Fertile Ground Farm
Our 2021 Team
We are a mix of full time and seasonal workers, passionate about growing beautiful vegetables for a community we love.
Angie Koch
Owner/Farm Manager
For Angie, Fertile Ground has been an exciting venture into the world of farm entrepreneurship. With an educational and professional background in community development, Angie made a shift towards the life of vegetable-growing in 2007. Favourite farm tasks include basket weeding, trellising tomatoes, watering the greenhouse, and chatting with members at CSA pick-ups. Angie loves getting her hands dirty & is kinda proud when the grit just won’t come out from under her fingernails. When not in the fields or wrestling spreadsheets, she can likely be found strumming her banjo, sipping a craft brew, puttering in her kitchen, peering through binoculars for local birds, or shamelessly reading a novel in a sunbeam.
Lara Jerome
Field Manager
Lara is inspired by the power of food and our relationship to food for creating healthy communities. Since 2013, she's worked in a diversity of environments where people and food connect: on farms, food policy councils, in community gardens and with local food producers and retailers in Waterloo Region and Perth County. Her favourite tasks at Fertile Ground are pruning tomatoes, harvesting salad, and introducing team members to new crops. Lara runs an annual Winter CSA Nov-March with the goal of increasing access to local veggies through the cold months. This season she's experimenting with Spring Greens Boxes as well!
Grace Bruckman
Grace is a kind person who brings a positive attitude everywhere she goes. She is passionate about supporting local companies and is always looking for new ways to be more involved within the community. Growing up surrounded by a family of farmers, gardening and farm work has always been a part of her life, allowing her to build important skills and knowledge from a young age while doing a variety of different jobs. Grace has always had a love for the environment and enjoys working and learning new things while being outdoors which led her to furthering her education in Environmental Studies at the University of Laurier. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, long bike rides, creating art and doing yoga. Grace is beyond grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to get her hands and knees dirty with the Fertile Ground Team!
Jessica Amacher
Jessica thrives in outdoor environments where she is able to learn from the world around her. In the past, Jessica focused on restoring lands through planting initiatives to aid in supplying habitat for local wildlife. With a background in City Studies and Geography from studying at University of Toronto, Jessica enjoys delving deep into urban social issues. The availability of fresh, locally grown food sources can be a challenge in urban settings and Jessica wants to be part of the solution. An advocate for the environment and naturalist at heart, Jessica is excited to get her hands dirty this summer. This journey within local agriculture at Fertile Ground will be the perfect place to do so!
Aileen Verdun
Food has been a key through-line in Aileen’s life. Growing up in a farming community and coming from a family of farmers and chefs, Aileen learned from a young age that food is central to community. That lesson propelled her toward academic work centred around ancient and contemporary food systems, and drives her desire to be part of creating sustainable and just food systems. Aileen also loves growing food, and has spent one growing season working on a permaculture teaching farm, and another on an urban community farm which sought to directly address the issue of food insecurity. In her free time, Aileen enjoys baking cookies and pies, reading just about anything, making things with her hands, spending time outside, and gathering with friends and family over a meal.
Rebecca King
Rebecca is excited to share her passion for nature and sustainable living with Fertile Ground Farm this season. A graduate from the University of Waterloo with a BSc in Environmental Science, she strives to apply her knowledge and experience in her day-to-day life. Past work experiences include working on an apple orchard and inside a research greenhouse. An avid naturalist, her hobbies include hiking, foraging Ontario’s flora, and tapping her maple trees for sap each year. A previous nature interpreter, Rebecca loves being able to share her expertise of local wildlife, especially with the next generation. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking, and crafting.
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