presenters
Marty Castriotta is a farmer and educator. He and his wife, Ellen, moved to Orchard Hill in 2004 and have grown and sold vegetables, fruit, herbs and pastured meats through their CSA, Village Roots ever since. In 2006, they started cutting and milling wood for their home, a timberframe and straw-clay house, that is now at the center of their permaculture homestead. Marty has a BS in engineering and an MS in Environmental Studies. Village Roots offers regular permaculture workshops, and work parties and they also consult on site design and farm systems.
Emily Davis is an ecological landscape designer in Brattleboro, VT, and works to reconnect people with their landscapes. Holding a MS in Ecological Design and a BS in Environmental GeoChemistry, she has also earned certificates in both Permaculture Design and Sustainable Design/Build. Both professionally and as part of her degree programs, she has experience in site-scale residential designs, master planning, and environmental planning. In addition to working with clients on projects around New England, she is also developing her forest farm and homestead amidst the maple trees and mushrooms of the Green Mountains.
Stacey Doll graduated from Frostburg State University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Urban and Regional Planning. She began her planning career in North Carolina as a local land use planner and then worked for seven years at North Country Council Regional Planning Commission in Bethlehem, NH on community, environmental and transportation planning. She then led the Mount Washington Resort’s sustainability efforts as their coordinator, developing ecologically sound operational procedures and goals for the Resort and sustainability guidelines for all new development. She then spent three years coordinating the efforts of the State’s Energy and Climate Collaborative who facilitates the implementation of the NH Climate Action Plan. Stacey has been a member of the American Planning Association for twelve years, and has been a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) since 1994. She received recognition as the Land Use Planner of the Year from the NH Planners Association in 1995. Stacey completed her Permaculture Design Certification in January 2013, an Advanced Permaculture Diploma in May 2013 in Franklin, NH, hosted and participated in the Advanced Permaculture Diploma in Littleton, NH in May 2014, completed her Permaculture Teacher Training certification in August 2014, and co-taught the Manchester Advanced Permaculture Design Course in November 2014. Stacey just completed teaching a Permaculture Design Course in Canterbury Shaker Village is summer with two permaculture colleagues. Stacey and her husband have recently purchased 15.5 acres of land in Lyman, NH where she is in the planning and design phase of establishing a permaculture forest farm.
Bryan Felice was inspired by building an earthen home on the Hopi Reservation while leading an Environmental Field Program. Bryan is a natural builder and permaculture educator. He was first introduced to permaculture at the Institute for Social Ecology with an Orchard Design focus. He apprenticed at the Heartwood School in timber framing and later founded Undustrial Timber Frames, LLC which has pioneered high performing natural design and construction throughout New Hampshire since 2006. He got his PDC at D Acres in 2010 and has since taught Permaculture at D Acres, Orchard Hill and a variety of farms and community organizations. Bryan is also an adjunct professor at Plymouth State university and Colby-Sawyer College. Bryan has served on the Board of Directors at D Acres since 2012 and was a founding Board member of Mountain Village Charter School, a tuition free nature-based Montessori elementary school in Plymouth, New Hampshire. He is also the father of 2 daughters who he is teaching to weed gardens, sharpen chisels and enjoy good food with good people as often as possible.
Laura French has been practicing ecosystem-based forestry for the last 15+ years, specializing in planning for organizations such as NH Audubon. Ecosystem-based forestry uses management systems that mimic the natural processes and disturbance regimes that occur on a given site. Laura and her husband Jeremy live off-grid on 300 acres of land in Unity, NH where they manage for a diverse array of forest, wildlife habitat, agriculture, and homesteading goals.
Dan Holmes has grazed cattle, poultry, pigs and sheep for the past 20 years in New Hampshire. His livestock has improved the soil and pastures at Canterbury Shaker Village, The Meeting School and Sunny Field Farm. Dan's livestock is now working on the soils at Four Winds Farm in Peterborough NH.
Rex James is part of the Green Energy Options (GEO) Solar team. A graduate of Cornell University, Rex has more than 2 decades of Solar and Energy efficiency contracting including more than 100 residential solar installations. As an early entrepreneur, Rex manufactured innovative solar equipment, and managed energy efficiency consultative sales operations. Throughout his career, Rex has been active in energy conservation implementation and public advocacy from New England to Florida.
Andy Jenks was born, raised, and educated at his parents’ cross country ski area called Windblown. He is a practicing permaculture farmer, designer, and installer based in Southern New Hampshire. He took the 2014 D Acres PDC and has been busy installing permaculture earthwork systems on properties around New England. His business, Windblown Tree and Tractor, is a full-service tree care and excavation company that now specializes in whole property permaculture design and installation. Most of his larger equipment is converted to run on waste vegetable oil that he collects from local restaurants. His plans grew much larger this year with the purchase of a piece of conservation land in Temple NH where he plans to start a commercial permaculture farm.
Ben Kaufhold has been practicing permaculture since 2009 when he was an intern at Bee Chama Farm, a permaculture farm/apiary in New Mexico. Since his return to NH he has been involved in numerous permaculture projects throughout the state and traditional broadaxe hand hewing and timber framing demonstrations. Ben is currently a full time student in the forestry program at UNH, where he was awarded student of the year by the Society of American Foresters.
Liz Kelly has a professional background in ecological planning and design. She currently works for the Southwest Region Planning Commission in Keene NH. She obtained her PDC in 2013 and was so hooked on the possibilities of permaculture that she became a certified Permaculture Teacher in 2015. She’s been able to see and work on a number of permaculture sites throughout her education and is passionate about creating a resilient future, building community to stimulate positive change, and living closely and in tune with the surrounding ecology. She also likes gardening and scampering in the woods.
Dan Kittredge is the Founder and Executive Director of the Bionutrient Food Association. Raised by parents who are prominent leaders in the organic food movement, Dan has been an organic farmer since childhood. His experience managing organic farms and developing sustainable agriculture techniques has connected him to farmers in Central America, Russia, India and the U.S.
Jan Lambert is an environmental writer, and editor of The Valley Green Journal, which addresses connections of agriculture, nature and communities. She is also a working partner with internationally recognized hydrological scientist Michal Kravčík, in promoting awareness of the central role of water cycles for environmental sustainability, via her journal and her book, Water, Land and Climate--The Critical Connection, published in October 2015. Included in her book is "A Global Plan for the Restoration of Natural Water Cycles and Climate," which Lambert co-authored with Kravčík, and which was presented at the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris in 2015. Lambert lives on a secluded homestead in New Hampshire and has extensive hands-on experience with landscape restoration, invasive species and wildlife monitoring in her region, as well as working with diverse groups including youth and the faith community.
Laurie Lockwood has been raising a homestead flock of laying hens for 20+ years, and growing out meat birds every few years in Canterbury, NH.
Leon Malan is a faculty member in the Environmental Studies Department at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH where he teaches the PDC and topics in sustainability and food systems. He manages the permaculture garden at the college and he owns a 40-acre woodlot in Andover, NH where he has applied permaculture designs and practices since 2008.
Robin Matathias has been teaching at Keene State College since 1997, where she teaches in both the Environmental Studies and Music Departments. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.A. degree from The City College of New York. Robin specializes in teaching courses on Food, Health and the Environment, and Energy and Sustainability. Before moving to Vermont in 1992, she taught science classes for eleven years in the New York City Public Schools, and taught graduate Environmental Studies courses at The City College of New York. Robin also teaches flute and directs the flute choir at Keene State College and at the Brattleboro Music Center.
Brenna Morris has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Conservation from the University of New Hampshire with two minors in Forestry and Sustainable Living. She has completed an Herbal Apprenticeship at Misty Meadows Herbal Center in Lee, NH and is a Certified Herbalist. Brenna makes cold processed soap, wildcrafted tinctures, and tea. When not creating herbal products you can find Brenna in the garden with her dog, practicing circus arts, and playing music with friends.
Didi Pershouse is the author of "The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities" and the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine. After 22 years of clinical work with patients, she is now working with the Soil Carbon Coalition to develop a large-scale citizen-science program to help schools, conservation districts, and the public understand the intersections between soil health, public health, and climate resiliency. She teaches workshops and school residencies on how to measure, understand, and influence carbon and water flows in living landscapes.
Valerie Piedmont, founder and director of The Sustainability Project, lives off grid in the Emerson Brook Forest with her husband, Pablo Fleischmann. In addition to homesteading, they operate a solar and hearth business, Green Energy Options of Keene, as well as a bed and breakfast. Valerie completed a permaculture design certification course as well as a course in designing educational ecosystems.
Matthew Roy ran a CSA and sold at farmers markets in northern Minnesota where he worked on developing micro climates to extend the growing season. He completed his PDC in 2014 after moving back to NH and started his current consulting business, 'Otter Brook Designs'. He is currently developing an Agriculture Demonstration site at Otter Brook Farm in Peterborough NH.
Chris Skoglund is involved in energy and climate initiatives at the local, state and regional level that are focused on reducing the consumption of fossil fuels in order to avoid the most significant impacts of a changing climate at the local and global scales. Prior to his climate and energy work, he taught students ranging from K-12 at public, private and outdoor schools and worked for a few summers on an organic farm. He is increasingly concerned with how changing precipitation and temperature patterns in New Hampshire and across the globe will affect food supply and distribution in the future. During his free time, he can be found playing dress-up with his two daughters or replacing his landscaping and lawn with vegetable gardens and a diverse perennial polyculture.
Devin Smith has been homesteading and forest gardening in Rockingham, VT for the last 10 years. A keen observer of ecology in action, he is consumed with a fascination for the transformative power of a husbandry approach to land management. He is developing a ~2 acre forest garden at his homestead using almost entirely endemic and home-grown plants. Insights gained through these efforts have more recently led Devin to activism and citizen science. He is an advocate for both permaculture solutions for social/economic and human ecology issues, and for refining permaculture knowledge and practice to better meet these ends.
Karen Tuininga is a Backyard Herbalist, Professional Educator, and Perennial Volunteer. She has been studying and practicing Permaculture for many years and formally completed her PDC in 2014.
Sophie Viandier is a designer, consultant, and teacher for Permaculture landscapes and homes. She has designed both urban and rural sites with a focus on community revitalization. She is a graduate of Gaia University for Integrative Ecosocial Design with a focus on design/build of food forests and infrastructure. She owns and operates Pay It Forward Farm and Designs in Andover, New Hampshire.
Ayn B. Whytemare is the owner and founder of Found Well Farm. Previously she owned and operated Ecological Landscape Gardening, which emphasized using native plants, organic fertilizers, and person-based, rather than machine-based, maintenance. Her other experience working in the plant trades (florist, nursery and garden centers) and as a consultant on forest pollution lead to a desire to find more native plants for use in wild and home landscapes for restoration and enhancement. The first crop of trees was established in 2003, at which time an old well was found in the middle of the planting field. Auspiciously the endeavor was named “Found Well Farm.” In 2005 Found Well Farm was one of the first recipients of the New Hampshire Agricultural Innovations Grant for business start-up purposes. She speaks to gardening and farming groups state-wide and continues to expand and explore directions for the nursery. She is currently an adjunct instructor of Plant Biology. Environmental Science and Ecology at New Hampshire Technical Institute in addition to mothering Duncan and Aaron and being married to Ted Donovan, owner of Top Notch Painting. She received her B.A. from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1988 with a major in Environmental Science and an M.S. from University of Washington in Forest Ecology in 1994.
David Wichland is the owner of Wichland Woods, a unique, local myco-business located in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. By educating the public about mycology, Dave strives to promote people’s awareness about the health and ecological benefits of mushrooms. Through various workshops, Wichland Woods encourages people to expand their gardening realm into a mycological-friendly landscape. We educate the public on the techniques of “backyard mushrooming” and how everyday resources can be used to cultivate their own mycelia network. Dave creates over a dozen local strains of mushrooms, which are carefully expanded using sterile techniques. By working with other northeast mycologists, we are promoting the health benefits that mushrooms have in our world.
Jenny Wright and Stan McCumber have homesteaded in Unity, NH since the 1970s, earning a living picking and pruning fruit trees and selling field-grown pansies. Jenny and her daughter Vanessa also sell crafts and teach spinning, knitting, felt-making, potato printing and wooden spoon making.
