AMELIA ESHLEMAN
Owner/Operator and Goat Milker Extraordinaire
Amelia (she/her) is a middle school teacher who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and has been involved in education and sharing her enthusiasm for farming and the outdoors in New Mexico since 2015. She works especially hard to help girls acquire the skills and confidence to pursue their passions--whether that's farming, backpacking, skiing, or woodworking. Her most recent project includes learning to use yarn made from our own goats to weave. She loves a good book, and being curled up on the couch with a blanket and their dogs.
TYLER ESHLEMAN
Owner/Operator, Manager
Tyler (he/him) works as the Executive Director of Alianza Agri-Cultura de Taos where he brings together his passion for food, land and water, people, and equity. Since studying at Eastern Mennonite University, Tyler has done transformative justice work in agricultural communities and has worked with networks of producers and others to increase collaboration for healthier and more robust food systems. Outside of work and farming, Tyler loves playing board games, experimenting in the kitchen, and going on adventures into the mountains with Amelia and their two dogs, Juniper and Moseley.
MICHAELÂ SCHMIDT
Produce Farm Manager
Michael (he/him) - Michael first fell in love with the land and farming while eating berries in his grandmothers’ gardens as a child in Wisconsin. He spent 12 years in Madison where he studied Economics and Environmental Studies at UW Madison, worked at the Willy St. Grocery Co-op, discovered he wanted to grow food for himself and his community, worked at an organic urban nursery, and fell in love with Leah. All of this developed his passion for soil health, cooperative business models, and local food systems. Arriving in Chimayó in 2020, he dove head first into land management, focusing on acequia watering, soil health, all things seed saving and compost while growing a diversity of veggies, herbs, flowers and fruit. He started Roots in Time Garden and CSA with his partner, Leah, in 2020, and joined Virsylvia in 2022. He loves cooking, backpacking, and foraging.
LEAH POTTER-WEIGHT
Farm Planner, Communicator, and Flower Fairy
Leah (she/her or they/them) - Leah started farming in highschool and found healing in laboring outdoors with good people. Since then, she’s farmed and landscaped throughout the U.S., did Permaculture Design training, and received her M.S. in Agroecology from UW Madison, where she studied how racism permeates sustainable agriculture. In 2020, she and her partner Michael started Roots in Time Garden and CSA in Chimayó. She manages Education and Outreach at the Quivira Coalition, supporting land stewards in regenerative management, and volunteers with Northern New Mexico Showing Up for Racial Justice. She and Michael joined Virsylvia in 2022. She loves sci-fi, backpacking and baking cookies.