Adrian Lee: Permaculture and Intentional Communities

Adrian Lee is a farmer, nurseryman and permaculture designer farming in South Eastern Wisconsin. He is currently the Resident Permaculture Designer and has worked as a Practitioner at Wellspring, a certified Organic Farm and CSA, as well as a nonprofit Education and Retreat Center located near Newburg, WI. Adrian earned his Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) from The Draw located in Bayfield, WI. He has lived in one intentional community and visited 15 over the period of two years, while ending up living a more conventional rural life.

Little John: Fruit Tree Grafting

John Holzwart is a naturalist, Permaculturist, educator, beekeeper, wild forager and traditional broom maker. He has a passion for wild foraging and for grafting and growing unusual fruit. He has his design certificate in Permaculture and applies these principles to his daily life. John teaches and demonstrates the many traditional skills he practices at events across North America. His kindness and commitment to personal growth shine through as he interacts with the public. He is also the training director for the Wisconsin Mankind Project. You can often find John in the woods looking for broom handles, mushrooms and other wild edibles. Little John is the owner of Plant Based Services, LLC.

Laura Poe: Fermentation Ins & Outs

Laura is a registered dietitian practicing holistic nutrition and culinary instruction in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Originally hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, she has lived all over the country and has landed in Wisconsin--and is loving it! Traditional food is her passion, and her interests range from fermentation to herbal medicine to cooking with organ meats. With training in both the nutritional science and the culinary world, Laura's vision is to connect people to their food and help to support their body's ability to heal through a more healthful lifestyle. SHe owns and Runs Viroqua Nutrition Counseling.

Grant Schultz: Farmscale Permaculture

Grant is the Founder of VersaLand and known in some circles as the “Mad Scientist of Permaculture”.  As a farmer-hacker-artist, Grant develops new tools and techniques for creating and managing agroecosystems, including GPS Keyline technology, custom tree planters, and electric tractors.  Leveraging a background in agricultural and commercial land management and brokerage, Grant will share innovative ways to gain land access, design a diverse farm, and create a broadacre permaculture farm that yields abundant rewards.

mIEKAL aND: Paradise Gardening with Underutilized Plants

mIEKAL aND lives outside the constraints of academia in the most lush and rural part of the unglaciated Driftless area of southwest Wisconsin. Choosing to focus on creating wilderness and abundance surrounded by the perfect setting for limitless imagination his course of action includes demonstrating alternatives to inbred aesthetics, delighting in the play of DIY culture, and making art and writing that is both anarchic and noisy. He lives at Dreamtime Village, a permaculture/media community in Richland County, Wisconsin and is the caretaker of Driftless Sacred Grove, a permaculture demonstration begun in the early 1990s. He is also the aretaker of Beyond vineyard and winery located in outsiide of La farge, Wisconsin.

Jessica True: Permaculture in the Kitchen

Jessica True is a Permaculturist, wild foods forager, folk herbalist, and organic gardener. She’s a recent transplant from Colorado, where she began her permaculture studies in 2008. Since then she’s received four Permaculture design and teacher training certificates and has trained with Sandy Cruz, Peter Bane, and many others. She also recently completed an eight-week apprenticeship with herbalist Linda Conroy. She was originally drawn to Permaculture through her love for food and cooking, and she spent two years as a volunteer urban farmer in Denver.

Jessica and her husband recently moved to their new home on 2.75 acres, where they are now caretakers of a small patch of forest, an ephemeral pond, and all the wildlife and woodland plants that come with it. They are looking forward to spending this year observing and interacting with the land and their new community.