Rockcastle County

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Farm Profiles

Salamander Springs Farm

Susana Lein practices what she preaches. After learning permaculture from many places in the world, she built a thriving solar-powered, off-grid farm using natural building techniques, regenerative methods of soil building, no-till crop rotations, earthworks & water management, and ultimately, a deep understanding of the land and natural processes.

After nearly a decade spent developing permaculture systems and appropriate technologies with small farmers in Latin America, Susana Lein returned to the USA in 1999. She began in 2001 to homestead a piece of Appalachian mountain land near Berea, KY, with no road access, structures, utilities, or topsoil. After clearing a gentle ridge, she established contour swales, ponds, permanent beds, no-till staple crop fields, food forest, orchard, and nut trees on the land that would become Salamander Springs Farm.