Allison Thomas Rodriguez
Chief Community Officer
Allison is a business woman who builds relationships one conversation at a time. She's spent 25 years creating synergies and excelling at enterprise and corporate book and technology sales. In her publishing years, she worked with companies like Ten Speed Press, Chronicle Books, and Taschen, and her thirst for food-oriented work was satiated through the gorgeous books with which she engaged.
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Allison was born in Washington DC, and grew up in the countryside of Missouri and Virginia. In the countryside, she spent her time with her family growing food and bringing it to the table in creative ways. Her mother brought the flavors of the world to the table from her time living around the globe. A fun weekend dinner might have been spending hours on a special Szechuan meal that was researched and would use fermented products they made.
On her families small farm they would nurture baby calves, grow pigs, have every kind of chicken, goat and always horses. It was a childhood spent outdoors and immersed in the seasons of farm life; it's joys and sorrows, picking rocks from the garden, propagating blackberries and spending hours on horseback wandering through the vast fields and woods.
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Now as a mother of four, the work of food has become the gathering point of conversation and family work. From wildcrafting, fermenting, growing food and hosting friends, the central desire is always to nurture and find laughter and joy. Her small farm in Virginia, Big Maple Hill, is a space created for the local community to join, retreat, relax and engage in the beautiful Virginia countryside. Families come from all over to stay in the farmhouse and treehouse and commune with the Southwestern Mountains.