Amy Antonucci - Founder/Director

Amy Antonucci is a certified permaculture designer, small homesteader and organizer.  She and her partner run Living Land Permaculture Homestead where they keep gardens, orchards, bees, chickens, ducks and dairy goats.  Amy worked in organic agriculture for over ten years and was awarded the Lead Organic Gardener of 2017 by NOFA-NH.  She has spoken at libraries, schools, garden clubs, conferences, and been interviewed in the media.  She also leads workshops on Sacred Circle Dance, Frame Drumming and storytelling. 

​Becca Hedlund - Secretary

Becca Hedlund’s passion for urban permaculture sprouted at a Permaculture Design Course in 2012. She’s a perennial student, always ready to share skills and learn alongside others. Becca also is a UNHCE Natural Resource Steward and co-coordinator of the school garden/outdoor classroom at Little Harbour Elementary in Portsmouth, NH. Her small urban lot hosts a 5.5Kw solar system, chickens, honeybees, berry patches, and many, many dreams of future sustainability projects.

​Ellen Karelitz

Ellen Karelitz serves on the Steering Committee for the Wagon Hill Community Garden in Durham, NH. and has been the Garden Steward there for 8 years.  She is also a member of the Durham Agricultural Commission.  Recently she completed the UNHCE Master Gardener course and is working on completing her internship hours to be a certified Master Gardener. Ellen developed the Food Friendly Yard program to encourage Durham residents to grow food and nourishment for people, pollinators and wildlife.  At her home she raises chickens, parakeets and plays catch with her Chocolate Lab, Charlie.

​Penny Reynolds

Penny Reynolds has creatively and mindfully turned her very small urban lot in Portsmouth, NH into a small orchard and food-producing garden. She learned grafting several years ago and has 12 varieties of apples, 2 of pears and 3 of plums.  Small fruits include grapes, currents, lingonberries and elderberries.  It has been her goal to see how much food she can produce on this small lot.  She has a creative water catchment system and has built some lovely narrow sheds to fit into the scheme of her lot. She shares her home with what seems like thousands of red wigglers in her basement worm farm.

Yulia Rothenberg
​Yulia is a passionate environmental and community engagement advocate and has been learning the ropes of  permaculture community design and systems thinking.  She has extensive experience in program management, IT, graphic design, writing, education, resource management, employee and volunteer engagement.  She is bilingual in English and Russian and brings her old world mindset of creative reuse and minimalist thinking to living on the Seacoast. From old clothing she makes new clothing, totes, jewelry, rugs and other items extending the usefulness of existing materials, giving them new life and making them fun and beautiful. She loves teaching these skills to small groups and sharing the wisdom of re-purposing loved items into other forms. 

Stacey Purslow

Stacey is a Master Gardener in Strafford County and a grower of organic vegetables and fruits at her home in Rochester. Her background is in nutrition and culinary arts which she uses  in her role with the NH Farm to School program. Her work with farm to school and as volunteer with Rochester Listens brings communities together to better connect and work towards common goals-work that supports several permaculture design principals.

​Dr. Jackie Frobese

Jackie Frobese is a doctor of chiropractic and as such takes a keen interest in healthy living, which she believes goes hand-in-hand with a healthy environment. With a minimalist mindset she enjoys challenging the need for and value of things and products in all aspects of life. Jackie considers herself a hobby gardener and finds passion in obtaining a yield and finding creative ways of preserving and using that yield. She has dabbled in fermentation, canning, wild foraging, dehydrating, and herbal infusions and remedies. With a do-it-yourself upbringing Jackie has developed a strong sense of “I can” which she strives to share with others.

Karen Merriam
After first learning about permaculture in 2013, Karen was grateful to connect with Seacoast NH Permaculture several years ago. She appreciates the practical resources, wisdom, and solidarity shared by this community as she seeks to transition from concept to practice while living on a one and a half acre small hill. Karen spends much of her time homeschooling her 13-year-old daughter and continuously exploring a wide range of subjects including—social permaculture, regenerative agriculture, ecology, history, philosophy, herbalism, the impact of technology, and systems thinking. With a career background in project management, action sports marketing, and public education, Karen is also a SELT volunteer, a library volunteer, a kitchen gardener and the family chef. She lives with her husband, daughter, mother, and 2-year-old dog in Epping, NH.

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