Hey there, I’m Carmen!
I was born and raised in the foothills of North Carolina, where the best parts of my childhood were spent playing in the dirt. From as early as I can remember, I’ve felt a deep connection to all living things, from the tiniest of insects to the tallest of trees. After getting an environmental science degree from UNC Chapel Hill, I started my early career in wildlife conservation. After years of moving around the world and working on large-scale conservation projects, I realized that my personal relationship to the land around me had begun to take a back seat.
Beekeeping was the spark that reignited my passion for connecting with the Earth and her patterns on a more intimate level. I started out working for an urban beekeeping company in Los Angeles, managing over 100 hives on rooftops across the city. I fell in love with the bees and their unique ability to inspire a childlike curiosity in people, opening the door for deeper conversation and connection. A desire to expand this connection is what eventually brought me back to my home state of North Carolina, where I settled in Asheville, graciously inhabiting and learning from this ancestral Anikituwagi (Cherokee) land. This is where Feral Farms was born.
Today, Feral Farms exists in the beautiful intersection between the worlds of agriculture and ecology. Honeybees are an introduced agricultural species that are integral to our food systems. Here in North Carolina, they share an ecosystem with more than 500 species of native bees on which our local flora depend for survival. There is so much happening around us that we, as humans, can go our whole lives overlooking. Tuning in to these small details and connecting to the ecosystem as a part of it has transformed the way I live. Sharing this outlook with others is the inspiration behind what Feral Farms does. My beekeeping philosophy has always been rooted in reciprocity and compassion - for the entire living ecosystem and the community that depends on it for survival. My identity as a queer woman and my belief that all living beings deserve to be treated with respect shape every facet of the work that I do.
