FarmHouse

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re keeping it all in the family with a roundtable episode featuring some of the women who work at Lancaster Farming.

Joining co-hosts Candice Wierzbowski and Stephanie Speicher from the editorial department are Kelly Thomas and Rebecca Schweitzer-Benner, and from the advertising department are Brittany Copenhaver and Torey Shotzberger.

While most of the guests had an ag-adjacent background prior to working for Lancaster Farming, Shotzberger grew up on her dad’s hobby farm.

“I grew up helping him with hay and other crops and sitting in the tractor and combine,” Shotzberger said.

Now she’s working as an inside sales representative at Lancaster Farming, helping customers place ads each week selling items ranging from farm equipment to animals to hay.

Copenhaver is also an advertising sales representative focusing on auction ads.

“It’s very important for them to get (the ads) in to get the exposure that they do need for their client,” Copenhaver said. “I’m not just helping them. I am helping also their client reach the maximum visual of their ad and try to get their property sold, or their pieces, for the most money possible.”

On the editorial side of the roundtable, Schweitzer-Benner is the special sections editor, a job she said fits nicely with her degree in professional writing.

“I go and I learn about a topic that I might not know anything about beforehand, and then I figure out how to present it to people who also might not know anything about it,” Schweitzer-Benner said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

Thomas, who has a background in both print and broadcast journalism, joined the team at Lancaster Farming after being out of the news industry for a number of years.

Now she edits the food and family section, the B Section.

“It’s a lot of responsibility trying to put together B Section,” Thomas said. “This is the first time that I get to put together and see a finished product of my work. I think there’s a greater responsibility and accountability that comes along with that.”

Though the advertising and editorial departments perform different jobs, there was one commonality between the departments — a focus on people.

Whether ad customers, freelance correspondents or the subjects who are interviewed, the people of the agriculture industry were a favorite of all the guests.

The FarmHouse podcast will be taking a short break from publishing. The next new episode will be out Oct. 17.

Listen to the FarmHouse episode mentioned featuring Laura Zoeller here:

Love, Loss and Livestock With Laura Zoeller

Listen to the FarmHouse episode mentioned featuring Katie Dotterer here:

Breaking Down Language Barriers on the Farm With Katie Dotterer

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re joined by Katie Dotterer who uses her company AgvoKate to advocate for agriculture while also teaching farmers Spanish to improve on-farm communication.

Dotterer grew up on a dairy farm in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. As a young woman milking alongside Spanish-speaking farmworkers, she developed a passion for Spanish and enjoyed spending her shifts speaking to co-workers in their native language.

Dotterer continued to pursue dairy, including briefly owning her own dairy, but eventually decided to embrace her love of Spanish. Over the course of her career in dairy, she identified a language barrier that often existed between farmers and workers and decided she could do something about that.

She now offers Spanish classes with curriculum designed specifically for farmers. Her students may not need to know how to ask where the nearest library is, but learning how to talk about animals, tools and chores is useful.

“The very first vocab list, I’m just going to give you an example, in dairy, you’re learning how to say cow, heifer, bucket, gate. I have specific milking parlor terminology,” Dotterer says.

She teaches classes that focus on other farming operations, too. “Here’s a fun fact. In swine, I learned that there are six different ways to say piglet depending on where somebody is from,” she says, explaining the need to take various dialects into account while teaching.

While there are some who might argue it’s the Spanish-speaking workers’ responsibility to learn to speak English, Dotterer disagrees.

In her opinion, employers of Spanish-speaking workers have the responsibility to learn how to communicate effectively with their employees.

“I’m not asking you to be fluent, but you could meet them halfway,” says Dotterer. “There’s nothing wrong with learning how to say, ‘Good morning. How is your family?’ ‘Hey, the cow is sick.’ ‘Can you grab the red bucket?’”

In addition to teaching farmers how to speak Spanish, Dotterer also gives English lessons to farm workers.

She explained that many of them want to learn English and are trying, but added that English is a difficult language to learn.

The language and cultural barriers may make things difficult at times, but Dotterer stressed that maintaining respect and positive relationships with Spanish-speaking workers is important, citing the critical role these workers play in US agriculture.

“I used to say that the US agriculture industry would be crippled without the immigrant labor force. I no longer say that. I say that we would actually be non-existent,” says Dotterer.

You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming story discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

10 Women You Meet in Farm Country: Which One Are You?

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re joined by Katie Speicher, the assistant farm manager for Poughkeepsie Farm Project, a nonprofit seeking to foster an inclusive environment for its community while improving food access and education.

PFP began as a sustainable produce farming operation in 1999. Since then it has grown from 3 to 12 acres with an over 300-member-strong CSA.

In addition to its CSA, PFP sells to local restaurants, hosts educational programming, maintains community gardens and donates around 40,000 pounds of sustainably grown produce each year to area food banks.

A highlight of PFP’s operations is its community harvests — gleaning events open to the public. During these events, community members are invited to assist with the season’s harvest, taking home as much produce as they need. Any remaining food is then donated to local food access partners, ensuring nothing goes to waste.

According to Speicher, these community harvests are strong examples of the farm’s dedication to inclusivity.

“It’s great because there’s people of different cultures who recognize certain foods that we grow and are so excited,” Speicher says. “We had bok choy that was flowering and we had some folks of Asian descent come and they are actually so excited to get the flowers. People who aren’t familiar with that don’t know how to use it. So it’s great to see all the parts of our plants being eaten and used.”

Speicher had always been interested in working outside, but it wasn’t until she began volunteering on vegetable farms that she realized she had a passion for agriculture.

“I was like, oh, this is a really great way to spend time outdoors, get connected with my food. And I just really took an interest in it,” says Speicher.

Before coming to work at PFP, Speicher spent time in Senegal, where she volunteered with the Peace Corps. While there, she worked with farmers to grow tree seedlings that could be incorporated into their farms, either as natural fencing or as crops, such as cashews and mangos.

She’s happy to have landed at PFP, though, and feels empowered by its community-driven mission.

“To me, having a hand in food is like synonymous with having a hand in community,” said Speicher. “Growing with compassion is just such a powerful thing.”

You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming story discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

Hive Mind: Penn State Researchers Track Over 400 Native Bee Species in PA

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Agriculture is the Culture With FarmerJawn's Christa Barfield

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re joined by Jennifer Anderson, executive director for Trellis For Tomorrow.

Trellis For Tomorrow is a nonprofit organization in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, that works toward building sustainable communities with a focus on food justice and teaching community members how to garden and grow their own produce.

“The work that we do is really about helping people to lead and feed themselves,” said Anderson. “So, it’s about how we can help communities to be more self-sustainable, particularly around growing food and eating healthy and more nutritiously.”

The organization accomplishes this work through several programs, all of which are designed around growing and donating food.

Its SEED Skills program, for ages 12-18, centers on teaching youths how to manage a garden and grow and harvest organic produce. Program participants are paid for the work in multiple community gardens, and their harvest is distributed within the surrounding communities.

While the kids leave the program with gardening skills, they also come away with leadership and communication skills, which Trellis For Tomorrow emphasizes in each of its programs.

“Using agriculture as both a medium for life skills, building life skills, you know, you’re there literally showing up every day and getting to work,” said Anderson.

Many of the SEED Skills participants then go on to Trellis For Tomorrow’s GROW Careers program for ages 18-26. GROW participants are placed in paid internships at local nonprofits and social impact businesses where they can further develop their skills and build their resumes.

Trellis For Tomorrow also provides nearby communities with locally and sustainably grown produce through its Food For All program.

The organization works with community members and partner organizations to start up and maintain gardens that are tended by volunteers.

The program has 27 grow sites across five counties and donates at least 50% of its harvest to area food banks, though for many of the grow sites, that number is closer to 95% or 98%. Anderson estimates that 35,000-45,000 pounds of produce is donated every year through the program.

There’s something about gardening and providing food to one’s community that people find rewarding and enjoyable, Anderson said.

“There’s a big part of that program that is community building,” she said. “These are all different types of gardens, but when you have groups of people coming together and meeting in the garden, it’s an equalizer, right? Everybody’s excited about being there.”

You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming story discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

Majority of Farm Families Struggle With Access to Child Care, According to Survey

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re joined by Heidi Secord.

Secord is the first woman to serve as Pennsylvania’s executive director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

Additionally, Secord and her husband own and operate the Josie Porter Farm, a diversified vegetable operation in Monroe County, Pennsylvania.

The farm operates a CSA, which began with 45 members and has grown to 200.

They also have a farm stand that serves as a community food hub, offering agricultural products from other local farms.

“It’s benefiting them. It benefits us. It benefits the community,” Secord said. “It’s that real triple win that we’re all looking for.”

Now Secord has almost 30 years of agricultural experience, but her journey into the industry was a bit unexpected, and certainly unique.

“I really didn’t know I wanted to be in agriculture until I spent time in West Africa. I was in the Peace Corps and working with women and agriculture there, and really understanding what subsistence agriculture looks like,” Secord said. “So it was really that experience that drove me into that space when I got back.”

Secord served for two years in Mali, and while she was there she said she got to experience the spirit of women and community, and with that a lot of joy.

When she returned to the U.S. after her service, Secord said she felt a bit of culture shock, and didn’t think a job outside of agriculture would make her feel fulfilled.

“It felt like coming here and growing food for my community was a place that just meant a lot,” Secord said. “Not just for me, but for my community.”

While at FSA, Secord is focusing on making sure farmers’ voices are able to be heard, regardless of age, background or farm type.

“Our priorities have really been around making sure that all sectors of agriculture have a place at the table,” she said.

Secord is a past president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union and is a member of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

She said farm organizations, along with the USDA, are the best ways for farmers to get a seat at the table in order to share their stories, in turn leading to policy changes.

“Policy is driven by farmers,” Secord said. “If there are changes that people want to see, then it needs to come from that local, agricultural space.”

You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming story discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

Third-Generation Dairy Farm Offers Sunflower Maze and Farm Tours

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Emmalea Ernest, a fruit and vegetable specialist with University of Delaware Extension.

Ernest’s areas of expertise include lima bean breeding and production, and heat stress tolerance.

“Delaware is one of the few places in the United States where we have a lot of lima bean production,” Ernest said.

Ernest, along with other researchers, focus a lot of attention on lima beans because it’s such an important crop for the state, and there isn’t much research being done elsewhere.

When Ernest asked growers about a decade ago, heat stress was a top concern for the crop because it reduces yields.

Since getting that response, Ernest has been working to breed varieties of beans that can tolerate heat better than previous commercial varieties.

“A new variety is one of the easiest technologies for a grower to implement,” Ernest said. “We can’t do a lot to change the weather. So what we need to do is change the varieties that we’re growing.”

With Delaware being such a small state, Ernest said Extension specialists get to know the growers well, which she said is one of her favorite parts of her job.

“Those relationships are what make the job rewarding,” she said.

In addition to her role with Extension, Ernest and her husband own Ernest Fruit Farm in Sussex County, where they grow blueberries, strawberries and, yes, lima beans.

Ernest always knew that she wanted to work with plants, and a career in agriculture flowed nicely into that dream.

She got experience working in greenhouses in high school before going on to study horticulture and plant breeding.

Now Ernest welcomes a handful of young people into the research program each summer to help the next generation get into agriculture.

“Find yourself a job doing something in agriculture as soon as you can so you get some experience and you know what it’s like,” Ernest said. “Any way that you can to get hands-on experience, that’s probably my best advice.”

You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming story discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

Dog Breeders Can Get Support From New Penn State Educator

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Ashley Asdal, owner of Riamede Farms, a pick-your-own apple orchard in Chester, New Jersey.

Riamede has been in operation since the 1930s and opened its pick-your-own business in 1974, making it one of the first pick-your-own orchards in the state.

Many of Riamede’s fruiting trees were planted during the farm’s early days, making them nearly 100 years old. It’s part of what makes the operation special, says Asdal, noting that most apple trees stop producing fruit after about 50 years.

“For these trees to have been planted in the late 1930s and still be bearing fruit for us nearly a hundred years later, I think it’s really remarkable,” Asdal said. “And it gives the orchard this totally different kind of step back in time feel that I think our customers really appreciate.”

Aside from apple picking, Riamede’s customers can also pick their own pumpkins, squash and sunflowers.

Asdal has also found success in hosting entertainment and events on the farm. The Saturday night line dancing series has become a popular draw and the farm’s annual farm-to-table dinners featuring local ingredients sell out in a matter of days.

“I think I have people who care about this farm and support it,” Asdal said of what brings people to Riamede to celebrate local fare. “They like the feel of it. I think they like that it’s fresh and it’s local, and they know where the food is coming from.”

Before coming to Riamede, Asdal had no plans to pursue agriculture. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and planned for a career in the Navy.

But life had other plans, and in 2019 when a family acquaintance asked if Asdal would like to run a farm, Asdal decided to dive in.

Though she had no agricultural background, Asdal believes the skills she developed over 15 years spent in the military helped prepare her for the transition to farming.

“You learn a lot of discipline. You learn to wake up early in the morning, to have a long day, to lift heavy things. To make decisions. To think about risk and quantifying risk in clear ways, both to yourself and to the people who work with you. You learn to lead. I mean, all of those are really important farming skills,” Asdal said.

Farming may not have been what Asdal initially envisioned for herself, but she’s happy where she is and encourages more women to think about pursuing agriculture.

“I just think there’s a lot of room for women to lead here and to have their own voice and also a different perspective,” said Asdal. “I think that the perspective that women bring to the agriculture field, it’s kind of sorely needed.”

You can find more information on Lancaster Farming story discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

Lebanon Area Fair Makes History With Meishan Pigs

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Sophie Brauns.

She coordinates Maryland Market Money, a program run by the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission and the Maryland Department of Agriculture that provides a dollar-for-dollar match, up to $30, for purchases made using federal nutrition benefits at farmers markets and farm stands throughout the state.

About 70 markets currently accept Maryland Market Money.

“When I came on board two years ago, we had 30,” Brauns said. “So we’ve over doubled our access points, which is insane.”

The program is a win-win for farmers and consumers.

“It’s really wonderful for supporting our farmers,” Brauns said. “It’s a way for people to engage with their community. When you build that relationship with the farmer, that becomes like your go-to farm, like your go-to market. I think that breeds health. Not only like cellular, like bodily health, but also relational health.”

Brauns, who is from Maryland’s Calvert County, developed a passion for agriculture and food access while working in Houston, Texas. Now back in her home state, she is focused on connecting people to nutritious fresh food.

“A third of Marylanders are facing food insecurity. That is absurd, but that’s real,” Brauns said. “When you think about your health, when you think about the community’s health, when you think about the future of our children, if they’re not getting baseline nutritious food, I don’t know how we can really expect anything much better moving forward.”

In addition to the Maryland Market Money program, Brauns has also been working with local farmers and churches to establish free fridges where community members can pick up free, fresh produce and other farm products.

According to Feeding America, about 750,000 people in Maryland are food insecure, but with the taxing job of farming, Brauns said many farmers are often unaware of this insecurity right in their own backyards.

Her job with Maryland Market Money is to bridge that gap between farmers and consumers in need. She said once farmers are aware of the lack of food access, they often want to be part of the solution.

“It’s innate in farmers to care about your community. Farmers are some of the most intelligent, caring individuals that I have ever met,” Brauns said. “I think that once they’re told about the food insecurity, they can’t help themselves but wanting to figure out how they can be involved in it.”

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Annaliese Wegner of Modern Day Farm Chick, an online platform Wegner uses to connect with other women in ag and to educate consumers about farming.

Wegner grew up on a farm and now runs a dairy with her husband where they milk 600 cows.

For a time, Wegner worked side by side with her husband and felt satisfied in her role as an equal partner in the operation. However, that feeling changed when she gave birth to their twins and had to adapt to a new role on the farm.

As she adjusted to spending more time at home, Wegner turned to social media was a way to connect to others, especially other women living on farms.

“You’re wanting someone to talk to, and talk to somebody who gets it,” she said of the community she found online. “And when you live in a rural area, you don’t get that same contact or those same kind of friends. So I’m very thankful for the community I’ve built, the friends I’ve made.”

Wegner soon saw social media as an opportunity to do more than just connect. She’d started sharing articles about agvocating and decided to try writing her own, which she began posting on a Facebook page she’d created called “Modern Day Farm Chick.”

Wegner’s stories about her own farming experiences and the importance of agriculture quickly gained a following, which encouraged her to keep going. Wegner now writes a blog in addition to sharing content about her life and farming on social media.

“The reason I do it is because I want to share my farm life with people, and I want to help bridge the gap from farm to table,” Wegner said.

Now she’s continuing to spread her message through podcasting. She and farmer Courtney Feigl, who she met through her online community, host Ag’s Most Okayest Farm Girls, a podcast about the realities of working in ag.

“Our whole message is, we are not perfect. We are not the best at what we do. Nobody is. It’s okay to just be okay. You’re doing great,” Wegner said.

When it comes to connecting with others and agvocating, Wegner stressed the importance of being real and being yourself.

“That’s how you’re going to find common ground with someone and connect with them,” she explained. “And then when you do talk about agriculture or talk about a product you’re selling, they’re going to be much more apt to hear what you have to say and want to buy it from you, because they feel like they know you.”

You can find Annaliese Wagner online at her website, on Facebook and on Instagram.

You can listen to Ag’s Most Okayest Farm Girls here or wherever you usually listen to podcasts.

You can find more information on the two Lancaster Farming stories discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

Elle St. Pierre

Orpha Rose Longenecker

The FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, is back this week and keeping it in the family.

This week’s episode features Melissa Harrop, our markets editor here at Lancaster Farming.

Harrop and her husband farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania. She is also active in the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and is an Army veteran.

After serving in the Army for four years, Harrop was medically discharged. However, a transition back to civilian life wasn’t an easy task. That is until she discovered farming.

“Farming was something that kind of saved me,” Harrop said. “Agriculture and production farming was kind of my lifeline in a lot of ways.”

For Harrop, working in agriculture required a lot of the same skill sets needed in the Army, so transitioning to working on a farm was a natural fit.

“The Army, or the military in general, is that same type of discipline,” Harrop said. “It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the world around you, this is your job and it still needs to get done.”

Having military discipline certainly came in handy when Harrop and her family had to unexpectedly leave the farmland her husband’s family had been farming for decades. Last summer, the owners sold the land to be developed into warehouses.

Harrop and her husband did find other land to farm in Chester County, which has become a bit of a rarity.

“Chester County has some of the best soil on the East Coast,” Harrop said. “All of that is being taken over in order to put developments and warehouses and shopping malls.”

In addition to farming, Harrop compiles all the market reports in the Lancaster Farming newspaper and online. She also is active in her local Farm Bureau and serves as the vice chair of the ag promotion committee for the state Farm Bureau.

Harrop also enjoys being a fair mom and helping her 11-year-old daughter show market goats.


“Being a woman in ag means that I’m giving opportunities to other women, and to my daughter, especially, to be able to help her community, to be able to feed the world to be independent, to have a place where she can put down roots, both figuratively and physically, so that she has the best future imaginable and that can be whatever she wants it to be,” Harrop said.