Agraria Journal Winter 2021

40 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 TIA STUART Tia’s first memory of vegetables from a garden was from her grandmother and auntie’s backyard patches. Fresh tomatoes, green to red, crisp collards, fat bell peppers— those were some of the many offerings. At four years old, she never dreamed that she would one day own her very own farm. Fast forward about twenty years and you would find her immersing herself in the fascinating world of gardening. Reading book after book. Watching “how to” videos, by the thousands. Attending classes, conferences, and workshops. She wanted to know all about growing food, but not just growing it, growing it in the best way possible. She wanted to grow food that was highly nutritious for the body and for the land. Organic gardening skills were incorporated in the lesson plans that she developed for her eleven (yes, 11) children who have always been home educated. Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithmetic … and Gardening. “’The three R’s’ desperately needed a ‘G,’ in my opinion,” she says. To make a very long story short, as the years passed on and she and her family gained skills and knowledge about regenerative growing practices through trial and error, they decided that natural progression called for an official family farm. With the goals of honoring their God, providing nutritious food, and continued educational opportunities for their family, friends, and communities (with a special emphasis on communities considered food deserts), The Narrow Way Farm was established. Today, Tia is excited to be joining Agraria as the 2022 Regenerative Farmer Fellowship Coordinator. “I am looking forward to sharing the knowledge I have acquired over the past 20-plus years with the 2022 cohort,” she says. “Additionally, I will find pleasure in supporting Agraria in their mission to restore ecosystem health, heal our relationship with the land, and grow just and equitable food systems.” CELIA MONTEMURRI Celia Montemurri is an environmental educator and farming enthusiast who is passionate about providing people of all ages the opportunity to reconnect with the natural world. She graduated in 2019 from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental biology and holds a certificate in environmental education from Hamline University in Minnesota. She came to Agraria in June 2021 as a Summer VISTA, intending to stay for only the 10-week term of service. But those plans changed along the way. “I fell in love with Agraria and its mission,” she says. “And I was thrilled when they offered me a full-time position as a member of both the land and education teams.” She now leads the EcoGrowers program and co-leads the All-School program. She also helps tend the land, growing food and managing the outdoor spaces. Before she joined Agraria, her work focused primarily on providing spaces for inner city youth to experience nature. She was an environmental educator at Osprey Wilds, a residential environmental learning center in Minnesota, and a youth educator at Adventure Central and Wesleylan Metro Park in Dayton, Ohio. As an educator and land team member at Agraria, Celia hopes “to continue to create an environment where people of all ages can connect with nature, gain an appreciation for the land, and become good stewards of the soil, our ecosystem, and the earth.”