Ozarks Homesteading Expo September 6-7, 2024 Marshfield, Missouri

Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson.  He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products. Salatin is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movemen and is the author of many books including POLYFACE MICRO – Success with Livestock on a Homestead Scale  Follow Joel at www.polyfacefarms.com 

Shawn and Beth Dougherty have been farming together since the 1980’s, for the last twenty years in eastern Ohio, where they manage 90 acres, much of it designated by the state as ‘not suitable for agriculture’.  Using intensive grazing as the primary source of food energy, they raise dairy and beef cows, sheep, farm-fed hogs, and a variety of poultry, producing most of the food, feed and fertility for humans and animals, on the farm.  Concerned that farming is so often dependent upon multiple off-farm resources, from feed, fuel and fertilizer to water and electricity, their ongoing project is to identify and test the means by which farming was done for centuries with a minimum of off-farm inputs. Their research has led them to identify grass conversion, especially the daily conversion of grass into milk by dairy ruminants, as a key to whole-farm sustainability, combined with the integrated nutrient feed-backs that are possible with a community of diverse animal and plant species, domestic and native.    They are the authors of The Independent Farmstead, 

 Brandon will demonstrate the art of butchery and make it look and sound like poetry. Farmstead Meatsmith is the only abattoir, butchery and educational operation of our kind in the country. Brandon says: meatsmithery appeals particularly to small farmers, homesteaders, their interns and anyone enthused by localized agrarianism, which includes urbanites with zero agricultural experience and even vegetarians who object not to meat, but tormented livestock

Learn from Brandon as he dispatches, scalds and scrapes a butcher hog and then demonstrates various old world curing processes. 

Lisa has a blog showcasing everyday life in the farmhouse; food from scratch, natural living and a handmade home. She grew up in the country on an elk farm in Missouri. After spending one year in St. Louis for college, she returned to rural Missouri convinced that urban life wasn't for her. You can also find her on YouTube. She will be teachig on
How to Get From-Scratch Meals on the Table 3 Times a Day without losing your sanity. 

Bo Brown​ is the Owner of First Earth Wilderness School, and Author of Foraging the Ozarks and Foraging the Central Plains. Bo has been teaching outdoor skills for decades.. He is a songbird field biologist and field research technician. He conducts programs for Stone Age wilderness survival skills, and Natural Education at his schools property along the Niangua River. He also leads weekly primitive skills and foraging demonstrations at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park, a Johnny Morris Property. ​

Ann is the face behind the brand, A Farm Girl in the Making, and the author of, The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest. If there were one thing you'd need to know about Ann, it is her passion for achieving and teaching others to achieve food freedom. Ann and her family farm in middle Tennessee and offer hands-on workshops for those seeking to learn traditional skills such as food preservation, fermentation, livestock processing, herbal remedies, and farmhouse sourdough. 

Rachael West is the Owner, Lead Instructor and Founder of Eating the Ozarks. She is an Expert Forager, Wild Foods Chef, Certified Herbalist and Author of Wild Foraged an educational culinary cookbook. She's taught wild foods in the Ozarks for the past decade working with KOLR-10 (biweekly Wednesday's), the Missouri Master Gardeners, Various Herbalist Societies, Homeschool Groups, Private Land Owners, Local Library's, Springfield Community Gardens, Springfield Art Museum and more. 

Dewayne is a national speaker on all things homesteading from wildcrafting to animal husbandry. He has studied microbiology and has a degree in agriculture. Dewayne is a Cherokee citizen and as a child he spent much of his time in the Dine and Navajo Indian reservations. Dewayne can teach on so many topics from meat goats to herbalism to emergency preparedness, rainwater collection and so much more but we will have to pin him down to one or two. 

Mike Snyder is a myco-educator who has been studying and foraging for mushrooms for over a decade and loves nothing more than to share what he has learned with anyone who will listen. He and his wife Cara are the owners of WildWise Botanicals. They built a straw bale house, are a homeschooling family, and grow a variety of herbs and mushrooms on their South-Central Missouri homestead. He is on the Board of the Missouri Mycological Society and heads up both the Speaking Engagement and the Research committees for that organization. He is a certified mushroom identification expert in three states and serves on the Cultivation Committee of the North American Mycological Association. He stays busy with speaking engagements, forays, workshops and classes he provides around the region and has been fortunate enough to teach a large number of people about foraging and cultivating mushrooms in recent years.

Karson’s passion for agriculture started at a young age. As a boy, he would spend every possible moment helping his grandpa on the family ranch. He also spent his teenage years working for a local hay farmer. Karson has over 9 years of experience helping agriculture producers, and has worked in both the feed and agronomy industries. Karson’s real passion is beef cows. He and his family have a small ranch where you can find them running their cows in Utah's high desert. Recently, they got involved with raising purebred Angus bulls. Karson loves working with producers to help them simplify their mineral program and improve the health of their soil and livestock.

Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan) raises free-range, organic children in suburban Ohio. He has been using natural building as his soapbox to preach self-reliance and community empowerment, since 2004. Building houses, pizza ovens, and woodstoves with mud and junk is his way of sharing the Can-Do spirit. He writes, teaches workshops and hosts a mud pit and DIY building demonstrations at Fairs across the US.

Dr. Patrick Jones is a practicing veterinarian, clinical herbalist, traditional naturopath and sought-after author and lecturer. He is the founder of the HomeGrown Herbalist School of Botanical Medicine. His lecture style has been described as a cross between deep information and standup comedy. When you leave his class, your brain will be full and your sides will be sore from laughing. His engaging and down-to-Earth style will leave you feeling truly excited and empowered to use these wonderful plants. 

Because of his veterinary credentials, Dr. Jones has had the opportunity to use herbs on all sorts of cases that would not typically be addressed by herbalists. Rattlesnake bites, gunshot wounds, serious infections and systemic illnesses of all kinds make up his daily herbal practice for man and beast. Because of the miracles he's seen over the years, Dr. Jones has an evangelical zeal to teach others about herbal medicine. His book The HomeGrown Herbalist and his school emphasize self-reliant herbalism and being plant-based rather than product based. Dr. Jones and his wife LoriAnn are the parents of 15 (mostly adopted) children. They live in Filer, Idaho. 

Rachel Hester lives with her husband and son in Central Kentucky and steward WhoopsyDaisy Farm. Rachel first discovered sheep could be used for dairy while volunteering on the Mission Field in Eastern Europe.  It is now her passion to make sheep milk accessible to all who want it and to spread joy through her love of all things sheep. She is the author of ‘The Guide to Homestead Dairy Sheep,’ currently the only book

 in-print on the topic. 

Lana Stenner is an author of the Grace Filled Homestead and the Grace Filled Cookbook, Grace Filled Grit podcast host, college professor, and backyard farmer. Twenty years ago, Lana and her husband, CJ, decided to ditch their fast-paced hustle for the simple life. They found a small farm on the edge of town, moved their four little children into a 100-year-old fixer-upper, and began to focus on God, goats, and gardens at the Grace-Filled Homestead. 

Bob Rider, has over 15 years of experience in Aquaponics, he is excited to share his knowledge with you.Olive Branch believes that our aquaponics system is the beating heart of our farm, generating beneficial “byproducts” that are used in place of store-bought options. Join Bob and his team as they unveil how these byproducts, such as fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides, and soil amendments, are repurposed to enhance every aspect of our farm's ecosystem. Discover how we close the loop.

 Connie Jacoby, N.D., a 25 year Nursing professional disenchanted with the progression of western medicine. She chose to return to the paths of health and wellness of our forefathers and dedicated to provide the highest quality products economically with sound research and development Education and affordability being the primary concern. Essential Oils, tinures and supplements for all persons. Connie will talk on Detox, parasite cleaning, EMF detox and heavy metal detox. She will also have her mobile spa at the Expo. 

 Victoria and her husband are a young couple living off-grid in a tiny home conversion on a small acreage here in the Ozarks. They raise rabbits for various reasons, one being meat security, as well as pigs, poultry and dairy goats. She loves gardening and tries to apply organic permaculture practices in all they do. She will be teaching on raising rabbits for meat, how to choose a breed, housing, care, feeding and processing. 

Kody is a wife of a veteran, mother of 6, homesteader, and homeschooler, that has devoted her life to agriculture and embracing rural living. She created and authored the Homestead Education series of homeschool curricula that includes homestead science. She is the host of The Homestead Education Podcast, which is rapidly growing in popularity where she chats candidly about homesteading, homeschooling, and personal growth. She enjoys teaching many topics as well as bringing in some of the greatest thinkers in her field to teach her audience as well. Her teaching topic will be Teaching Homesteading for Lifelong Self-Sufficiency

Allen “horntagger” Morris - “Worst thing you can do for wildlife is the failure to manage it!” 

Allen Morris from North American Wildlife and Habitat will be giving a presentation on predator management, predator populations, predator history and the renewable, sustainable, eco-friendly resource of fur.  – Allen is an Outdoor Writer, Author, Photographer, and Inventor who has certificates in Predator Management, Master Wildlifer, Deer Steward 1, Deer Steward 2 and the first in the State of Missouri with Deer Steward 3.

Curtis and Sarah Millsap, along with six of their children, farm manager Kimby Decker, and several apprentices, operate Millsap Farms–a 20-acre diversified farm, four miles north of Springfield, MO.
The Millsaps started farming full time in 2008 with a 20 member CSA and farmers market sales, raising pastured broilers and layers, turkeys, one half acre of vegetables, and bedding plants. They’ve since metamorphosed through several different versions, including raising 1,200 broilers/year, 400 turkeys, 600 layers, 30 goats, 40 hogs (including a sow/baby pig operation), cattle, up to 7 acres of flowers and vegetables, a home bakery, and several other more and less successful enterprises.
Currently, the Millsaps grow 2 acres of flowers and vegetables annually, with 30,000 sq ft under plastic, including a 1,600 sq ft Chinese solar greenhouse and a 6,000 sq ft minimally heated greenhouse. They use organic practices, and offer their produce for sale through a year-round, 250 member CSA, farmers’ market, and restaurant sales.
The farm is also  a community, with several families and individuals in residence, some learning to farm and preparing to begin their own farming adventures. 

Ryan Mihalik is a professional cheesemaker with nearly a decade of professional experience working on dairies across the US, Europe, and Australia.  Born and raised here is the Ozarks, he got his first milking and cheesemaking experience at a local dairy and made cheese at home for several years before deciding to pursue it as a full-time career.  He spent 6 years as head cheesemaker at a sheep dairy on the central coast of California making high end cheeses and yogurt for farmers markets, stores and restaurants in the San Fransisco Bay area.  His passion the craft has taken him to dairies around the world, apprenticing with expert cheesemakers in France, Italy, Austria, Tasmania, and beyond.    This wealth of experience gives him unique insight into translating professional methods and precautions onto the home cheesemaking scale.

Patrick Byers is a Commercial Horticulture Field Specialist with University of Missouri

Extension, serving 9 counties in southwest Missouri. His educational background includes horticulture degrees from the Universities of Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Patrick’s 33-year career has touched all aspects of horticulture, and his current job

focuses on advisement to fruit and vegetable farmers with the goal of supporting sustainability and profitability. His passions include berries (especially elderberry),garlic, native fruits and nuts, hops and orchids. He will be speaking on growing berries for both home use and commercial production.