The Wild Harmony Farm Team
Rachael Slattery
Co-Owner of Wild Harmony Farm
We know what it's like to care about what you eat and to feel lost as to where to find it or whom to trust. We started out just the same way. When you start learning more about the food system, there's no turning back.
Growing up in Jamestown, Rhode Island, led Rachael to become both a sailor and a farmer. She spent 15 years traveling the world’s oceans working on a diverse group of vessels where she earned her title of Captain. In her off time, she traveled more terrestrially and found herself drawn time and time again to the idea of sustainable farming.
Rachael volunteered on farms in New Zealand, Malaysia, and then back in Rhode Island.
Rachael works to manage Wild Harmony Farm with her husband Ben. She focuses a large amount of time on marketing and sales, and can often be found in the vegetable garden.
Although these days she is most often found hanging out with a little guy named Milo. (Ben and Rachael's toddler son!)
Ben Coerper
Co-Owner of Wild Harmony Farm
Food allergies are a big part of our family's life. Once you start paying close attention to how the food you eat makes you feel, there's a lot to learn. Tinnitus, upset stomachs and endless doctor's appointments were something Ben dealt with a lot. He understands how frustrating it is to just try and feel good.
Ben first became aware of the food choices in his life when he mysteriously became very sick a few years after college. Over the course of a year, Ben was diagnosed with an array of conditions and illnesses and prescribed a host of harsh medications. Discontent with these answers, Ben visited a naturopath and was shortly diagnosed with food allergies. Rather than continue with his current diet and be forced to take medication, Ben changed his lifestyle, which wasn't easy. Once he began scouring ingredient labels, he realized how highly processed most grocery store food is. In order to eat REAL food, Ben decided to learn how to grow his own. While working on farms all over the world, Ben continued to learn and began to educate others about the harsh and often disturbing realities of our mainstream food system.
Danielle
Store Manager, Wild Harmony Farm
While in college studying Equine Business Management, Danielle realized that in everything she did in life, she was always considering the effects that her own and others’ actions would have on the environment. This led her to research the topic of farming in relation to the environment, and she was overwhelmed by the information she found. After gaining some knowledge of the environmental issues relating to conventional farming in America, she thought it would be great to get some hands-on experience in the field, since a farm is where she feels she belongs! Since completing her apprenticeship with Wild Harmony last year, she has moved into the store manager position where she enjoys sharing her passion for regenerative agriculture with customers!
Maryelizabeth
Assistant Livestock Manager,
Wild Harmony Farm
Maryelizabeth first came to Wild Harmony as a consumer in search of a good source for pasture-raised meat here in her home state of Rhode Island. She started farming about 7 years ago on an organic veggie farm where she began learning the importance and value of producing food sustainably and in ways that support the health of the environment. Her lifelong interest in animal husbandry and love of nature has led her to focus on livestock farming within the context of regenerative agricultural practices. She is particularly interested in ethical meat production and how alternatives to factory farming can facilitate a healthy, balanced ecosystem while providing a low-stress existence for the animals. As Assistant Livestock Manager at Wild Harmony, her days are spent tending to the cows, pigs, and poultry. She can most often be found out in the fields feeding the chickens, admiring the pigs, or moving the cattle herd from pasture to pasture.
Derek
Farm Crew
Derek first learned of Wild Harmony as a customer trying to source meat he could feel good about eating. Throughout his years, Derek has struggled with being disconnected with his food and never felt right about eating things packed in packages from the grocery store. The more he learned about factory farming practices, the more this struggle deepened. As he learned of regenerative farming, he grew excited that there was an alternative method. He knew he needed to learn the methods in order to serve the land, animals, and people around him.
2024 will be Derek’s third season at Wild Harmony Farm.
Kim Ragosta
Recipe Creator
Author of Cookbook, A Time to Gather, Kim Ragosta is a native Rhode Islander who loves cooking and eating foods that nurture the mind, body and soul. Kim prefers to eat from local farms that care for the animals and land properly as she can taste and feel the difference. After all, she believes you are what you eat! Cooking is Kim’s love language and she hopes to share recipes that bring family and friends together around the kitchen and table that will create meaningful relationships and memories. She believes that coming together around good food is a beautiful distraction from the busy world in which we live and allows time for genuine intentionality with others. When Kim is not in the kitchen you can find her homeschooling her five children, out for a run, enjoying nature and the woods, taking a family adventure with her high school sweetheart turned husband and kiddos, hanging with her black lab Pancake or tending to her gardens and many animals!
You can find Kim Ragosta on Instagram @littlehouseintheforest