Ground Culture is graciously hosted by the beautiful and wise land of Wapato Island Farm on Sauvie Island in Portland, Oregon. Wapato Island Farm is a women-owned, 32-acre working farm. Surrounded by the Columbia River, Wapato Island Farm has maintained ecological integrity, resiliency, and organic standards as it continues to thrive in our climate-vulnerable Pacific Northwest region. Throughout the years, the land has hosted many community projects and a diverse variety of seed, including the sacred three sister crops of corn, beans, and squash. It provides a home for wildlife, and has remained an integral part of Sauvie Island’s working land and community.

We recognize that this land we call our home is also sacred land upon which the indigenous Multnomah Tribe lived before colonization. We honor the importance of acknowledging and preserving tribal homelands and are deeply grateful that we currently have the honor and privilege to help tend this precious land. Above all, we desire to listen to and learn from the sacred soil and wise beings who have known this place as home long before us. Ground Culture is deeply grateful to our dear friend Jennifer Rose Marie Serna — owner of Wapato Island Farm — for generously supporting our work and growing together with us.

Rae Hart

Founder and Fungi Farmer

Rae Hart is a fungi farmer, registered nurse, herbalist, artist and beetender who is dedicated to community health and regenerative agriculture. She is passionate about bringing nature’s magic and medicine into everyday life through cultivation and connection. After listening closely to the ancestral fungal beings, she founded Ground Culture with a commitment to working in partnership with the mushrooms to grow edible food, medicine and networks for healing. Rae also serves as the apothecary manager, herbal clinician and mentor at the People’s Health Clinic of Portland, a free integrative health resource for those living at the crossroads of economic injustice and other systemic oppressions. She lives and farms in Portland, Oregon on Wapato Island Farm.

Cuauhtemoc Villa

Cuauhtemoc Villa is a living soil educator, regenerative farmer and father. He is a friend of the microbes, a student of their ancient wisdom and a teacher of their ways. For over 20 years, Cuauhtemoc has partnered with the microbes using Bokashi, biochar and compost teas to grow resilient plants and bioremediate land and water. Cuauhtemoc is passionate about remembering and restoring indigenous agricultural ways and tribal ecological knowledge to honor land, ancestors and future generations. Cuauhtemoc shares these practices with people of all ages and backgrounds, through school garden programs, hands-on workshops, and consultations with farmers and growers across the world. His mission is to continue to build co-creative partnerships between humans and the soil to heal and restore our loving Earth.