Participant Profiles

Jenn Theone completed an internship at Feral Farm in Applegate as part of the 2022 Rogue Valley Cohort. Jenn joined Rogue Farm Corps after deciding to make a career change from social work to agriculture, driven by a desire to connect with nature and become a happier person. Her farming internship was about more than gaining technical skills and making a professional shift; it was also a pivotal step on her journey toward healing and personal growth. 

While living in the city, Jenn felt isolated and anxious. She was disconnected from the natural rhythm of life, and felt a desire to live simply. She eagerly traded city streets for rural roads, and found that farming offered the kind of peace she was looking for. As part of her final project, she writes, “Rather than glaring enviously out the window at yellow leaves falling in autumn, I am among the leaves. And rather than sitting in traffic on a hot summer day, I am under a shade tree. I allowed nature to show me how to live. In responding to her, I’ve found that happiness is my default.”

It comes as no surprise that Jenn has decided to continue farming in the Rogue Valley, where she has found a supportive community. She is stepping into a new role as Farm Manager at Feral Farm where she will help with business management and lead a new field crew next season. And most importantly, she will continue to enjoy the slower pace of life as she prepares for a lifelong career in farming. Reflecting on what she appreciates most about her Rogue Farm Corps internship, Jenn writes, “I’m grateful for this experience because it has given me back to myself. I accomplished what I set out to do: discover joy, discover myself, and discover the magic of others.”

Lacey Harworth was born, raised, and educated in the Portland Metro area. She began dipping her toes into farming in 2010, and after completing a season-long apprenticeship program in 2012, went on to work at several diversified vegetable farms around Portland. Over the years, Lacey has been a farm hand, a farm manager, a farm operator, and a farm owner, where she ran her own small vegetable farm in NW Portland! Lacey has primarily sold to restaurants and through CSA. In 2019, Lacey hit pause on farming to start a family–she and her husband welcomed their first son in 2020 and second in August of this year! Lacey was a member of RFC’s pilot Farm Launch cohort from October 2021 to March 2022. Lacey says that “Farm Launch has helped me to re-engage with the prospect of planning for a potential business mid/post-Pandemic, helping me to acknowledge other avenues of the market which I may not have considered prior. In addition, it has offered new branches of contacts in the farming field, both in camaraderie and technical assistance.”

But what drew Lacey to farming in the first place? “My father was born one of eight children during the Depression in the eastern hills of Tennessee where his family relied on subsistence farming, in addition to helping their father's efforts as a tobacco sharecropper. As a result, my father always maintained a garden while I was growing up, including berries and fruit trees, and those fond memories of fresh produce and all of the different seasonal tastes have never left me.” Later, a college degree in Environmental Ethics and Policy put a focus on climate change and environmental racism. Lacey felt compelled to explore how farming without conventional herbicides and pesticides or mechanization could heal body and land. Farming simultaneously connects Lacey to her future and her past.

Lacey is looking to acquire 3-20 acres around Corvallis with housing for her family of four. Lacey is interested in setting the land into a Land Trust (or another form of agricultural zoning) to preserve it for future generations. This would ideally be a property with water rights and some helpful infrastructure that could serve the farm (things like outbuildings, high tunnels, and irrigation setups). It’s a lot to ask of a property, but putting it out there can't hurt right? “We would absolutely love to carry on the legacy of farming on a property that is currently farming or has a history of agriculture.” Lacey dreams of operating an ecologically-minded market farm that specializes in hand-tended and harvested premium salad greens. She would never use synthetic pesticides and practice "better than organic" fertilization and integrated pest-management techniques to support both land and body. 

Lacey shares: “I feel so much more confident now in my abilities to seek out grants and funding sources, and know that I can always reach out to RFC for more ideas and helpful contacts as well.” We wish Lacey the best of luck! If you want to get in touch, feel free to email her at lacey.harworth@gmail.com.

Christina Bentrup knew since childhood that she loved to be outdoors and working with plants. She learned to farm by working on farms across the US, including years managing an urban farm and community gardens program in Nashville; running the horticulture program of a montessori-based farm school; 3 years as a field assistant on an heirloom fruit tree and native plant nursery; and working as an intern on a 10-acre vegetable farm outside DC. Seasonal farm work was full of learning but wages were low so Christina punctuated on-farm learning with sojourns off farm as a tree physiology research assistant, volunteer coordinator, and various stints as a program manager, writer, and teacher. During her last off farm stretch, Christina was able to save enough money to buy a half acre in urban Eugene-Springfield that she has converted into a micro farm growing veggies, flowers, herbs, fruit, and honey.

Christina attended two years of Changing Hands Workshops and was one of Farm Launch’s inaugural cohort members. She shared about her Farm Launch experience: 

“Being in a cohort of fellow beginning farmers through Farm Launch really helped me take stock of where I was in my farming journey and where I wanted to be. Farm Launch helped me in my transition from loving farming to considering whether and how I could actually provide an income for myself while farming. It helped me distinguish in a very useful way my 'farm-enterprise' goals from my lifestyle goals - to see where and how they overlap, intertwine and diverge.” 

Christina says of her Changing Hands experience, “I've learned a lot from the past two years of 'Changing Hands' series where farmers and farm support advocates shared their experience and expertise in very approachable ways. Being a relatively new transplant to Oregon, the local perspectives were valuable.” 

Speaking of values, Christina takes a collaborative approach to farming, with an emphasis on cooperation and reciprocity. This model of farming offers an antidote to our modern system of agriculture, summed up in the NDN Collective’s book,  Required Reading: Climate Justice, Adaptation, and Investing in Indigenous Power: "Today's extractive systems were created and are upheld by the colonial myths of scarcity, individualism, and the sanctity of free markets. Tomorrow's regenerative systems must be rooted in the Indigenous realities of abundance, community co-dependency, and deep reciprocal relationships between the planet and its people."

Christina’s farm vision includes “A lifelong celebration of abundance, through the lens of sharing food and building community. The abundance that emerges when people work together on shared projects, blending their labor with raw resources in a way that does not generate capitalist profit but rather an emergent resource that goes back into the system to strengthen, elevate, and create anew. Any modern iteration might have some of the trappings of capitalism as it is the air we currently breathe, but the key part is that the emergent resource is reinvested into the community ecosystem.” 

Christina is looking for co-conspirators and business partners with tenured land access in the greater Eugene-Springfield metro area with whom to build something. It could be a cooperative of growers supporting each other with knowledge, emotional support, and skill shares. It could be a cohousing community or nonprofit that shares plant-based foods and medicine with the community. In any case, it’s a community of growers, learning, teaching, farming, and eating together.

What a vision! Check Christina out at www.farmon42nd.com or follow on IG/FB @Farmon42nd. If you’re a land holder, you can find Christina’s Oregon Farm Link seeker ad here: https://oregonfarmlink.org/land-seekers/seeking-0-5-to-2-acres-in-eugene-springfield-city-limits-for-urban-farm-purchase-preferred-or-long-term-lease-ok/

Nora Dennehy completed a Rogue Farm Corps apprenticeship at Runnymede Farm in Rogue River in 2021. Like many RFC participants, Nora didn’t come from a farming background. She grew up in New Jersey, and in college her goal was to become a teacher. But an internship at an environmental education center in California set her on a different path that eventually landed her in the Rogue Valley. She has since participated in three of RFC’s beginning farmer training programs and is now preparing to purchase land to start her own small farm.  

As an apprentice, Nora was able to gain hands-on experience while making connections with fellow aspiring farmers. “What I appreciated most about the apprenticeship was the opportunity to make connections in the Rogue Valley and meet people in the community where I now plan to set down roots.” On the farm, at the market, and during RFC’s weekend intensives, Nora was able to network with people who share similar goals and values. 

After her apprenticeship, Nora stayed on the farm crew at Runnymede where she will be stepping into a management position next year. She took advantage of the Graduate Support program to get one-on-one support from RFC staff on the next steps on her farming journey. She is now enrolled in the Farm Launch program where she is developing a business plan and learning management skills.  

“Through Rogue Farm Corps I’ve had constant opportunities to find resources and get answers to my questions. Lots of people are willing to help me and they really want me to be successful. There is so much to know when it comes to farming. You can know how to grow things, but managing a business and managing people is a whole other aspect of it. I’m definitely an optimistic person, but learning about some of the challenges in farming has given me a reality check. It helps to go into it realistically, rather than going in blind.” 

Nora and her partner plan to purchase land in the Rogue Valley this winter. They want to start a small market garden and eventually grow into an educational farm that works with local schools and community groups. We are so proud to be part of Nora’s farming journey and can’t wait to see where it leads.  

What did you get the most out of from the programming / this experience?

Working out on the host farm for an entire season directly alongside the farmers has been an invaluable experience for me. As a hands-on learner, being able to observe and complete farm tasks in person in addition to learning about the concepts in classes was essential. Task repetition coupled with immediate constructive and honest feedback from experienced farmers has really helped me in the learning process. 

What did you appreciate about RFC programming?

I appreciated the wide variety of methodologies and perspectives included in the in-person classes. Observing different ways of doing the same things and various approaches to regenerative agriculture really helped me to get a fuller understanding of the bigger picture of small-scale farming in the PNW, and also allowed me to figure out which ideologies aligns with my own values and goals.

Do you have any ideas / plans for continuing in agriculture in the future?

Definitely! The RFC Internship has solidified my interest in regenerative ag and I plan to continue my learning journey by spending the next few years working full time on small-scale, organic vegetable farms in the area. Eventually I would be interested in starting my own small farming operation or a collaborative project with others, and may apply to be part of an incubator program to work toward these goals.

What impact has this experience had on you / your life?

The RFC internship has allowed me to fully realize my passion for sustainable agriculture and its importance in healing the earth’s soils and climate. It has provided me with the first step in learning how I want to fit in to the world of agriculture, and given me many connections with which to do so here in the PNW. I am leaving the internship feeling confident, capable and inspired to do this work and continue on my farming journey.

Why is beginning farmer training important to you?

I truly believe that radically shifting the way we grow food towards practices that improve rather than deplete our soil’s health is essential to reversing the damage we’ve done and are doing to the earth. The way we’ve been doing things clearly isn’t working to sustain the health of not only the planet, but our relationship to it and to each other. Training beginning farmers in these sustainable methods is essential to equipping the next generation with the knowledge needed to begin this shift and heal the world. In addition, I think that enabling new farmers to see first hand that the community interested in making these changes already exists is just as inspiring and important.