8:30am – 5:30pm CST

Help Desk

We have staff on call during the entire conference to help with any questions or issues you may have.

8:30am – 9am CST

Yoga with Nelle

Join a restorative yoga practice focused on longevity for the perennial work we do. A slow flow practice for all experience levels. Mat or rug optional.

Nelle is a mom, farmer, and student of yoga for nearly two decades. Alongside her husband and three children, she grows a wide variety of annuals, helps attend to a herd of cattle and sheep and a flock of hens. They live on a piece of heaven on planet earth in north central Wisconsin (Wausau). 

9am – 9:30am CST

Welcome with Keefe Keeley, Executive Director at the Savanna Institute

Savanna Institute’s Executive Director Keefe Keeley welcomes all to the Perennial Farm Gathering and sets the stage for three days of discussion, stories, and nutshell updates with fellow perennial agriculture enthusiasts.

9:30am – 12:00pm CST

Nutshells Talks: Share your perennial story

Moderated by Barbara Decré, Wisconsin Community Agroforester at the Savanna Institute

A perennial favorite of the gathering, our Nutshell Talks invite audience members to share five-minute updates, stories, lessons-learned or nagging questions from their work. You can include slides or other visual aids if you’d like–or you can just talk with guests. Nutshells are a great way to connect with a community of practice and help build knowledge across the region. Sign up in advance or during the session for a five-minute slot in the list of Nutshell presenters.

12pm – 12:30pm CST

Demo Farms: Listening Session

Moderated by Kaitie Adams, Demonstration Farm Director at the Savanna Institute

In 2019, Savanna Institute launched a network of Demonstration Farms to showcase the power and possibility of adding agroforestry to their farm landscapes. Now with 7 farms across 2 states showcasing innovative windbreak, alley cropping, silvopasture, and riparian buffer designs and research questions, we’re looking to future successions of these farms and opportunities to expand the program. And we want to hear from you! Join us for a listening session to answer the question: What do YOU want to see on Savanna Institute Demonstration Farms?

12pm – 1pm CST

Lunch Room: Open Discussion

Not enough networking time or space in a virtual conference? This is an open space to chat either on video or through the chat with other attendees. Feel free to join, or not, or eat your lunch, or not. This session will be unmoderated.

2:15pm – 3:15pm CST

Thick as Thieves with Samantha Bosco

Samantha Bosco, Cornell University Graduate School
Moderated by Jacob Grace, Host of the Perennial AF podcast

People have been eating nuts (nucivory) and relating with nut trees for over thousands of years in what is now called the northeastern US. “Thick as Thieves”, as the saying goes, is about the close relationships, allyships, confidences, and strategies towards ulterior agroecological agendas. We’ll trace through a few historical roots of agroforestry advocates from across time and consider possibilities for the future.

Samantha Bosco is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University Graduate School of Integrative Plant Science Horticulture Section. Her dissertation, “Research is Nuts”, examines the past, present, and future role of temperate nut trees in both Indigenous and non-native communities. She’s led interactive education on the Skarù:rę Food Forest Project and serves on the Agroforestry Program Work Team for Cornell Cooperative Extension. Outside of academia Bosco is a parent, musician, forager, gardener, cyclist, rock climber, and lifelong wanderer.

3:30pm – 5pm CST

What Can Land Access Look Like?

Nathan Aaberg, Liberty Prairie Foundation and The Land Connection
Alison Volk, American Farmland Trust
Eva Moss, Farm Commons
Hannah Breckbill, Humble Hands Harvest
Shelley Buffalo, (Meskwaki) Consultant for food sovereignty and local foods initiatives
Darius Nupolu, Dows Farm in Cedar Rapids
Moderated by Kaitie Adams, Savanna Institute

What does it mean to own land or have access? Looking for ways to access land for perennial production? Are you thinking towards the future about how to continue to provide sustainable stewardship to the land you own?  Join us as we discuss the ins and outs of land access and considerations when thinking about the land you want or the land you have.

Nathan Aaberg launched the Northeast Illinois FarmLink land access program at Liberty Prairie Foundation, which connects, advises, and educates farmers and farmland owners around land access and improved land stewardship. Nathan is working to build the program into a state-wide Illinois FarmLink with The Land Connection. Nathan and his family live in the Prairie Crossing conservation community in Grayslake, IL.

Alison Volk coordinates all aspects of new easement acquisitions across the country. Prior to joining American Farmland Trust, Alison worked at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection for ten years. For five of those years she oversaw the Department’s farmland preservation program, which included the state’s agricultural conservation easement program. She earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied land use law and policy and focused on agricultural land preservation tools including conservation easements.

Eva Moss works in sustainable agriculture as a grower and an educator. As an educator, she functions as a conduit — (re)connecting farmers and ranchers with the unique seeds of their creative power in business transactional law. Her approach centers on emergent strategy, compassionate communication, and power with approaches. 

Hannah Breckbill co- owns and manages Humble Hands Harvest, a worker-owned co-operative farm that grows 2+ acres of organic vegetables, grass-finished sheep, pastured pork, and fruit and nut trees. The small business distributes at the Winneshiek Farmers Market in Decorah; and through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for both our veggies and our meat. The farm found a long-term home in 2017 on Hidden Falls Road, 10 miles from Decorah, on ancestral Sauk, Meskwaki, Lakota, and Ho-chunk land, and began functioning as a worker-owned co-operative that same year.

Shelley Buffalo is an enrolled member of the Meskwaki Tribe, also know as the Sac & Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa. Shelley served her community as Meskwaki Food Sovereignty Coordinator and now offers consultancy for food sovereignty and local foods initiatives. She is an advocate for indigenous food ways, food justice, and rematriation. A mother of two sons, Shelley made a living as a house painter and artist before finding her passion in farming and seed saving. The Meskwaki are unique in that their land based community is a settlement, not a reservation. Established in 1857 with the purchase of 80 acres near Tama, Iowa, the Meskwaki Settlement has grown to approximately 8,400 acres.