Sarah Edmonds

Edmonds is a product of the great outdoors, raised in the North Woods of Minnesota. Charmed by the constant presence of beauty found in nature and the reward to be found in toil, she paid for college by working on farms and in kitchens before leaving school to study abroad. The muse of Mother Nature as art had inspired her, and Edmonds returned to the U.S., earning a fellowship for a Masters in printmaking from Indiana University. Growing her art medium by creating sculpture and installations using blooms, seeds, and stalks, she made and taught art that took her around the world for residencies, conferences, and exhibits.

Fascinated by the growing process, Edmonds pursued formal agricultural training through a USDA program that encouraged profitable small-scale farming and farmland preservation. In 2010, she co-launched Good Work Farm. From that work, Edmonds was recruited to establish a living laboratory around a community garden, LaFarm, at Lafayette College. Ultimately, she built LaFarm into a national model for hands-on education in sustainable agriculture supporting campus dining, a sustainability office, and food-desert research.

Now, aligned with Southall’s ethos of honoring the land and delighting the senses, it all comes together for Edmonds—agriculture, culinary, beauty, history, and purpose—as the head of a team of dedicated farmers passionate about sustaining the circle of life, nurturing the land that feeds us, and each other in the process.