing piglets to processing, though he currently uses a USDA facility for butchering. Tim is passionate about sharing his knowledge and empowering others to raise hogs successfully on a small scale.

Session: Raising Hogs: From Homestead to Farm Scale

Cultural Roots Homeschool Cooperative
Inspired Learning RVA
culturalrootsco-op.com

Alycia Wright, M.Ed is a former educator turned homeschool mom for the last eleven + years. She founded Cultural Roots Homeschool Cooperative, a nonprofit located in Richmond, Va. Alycia has spoken at numerous homeschool conferences across the nation on the topics of building community, cultural pedagogy, and anti-racism. She and her husband have four daughters, ages 20, 16, 15, and 11. Since Covid, Alycia and her family have been stewarding eight acres in Montpelier Va, with plans to create a forest school, herbal gardens, and a food forest.

Session: Homeschooling in Community