Staff
Judy Feldman
Executive Director
I come from a long line of farmers and tradespeople, but I am neither. My role at the Farm is to hold the BIG PICTURE of what we are trying to do - which is summed up in our mission statement. My day-to-day tasks vary, but I like to say that my job primarily consists of talking- with trainees, with staff, and with the community, connecting them while helping to tell their stories.
When I'm not doing all of this, to be honest, I'm thinking about all of this. But I'm also out taking photographs, using those photographs to make notebooks, spending time with my very patient partner, John, and trying to find time to visit my family in Texas.
Jeff Markette
Farm Manager
Jeff was a key player in the field in 2021, and he is now stepping into one of the biggest leadership roles at the OFS… that of the Farm Manager. A graduate of University of Montana and an alumni of the PEAS Farm, he has years of experience with vegetable production. As a participant in rodeo and cattle operations, he also has experience with handling livestock and managing pastures with a regenerative perspective. He is responsible for our crop and marketing plans, for engaging students in the implementation of the plans, and for teaching/modeling the practices of Regenerative Ag on a production farm. In his free time he likes to go mountain biking and skiing with his wonder-dog, Stella.
Anna Magnuson
Assistant Farm Manager
Anna came to agriculture via an interest and training in culinary pursuits. After working in NYC, selling fabulous cheeses in boutique retail settings, she began to wonder what went into creating those fabulous foodstuffs. Her journey with farming started with culinary school in Seattle where she embraced the connection between farm and table. Always dreaming of growing her own food led her to Whidbey Island and the farming community she now honors. She has worked at Glendale Shepherd (an OFS neighbor and friend), Orchard Kitchen Farm (an OFS neighbor and friend), and most recently at Skyroot Farm (an OFS neighbor and friend). She is excited to practice the skills she’s cultivated so far and looks forward to developing new ones with the next class of beginning farmers. When outside the field you can find her and her partner, Jordan, strategizing their new home construction, hiking Ebey's landing, or sharing a beverage at a local haunt.
Dr. Andrew Corbin
Research Director, Instructor
Dr. Andrew (Drew) Corbin is an agriculture and natural resources educator recently serving as the Senior Research Director (agronomy and organic food production) for Impact Bioenergy. He specializes in teaching sustainable, regenerative agriculture, especially as it relates to soil organic matter, cover crops, compost, resource recovery, reduced tillage, and organic farming.
Andrew has 30+ years of experience in Agroecology and has served as a Specialist in three of the leading US Land Grant Institutions (Cornell, Michigan State and Washington State Universities). He was an agricultural faculty for WSU, an MSU Extension Educator and a regional specialist in Integrated Pest Management for Cornell University Extension.
Off the farm, Drew loves playing and coaching ice hockey, watching youth baseball and softball, riding his motorcycle, playing drums, skiing, sailing, camping, biking, fishing, crabbing and shrimping in the PNW. He also just enjoys hanging out with his family on the mainland in Woodinville.
Sharon Betcher
Holistic Farmer Facilitator
After a career as a pastor and, consequently, an academic philosophical theologian, Sharon began volunteering as support to the OFS trainee cohort and staff in 2018. As a Community Mentor, Sharon provides one-on-one care to individual trainees. Sharon along with Ann Linnea provides training units for the Holistic Farmer (sessions hone trainees’ awareness of and skills towards a farmer’s overall well-being--from communication skills on the field and amidst sales, to mental and physical health as well as ethical reflection on farming amidst climate change and how to undertake humane slaughter).
The daughter of subsistence farmers and the sister of three farmers in Minnesota, Sharon—along with her partner, Jeff Rice—now steward six acres of open pasture over-looking Saratoga Passage, where she annually raises most of their vegetables and fruits. Committed to opening out the generosity and well-being of the land, the acreage, among other restorative practices, annually serves as summer pasture for sheep. Sharon, still active as an independent scholar and along with the publication of numerous academic essays and books, is a writer for Whidbey Life Magazine.
Ann Linnea
Holistic Farmer Facilitator
Ann has served as a Community Mentor with the OFS program the past 4 years. She codeveloped the supplemental Holistic Farmer curriculum with Sharon Betcher and has enjoyed working with each year’s student farmers. Ann is a writer and educator with decades of experience deepening people’s relationship with nature and environmental causes. She is the author of five books, including Teaching Kids to Love the Earth, Deep Water Passage, the story of her solo kayaking of Lake Superior, and Keepers of the Trees. She and her partner, Christina Baldwin, have lived on Whidbey Island for 28 years. She is a mother and the wilderness grandmother to Jaden and Sasha. She is a dedicated gardener with decades of experience in a wide variety of growing zones.