About us
Hello! We are Joana & Michael, nature lovers and homesteaders that moved to KY in 2015. Our passion for nature, good food and healthy lifestyles brought us to this land and is at the core of the vision for this small farm. We had a dream to live in right-relationship with the natural environment, to carry Traditional Ecological Knowledge with us and we wanted to work with Nature, to contribute to its regeneration though accelerating succession, building soil and growing healthy food and medicine instead of working against it to support the destructive and extractive current paradigm. We want to use our Farm as an experimental grounds to finding solutions for Climate Change while providing land access to those of you who want to come and learn, play and heal.
Joana Amorim was raised on an organic farm in Portugal, where she is from, so her passion for the natural world, in particular plants, started early. She is a certified Herbalist with over 15 years of experience. She started her studies in Portugal with a focus on Etnobotany and moved to the USA in 2015 to continue to expand her knowledge about Ecology and sustainable organic farming practices rooted in Agroforestry - Forest Farming, mushroom production and fruit tree nursery. She has a background in Permacuture design, social activism, event organizing, Natural Building, Herbalism and Graphic design. She loves working with her hands and grows all the herbs and mushrooms in her shop and transforms them into Apothecary staples such as cosmetics, condiments and functional products. Every step is crafted by her, from growing to marketing and the art on the labels. She is passionate about teaching these skills to others and cares deeply about traditional ecological knowledge and the important role it plays for the solution for climate resiliency for small-scale diversified farms and the future of us all.
Michael Beck began his life path into homesteading through natural building, where in 2011 he began experimenting with cob, roundwood timber framing and other natural methods, toured the UK to learn more, co-found a natural building volunteer website called People’s Organization on Sustainable Housing (POOSH) and get more hands-on experience, and eventually to build three structures still standing today (two in Portugal, one in Kentucky). In 2013, Michael took his Permaculture Design Certificate in Portugal and met Joana! Michael became consumed with dreams of food forests, agroforestry systems and land design, leading up to the search for a place to build a farm and the current land that Sylvatica Forest Farm is based from. Michael currently leads the fruit, nut and native tree nursery at Sylvatica Forest Farm, co-leads the mushroom farm with Joana, enjoys sharing the skills he has acquired in his 10+ years of homesteading (including grafting, land design, mushroom cultivation, and much more) and has thoroughly enjoyed the entrepreneurial spirit of leading a small-scale farm that is promoting positive change, joy through nature-based skill-building and building resiliency in food and economy in rural Kentucky.
