Kate is one half of Eska Farm in the beautiful Mountain River where she lives and farms with her husband Sam and two children.  Kate has a strong passion for environmental care, social justice, community resilience and wellbeing. 

Beyond her time on the farm, Kate is a qualified Social Worker, having worked within the profession for more than 20 years.  With a desire to support individuals to reach their full potential and thrive, Kate has worked across a diverse sector of the community, supporting families, young people and state government policy ultimately guiding the development of programs.  

Kate believes the links between her life on farm and her social work profession are strongly intertwined.  With a passion for the outdoors and the need for immersion in nature, Kate has been led to see the merit in farming not only on the community and food resilience sector, but also on the health and wellbeing of everyone, from those consuming nutrient dense ethically grown foods, through to the individuals with their hands in the soil living seasonally. 

Kate strongly believes small scale producers are the literal backbone of our community and have so much to offer.  Therefore, anything that can be done to ensure a strength amongst this sector is important to pursue. 

Libby moved to Tasmania in 2012, after a diverse career across a range of industries including start-ups and large corporations. Her experience includes roles in UX design, product management, strategic management and as a founder of several enterprises.

She currently holds the role of Head of Product at Ezypay, where she leads the product vision and strategy, develops and maintains the product roadmap, and works closely with cross-functional teams to deliver products that exceed customer expectations and drive business growth.

Libby is super passionate about small-scale food production and moving to a decentralised model where access to nutritious, affordable and healthy food is available to everyone.

She has first hand experience of the Spout Producer Program as she was part of the 2021 Sprout Cohort where she embarked on the setup of a small market garden in South Arm. She is keen that Sprout not only continues to provide support for Tasmania’s growing community of small scale food producers, but that it’s able to do this sustainably into the future.

When she’s not developing innovative products in the fintech space, she can be found bushwalking in the Tasmanian Central Plateau, running with her dog Loki or happily tending her garden of petalled and leafy friends and sharing her produce with friends and family.

Lauren is co-owner of Felds Farm, a one-acre market garden in North Lilydale. Having worked in high-end restaurants in London, and Melbourne, Lauren ended up moving to Bagdad in Tasmania with her husband Michael.

Here they started growing vegetables in their backyard to supply themselves and their community, but before long they were selling to restaurants in Hobart.

In 2019 Lauren and Michael moved their market garden to North Lilydale where they practise organic and no-till principles to produce a variety of seasonal vegetables and fruit. Their passion for regenerative agriculture, building soil structure and ecology combined with their knowledge of ingredients from their careers as chefs allows them to produce nutrient dense and delicious food in a sustainable system.

Stephen grew up in Byron Bay on the north coast of New South Wales, it was both here and in Queensland where he trained as a Chef and worked in several high-end restaurants. During a stint in London, Stephen was part of a team at Paxton & Whitfield cheesemongers where he sourced cheeses from small scale dairy producers for the retail and wholesale markets. Upon returning to Australia, Stephen worked in food importation and distribution, where he specialised in dairy before moving into General Management.

In 2018, Stephen moved to Tasmania to work at the Agrarian Kitchen Eatery, where he is now Head Chef. It was on a previous trip in Tasmania when he visited the Agrarian Kitchen that he saw an opportunity to focus his cooking on what he is most passionate about; high quality ingredients from local producers. As head chef, he has been able to establish close working relationships with Tasmanian producers and growers bringing local ingredients to the forefront of high-quality dining in Tasmania.

Stephen hopes that through his role on the board of Sprout he can help to foster stronger relationships between restaurants and local producers. Stephen works closely with farmers and fishermen on a daily basis and is interested in bringing the very best Tasmanian produce to restaurants and eateries all over our state.

Lisa Jane O’Neil is an experienced global strategic senior communications advisor, with a diverse background spanning Australia and international markets in public relations, non-profit, and journalism.

Starting her career at the West Australian newspaper in Perth, Lisa Jane quickly rose to the position of Property Editor before joining the Australian Financial Review bureau. She later relocated to Hong Kong, where she worked for Bloomberg Business News as the multinational media company expanded its global presence. During this time, she played a key role in negotiating and opening a news bureau in Vietnam following the lifting of the U.S. Trade Embargo.

Lisa Jane subsequently embarked on a journey that took her to Washington D.C. and Southeast Asia, with a sabbatical in the non-profit sector, working for Operation Smile.

She later shifted her focus to New York, where she founded LJOPR, a boutique PR and Marketing agency.

After recently spending time in Perth for family reasons, Lisa Jane made the decision to call the remarkable state of Tasmania her new home. In her spare time, she is a passionate amateur chef, having studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York and is committed to sustainable food practices. She is looking forward to bringing her experience in strategy, marketing, and fundraising to Sprout TAS, as well as previous board experience with Operation Smile Vietnam and the American Chamber of Commerce, Hanoi. 

Bio to come.

Ruth has lived and worked on farms in Tasmania all her life. She has an extensive background in
environmental and agricultural land management.

Early in her career she spent time working with Greening Australia and Landcare focusing on
native vegetation and biodiversity on farms, catchment management planning and weed
control.

She then spent several years as an agricultural consultant helping farmers with irrigation
development, farm business management and carbon accounting before indulging in a love of
traveling the back roads and working as an ABARES farm survey officer.

She was fortunate to raise her 2 children on the family farm east of Oatlands in the Southern
Midlands before moving with them to Hobart to further their schooling. During this time, she
studied permaculture and regenerative agriculture practices and developed a passion for
holistic land management.

She now calls 5 acres in the picturesque village of Woodbridge, south of Hobart, home where
she manages an extensive perennial garden, veggies, berries, orchard, chooks and all the things
that make life beautiful and rewarding.

She is keen to help Sprout Tasmania support local producers growing food for local
communities in a sustainable manner and be suitably rewarded and valued for their efforts.