About Us
Welcome to Tonoloway Farm, an Appalachian food forest in Highland County VA.
We are Tonoloway Farm, located on the rocky, wooded slopes of Bullpasture Mountain in Highland County, VA. We produce food sustainably among the hardwood forests of our Appalachian mountain home. These forest foods include syrups from our native trees: maple, black walnut and hickory, as well as mushrooms grown in the woods.
the Tonoloway Families
Tonoloway Farm is a collaboration between two families
For most of our working lives, we served overseas on humanitarian assignments with the UN and the International Red Cross. Lauren is a data analyst and Christoph manages economic security programs and relief operations. Through a decade abroad in disaster and conflict-affected countries, we found that a community’s greatest asset is their bond and knowledge of place: what grows well, how ancestors lived, and how we must care for it. International aid workers can help, but lasting disaster recovery comes through homegrown solutions. In 2014 we decided to search for our own place to set roots, finally finding our home in the storied mountains of Highland County, Virginia.
Will Shepherd and Jen Rattigan joined Tonoloway Farm in 2022, managing farm operations while Lauren and Christoph are working overseas.
+Will & Jen bio to be added
Tonoloway Farm is a dynamic forest farm, and we invite friends and visitors to join and learn with us. We initially came here with visions of frolicking sheep and pastured poultry. It didn’t take long to learn that the mountain will tell us what she wants. This is steep, rocky Appalachian hardwood forest, and the wild shows us what grows well here. Maples, walnuts, mushrooms, and wild fruits abound. Our aim is to grow more of what thrives naturally, while fostering diversity that supports sound ecology. Research shows that temperate forests can yield double the productivity of grasslands*. We aim to experiment, observe, nurture, and help the forest prove her case.
Tonoloway what?
Tonoloway Farm is named after the Tonoloway formation, a limestone feature within the karst topography of the Alleghany highlands. This Tonoloway limestone defines the farm, with outcroppings shaping the fields and forests, karst caves providing spring water, and the limestone itself giving alkaline properties to our soils.
History
This land has been in agricultural use since the early 1800’s, when it was cleared of forest for logging and grazing cattle. In 1862, the Civil War Battle of McDowell was fought on the slopes of Sittlington’s Hill, adjacent to the farm, with artillery units from the Union 12th Ohio regiment positioned on the knoll in the farm’s high pasture. During the ensuing 100+ years, the farm continued to be grazed with cattle, as forests gradually re-established themselves. The property received a permanent conservation easement in 2007 as part of an effort to preserve the McDowel Battlefield area.
For more information on the Battle of McDowell, visit the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
*Jackson and Jackson, Environmental Science: the Natural Environment and Human Impact, Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd; 2 edition (April 1, 2000)
