Katie has been involved in local food and farming since 2009. During that time, she has grown to love the niche of small-scale farming with the goal of sustainably growing as much food as possible on small spaces.
Katie started off managing farmers markets for The Food Trust in Philadelphia and by the next season was working with some of the farmers she met on an heirloom/heritage breed farm in Delaware. The following year, she went to Food Moxie’s educational farms in northwest Philadelphia where she both grew food for a weekly market and taught local children about farming and the environment. Katie also spent these years helping run the farm stand for an orchard, nursery, and mixed vegetable farm located in central Pennsylvania.
From there, she moved to Michigan to attend the Organic Farmer Training Program at Michigan State University. Here, Katie co-managed the farm’s Farmstand Garden, which supplied food for the weekly on-campus farmers market. After graduating from the program, Katie returned to Philadelphia, where she worked as the farm manager at Wyck House, a historic house and property and one of the city’s original urban farms. Now, Katie and husband Mike have started their own certified-organic farm on their 3-acre property in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and will be up and running for the 2018 season! Check out our farm website at Redhawkriseorganics.com!