
Get to know the farmers engaged in our Headwaters Farm Incubator program! Our farmers come from a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures and experiences as farmers.
Headwaters Farmers
Reiden Gustafson
Little Sun Farm
Little Sun Farm grows diversified vegetables on ¾ acre and sells at Woodstock Farmers Market every Sunday from June through October. Reiden started Little Sun Farm in 2019 after returning to school to study agriculture and organic farming and then apprenticing on small organic vegetable farms.
Being part Native American (Kawaika / Pueblo of Laguna & Nʉmʉnʉʉ / Comanche) wasn’t initially what led her to farming but it is a big inspiration today. Reiden has always loved visiting her Pueblo relatives in New Mexico where she enjoys listening to her grandparents and great aunts and uncles tell stories of their family’s sheep operation and the large vegetable garden they ate from. They grew peas, cucumbers, onions, turnips, carrots, corn and cilantro among other things. Most people are quick to mention the three sisters when it comes to Native farming. Reiden however, takes pride in knowing that her ancestors in the southwest have been growing a much wider range of fruits and vegetables for hundreds of years, and she’s grateful for the chance to carry on in the art of agriculture. Find out more at littlesunfarm.com.

Nicki Passarella
Storybook Farm
I grow seasonal vegetables with a whole lotta love! As a steward of one half acre of land, I prefer to use lower till methods and follow nature's seasons to know when to plant which crops. Everything is hand-harvested and brought to weekly farmers markets at the height of freshness and peak nutrition.
From June through October I can be found at the Woodstock Farmers Market and from November through the winter at the Oregon City Winter Farmers Market.
Michelle Week
x̌ast sq̓it farm
Farmer Michelle (she/her) is of Sinixt heritage, aka Arrow Lakes People, the stewards of the Columbia River Headwaters. She is the owner of x̌ast sq̓it farm, which translates to Good Rain in the farmer's traditional Salish language. Her farming focuses on being good stewards of the land and culture, focusing on mixed produce offerings with an emphasis on supporting food sovereignty through the availability of PNW First Foods, as well as raising Champagne d'Argent’s, a heritage breed meat rabbit. Farmer Michelle is also a descendant of French Fur Traders. Michelle offers CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares with 20 weeks of seasonal bounty, which feature the taste of PNW Indigenous culture and explore exciting recipes that fuse our many cultures together.
Meaghan Stetzi
Love Letter Farm
Love Letter Farm is owned and operated by Meaghan Stetzik. Meaghan grew up surrounded by the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse in eastern Washington, where she developed a strong appreciation for both human built and natural environments. As long as she can remember, vegetable gardens and fresh seasonal produce have played an important role in her life. After spending several years studying and working in the built environment, the call to grow food grew too strong to ignore and she decided to try her hand at farming.
Around 2017 she started working on small farms in the Portland area, and in 2019 joined the Bridge City Farm School taught by her mentor, Jen Aron, at Blue Raven Farm.
Love Letter Farm is committed to following the principles of regenerative agriculture in order to provide healthy, high-quality vegetables and herbs to individuals and families in the Portland Metro Area. Producing on one-half acre just outside of Gresham, OR, Love Letter specializes in late season, heirloom, and locally sourced varieties.
You can find Meaghan at select Portland-area farmers markets, and the farm is working towards expanding its CSA program.
Love Letter Farm is a love letter to the region, our community, the planet and the future. Learn more at loveletterfarm.com.
Quinn and Theus
Farm Punk Salads
Quinn: an artist who picked up farming.
Theus: a farmer who picked up an artist.
These two Farm Punks comprise the salad-specific farm that is Farm Punk Salads. Quinn and Theus came into farming after a life on the road together. Quinn had recently parted ways from art school, looking for a new medium that was as functional as it was beautiful, and Theus came from the outdoor trad rock climbing community, and was wanting a way to give back to his community. After returning to Portland after their many travels, they found a deeper sense of home within the farming community. While working on local farms like Skyline Farm, Cully Neighborhood Farm, and Full Plate Farm, they hatched the idea of Farm Punk Salads.
Their mission? To get people stoked on salad by providing mouth watering salad greens and bomb-diggity salad dressings.
Growing on a 1/4 acre at hand scale with no-till practices, Farm Punk Salads grows salad greens, head lettuce, and culinary herbs. They offer a home-delivered salad CSA for residents of East Portland, and you can also find them at farmers markets. Their tahini-based salad dressings are sold at New Season and other grocery stores in Portland. Check out www.farmpunksalads.com to learn more about Farm Punk Salads and where you can find them.
Annika
Heart and Spade Farms
Heart and Spade Farms values the healthcare community and strives to increase food security within it. Our mission is to empower our members to achieve better health by improving access to nutritious, locally-grown produce in the hospital setting. We are a small farm growing produce in the Portland metro area using completely sustainable, chemical-free, and natural practices. We operate out of Headwaters with less than one acre in production.
Heart and Spade’s owner, Annika La Fave, has been working as a small organic farmer for the past decade. She started in the wash/pack room at Mountain View Farm in Western Massachusetts, and after moving to Portland in 2014, worked as the farmer at Schoolyard Farms. Annika cares deeply about the intersection of food and healthcare and believes that farmers can be agents of change in improving human health. By bridging the gap between agriculture and medicine, she feels that she can help build a happier, healthier community of healthcare workers, learners and patients.
Lindsay Goldberg
Fawn Lily Farm
Fawn Lily Farm is a long stem cut flower farm operated by Lindsay Goldberg. She has many years of customer service experience, managerial, and organization skills. She spent five years working at plant nurseries and knows much about annual and woody perennial propagation methods. In 2013, she interned at a larger scale organic production farm and in 2014 she spent a year on a permaculture farm and nursery.
Lindsay is inspired by nature and the natural process and strives to grow ethically produced flowers. Soil heath and biodiversity direct her farming methods and she is always educating herself on ways to improve. The tiny farm is diverse, with over 50 colors and varieties of flowers. As a dedicated steward of the land with values rooted in permaculture, her favorite variety is diversity.
Her flowers can be found at the Portland Wholesale Flower Market and New Seasons Market.
Catherine Nguyen
Mora Mora Farm
Mora Mora Farm is owned and operated by Catherine Nguyen, an East Coast native. She was introduced to farming after volunteering on a farm in southwest Virginia and was drawn by food's potential to build communities. Since 2015, she has been farming on small, organic vegetable farms in Colorado and Washington, and finally decided to start a farm of her own. When she's not farming, you can find her climbing at Planet Granite, biking to the nearest coffee shop, or hanging out with her cat.
Growing on about half an acre, Mora Mora Farm sells at Portland area farmers markets, aiming to eventually expand to a CSA program and work with local nonprofits. Focused on quality greens and root vegetables, Mora Mora Farm places high value on efficient systems in order to increase its capacity for generosity and a healthy work-life balance.
Laura and Lizzy
Rise Up Remedies
Rise Up Remedies is a certified organic medicinal herb farm owned and operated by two friends, Lizzy Simpson and Laura Kennedy. Rise Up Remedies is driven by a mission to provide the most vibrant herbs and herbal products while facilitating connection to earth, ourselves, and each other.
Rise Up Remedies offers several ways to connect with local plant medicine, including a Fresh Herb CSA, on farm you-picks, cultivation and medicine making workshops, and a line of small batch herbal products and bulk dried herbs that are available at the farmer’s market and several local herb shops.
This team of two tends over 50 medicinal plant species on their 1-acre farm where ecosystem health is the driving force. Medicinal herbs are naturally resilient and provide important ecosystem services; they feed and shelter beneficial insects, keep pests at bay, decrease water use, and reduce the need for tillage. Inspired by the innate wisdom of these plants, building soil, conserving water and encouraging biodiversity are at the heart of operations at Rise Up Remedies.