Our Team

I came to Sanborn Mills Farm as a subcontractor, installing the hardwood floor in the great room addition, renovating the guest rooms, and building cabinetry with the lead carpenter. I stayed because I care about things made well enough to outlast me. Measure twice, cut once. That is as close as I get to a philosophy, and it works as well in operations as it does in the shop.

In a past life I was a professionally trained chef and a fine-dining manager. Arthritis ended the skiing and the hard hiking, though I still get to the mountains when I can, and there is a pond behind the house with enough wildlife to keep me busy. The other constants are the Stanley Cup playoffs and a well-crafted IPA.

I joined Sanborn Mills Farm in the summer of 2026, but the path here started on my grandparents' ten-acre homestead in Ojai, California, watching my grandfather Bennie restore classic cars by hand and build the family home himself. Before the farm, I worked in marketing and strategy for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Manchester Distillery, and Ratio Christi. My wife and I moved to New Hampshire in 2018 and are still restoring our home in Hopkinton. I believe, as Mike Molla says, that the work is the archive.

I was drawn to Sanborn Mills Farm for the opportunity to support traditional craft and heritage farming education, and arrived with broad experience in the commercial textile arena for brands and soft goods surface design work at an international design consultancy. My work at the farm is a direct reflection of what I care about: living history, handmade objects that bring beauty and function to daily life, and knowledge that's worth preserving. I've returned to New England after several decades away, and I'm at home again in a place with four distinct seasons. I believe the best things in life are free: nature hikes, art making, gardening, a good book, and the company of people close to me.

I found Sanborn Mills Farm when I was ready for a change after more than twenty years in customer service and administration. My family and I took a ride through the farm in the middle of winter, and I still get that same feeling every time I drive in. As Registrar, I record hundreds of registrations each season and love welcoming students at check-in, whether it's their first workshop or their tenth. At home, I keep a small farm of my own with sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and three dogs.

I was raised on a 180-acre farm in Indiana, and agriculture has always been part of who I am. My father's antique tractors sparked my lifelong interest in vintage farm machinery. The first time I visited Sanborn Mills Farm, at an open house, I thought, "I gotta work there," and I joined the team in 2016 to build up the working farm, especially the grains. Outside work, I show working animals at fairs, compete in pulling events, and study the history of draft animals and early machinery.

My love of plants began in South Florida among orchids and bromeliads, and by eight I wanted to be a horticulturist, an entomologist, and several other kinds of scientist. Farming turned out to hold all of them. After a decade of sustainable agriculture work abroad, from agroforestry in Nepal with the Peace Corps to specialty vegetables for Michelin-star restaurants in Europe, I came home to Sanborn Mills Farm. I see gardening as painting with plants, and I hope visitors here get to experience life at Earth speed.

My path to Sanborn Mills Farm began when a good friend was heading to a job interview here and invited me along. What stood out was the purpose behind the place. As Senior Gardener, I oversee vegetable production from seed to harvest and get our produce into the kitchen and out to market. My mother is a nutritionist, so I learned early to think about where food comes from, and I studied animal science and food systems at UNH. Outside the garden, I'm a certified group fitness instructor who loves to dance.

I run the CSA program and care for the ornamental spaces, cut flower plots, and dye garden at Sanborn Mills Farm. I first came here as an intern, twice, and Helen Westergren taught me everything I know about ornamental gardening. My favorite part of the job is giving garden tours and seeing people understand how much care these spaces take. Outside of work, I have my own oxen, and I have been training and competing with them at pulling competitions across New England since I was eight.

I found my way to Sanborn Mills Farm through the Preservation Alliance and an interest in the trades and hands-on work. My mom supported me and pushed me into this pathway. I love that each day is different and that I get to see completed projects I had a part in. I'm learning timber framing, construction, and working with oxen, and one of my favorite parts of the job is plowing the fields with Tyler. Here, everything has a story behind it.

I worked for Steve Fifield doing timber-frame restoration, and I grew up in a sawmill and around logging, so the love of that work was already there. Steve is the biggest mentor I have had. These days I run the water-powered sawmill and the water-powered gristmill, and I do the millwrighting that keeps them going, from the gearing to rebuilding turbines and water wheels.

What I like is seeing a tree and knowing what it can be made into, especially the timbers, from felling to sawing. Chainsaws are among my favorite tools. My hands have been on the timber-frame restoration of the buildings, on new structures, and on a large share of the stone walls. I grew up on a small farm where we raised our own food, from the vegetables to the animals. I hope a visitor leaves with some sense of how these mills supported the community, and of how much the work still takes.

I have worked in and around mills since I was sixteen. When Tim Huppe called about help in the farm's water-powered sawmill, it was too good to pass up. I started in the mill and moved to the carpentry crew restoring the historic buildings, including the circular staircases in Fifield Hall and the Grange. I find comfort in the 1800s old ways. Everything goes so fast these days, and this place reminds you to stop and see what's here.

I grew up in the countryside around Sanborn Mills and remember riding past the gristmill as a boy, wondering who knew how to run it. After a degree in music and years of stitching together a living, I joined the farm in 2017 as an assistant carpenter, framing the dorms above the new carriage shed with farm-sawn lumber. These days I mostly care for the grounds, and I still work in the sawmill. Outside work, I teach guitar, play in a neo-soul band, and tool around in my Little British Car.

I’m a professional chef with culinary training from Johnson & Wales University, and I found my place here by chance. I thought I was applying for a farm-to-table job in Maine—then discovered the farm was only thirty-five minutes from home. One winter drive onto the property was all it took: I knew I wanted to stay. Now, five seasons in, I create weekly menus around the guests and the farm’s harvest, working with the seasons & preparing nearly everything from scratch. I’m still working on the perfect loaf of bread. When I’m not in the kitchen, I’m spending time with my wife and our dog, making art, or playing ukulele.