2025 Southern Ohio Forest Farming Conference

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jeanine Davis

Dr. Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State University. She is located at a research and extension center in western NC near Asheville.  For over 35 years, she has researched medicinal herbs, forest farming, new crops, vegetables, and organic agriculture and shared her knowledge on these topics with farmers and gardeners across the country. Her current efforts are focused on native woodland botanicals, hops, truffles, Chinese medicinal herbs, and hemp. She is the lead author of the book “Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals”. Jeanine and her family operate Our Tiny Farm where they raise and board mini-donkeys.

 

Ed & Carole Daniels

Ed and Carole Daniels are forest farmers in the heart of the Appalachian mountains.   Both born and raised in West Virginia, they 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. With the help of staff, parents, volunteers, and community members, they have been building raised garden beds and high tunnels at several of their county schools. This is how their non-profit, Plant the Seed Project, began.

 

Rick Felumlee 

Rick Felumlee, along with his wife and partner Jan, own and operate Mayapple Farms, a small diversified forest farm in Muskingum County, Ohio. They produce forest crops like ramps, ginseng and other woodland native plants, a variety of mushrooms and conventional produce crops like berries, garlic and chili peppers. They are life-long residents of the area and are committed to improving the local food system through sustainable, organic agriculture, and educational outreach.

 

Will Lewis 

Will Lewis lives in Hillsboro WV and is the Forest Farming Coordinator for the Yew Mountain Center.  He has a degree in horticulture and has been practicing organic farming, beekeeping, and herbalism for over a decade.  He has been leading the forest farming activities at the Yew Mountain Center for seven years which includes: growing and managing all the highly regarded forest botanicals, mushroom cultivation, maple syrup production, and honey bee management.  He also works for the WV Department of agriculture as a honey bee inspector and manages his own bee business producing honey and other hive products as well as queens and bees. Will has been teaching forest farming, herbal medicine, mushroom production, and honey bee management for several years now and is excited to share experiences and practices he has learned!

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Tanner Filyaw

For more than 15 years, Tanner has been working to promote Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP’s) as a sustainable and ecologically-based forest management strategy for woodland owners in southeast Ohio and the central Appalachian region. Tanner graduated from Ohio University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Geography, and a minor specializing in Environmental and Plant Biology. From 2005 to 2008, he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Rural Action’s Sustainable Forestry Program before accepting a staff position as the organizations Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) Specialist. In this role he regularly conducted workshops, presentations, and provided on-the-ground technical assistance for woodland owners interested in developing sustainable NTFP enterprises, and restoring at-risk forest herb communities. In 2015, after gaining 10 years of experience in the field, Tanner returned to Ohio University and earned a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies for his research examining mycorrhizal symbiosis in wild-simulated ginseng roots, and the effect of mycorrhizal colonization on root ginsenoside concentrations. After completing his research, he returned to Rural Action in 2017 and continued to serve as the organizations NTFP Specialist, and ultimately Sustainable Forestry Program Director before accepting a position with United Plant Savers in 2021. In his spare time Tanner enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, and experiments with producing forest-grown mushrooms, maple syrup, American ginseng, and a variety of other edible and medicinal forest products.

 

Chip Carroll

Chip has been involved with agroforestry and non-timber forest product work for the last 25 years. He began his career working with Rural Action's Sustainable Forestry Program where he worked closely with producers growing medicinal herbs in their woodlands and helped to form the Roots of Appalachia Growers Association. At Rural Action he was also active in State and National policy work related to American Ginseng regulations and regularly consulted with lawyers, judges and prosecutors on ginseng poaching cases. He has consulted as an expert witness on ginseng and other medicinal herb crop damage claims, providing the court with lost crop values. Chip was the Assistant Farm Manager for Frontier Natural Products’ National Center for the Preservation of Medicinal Herbs where he helped manage research projects and oversaw their internship program.

 

He currently is the Sanctuary Steward for United Plant Savers 370-acre Botanical Sanctuary in Rutland, Ohio where he also oversees their Medicinal Plant Conservation Certificate Program. He also has been working for the United States Forest Service for more than 15 years monitoring wild ginseng populations on public lands. In 2016, Chip was hired as the Manager of Ohio Operations for American Ginseng Pharm, an agroforestry enterprise with operations in New York and Ohio.

In addition to his continued work with United Plant Savers, Chip operates his own business, Woodland Wise Botanicals. Through this, he does on-site consulting and education for landowners interested in growing ginseng and other woodland medicinal herbs. Chip’s focus has been to transition wild-harvested species into cultivation regimes in order to take pressure off of native populations of Appalachian medicinal herbs. This is being accomplished through consumer education, relationships with the natural products industry, and working directly with landowners that wish to grow these herbs.

 

Weston Lombard

Weston Lombard is the steward of Solid Ground Farm, a 60-acre agroforestry and sustainable agriculture education and event center in SE Ohio, where he curates Ohio's largest and most diverse forest garden. With a passion for native and naturalizing tree crops, Weston devoted the last decade to exploring mulberry as a productive crop for the Midwest and is the author of a number of SARE-funded publications and research projects on the subject.   Weston is also a hobby nursery operator and an avid grafter and tree propagator. He is currently running a US Forest Service-funded land-based apprenticeship program and working to grow regenerative economies rooted in healthy inhabited ecosystems.

 

Andy Gedeon and Anna Kelly of Soulshine Earth

Soulshine Earth is an 800+ log mushroom forest farm, located just outside of Athens, OH. They have been farming mushrooms since 2021 and members of United Plant Saver’s Forest Grown Verification program since 2024. Specializing in both gourmet and medicinal mushrooms, they are using a science-based approach to figure out the most effective cultivation techniques. You can find them year-round at the Athens Farmer’s Market vending tinctures, salves, and seasonal fresh mushrooms. Mushroom farming questions are always welcome, as they are happy to share the knowledge gained from their successes and failures.

 

Roy Ramey

Roy Ramey is a small farmer in Cabell County, WV.  He uses regenerative practices as learned from Joel Salatin to restore a rugged hillside farm, producing small livestock as well as non-timber forest products.

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Ramey retired from the Army after 33 years with combat in Iraq.  He uses leadership learned in the military to contribute to several civic groups and non-profits of interest in the community, currently serving as President of the WV Home Educators Association.

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He and his wife Fran enjoy homeschooling their teenage daughter where they combine academics with farming and trade vocations.  Ramey also teaches at his local homeschool coop.

Ramey contributes to the agricultural community by sharing the skills he has learned and speaking at events to expand opportunity for others.  

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Janice Hogrefe

Hello! I’m Janice Hogrefe, owner, brainstormer and main laborer at Turkeyfoot Creek Elderberry Farm, located near Napoleon, Ohio in NW Ohio. This is growing season six and looks to be a good one - “Good lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise!” My journey to this point has taken me from beef cattle 4-H’er, Registered Veterinary Technician, Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, travels from South America to Alaska, completing a bachelor’s degree at OSU and retiring from teaching H.S. Spanish in 2018. I work with six named elderberry varieties, on a four acre orchard, to produce and market a shelf-stable elderberry juice, syrup and “shrub”, as well as frozen berries and wholesale juice, plants and cuttings. A lot of fascinating and plain hard work has gone into converting conventional crop land, using regenerative methods, to become Certified Naturally Grown. I feel so fortunate to have happened upon this hardy, native shrub with so many health benefits not only for us humans but the ecosystems above and below ground. I know a lot but I don’t know it all! Nevertheless, I love to talk elderberry, so let’s get started!