Contributors

Shari Altman (Issues 2 & 6)
Shari lives in rural Vermont. Every day she finds time to write, take photographs and walk down her dirt road. Her work has been featured in 1110 journal and the book From Fields, Orchards, and Gardens. Although she misses the South where she grew up, she now sings the praises of maple creemees, town meeting, snowshoeing, and community suppers.

Annie Bach (Issue 2)
Annie has drawn since she was a little girl and still loves to create the same whimsical creatures she imagined as a child. She draws inspiration from nature, and brings her characters to life in digital media, gouache, and ink. She is working on her debut children's book, A Forest Lullaby, which she has written and illustrated. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two pugs in Seattle, Washington.

Holly Bellebuono (Issues 1 - 6)
Holly owns the formulary Vineyard Herbs Teas & Apothecary supplying herbal medicines and organic body care. She lectures nationally and also directs the gateway curriculum The Heritage & Healing Herbal Studies Program, an on-line herbal medicine school. Her book The Essential Herbal for Natural Health: How to Transform Easy-to-Find Herbs Into Healing Remedies for the Whole Family is a guide for herbal medicine and kitchen crafting. Visit her at www.vineyardherbs.com.

Beth Billups (Issue 2)
Beth's encaustic paintings explore home as a personal narrative by examining our connections to our surroundings, to one another and to the natural world. She builds layers of meaning by combining ephemera, oil paint and beeswax. She lives just north of Chicago with her husband, three children and six hens. See more at tangledskystudio.blogspot.com.

Holly Ward Bimba (Issues 1 & 4)
Holly is the artist behind Golly Bard. Her watercolor paintings are a quirky mix of imagery inspired by the curiosities of nature, time, the cycle of life, patterns, natural history, things in jars, garden maps, portraits and wallpaper. She lives in the tiny village of Upperville, Virginia with her husband, Chuck and dog, Ladybird. Find more of her work at gollybard.etsy.com and follow her blog at gollybard.blogspot.com.

Marianne Boukamp (Issue 6)
Marianne heralds from the beautiful underrated state of Michigan. She is a mom, wife, nurse, avid traveler, photographer, painter and storyteller. She tries to find beauty in everything she sees. The most wonderful thing that has happened to her recently is becoming a grandmother.

Stacy Brenner (Issues 1, 2, 4 & 5)
Stacy lives in Maine with her husband and two daughters. They raise vegetables and flowers on their organic farm. Stacy’s focus is on the flowers which she arranges for weddings and other events. She also finds beauty in old wood, rusty metal, and all the fruits of her labor. Her best ideas come after coffee and before whiskey and can be read at www.broadturnfarm.com.

Pixie Campbell (Issue 4)
Pixie is a writer, sacred space holder, and mixed-media artist from California, descended from a long line of unruly and wayward people. Her mentors are the wild creatures, and her most important teachers are her two strong and feral children. Read Pixie's personal journey of art and motherhood at pixiecampbell.com. Browse her teachings and workshops at soulodge.com.

Tovar Cerulli (Issue 4)
Tovar is the author of The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian’s Hunt for Sustenance, which recounts his journey from vegan to hunter, tracing the evolution of his dietary philosophy through a blend of personal narrative and historical perspective. He is currently enrolled as a doctoral student at UMass-Amherst focusing on varying cultural relationships with wildlife and nature. He lives in Vermont. Visit him online at tovarcerulli.com.

Alana Chernila (Issue 5)
Alana writes, cooks, sells fresh vegetables, and teaches cheese making. She lives with her husband and two young daughters in western Massachusetts. Her first cookbook, The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making, was published in spring 2012. Visit Alana online at eatingfromthegroundup.com.

Christine Chitnis (Issues 1, 2, 4 & 6)
Christine is a writer, photographer and mother. She lives with her husband and sons in Providence, RI. Her writing has appeared in Country Living, The Boston Globe, Time Out New York and many other local and national publications. Her first book,Markets of New England highlights fifty of the most vibrant farmers markets and art events in the region. Visit her at christinechitnis.com.

Langdon Cook (Issue 3)
Langdon writes about wild foods and the outdoors. His books include Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager and forthcoming The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground Economy. Cook has been profiled in Bon Appetit, Whole Living, and Salon.com. Cook lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.

Thea Coughlin (Issue 3)
Thea began her career as a teacher and is now a photographer living in upstate NY with her son and husband. In addition to her portrait and commercial photography business, her work has been featured in numerous magazines. When not behind the lens, you may find her hiking in the woods with her family, climbing trees, or laughing with those she loves. Visit her at www.theacoughlin.com

Megan Devine (Issue 6)
Megan is a mother, early childhood educator and lifelong learner. When she does not have children in tow you may find her investigating a bee hive, making soap, gardening, cross-country skiing or looking for opportunities to make the world a better place. She and her husband James live with their four children in Minnesota.

Amy Dickerson (Issue 2)
Amy is a photographer whose focus is people, culture and style. She takes a genuine approach to capturing personalities. She is driven by narrative and inspired by nature, art, fashion and travel. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times Style section. She is based in Los Angeles where she enjoys hikes, wine and reading books. See more of her work at amydickerson.com.

Maya Donenfeld (Issues 1, 2 & 4)
Maya's distinctive designs utilize sustainable resources and fibers while weaving in elements from the natural world. Her websitemayamade.com is filled with projects and inspiration that artfully recycle, repurpose, and reinvent. She is a frequent contributor to books and magazines. Her first book, Reinvention—Sewing with Rescued Materials was published in May 2012.

Allison Carroll Duffy (Issue 6)
Allison lives on five acres in midcoast Maine with her husband Ben and their two young boys. She's trained as a Master Food Preserver through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and holds an M.L.A. in Gastronomy from Boston University. She also teaches canning and preserving classes. Her first book, Preserving with Pomona's Pectin, is due out in June 2013. She blogs at www.canningcraft.com.

Ashley English (Issues 1 - 6)
Ashley is the author of the Homemade Living book series and A Year of Pies: A Seasonal Tour of Homebaked Pies (Lark Crafts, 2012). She, her husband and their young son Huxley, along with a menagerie of chickens, dogs, cats, and bees, homestead in Candler, NC. Follow her adventures in homesteading on her blog at smallmeasure.com. (Photo by Lynne Harty)

Gianluca Foli (Issue 4)
Born on a warm May night in 1978 in Rome, Gianluca has always loved drawing. Inspired by an oriental discipline, in his work all the mental concentration preceding the creative act is palpable in his suspended lines and his wide white spaces. Gianluca loves good cooking, good books and good friends. See more of his work at gianlucafoli.com.

Jenny Lee Fowler (Issues 2, 4, 5 & 6)
Jenny is an artist and educator living in New York’s Hudson River Valley. She cuts traditional silhouette portraits and her original paper cuttings are drawn from family, field, forest, and folk. Jenny’s cuttings appear nationally in galleries and magazines. She has a deep interest in home-centric practices and labors of love. Visit her at jennyleefowler.com.

Linsey Gray Frost (Issue 1)
Linsey utilizes art in two ways—-expression and investigation. When not pulling images and ideas from within, she uses art to inform herself as much about a subject as possible. With a particular interest in architecture, she finds herself submerged in investigations of how these very different forms are composed. See more of her work at linseygray.blogspot.com.

Leslie Gilman (Issues 3 & 4)
Leslie is a writer, gardener, cook and mama living in Covington, LA. When she isn’t writing or changing diapers, she is learning to do things herself—from fermenting yogurt and rolling pasta to knitting. She is interested in folk wisdom, natural healing, cultivating compassion, and lending her voice to the growing movement of people yearning for a simpler and more authentic life.

Morgan Josey Glover (Issue 3)
Morgan is a journalist living in Greensboro, NC, with her husband and daughter. She has written extensively about green living trends in the Triad region of the state and is now discerning her role in The Great Turning. Meanwhile, she gardens, crochets, hauls her daughter to endless neighborhood birthday parties, and waits.

Shannon Hayes (Issues 1 & 3)
Shannon is the author of Radical Homemakers and Long Way on a Little: An Earth Lovers' Companion for Enjoying Meat, Pinching Pennies and Living Deliciously (Sept. 2012), among others. She works with three generations of her family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm in upstate NY, hosts GrassfedCooking.com and blogs at shannonhayes.info. (Photo by Teri Currie)

Martha Anne Hearn (Issue 5)
Martha studies as an illustrator-in-training at Falmouth University in the UK. You can tell her desk in the studio by a foot-high stack of paints and mess. She gets out of bed every morning to the sea and her sketchbook. Her fascination with shape and color and a propensity towards depicting and geometricizing organic forms define her work. She wraps herself in the world of all things folk: tales, art and music. Visit her at www.martha-anne.co.uk.

Ben Hewitt (Issues 1, 2 & 5)
Ben hails from northern Vermont, where he runs a small scale, diversified hill farm with his wife and two sons. He lives in a self-built, off-grid home that is powered exclusively by wind and solar; to offset his renewable energy footprint, Ben drives a really big truck. To learn more about Ben and his work, check out benhewitt.net.

Louella Hill (Issues 4 & 5)
Louella, also known as The San Francisco Milk Maid, first encountered cheese making while on a sheep farm in Tuscany over a decade ago. There she realized she could be part of the process all the way from sunlight to dinner plate. She never turned back. She's trained in Europe and the US though works mainly with a 5-gallon pot in her own kitchen.

Carrie Bostick Hoge (Issues 3 & 4)
Carrie is a photographer, knitter and designer. By day, she works happily as the Art Director for Quince & Co., and in her spare time she works in her backyard studio for Madder. She lives in Maine with her husband, daughter and animals and dreams of living on a small farm someday where she’ll be surrounded by much more flora and fauna. You can find her blog at swatchdiaries.blogspot.com.

Jennifer Judd-McGee (Issues 1-4 & 6)
Jennifer is a full time artist and mother of two. She recently renovated an old house with her family and works from home in her downeast Maine studio. Papercutting and illustration are her primary mediums, and her work is influenced by her coastal surroundings. She shows her original work in galleries across the US. Find her on her website. (Photo by Maria Vettese)

Michelle Kroll (Issues 3, 5 & 6)
Michelle is a wife, mother, and artist. She lives with her family in Portland, Oregon. Her artwork can be seen in pen, prose, print and fiber arts. She strives to: be well by making more wholesome food choices, be consistently creative, and inspire others to do the same. Visit her at rainmomma.com.

Cynthia Lair (Issues 1 & 2)
An advocate of food education, Cynthia spends her time as assistant professor and culinary director at Bastyr University, making cooking videos for Cookus Interruptus (www.cookus.tv) and writing books and articles. Her cookbook Feeding the Whole Family is in its third incarnation and a new edition of Feeding the Young Athlete is due in 2012.

Rachel Liu-Ballard (Issue 6)
Rachel is a mother, wife, birth enthusiast and future midwife. She and her family abide in New Haven, Connecticut in an old home on a river with chickens in their backyard. She spends her days watching her children grow, working with pregnant women as a labor and birth nurse, and putting her hands to all things culinary and crafty. She blogs at restingroost.com.

Nikki McClure (Issues 5-8)
Nikki lives in Olympia, Washington. She makes a calendar every year as well as many books and pies. Her images are cut from black paper with an x-acto knife. Sometimes she collaborates with her husband Jay T. Scott making lamps, and with her son collecting sticks and building forts. Visit her online at nikkimcclure.com. (Photo by Lisa Owen)

Bridget Rose McKeen (Issue 5)
While showing her three children how to sustain the family farm, forest and Earth, Bridget lives by the motto “Use less. Do More.” Don’t bother looking on facebook; she isn’t there. Whether writing, gardening, hatching chickens, sewing diapers or playing the accordion, she is usually somewhere between New Montville, Maine and the top of Hogback Mountain.

Thorpe Moeckel (Issues 2-4 & 6)
Thorpe teaches at Hollins University and lives on a small farm near Buchanan, VA, where he helps his wife Kirsten and their children make good eats from their Nubian dairy herd, sheep, poultry, and big garden. Awarded a 2011 NEA Fellowship in poetry, he is the author of three books, most recently Venison: (2010, Etruscan Press). Other works include Odd Botany and Making a Map of the River

.Jason Miller, Publisher
Originally from the wild west of Fort Worth, Texas, Jason can now be found 1,800 miles away, in the “Northeast Kingdom” of Vermont. When not laying out the next issue of Taproot, he plays homesteader on five sandy acres where he, his wife and their brood of three milk a cow, raise chickens and grow vegetables, to ever varying levels of success.

Rachael Miller (Issues 2 & 5)
Rachael tries to farm five acres with her husband and three children in the northeast corner of Vermont. While she digs garden paths, clears fenceline, tends the cows and chickens, and accidentally kills tomatoes, she thinks of all the interesting things she should write down when she gets into the house. Just as she is dozing off over a really good book, she remembers there was something she wanted to say. Sometimes she manages to dredge it up, record and post it at nekhomeinstead.blogspot.com.

Schirin Oeding (Issues 3 & 5)
Schirin was born in Germany and moved to Canada at the age of ten. In 2012, she graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Humanities from Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, VT. Today, Schirin is the co-manager of a small organic CSA in southern Ontario. She loves living in her 10’ X 12’ wall tent, but can’t wait for the day when she’ll have her own farm to come home to.

Jessica Ojala (Issue 2, 4 & 6)
Jessica is a mother and photographer living in northern Vermont. She finds herself leaving her digital camera behind more often lately and rediscovering the magic of film. She is fond of old cameras, especially her Lubitel, a relic from 1980s Russia. See more of her work at jessicaojala.com.

Lotta Olsson (Issue 2)
Lotta lives near Stockholm, Sweden where she is in her final year in Illustration and Graphic Design at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design. Recently, the forest and nature have been the inspiration of her illustration. In her work she uses a ”digital herbarium” which she has collected for many years from different places she has visited. See more of her work at www.lottastrad.se.

Denise Parsons (Issues 3 & 6)
Denise is an artist and writer. Her work has appeared in various galleries in the Western United States, online in this joy+ride and Her Circle, and in several print publications, including The New York Times and The Independent of London. Currently Denise creates fiction, poetry, photography, and writes the blog Chez Danisse. She lives in San Francisco, CA and escapes to rural West Marin whenever possible.

Kimberly Peck (Issues 2 - 6)
Kimberly received her first camera at the age of seven, fell in love with farms in the first grade, and now creates organic free-range photography in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. Making an art-filled home with her husband and three children, she seeks to capture the honesty and serendipity of the everyday. See more of her photographs at kimberlypeckphotography.com.

Laura Poulette (Issues 3 & 5)
Laura is an artist who works with hand stitched fabric and natural dyes, although lately a saw is more likely in her hands as she and her husband are building a passive solar house. She lives on a rural Kentucky homestead where she makes art, tends gardens and builds with her husband and two homeschooled boys. She blogs, along with her twin sister, about all of these pursuits at duofiberworks.com.

Stephen Pullan (Issue 6)
Stephen lives happily with his true love and flock of children in a trio of solar-powered yurts. When not teaching art he can be found painting, making music, pursuing the art of old time photography and enjoying the wonders of the natural world. He is a contributor to the Shutter Sisters cameramen collective and his artwork shows around New England. See more of his work at www.stephenpullan.com.

Beth Schiller (Issue 6)
Beth spends her days farming in midcoast Maine. She continually scribbles sentences in pocket-sized notebooks, with the hope of being able to decipher them later. She loves the integration of land, food and community and strives to use language to describe this great web. Follow her at dandelionspringfarm.com.

Julia Shipley (Issues 1 & 4)
Julia is a free range journalist, farminista and the author of two poetry chapbooks Herd and Planet Jr. She loves author Elizabeth Coatsworth's description of ”growing up” as the process of accruing year upon year, ”like the trees we are still ourselves, growing out from the heartwood of our youth.“ To learn more about Julia's work, trees and other projects visit writingonthefarm.com.

Barb Skoog (Issue 6)
Barb moved from Minnesota to Southern California with her husband ten years ago and discovered that when you live in sun and warmth all year long, you are very, very happy. She blew her savings on a convertible and surfing lessons and then quit her job to begin a second life as an artist, a writer, a wanna-be chef and an avid traveler. Follow her at barbskoog.com

Kristen Solecki (Issue 6)
Kristen uses paint and ink to translate stories and moments with strong, changeable line work. She feels the best part of illustrating is making something that will have a connection with others. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband, who writes songs, and their grey cat. Both are perfect studio companions. Visit her at kristensolecki.com.

Amanda Blake Soule, Editor
Amanda is the author of The Creative Family, Handmade Home, and The Rhythm of Family, all published by Roost Books. She and her husband Steve live in the foothills of western Maine with their five children where they work together to bring back to life a 200 year old farmhouse and homestead. In their days, they strive to live simply, close to the earth, and each other. She blogs at soulemama.com.

Steve Soule (Issues 1, 2, 5 & 6)
Steve lives in western Maine with his wife Amanda and their five children. He homesteads, writes, photographs, hammers away, slings babies and enjoys “gettin’ out in it” as much as possible. Steve has worked scores of jobs from his former life as a nomadic vagabond but considers none more fulfilling than his present and permanent post as “Papa.”

Brett Stanciu (Issue 4)
In the wild netherlands of West Woodbury, VT, Brett and her family are sugarmakers. Each season, they invariably discover unexpected dimensions of sweetness while ever-aiming to avoid burning their tongues. In the time she steals away from the sugarhouse and farmers’ market, she moves between garden, daughters, and writing, in constantly varying degrees of attention.

Rima Staines (Issue 6)
Rima uses paint, words, music, animation, puppetry and story to build a gate through the hedge between the worlds. Her inspirations include the world of folktale, nomadic living, old Europe, wilderness and plant-lore. She lives on the edge of Dartmoor, UK with her beloved, Tom and their ice-eyed lurcher Macha. You can join her caravan at intothehermitage.blogspot.com.

Maya Stein (Issue 3)
Maya is a poet and creative nonfiction writer and facilitates writing workshops for adults. She has published two collections of personal essays and two collections of poetry and photographs. Her “10-line Tuesday” poems, which she has been writing for more than seven years, reach nearly 1,000 people around the world each week. To learn more, visit mayastein.com. (Photo by Jeanette LeBlanc Photography)

Desirea Stott-Rodgers (Issue 6)
Desirea is a photographer newly transplanted from New York City to a small family farm outside the lovely city of Portland, Oregon. She has photographed people for the past eleven years, in more than fifteen countries. She is also the co-founder of Love146, a non-profit which combats child trafficking and cares for survivors. One of her greatest joys is photographing the story of birth. Visit her at www.pennybirdblog.com.

Tara Thayer (Issues 3 & 5)
Tara lives with her husband Tim in a small yellow house, in the town in which she was born. Together they are raising six daughters, two cats, and a Labrador puppy. With the addition of the words writer and photographer to wife and mother, she is now exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up. See more of her work at tarathayer.com.

Amy Thompson (Issue 5)
Amy is a writer and mother. She and her husband Clayton live in a tiny bungalow in Salt Lake City with their two children where they are passing on a love of gardening. They are also perfecting their juggling act: balancing parenting and various creative pursuits from writing and art to running a furniture company. You can find more of her work at AmyThompsonWriter.com.

Clayton Thompson (Issue 4)
Clayton prizes traditional media and images made the old fashioned way, with pigment and graphite and ink. He graduated from the Academy of Art University with a BFA in Illustration. In addition to artwork, Clayton designs and builds furniture, making him doubly suited for this issue of Taproot! View more of his illustrations at claytonjamesthompson.com.

Phoebe Wahl (Issues 1 - 6)
Phoebe is a recent graduate of Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration. She spends her time illustrating the imaginary worlds she inhabited growing up in the Pacific Northwest through painting, sculpture, sewing or storytelling. You can find her wherever there are pillows, children’s books and a cup of tea. See more of her work at phoebewahl.blogspot.com.

Tracy Walker (Issues 3 & 4)
Tracy works from an old house, in a small town, north of Toronto, Canada. Collage best describes her artistic process, which begins with the scribbles and sketches collected from her garden. Her love of science and the natural world combine in playful patterns and visual narratives, whether she is illustrating a book cover or designing a textile pattern. See more at tracywalkerart.com.

Rebecca Stetson Werner (Issue 6)
Rebecca and her family live in a historic house on the outskirts of Portland, Maine where they are slowly returning their home to its colonial roots as a sustainable backyard homestead. On a busy urban street, they revive neglected blackberry patches and forgotten orchards, tend chickens and bees, fend off groundhogs, and build stronger connections with each other and the land. Follow her at treetoriver.com.

Meredith Winn (Issues 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6)
Meredith is a freelance writer and photographer. She lives off-grid with her partner and a trio of boys in the western Maine foothills. She weaves stories from truth and optical illusions from images, blending creative art and creative nonfiction. Her work can be found in a variety of publications. She is co-founder of Now You Workshops and a contributing editor to Shutter Sisters. She blogs at meredithwinn.com.