OSU Small Farms Conference – February 15th
Nick Andrews, OSU Organic Vegetable Extension – Nick is an associate professor of practice in the Center for Small Farms & Community Food Systems. He focuses on organic vegetable production, cover crops, nutrient management and pest management.
Melina Barker, Oregon Farm to School & School Garden Network – Melina Barker is Director of the Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network. She was previously involved as the Program Director for Rogue Valley Farm to School in Southern Oregon for 12 years.
Jennifer Clark, Roots Farm – Jennifer Clark is the owner of Roots Farm, a no-till regenerative farm located in Poulsbo, Washington. Her journey into farming began as a personal quest to reclaim her family’s health, igniting her passion for wellness. Her farm’s mission now focuses on supporting underserved communities, with a significant portion of the farm’s produce being distributed through local hunger relief organizations. She is also developing a nonprofit outreach and education program in collaboration with the Kitsap Agricultural Alliance, focusing on equitable food access. Additionally, Jennifer works with the Washington State University Farm Mentor Program and the Veterans Conservation Corps to provide training and internship opportunities for aspiring farmers. Jennifer also leads on-farm research focusing on biochar, alternative composting methods and dry farming. Her aim is to develop methods to help Pacific Northwest growers adapt to a changing climate.
Matt Davis, OSU Dry Farming Program – Matthew Davis is a fourth-generation dry-farmed walnut grower and a faculty research assistant at Oregon State University. He has coordinated research into site suitability for dry farming, soil management for dry-farmed tomatoes, vegetable grafting, and dry-farmed tomato and melon variety trials for Dr. Alex Stone, Amy Garrett, Dr. Jim Myers, and Dr. Lucas Nebert. His research interests include soil health and management, methods to control blemishes for dry-farmed produce, and plant ecophysiology.
Sydney DeLuna – Sydney’s background includes building and operating large kitchen facilities, contract food service management, sourcing local and sustainably produced foods, project management and network facilitation. Now an independent contractor, her current roles include facilitating the Oregon Food Hub Network and developing technical assistance programs with the NW Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center.
Ed Easterling, Crestmont Farm Family – Ed is the owner and manager of a forestry, cow-calf, and silvopasture grazing operation on the west side of Corvallis. Crestmont’s 1,600 acres integrate agricultural production and habitat enhancement in ways that benefit both objectives. Silvopasture grazing on marginally productive forest areas enables two complementary farming practices. The stands produce timber, and they extend the cattle grazing season when nearby pastures brown up during the summer.
Jared Gardner, Nehalem River Ranch adaptations – Jared is a first-generation rancher who owns and operates Nehalem River Ranch (NNR), a 100 acre grassfed beef, pastured pork, and honey farm located in Tillamook County on the north coast of Oregon that sells directly to restaurants and customers. Over the past four years NRR has accessed National Resource Conservation Service, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board funding, and matching local watershed funds to add over 6000 trees and over 3000 pollinator shrubs and trees to diversify the mile and a half of riverfront and the many more miles of edges, buffers, and lanes plus a large silvopasture area to enhance soil health and summer grazing. NRR also supports new and beginning agriculturalists including a flower farm, pastured eggs, goats, and compost all within a holistic interconnected framework
Joussy Hidrobo-Chavez – is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Horticulture Department at OSU, currently pursuing her PhD in the Honey Bee Lab under the guidance of Dr. Sagili. During her master’s program (2021-2024), she focused on organic strawberry production and pollination, where she gained extensive experience in season extension and management of strawberries grown under tunnels.
Kara Huntermoon, Heart-Culture Farm Community – Kara has lived at Heart-Culture Farm Community in Fern Ridge for the past two decades. She teaches Permaculture, including leading an education-focused WWOOFing program on the 33-acre farm where at least seven types of agroforestry are practiced. She is also a member of the Agrarian Sharing Network, a group of volunteers working to increase agrobiodiversity and genetic resilience in both annual and perennial crop plants. Kara’s mission is to empower people to use their own hands-on capacity to increase ecological resources for resilience and survival.
Carrie Juchau – Founder and Executive Director of Josephine County Farm Collective (JCFC) Carrie is also the owner of Daily Blessings Farm located in Grants Pass, Oregon. Her farm is home to the JCFC food hub that supports approximately 40 producers located throughout five Southern Oregon counties and two Northern California counties. Carrie discovered her passion for agriculture while developing school gardens as a public educator in Davis, California. Observing over 26% of her daily student population that was arriving to school hungry with school lunches lacking nutritious or fresh food options, she became an advocate for outdoor agriculture education, connecting state standard curriculum to school garden environments. Carrie returned to Southern Oregon in 2017 to launch an initiative to serve the community where she was raised with her own farm educational programs that connect community to locally grown food. Carrie has worked for OSU Extension Service in Jackson and Josephine counties, has 14 years of sales and marketing background, and now grows organic strawberries and poultry for eggs on the land purchased by her family in 1972.
Kiara Kashuba – Kiara Kashuba is the Executive Director of the Gorge Farmer Collective (GFC), a farmer-owned cooperative local food distributor that has been operating in the Columbia River Gorge and Portland Metro areas since 2020. She loves solving logistical puzzles, supporting and connecting with GFC’s cooperative farmers, and grows loads of flowers for fun. Kiara has previously held positions with OSU Extension Services of Wasco County and Gorge Grown Food Network. Kiara holds a degree in Planning, Public Policy & Management and Food Studies from the University of Oregon.
Katie Kulla- is an author, illustrator and teacher working in themes of farming, seasonal eating, nature and family life. In 2006, she and her husband started their CSA farm Oakhill Organics in Yamhill County where they’ve raised their two children. She drew on her own experiences and interviewed 24 other farm families for her book FARM-RAISED KIDS, a guide for farmers and homesteaders on balancing their work with family life. Katie also co-hosts the Growing for Market magazine podcast. Find Katie online at katiekulla.com and on Instagram @katiekulla.
Ben Larson, My Brothers’ Farm – Ben is an owner of My Brothers’ Farm, a diversified orchard, ranch, and riparian forest involved with agricultural research for the past decade. His primary passion is building, maintaining, and enhancing the agroecological systems in place at the farm while providing education about sustainable land stewardship to his local community. The orchards are certified organic and rely on minimal input and intervention farming, which provide habitat for countless flora, fauna, and fungi. In addition, the farm utilizes silvopasture, buffer strips, intercropping, multi-story canopy with diverse species selection, non-timber forest products, and native plant establishment and enhancement. While not managing the farm, Ben spends his time as educator at the local high school and organizing the hazelnut industry statewide to shift towards organic management practices.
Erin Maher – Erin Bellomy Maher is the owner and operator of Agricultural Connections, a food hub in Bend, OR. Agricultural Connections has been distributing local food in Central Oregon for over a decade in various forms; Erin joined the organization in 2021 and took ownership last year. Erin’s background is in food service operations, including transportation and logistics, sourcing, and regional coordination. They love a nice spreadsheet, a crunchy radish, and solving tricky problems both professionally and in board game/puzzle form.
Eliza Mason – is the owner of Lilliputopia Farm in Monroe, OR and operates the tiny farm store, which offers a wide variety of local goodies and is open seasonally. Eliza is on the board of directors of the Dry Farming Institute and the Benton Soil and Water conservation District. She is a farmer, scientist, and entrepreneur committed to sustainable agriculture with over nine years’ experience working on small diverse vegetable farms. She holds a PhD in bacterial genetics.
Brigid Meints – Brigid recently changed positions to become an Assistant Professor of Practice and the Organic Grains and Pulses Extension Specialist with the OSU Center for Small Farms & Community Food Systems. She is interested in organic weed and pest management, breeding for organic systems, and working with growers to add a value-added small grain crop to their rotation. Additionally, her research focuses on breeding multi-use naked barley for organic systems and early maturing dry beans for western Oregon.
Heather Morrill, Farmers Market Fund – Heather grew a watermelon for the first time last year and is incredibly proud. She is currently distracted by building a habitat for frogs in her backyard, the screech owl living in her friend’s tree, Wordle, and tulsi tea. Her favorite always-in-season activity is making soup.
James R. Myers, Professor of Vegetable Breeding and Genetics, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR – Jim Myers holds the Baggett-Frazier Endowed Chair of Vegetable Breeding and Genetics in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. Before coming to Oregon in 1996, he spent 10 years at the University of Idaho Kimberly Research Station where he released 13 dry bean varieties. At OSU, he works on a number of crops including snap bean, edible podded pea, broccoli, tomato, pepper, winter and summer squash. His main interest has been to improve vegetable and field crop varieties for disease resistance, human nutrition and organic production systems. He has been involved in bean improvement programs in Eastern and Southern Africa where his bean seed weevil resistant dry bean lines are currently being deployed. He was director of the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative, a multistate project funded for 12 years to breed and trial vegetable varieties adapted to organic systems. At OSU he has released several vegetable varieties including ‘Legend’ tomato with Dr. Jim Baggett, and five “Indigo” tomato cultivars. Other releases include ‘Cascadia’ broccoli, ‘OSU5630’ green bean, ‘Patron’ Peruano dry bean and ‘Sweet Gem’ snap pea. His work with Indigo tomatoes has been disseminated around the world and germplasm from his program has been used to create more than 50 Indigo type tomato varieties. His latest releases are ‘Mild Thing’ and ‘Notta Hotta’ mild habanero peppers and two popping bean varieties (as yet unnamed). Tromboncino summer squash, snap peas and beans and more tomatoes are next in the pipeline for release.
Teagan Moran – with OSU Extension Small Farms Program. Teagan works directly with farmers and ranchers in Linn, Lane and Benton Counties. Supporting beginner farmers and ranchers is at the heart of her work and she personally understands the joys and challenges as she explores for herself and with her family what it means to farm in Oregon. She has a farming background in diverse vegetable production and small scale livestock. You can listen to a podcast she hosts and learn from other Oregon farmers by checking out ‘For the Love of Farming’ https://beav.es/GGL.
Alice Morrison, Friends of Family Farmers – Alice Morrison is the Organizational Director for Friends of Family Farmers. She has worked in food production through organic vegetable farms and farmers markets for a number of years. She currently serves on the board of the Oregon Farmers Market Association alongside her work with Friends of Family Farmers.
Lucas Nebert – Lucas Nebert is an Assistant Professor of Practice who specializes in Organic Seed and Planting Stock within the OSU Organic Agriculture Program. He also leads the OSU Dry Farming Program and serves on the board of the Corvallis-based Dry Farming Institute nonprofit. Based in Corvallis, Lucas works with farmers, researchers, and ag service providers across Oregon on ecological and climate-adaptive farming strategies. His expertise includes organic seed treatments, participatory breeding, soil moisture sensing, dry farming, microbial applications, and seed production.
Eden Olsen – Eden is a 6th generation farmer, raised in the Willamette Valley. She has a degree in sustainable agriculture and experience farming in California, Washington and abroad. In 2016 she started Lucky Crow Farm in Monmouth. Lucky Crow produces diversified vegetables for CSA, Farmers’ Market, restaurant accounts and an online store. They aim to provide nutritious, accessible food to their community while maintaining ecosystem health and economic sustainability.
Kristen Penner– Since 2015 Kristen has actively participated in several of Oregon’s fisheries as a boat owner, commercial fisherman and seafood entrepreneur. Over the past five years, she has also worked as a Food Systems Consultant, providing services to Columbia Pacific Economic Development District of Oregon, Ecotrust, Kitchen Sync Strategies, and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association where she is currently engaged as the regional value chain coordinator for the Ocean Cluster Initiative Project. With a background in hospitality, Kristen is certified in Community Food Resource and Hub Management and Sustainable Food Enterprise Financial Planning and Management from the University of Vermont, and holds a Hospitality and Restaurant Management degree from Western Culinary Institute. She co-founded the successful Winter Waters event in Oregon and is a member of the Oregon Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Council.
Andrea Retano: Ph.D student, Oregon State University
Hayley Richardson– Hayley Richardson has over 10 years of experience in farming and research, including the production, trialing, and breeding of both vegetable and cereal crops. Hayley manages the CSA program at Upriver Organics, an organic vegetable farm located in the McKenzie River Valley near Eugene, OR and is also a PhD student in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, where she researches microbiome-mediated disease resistance in cereal crops.
Matt Unger– is a retired berry farmer. He raised strawberries for 43 years after graduating from OSU. Matt originally sold his fruit to processors, and later transitioned to selling all his strawberries retail at farmers markets and wholesale, as well as grocery stores and farm stands. Matt was on the Strawberry Commission and was a chairman for many years. During this time he worked with researchers from OSU, WSU and USDA. He is currently breeding strawberries to come up with a super Hood variety.
