Marlana Pennington
Marlana resides in eastern West Virginia, with her husband and 3 daughters, together they operate Branch and Root Forest Farm. The small scale forest farm grows primarily ramps and a variety of mushrooms, along with a small patch of goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh and bloodroot. The property also has a hearty native population of Solomon's seal, wild cherry, and witch hazel, as well as several maple trees. Marlana officially started forest farming in 2022 after receiving the CAGP grant, but grew up enjoying ramps every spring, and now enjoys growing them, along with educating others about these special plants, while selling value-added products and mushrooms at local markets. Seasonally, Marlana also hosts small homeschool groups, as well as local families on the farm for maple tapping exhibitions and mushroom tours/harvests. |
Ed Daniels
Ed is a forest and market farmer in the heart of the Appalachian mountains. Born and raised in West Virginia, he and his wife, Carole, began planting wild harvested American ginseng on their farm in the mid-1990’s. They incorporated other forest medicinals, like goldenseal, ramps, and black cohosh, and continue adding other native plants to their properties. In 2016, they started a small business, named Shady Grove Botanicals, where they grow and sell starter kits to beginning forest farmers, as well as produce several value-added products. They attend and present at forest farming conferences to increase and share their knowledge. Since 2016, Ed has been teaching the youth how to grow at-risk medicinals using sustainable and organic methods. Shortly thereafter, they incorporated vegetables into their program to teach kids how to grow their own food. This is how their non-profit, Plant the Seed Project, began. |
Will Lewis
Will is the Yew Mountain Center’s forest farming coordinator and a technical service provider for the West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative (WVFFI). His degree in Horticulture served as a great baseline for him to launch into the forest farming coordinator at the Yew Mountain center in 2018. Since then he has been establishing the forest farm at the Yew and has been trained to offer site visits and other technical assistance to forest farmers through the WVFFI. Will, alongside Erica Marks, was instrumental in creating the West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative project of the Yew Mountain Center and regional partners. He also works as a seasonal honey bee inspector for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture and manages his own beehives for his business which sells bees, queens, and hive products. With his years of experience in agriculture he has a diverse background of whole farm management to help serve farmers that are establishing or diversifying their farms. |
Jon Lamastra
Jon Lamastra is the owner of Lamastra Farms, a family run agri-business. Located in beautiful Greenbrier County, their focus is on growing high quality gourmet and medicinal mushrooms, mushroom spawn, grow kits, heirloom produce, and egg/meat production of poultry and other small livestock. While they focus on agricultural production, they also offer educational workshops, as well as perform several speaking presentations for the local community, including such organizations as the WV Master Gardeners Society, The Shepherd Center, The WV Mushroom Club, The WV School of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Yew Mountain Center. At Lamastra Farms, their goal is to spread the knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal benefits of mushrooms and their cultivation methods, to help people be able to grow their own food as well as their own medicine. |
Casey Withers
Casey Withers grew up in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, where he currently resides. Casey earned a B.S. Degree in Environmental and Energy Resources Management from West Virginia University in 2015. While in college he held two seperate internships, one collecting water samples for Pocahontas County Water Resources Task Force, and another as a field interviewer for West Virginia University Research Corporation (WVURC) in conjunction with U.S. Forest Service collecting data for the National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) Program in Oregon and Washington. After graduating, he rejoined WVURC as a field coordinator to continue data collection efforts for the NVUM program. After spending four years in the Pacific Northwest, he moved back to WV where he started working as a Farm Manager. After three and a half years working in the local food sector in WV and Appalachia, he found his way to Future Generations University. Casey has a decade of experience working in the nonprofit sector in public land and community engagement settings. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his friends and family, enjoying live music and participating in outdoor recreation activities such as hiking, swimming and camping. |