Our Team
Tuck on vacation: early morning chainsawing, helping a friend in the Swedish countryside
Tucker Grube-O’Brien
Tucker grew up on the farms and developed an uncanny sense of their rhythms. He is owner and winemaker at Bruno Cellars (Slack Winery). A St. Mary’s College English major (one semester on the Appalachian Trail) with a senior thesis on Huckleberry Finn and the art of idleness, he was charmed enough to name his winery and wines Slack. Today, from dawn to dusk, he never stops working Slack Farms’s operations and facilities. Some days he will tackle six small repairs in a morning — and after a rain he’s invariably on the tractor mending the roads. But sometimes you just have to schedule in a vacation from the farms (photo).
Jim Grube
Jim is executive director of the Slack Farms Foundation which was founded in 2018 to establish programs in farm skill training and basic agricultural operations and finances. In its fifth year, the Foundation welcomed its 60th intern in the fall of 2023. Interns have ensured the Foundation’s successes as they have helped to shape trails and pilot workshops that are now open to the public. Pictured are Jim with six of the Ukranian students who spent holidays with us during the Christmas holidays 2023. Photo after a grand holiday luncheon at Tim & Cherie Heeley’s. bio.site/jimgrube
JIm with (l to r) Taras, Artem, Anna K, Lisa, (Jim), Ihor, Henry the Cat and Valeria.
Maggie in the gardens at Jubilee Farm
Jane MArgaret “Maggie” O’Brien
Maggie has served fifteen years at Slack Farms and coordinates many of the key farm initiatives with Tucker. They co-founded Bruno Cellars (Slack Winery). She, Tucker and Kate Harris developed the original concept for Slack Farms’s two signature programs: SlackWorks and Walk the Farms. She also founded the Farm Wedding Association and is the author of the Barn & Farm Wedding Book series. She is a biochemist (B.A. Vassar) with a PhD. in Chemistry from the University of Delaware. She is retired from thirty years service at Middlebury College, Hollins University, St. Mary’s College, and the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Oxford, UK) where she served in faculty and administrative appointments. She is also the author of Farm Mother which is scheduled for release February 15, 2024. (photo) bio.site/janemargaretobrien
KATE HARRIS
Kate began her work at Slack Farms in 2020 as director of the Slack Farms Works Project which was funded by a USDA Rural Business Development Grant. In 2023 she became the director of our workshop and trail programs, SlackWorks and Walk the Farms, which she developed with Tucker, and which received a major grant in 2023 from the US Economic Development Administration for agri-tourism. These two programs form the core of our Slack Farms Foundation program initiatives. Kate’s background in art design is critical to the cross-media presence of these programs as we bring them to a national audience. On Sundays she oversees Woodlawn’s kitchens and works to integrate a menu from the vegetable gardens which she maintains for teaching and kitchen. (photo)
Kate on the John Deere in Cottage Core — “Mowing? no sweat!”