Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project

2005 Marketing Opportunities for Farmers Conference

Workshop Presenter Biographies

Jamie and Amy Ager are fourth generation farmers at Hickory Nut Gap Farm-Spring House Meats. They currently direct market grassfed beef and lamb, free range pork, pastured chickens and turkeys.

Ron Ainspan is the owner of Mountain Food Products distributing company and a long time advocate for local food and farms.

Vanessa Campbell of Full Sun Farm has been successfully marketing vegetables and cut flowers in the Asheville area for the last 8 years. She sells at two farmers markets and through a small CSA. She is enthusiastic about tailgate marketing and enjoys sharing her over all marketing philosophy as well as many practical tips and pointers.

Tammara Cole is a Small Farm Management agent with NC Cooperative Extension. She grew up on a small pick-your-own farm in Western North Carolina and truly wants you to succeed in your agricultural enterprise. Tammara's background is with Agriculture Economics at the University of Tennessee and with Farm Business Management at NC State University. She can be reached at tammara_cole@ncsu.edu or 828-497-3521 for additional questions on Small Farm Management.

Dr. Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University. She also serves as coordinator of the NC Specialty Crops Program. She is located at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center near the Asheville Airport. Her program is focused on production and marketing of medicinal herbs, organics, vegetables, and specialty crops.

Diane Ducharme has worked with Buncombe County Cooperative Extension for the last five years, concentrating on commercial horticulture production and more recently food safety. She brings to the process a MS in Plant pathology, an understanding of production, and growers needs.

Rob Everett is the produce manager for Greenlife Grocery in Asheville. He is also the President of the Board of Directors for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. He formerly owned his own produce business, New Roots, and was the manager of Carolina Organic Growers.

Phillip Farland received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Shaw University. After serving 30 years Mr. Farland retired from North Carolina Farm Service Agency. From 1998 until his retirement in 2001 Mr. Farland served as State Director of the Farm Service Agency. Presently Mr. Farland is employed with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture as a Marketing Specialist.

Missy Huger, a native of Western North Carolina, has been farming with her partner, Chris Sawyer, since 1998.  Jake's Farm first became Certified Organic in 1999.  They grow a wide variety of produce during the summer and during the winter produce salad greens, spinach, lettuces, kale, chard, collards and various herbs in their two greenhouses.  Sales outlets for vegetables are Carolina Organic Growers, a small CSA, the Black Mountain Tailgate Market and the West Asheville Tailgate Market.

Charlie Jackson is the President of the Mountain Tailgate Market Association and the Local Food Campaign Director for Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. He was formerly a market farmer in Madison County and has been nationally recognized as a leader in the local food movement.

Emily Jackson directs the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project's Growing Minds school garden and Farm to School Programs. She is a certified K-6 teacher, has extensive background in community organizing and working with low resource individuals, and is a former farmer.

Carol Kline has worked for NC Cooperative Extension Service in the area of sustainable tourism planning, development and marketing for several years. She holds a M.S. in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management from North Carolina State University, where she currently instructs classes in commercial recreation and tourism. Her background includes consulting in community/economic development and value-added products and several years in the hospitality industry. Carol has worked in a variety of geographical and cultural settings including New England, Colorado, Germany, and South Eastern U.S. She served as Director of Tourism at HandMade In America, Inc. in 2002 and 2003.

Sandi Kronick is the manager of Eastern Carolina Organics, a grower-based marketing agency in NC. She has worked for many years building sustainable relationships between local growers and buyers in both NC and Ohio, where she was a restaurant & college dining services liaison for Amish farmers through 2001.

Dewain Mackey and his wife Kathy have been farming for 16 years on their 62 acre farm in Madison County, Mackey Farm. They have worked hard to transform a piece of steep, rocky land into a productive farm. They formerly raised tobacco, but recently they have entered the farm to school/college arena. They now sell their locally grown produce to local school systems. They also raise beef cattle.

Julie Mansfield farms with her husband Carl Evans on their farm in Madison County, Mountain Harvest Organics. They grow a wide variety of vegetables and sell at tailgate markets and through a CSA.

David Mole was born and raised in Florida and currently lives in Asheville, NC. He has over 5 years of produce experience and loves working in the Organic/Natural side of the industry. He has been the head produce buyer for Earth Fare for almost 4 years. He services all 11 Earth Fare stores from a Distribution Center in Fletcher, NC. He enjoys working directly with farmers in this area and is proud to have been able to steadily increase the amount of local/regional product sold at Earth Fare during his time there.

Michelle Wyatt Mrozkowski operates the Madison County Agri-Business Center www.madisonfarms.org . She is a 1992 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked in both the private and government sectors in Raleigh, North Carolina before making Madison County her home. She has experience in software design, project management, website design and marketing, graphic design, and video production. She spent nearly a decade serving as the State Board of Elections' Business and Information Systems Analyst and Director of Voter Registration. Currently she assists farms and other small businesses with online marketing.  Michelle's next project is to develop a Web documentary on the agritourism industry in Madison County. 

Theresa Nartea is an Agribusiness & Marketing Specialist (NC A&T State University Cooperative Extension (CE) Programs). From 1993-2000, she worked in the Pacific Northwest (USDA programs, CE) to provide technical support to family farmers addressing farm preservation, environmental stewardship and profitability issues.  In NC, she has worked as a Soil Scientist (NC Dept of Environment & Natural Resources) and as Program Director of Education & Marketing (Organic Unit) at Center for Environmental Farming Systems. Her program focus is to demonstrate how local family farms can profitably connect to large companies through a replicable model of Community Supported Agriculture systems ( www.ncat.edu/~tjnartea ).  

Hal Oliver has led many lives. He's been a turbine engineer, automation engineer and a maintenance manager for one of the nation's largest greenhouse companies. He has also been Property Manager and Head Gardner at Highland Lake Inn and a teacher of Horticulture Equipment Operation and Maintenance at Blue Ridge Community College. Presently, Hal is the supreme commander of Oliver Organics. He grows over 150 different vegetables, herbs and flowers. His bedding plants are sold at several festivals such as the Herb Festival, and produce is sold at area tailgate markets, the Hendersonville Community Food Co-op, and restaurants.

John M. O'Sullivan has been a Cooperative Extension Specialist, Farm Management & Marketing at NC A&T State University since 1983. A returned Peace Corps Volunteer, he spent time working at Whole Foods Market in Chapel Hill (Produce Department) to learn marketing as the experts do it. He has developed educational program information on display and merchandising, addressing the “4 P's” of marketing, liability and risk issues. He also developed and presented the direct marketing course at the Central Carolina Community College Sustainable Farming Program. He has served on the Board of CFSA and North Carolina Herb Association for many years. John received the CFSA Activist of the Year Award in 2001 and is involved in USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

Anthony Owens has been farming all his life. After transitioning his apples to organic production, he now grows a wide variety of organic apples and vegetables in Henderson County at Windy Ridge Farms. He sells to grocers and restaurants.

Annie Louise Perkinson and her husband Isaiah grow a large variety of vegetables, herbs, flowers, and berries on a family farm in Fairview. The produce is grown using sustainable methods and is distributed primarily through their CSA, local tailgate markets, you-pick berries, and a roadside stand. Annie graduated from Warren Wilson in 1996 and is the mother of two girls.

John Pilson grew up in Rhode Island, and lived in most of the New England States. He has a B.S. in Sustainable Ag. from the University of Maine and has been the Farm Manager at Warren Wilson College for the past 8 1/2 years. He formerly managed a farm for the Mass. Audubon Society. Currently John is about 3/4 of the way through a long term transition to sustainability at the College Farm -- a 275 acre
mixed crop and livestock operation -- with a couple of major things left
to work on. He's interested mostly in finding ways to successfully farm and go kayaking at the same time.

John DeJean is the fruit buyer for Whole Foods Market.

Sandy Smith farms Sandy Hollar Farms in Madison County. She makes a wide variety of jams, jellies, pickles and vinegars and sells her products at local farmers tailgate markets.

Growing up, Brenda Spence had a strawberry patch to weed, chickens to feed, eggs to gather, and a garden to tend, harvest and preserve. She went to Mars Hill College, and graduated cum laude with a degree in Home Economics Education in 1969 and UNC-G awarded her a fellowship to attend graduate school. She taught at Ole Miss for a year; returned to teach at Mars Hill College for another 8 years before having two children and staying home for 7 years. Since 1986 Brenda has been in the food service business, first with the day care and elderly feeding program in Madison County, and since 1989 with school food service. 

Sandra Strayhorn is with the USDA-Risk Management Agency and works out of the Raleigh Regional Office (RO). She began her government career on July 28, 1970, with the United States General Accounting Office in Washington, DC. She worked with several government agencies before joining Federal Crop Insurance Corporation in January 1988. She is the Staff Assistant for the Raleigh RO, Coordinator of the Office Administrative Staff, Outreach, Risk Management Education, and serves on several crop teams. She became an Outreach Coordinator in October 2001 for Small and Limited Farmers.

Mary Lou Surgi is the director of Blue Ridge Food Ventures in Asheville. She is a graduate of the A-B Tech Culinary Program and combines this culinary knowledge with experience working with farmers in Africa and Asia to improve their agricultural production and add value to attract new markets. She is FDA-certified to supervise acidified food processing operations.

Pam Zimmerman grew up on a family farm in Madison County. Her husband of 15 years, Billy Zimmerman, also grew up on a Madison County family farm.   They have two children: Will, 14 and Ashley, 10. Pam and Billy have both grown tobacco for most of the past 35 years, and 2005 will be their 6th year with a 3+ acre pick your own berry farm. They grow two varieties each of black raspberries, red raspberries, and blackberries, and four varieties of blueberries. They also grow yellow raspberries, wineberries, and currants. They sell their berries u-pick, pre-picked, and at some farmer's market.   They also sell homemade jams and syrups.