The Agraria Farm is a 138-acre educational and research farm — located at 131 E. Enon Road — that studies and demonstrates the benefits of regenerative practices. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Agraria grows slow and steady
- Published: June 5, 2025
With spring well underway, the fields at Agraria begin to grow verdant — and the local 138-acre educational farm is gearing up to grow, too.
This month, the Agraria Center for Regenerative Practice received a $10,000 donation from local resident Celia Diamond.
“The sustainable practices modeled here are essential to humans thriving on a clean and unspoiled earth,” Diamond said in presenting the donation at Agraria’s offices. “Progress and hope begin locally. … Especially at a time when federal support is in question, it’s up to us to keep the seeds of a viable future growing and encourage similar efforts elsewhere.”
She added: “It’s up to us locally to pitch in and support this vital effort and spread the word. Agraria: live long and prosper for a future in which we can all do the same.”
The News spoke this week with Board President Jessica D’Ambrosio, who also serves as Ohio agriculture project director for The Nature Conservancy; and Eric Bee, who has served as Agraria’s interim manager since October 2023. Both said the donation from Diamond will help the educational farm as it continues to grow — slowly, and with intention.
“Donations like that, in large sums that are relatively unrestricted, really help us to drive the money where we need it most, when we need it most,” D’Ambrosio said, adding that Diamond’s large donation comes in addition to the monthly sustaining donations she makes every month.
“Celia sends me a handwritten note every month,” Bee said. “I stick them up on the bulletin board next to my desk.”
The large funding boost will follow a number of different streams, including support of programming later in the year, day-to-day needs and repairs and “getting some of the land working a little bit more,” D’Ambrosio said.
It will also, in part, go toward Agraria’s goal of hiring a new executive director.
As the News has reported in the past, Agraria has not had an executive director on staff since April 2023, when Susan Jennings resigned following the suspension of the farm’s operations earlier that year due to unpaid wages and taxes.
Over the last two years, Agraria has steadily rebuilt its operations, maintaining a steadfast volunteer base to continue working the farm and restart its educational programming. In October 2024, Mary’s Way — a walking and bike path named for the late Mary Donahoe that winds through the woods to connect Agraria to the village — opened for public use after nearly five years of effort.
Now Agraria aims to hire a new director as the organization continues to grow and refine its mission as a working educational farm; last week, Agraria posted on its website that it’s looking for a candidate with experience “leading nonprofit organizations, generating significant revenue and fundraising large dollar amounts, inspiring and supporting a team of staff, volunteers, and partners.”
“The candidate should believe in the power of regenerative agriculture, be passionate about community-building and ecological stewardship and thrive in both office and outdoor farm settings,” the job description reads.
Since late 2023, Bee has been managing all aspects of Agraria’s farm as its sole member of staff. With a new director on the way, hopefully later this year, Bee said he’s “certainly not going to leave Agraria.”
“I came as a volunteer — I was passionate about it from the beginning,” he said. “We’ve made some real progress, and I want to keep that going — but I do need some help. … I’ve learned a lot of hard lessons, and I want to pass that on and be part of Agraria’s success in the future. ”
With the hiring of a new director, D’Ambrosio said Agraria will continue to be volunteer-focused as it’s “building slowly.” Citing Mary’s Way as one of the “foundational pieces” of Agraria that connects it to the wider community, she said Agraria will continue to focus on “foundational pieces” at a prudent pace.
“Maybe we’re not moving as fast as everyone might expect, but we’re moving smartly, slowly, incrementally,” she said.
At the heart of Agraria’s foundation is its focus on educating the Miami Valley on soil health and sustainable practice, with regular community events including seed-starting workshops and seed-sharing gatherings, discussion groups and potlucks. Last year, Agraria hosted a weekend workshop focused on biochar, a soil amendment that sequesters carbon that would otherwise linger in the atmosphere and can help soil hang onto water and nutrients.
The farm also became licensed by the Ohio EPA last year to operate a composting facility. The new facility includes three in-vessel composters, which D’Ambrosio said help demonstrate different scales of how folks can compost on their own.
“That’s one of the programming areas we want to build out into the future, and hopefully work with this new executive director to educate about turning food scraps into good soil that can grow healthy food for people,” she said. “We want to show that there are ways you can do composting in a small space that’s controlled.”
At present — partnering with composting firms GoZERO, based in Zanesville, and Glorified Dirt, based in Dayton — Agraria composts its own waste as well as food scraps from some local restaurants. However, Bee said the facility’s composting facility doesn’t have the capacity to serve the village as a whole.
“It’s not fully operational yet, but we’ve created about 15 cubic yards of compost since we started — and all of that has gone back into the Agraria gardens,” Bee said. “I think Agraria will probably never be big enough to do what Yellow Springs ultimately wants to do, which is to be zero-waste — but our partners can absolutely make that happen.”
“It’s a budding relationship [with GoZERO and Glorified Dirt], just in the beginning phases,” D’Ambrosio added. “We don’t know where it could go, but we’re all excited about the opportunities.”
Another opportunity for community education and collaboration may be Agraria’s recent undertaking in growing kernza, a grain derived from ancient wheatgrass species. Kernza is on the rise among sustainable farmers because, unlike wheat, it’s a perennial crop that doesn’t need to be replanted every year, reducing the need for tilling and encouraging water retention and carbon sequestration in soil. It’s high in fiber and protein, so it’s also a nutritious alternative to traditional wheat.
But producing the grain for human consumption comes with challenges: Its yields are typically lower than wheat, and though kernza isn’t new, there isn’t much infrastructure in place for milling and marketing the grain.
“It doesn’t mill like regular wheat, and so we’ve had to work with some experts up in Carroll, Ohio, at the Brant Farm and a place called Local Millers to get all that done,” Bee said. “And we’re trying to develop a market.”
Bee said he’s been encouraged by local buy-in from village resident and baker Helena Maus, who runs Blue House Bakery and has incorporated kernza grown at Agraria into the recipe for one of her loaves. Bee said he’s also hoping to work with YS Brewery to develop a beer from the grain.
Looking ahead, D’Ambrosia said, Agraria aims to continue developing community-based and educational initiatives, educating folks about ways to grow their own food and keep the Miami Valley’s soil healthy, noting that “healthy soil grows healthy food, which grows healthy communities.”
“We’re really excited that donations like Celia’s help us launch things and get excited about ideas and make them a reality,” she said. “We can meet the goals of our strategic plan in a financially sustainable way, but also an environmentally sustainable way.”
The Yellow Springs News encourages respectful discussion of this article.
You must login to post a comment.
Don't have a login? Register for a free YSNews.com account.
No comments yet for this article.