Claire and Rusty Orner are stewards of the non-profit educational facility, Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living that is a 30-acre organic farm located in Brookville, Pennsylvania. Quiet Creek raises vegetables, fruits, herbs, edible and cut flowers. Much of the produce is used to make organic products such as herbal teas, soaps, dried produce, vinegars, etc. The farm uses only organic techniques when fertilizing the plants, controlling weeds, and managing insects, bacteria, and fungi.

Quiet Creek hosts a 15-member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) year-round and in addition offers educational opportunities to pre-school through elderly groups. Quiet Creek's year-round classes cover sustainable topics such as integrated pest management, vermicomposting, creating raised beds, soil food web, herbal soap making, bread making and many more.

Between Rusty and Claire they have over 20 years of teaching experience and 50 years of organic farming experience. Rusty has a BS in Agriculture from Pennsylvania State University. Claire has a BS in Geology from West Virginia University and two Master degrees in Middle School Education and Curriculum & Instruction from Appalachian State University and the University of Washington, respectively. She is certified in the states of Pennsylvania and North Carolina to teach K-12 students general curriculum, biology earth science, environmental science, physics, and chemistry.

Maryellen McDaniel Bonavita holds a Liberal Arts degree, with a minor in English, and a business supervisory certificate, from Penn State University. She assists her sisters, Claire Orner and Melora McNutt, with Quiet Creek retreats and events, in marketing, cooking and facilitating. She can teach organic cooking classes, specializing in Mexican and American. She can cook organically at private residences or for catered events.

Maryellen also specializes in custom-designed marketing pieces, including brochures and flyers with photographs, press releases and laminated tri-fold displays.

Michael Bastine is originally from Maniwaki, Quebec. He was educated in a small rural public school. Most of his time was spent observing and relating to the natural world as a child. Then meeting up with Mad Bear a great blend of worlds began. Michael has been involved with Native Traditional people for about twenty years, where many influences have reinforced the teachings of nature.

Eric Burkhart Instructor and Program Director, provides training and outreach relating to botany and horticulture at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center.  This includes teaching courses for the Penn State School of Forest Resources on agroforestry, woody and herbaceous plant identification, and nonnative invasive flora.  Working with partners such as the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Eric also conducts research on native plants of economic and conservation importance (e.g., American ginseng and goldenseal) and offers practical guidance through related workshops and publications. 

Expertise: (1) Identification of Pennsylvania plants, shrubs, trees, and vines (2) Horticulture and plant husbandry (3) Economic and folk uses of plants in Pennsylvania and the region (4) Native plant conservation issues (5) Nonnative, invasive plant issues (6) Temperate agroforestry practices (riparian forest buffers, windbreaks, forest farming) (7) Non-timber forest products (edible/medicinal fungi and plants).

 Contact Email: epb6@psu.edu     

Eric holds degrees in Economic Botany/Ethnobotany (B.A, Idaho State University) and Horticulture (M.S., Penn State University), and is completing a PhD in Forest Resources (Penn State University).  A native of the Pittsburgh region, he and his wife Lisa White, a local artisan, live in Pine Grove Mills, Pennsylvania.

Dennis Bussell is from the Native American Cherokee people and grew up in Oklahoma. His understanding of Native American traditions and Eastern healing techniques is put to use helping people help themselves. He believes that we have been given all of the tools we need to find happiness, fulfillment and health and they are easily unlocked through the study of ancient Eastern and Native American traditions.

Dennis has studied Tai Chi, Chi Gung, Wing Tsung, Acupressure and Acupuncture. From his studies, he has acquired the rank of Black Sash. Also, Dennis is trained in the martial arts of Jeet Kune Do, Kali Escrima and Tae Kwon Do, which he studied under Grand Master Young Chul Rho of World Martial Arts Academy in St. Louis, Mo. This training earned him the rank of 3rd Dan Black Belt.

Karen DeMauro, N.D. is a traditional naturopath offering health consultations through Wellness Health Options in Clarion, PA. Naturopathy is a philosophy and system of healthcare that recognizes the body's innate ability to heal itself. As a natural health counselor, Karen empowers her clients by educating them as to natural methods of restoring or retaining health. These natural methods, such as diet, supplements, herbals, movement or hydrotherapy, work to improve the body's own defense systems rather than suppress germs and symptoms.

Karen received her MBA from Manhattan College in New York and her Doctor of Naturopathy degree from Clayton College of Natural Health. She currently is studying for her PhD in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College. Karen also is a Reiki Master/Teacher and has been teaching Reiki at Quiet Creek and Wellness Health Options for a number of years.

James A. "Jim" Duke, PhD (Botany, UNC, 1961) retired from the USDA in 1995, after a career as Economic Botanist. In retirement he is busily compiling data on medicinal plants and updating several of his books. He is refining his phytomedicinal database http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/ still maintained at the USDA (Beltsville, MD). In 2001, 40 or more years after receiving his PhD from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), he was awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2003, he is expanding his Green Farmacy Garden at the herbal vineyard, in Fulton, Maryland, to contain most of the better herbs for eighty disease conditions.

His garden is being used as Duke's lecture podium with the new Tai Sophia Master's Degree Program for Botanical Healing. Duke created and annually visits the ReNuPeRu Ethnobotanical Garden in Amazonian Peru and will soon have a digital video entitled a Tale of Two Gardens. He has added a one kilometer fern trail in the woods around his GFG. His latest Rodale Press book, Green Pharmacy Antiaging Prescriptions came out in 2001. A second edition of his CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs (CRC, 1985) and a brand new CRC Handbook of Medicinal Spices came out in 2002.

Sara Haines is a national Yoga Fit certified instructor. She leads the classes in the Hatha Yoga technique, a tranquil workout, designed for us mainstream enthusiasts. Each session will integrate strength building, cardio-vascular, and flexibility components for a total fitness performance. Aromatherapy is incorporated in each session to enhance relaxation. Sara also teaches Pilates.

CarolLynn and Gene Langley offer songs that build bridges from the past and offer hope for tomorrow. The Langleys have spent thirty five years raising kids and crops and livestock on their East Poestenkill, NY farm. Those years, coupled with Gene's youth as part of a North Carolina sharecropping family, have shaped their music as well as their lives.

Their songs are rich in imagery and reflect the traditional values they believe in, and they're pleased to spend a good deal of their time performing together from Vermont to North Carolina.

CarolLynn enjoys sharing her love of the mountain dulcimer through teaching in after school enrichment and adult education programs, summer camps, and at dulcimer festivals, frequently with Gene as her able assistant. The Langleys have recently released their first CD, Speak a Little Louder, Please! which includes a variety of traditional, contemporary, original, and gospel songs.

Gene Leone from Cochranton, Pennsylvania, has traveled across the world in the past eight years helping others construct straw bale buildings. The structures he assisted with stand in Mexico, France and Greece.

Melora McNutt is a graduate of The Mt. Nitanny Institute for Natural Health holding certifications in Massage Therapy and Yoga. She integrates the Kripalu Yoga style in her gentle Yoga classes. Massage therapy modalities include: Shiatsu, Swedish, Reflexology, Thai Yoga Massage, Deep Fascia Release, Trigger Point Therapy, Reiki, Chakra Balancing and Polarity. She is a member of the Yoga Alliance and the ABMP (Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals).

Melora lives at Lollipop Farm with her husband, Joe. She has three daughters, Laurelee, Molly and Jennifer, two grandchildren: Bay and Violet Harper, and a wonderful son-in-law: Mike.

She enjoys gardening, walking through the woods and trails at the farm, yoga and sharing time with family and friends.

Her dream of providing a place for people to come to restore, rejuvenate and reconnect themselves is becoming a reality as she works closely with sisters, Maryellen, Martie, Jennifer and Claire.

Joe and Melora open their home for guest accommodations during special retreats and classes at Quiet Creek and Lollipop Farm. Please click HERE for additional information regarding Lollipop Farm.

Kathy Seamans is the owner of the Gathering Basket in Fisher. She has been weaving baskets and teaching classes for 12 years. She offers her baskets and classes at Quiet Creek and in addition she has an annual Open House in November.

Evelyn Vincent, trained and certified in classical Feng Shui, brings her natural talents as an artist and life-long interests in plants (including culinary, medicinal, native species and wild edibles) to her business, Sacred Habitats.

She has studied Feng Shui with the New York School of Feng Shui, Space Clearing and Creating Sacred Space with Denise Linn, Labyrinth design and facilitation with Robert Ferre', Qi Gong Healing with Grand Master Tzu Kuo Shih, and is a member of the APLD (Association of Professional Landscape Designers), to name just a few.

She is currently completing training with the Windstar Wildlife Naturalist program and the Science and Art of Herbology course with Rosemary Gladstar.

Through her diversified training and life passions she is able to provide her clients with an array of harmonious options, which include...Feng Shui consultations, interior decorating, landscape and garden design and installation, including backyard wildlife habitats, sacred space (indoors and out), edible & medicinal plant landscapes, native plant gardens, and Labyrinth design and installation.