Anne is a wife, mother, farmer, builder, and educator based in Nashville, Tennessee. After leaving city life over a decade ago, she set out to build a lifestyle that brought her closer to her food source and aligned with her values of land stewardship and self-sufficiency.
From her thriving homestead, Anne raises and sells dairy, beef, and eggs, while also crafting heirloom-quality furniture. Her large garden is both a source of nourishment and a classroom, where she openly shares both her successes and her failures. She is deeply passionate about preserving traditional skills, from gardening and animal husbandry to food preservation, and empowering others to reconnect with these practices.
You can follow along with her journey and learn from her experiences through her website, YouTube, and Instagram.
Chef Connor Flynn is a passionate Red Seal Chef, Certified Master Food Preserver, and dedicated high school teacher in the Hospitality and Tourism program . With a career rooted in creativity and craftsmanship, Connor has worn many hats in the culinary world—from cheesemaker to sourdough bread baker . His journey in food has always been driven by a love for hands-on artistry and a deep respect for quality ingredients.
My food journey started in my childhood taking family trips into orchards and u-pick farms then coming home and seeing mom can. I grew up with a cold storage to select food from. After getting out on my own and shopping from the tinned offerings at the grocery stores, I soon was longing for the freshness and taste I remembered, so I started canning for my family. As our food sensitivities and health issues developed, food research and cooking from scratch became a focus for me. My education in bio-sci at University of Guelph gave me the technical understanding of why certain methods are safer than others, as well as how different qualities of foods affect our bodies. This journey has led me onto a homestead where we now raise more than half of our own food. For more information about me, please visit www.betterlivingskills.com. Be healthy!
Sarah is a full-time farmer and mother of 3. Sarah and her husband, Thomas, are 4th generation farmers at Meadow Lynn Farms in Simcoe. They have dairy cows, pick-your-own strawberries, field crops and a market garden. Thomas's parents are still actively involved with the farm, although farm succession is ongoing. .
Sarah's farming focus is the market gardening, supplying over 100 families weekly through the fall/winter with a veggie box through the community supported agriculture model. She hosts spring plant sales focusing on heirloom vegetable plants and more recently have started a commercial cannery for processing of vegetables.
Sarah holds a Bachelors of Science in Toxicology from the University of Guelph and has a passion for agriculture; specifically, finding common ground through food education and food security.
You can also listen to Sarah and friends on the podcast "Heart of the Homestead Family" which releases new episodes weekly. The podcast focuses on food education, skill development and how to start your own homesteads or small Farms.
Ricardo comes with a wealth of experience working on passenger vehicles, small engines and the last 9 years as an ag tech working with the different farm machinery. As a certified automotive technician he has experienced a lot and is looking forward to teaching others how to maintain your personal vehicle between visits to the shop and taking care of your lawn equipment.
Heidi is a 5 generation homesteader who runs Generations Marketplace. Mother of 5 she has chosen this lifestyle to provide better food for her family. 95% of the meat they cook is raised right on the farm. Heidi also grows a large variety of produce of which she freezes, cans, juices, dehydrates and freeze dries as much as she can to enjoy all winter. When they came to this farm they choose to convert a cash crop farm to a more self sufficient lifestyle. Now, not only is she able to feed her family better food but also provide produce to the community through her on farm store and teach others how to be more self sufficient through classes and tours.