CAFF SONOMA COUNTY
VIP (VIRTUAL) FARM TOUR

WILD OAT HOLLOW, Sarah Keiser

Sarah started the Penngrove Grazing Project, a community-based, sustainable, land-management concept working to improve the health and aesthetics of the land while increasing atmospheric carbon sequestration into the soil. At the same time creating and enhancing the community in a very personal manner. She is practicing carbon farming practices by moving her flock in out of the fields in a rotational manner. Sarah grazes animals to encourage deep root growth and build topsoil. Through managed grazing, she encourages the plants to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and into the soil where it becomes a beneficial nutrient. She is working to bring her sheep into the unused, mowed and unmowed pastures in Penngrove in an effort to improve the soil, produce fine wool and support a cleaner and healthier environment and bring the community together around healthy soil. Wild Oat Hollow has two flocks of sheep supporting two different neighborhoods in Penngrove. One herd is a registered Romney herd and the second is a mixed flock of fine fiber breeds including merino, blue-faced leicester, wensleydale & cormo. From these hard-working sheep she has yarn, sheepskin and whole lambs for sale. Sarah also uses the milk from her dairy goats to produce climate beneficial goat milk soap and herbal face and body cream.

Richard King, Poppy Hill Farm

Richard’s career with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service included 36 years assisting landowners as a rangeland specialist, ecologist, and biologist before retiring in 2012. Specific areas of experience and expertise include grazing planning, building soil organic matter, replacing invasive/pest species with diverse communities of life, land infrastructure planning, biological monitoring, financial planning, and consensus-building. He has practiced managing holistically on his family’s small farm since 1991—profitably converting dry-farmed annual grassland to perennial grassland and oaks ever since, while increasing biodiversity and productivity above and below ground. He now enjoys helping others learn Holistic Management®, a new decision-making framework, to build and sustain the quality of life they desire. Richard is a Certified Educator in Holistic Management® (Holistic Management International); Certified Professional in Rangeland Management (Society for Range Management); and Certified Rangeland Manager (California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection). Formal education: Wildlife Management BS with a minor in Range Management,Humboldt State University,and Biology MS,Northern Arizona University

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