OSA’s newest intern, Laurie McKenzie, is a recent graduate of Oregon State University where she earned a masters of science degree in Horticulture. Her degree was funded through the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC) and the focus of her thesis work was breeding an open-pollinated broccoli variety for organic systems using participatory methods. She was also very involved in the NOVIC variety trials and spent a great deal of time managing, evaluating, and presenting results with and for participating growers.
As well as bringing highly relevant research skills to our team, we are very excited that Laurie also has a great deal of organic farming experience. She has spent the past 12 years working for Gathering Together Farm and Wild Garden Seed company in Philomath, Oregon. Her farming experiences encompass all aspects of commercial seed development, production, and cleaning as well as general field and packing shed labor, interacting with all aspects of a large CSA, delivering to restaurants and co-ops, and managing farmers markets. In her spare time Laurie is most likely to be found running around on the beach with her dog, making crafts in her backyard, or cooking and canning up a storm in the kitchen. She is very excited to be in Port Townsend and looks forward to working with the OSA community.
