Meet the Team at Tierra Miguel Foundation

Milijan Krecu was born in a farming community in what was Yugoslavia. He immigrated with his family at an early age to New York City. After a few years in the Big Apple his family then moved to the sunnier locale of Los Angeles. Mil’s interest in preparing food began in earnest when he realized that not all food was fresh and home cooked. It was through a myriad of home study, classes, trial and error and shear food enthusiasm that he has come to be known as the “Farmer Chef”. This combined with his rural roots and the cosmopolitan environments of LA and NY sparked an interest in foods from around the world. Mil has been experimenting and perfecting growing, cooking and eating ever since. Presently Mil is the farm manager at Tierra Miguel farm in Pauma Valley. Tierra Miguel has the distinction of being one of the only non-profit, organic, educational and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in America!

Jonathan Reinbold is the Farm to School Coordinator at Tierra Miguel. He was first introduced to the farm in the fall of 2007 when he moved to Southern California from Pennsylvania and was in search of good, clean food in the form of a CSA. He came to the farm for several Open Houses to learn more about the methods used to grow the food he had been enjoying so much. In May 2008, Jonathan joined the farm team as a member of the field crew before shifting into the educational aspects of farming in August. As the Farm to School Coordinator he develops and presents education programs to school groups at Tierra Miguel as well as making school visits throughout Southern CA. Jonathan is also a graduate student at Antioch University Seattle in the Environment & Community program.

Shoshana Raskas coordinates the CSA at Tierra Miguel. Her work includes keeping track of more than 400 CSA members, planning box contents, producing the weekly newsletter, and answering the occasional query such as “What’s the purple UFO-like vegetable in my box, and how do I eat it?” In addition to the CSA, she writes for the TMF website, plans Foundation participation in area eco-fairs, and keeps our organic certification up-to-date. Shoshana has volunteered on five organic farms spanning New Mexico, Canada, and Spain. She previously was a union organizer and research analyst with UNITE HERE. In her free time she likes to cook, read, and go fishing.

Bob Hillestad has been a regular 1st Saturday of the month volunteer for years. Now along with volunteer weed pulling he is pulling weather data from our station and producing climate summaries. Bob worked in meteorology from 1972 to 2000. While his BS is in Earth Science and MS is in Environmental Studies, he took classes in meteorology, micrometeorology, agricultural meteorology, climatology, and hydroclimatology. In 1970, about to be drafted, he enlisted in the Navy Reserve and finished a secondary teaching credential before serving 2 years of active duty. He was fortunate to get into the Naval Weather Service where he gained education and experience.

Bob has worked in many areas of field meteorology and air quality on projects for the National Park Service, State of California, EPA, regional air quality districts and in the commercial sector with flight testing aircraft and ventilation. Organic gardening has been another major interest of Bob’s since 1969 when he helped start an organic garden at CSULB. He lives in the Rincon Springs area and grows fruits and veggies as organically as possible. He will do his best to answer weather and climate questions and to apply weather and climate information to Tierra Miguel Farm.

The Crew: German, Olegario, Liliana, and Gilberto. Petra was absent when this photo was taken because she was out having her baby. Olegario, the proud father, has worked on Tierra Miguel’s land on and off since its inception. German and Gilberto are cousins hailing from Oaxaca, Mexico. They came to Tierra Miguel with experience from other organic farms. German does the bulk of our tractor driving, and Gilberto drives the harvesting in the fields. Liliana picks, weeds, plants, and helps Petra with the washing and packing.