Avery is a mushroom farmer, educator, poet, and community organizer. He has been filling the Capital Region with fresh fungi since opening Collar City Mushrooms. Food, medicine, building materials, art and compost can all come from growing mushrooms. He loves to intertwine as many of these facets as possible into his workshops, classes and performances.

Collar City Mushrooms is an urban indoor vertical mushroom farm, mycological education center, and community gathering space growing a variety of specialty crop mushrooms and providing them direct to restaurants, grocery stores, and individuals in the capital region. They regularly host field trips, workshops, live music, creative gatherings, and advocacy meetings.

Read our Farmer Hero story about Avery.

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Julie Schaer is a certified organic farmer on a heritage property, The Potager, in West Virginia. In addition to growing diversified crops, Julie is a foodie, experimenting with making foods from many different cultures. Julie is also an IOIA trainer organic inspector, and she uses those skills to help farmers in West Virginia transition to organic certification.

Hummingbird’s Blooms is a cut flower farm and maker of cyanotype art and upcycled & handcrafted goods located in Saratoga Springs, NY. Farmer & Artist, Alex Norton, creates unique pieces of art, jewelry, home decor, accessories, and upcycled clothing using the cyanotype print process and botanicals grown on the farm. In addition to cyanotype, Alex also creates home decor and art using dried florals grown on the farm. Hummingbird’s Blooms is not your mother’s flower farm!

Jes Clark (they/them) is the farmer and weaver at Willow Vale Farm in Stanfordville, NY. Jes weaves traditional and contemporary functional pieces and the basket forms created are a result of their conversation with each stick of willow. All of their willow is grown without pesticides using regenerative practices and with loving care.
Jes has been teaching weaving since 2018 and has taught hundreds of students ranging from absolute beginners to experienced weavers looking to refine their craft. They have taught at the Stowe Basketry Festival, for the National Basketry Organization, at the New York Botanical Garden just to name a few, and also privately in one-on-one tutorials. You can discover more of their work at instagram.com/willowvalefarm and www.willowvale.farm

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Noah has been part of the leadership team at Breadtree Farms since 2021. Breadtree Farms was founded in 2018 to build an organic chestnut industry in the Northeast U.S. We manage 15,000+ crop trees in orchards designed to be grazed by sheep and cattle, across 600 acres in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley. We farm using certified-organic practices that reduce erosion, enhance water quality, improve wildlife habitat, and support a healthy climate.

Reana Kim is a beginning farmer, community organizer, and founder of the mutual aid program Share a Seed. Reana launched Black Rabbit Farm Apothecary in Belen, New Mexico after spending 15 years leading policy and communications in the food/farm sector. She works part-time with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and spends the rest of her time building up her small farm and working in her community. Reana loves sharing seeds and believes that no one person can “own” a seed, seeds belong to us all and the future they hold within is our shared responsibility.

Watch Reana talk about the Seed Swap at Farm Aid 2023