Meet Your Farmers

Hi, we’re Park + Lacy.

We’re farmers, parents, food lovers, and the family behind Elmcrest Farm, Twelvepole Trading Post, and the Elmcrest Farm Hub.

At the heart of everything we do is a simple belief:

Good food should nourish people, strengthen local farms, and bring community together.

That belief has shaped our lives in ways we never could have imagined.

How We Met

Our story began in 2014 in Huntington, West Virginia.

Lacy had just moved home after graduate school in California, where she studied nutrition while living in one of the world’s well-known Blue Zones, immersed in a culture where food, movement, and community were deeply connected to health and longevity.

Park had recently returned home, too, after working a job in Charleston that didn’t feel like the right fit.

We met in yoga class, Park was one of Lacy’s students, and from there our story unfolded across coffee shops, mountain trails, and winding backroads all over West Virginia.

Park “chased” Lacy through Huntington… and eventually across some pretty remote parts of Appalachia as we became trail runners, adventure, and eventually life partners.

Why We Started Farming

We both grew up on family farms.

Agriculture wasn’t new to either of us—but building a farm as a livelihood was.

What was new was realizing how hard it was to consistently access truly fresh, nutrient-dense food in our own community.

Even while working in nutrition and healthcare, and despite living in an agricultural state, we found ourselves surrounded by food abundance and food scarcity at the same time.

We wanted better food for ourselves and our neighbors.

So we started growing it.

Like many beginnings, ours was messy.

By 2017 we were selling at farmers markets—learning by doing, making more mistakes than money, and figuring things out one season at a time.

But while we were learning to raise food, we were also growing something else:

a shared vision for what food could mean for a community.

Building a Life on the Farm

2018 became a defining year for our family.

Lacy made a major career shift, leaving her role as Chief Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a large medical group and stepping into food systems development work with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.

A few months later, Park proposed at one of our favorite places—The Floyd Jam in Floyd, Virginia, surrounded by close friends, music, and community.

Later that same year, we got married, welcomed our first baby, and built our home on Park’s family farm.

Life moved fast.

And so did the farm.

Since then we’ve spent our days learning how to raise free-ranging animals… and kids.

Our son Luke and daughter Hazel, who was born on the front porch of the farmhouse, have grown up gathering eggs, wrangling pigs, helping process pastured poultry, and moving cattle through grazing rotations. We're fortunate to have both grandmas and grandpa on the farm to help, guide, and support our journey at every step.

This farm is truly a family effort.

Growing Beyond the Farm Gate

In 2020, Twelvepole Trading Post was born.

What began as a local farm and artisan market in downtown Wayne, West Virginia, evolved into a café, gathering space, and food hub for the region.

Through Twelvepole, we began connecting more than our own farm to our community.

We built Farm Box and Farmacy programs that aggregate fresh meats, produce, eggs, pantry staples, and artisan goods from local producers, delivering them directly into the hands of families and patients between Wayne and Huntington.

Over time we’ve had the privilege of working with more than 40 farms and artisans, sourcing 100+ unique local products in a single growing season.

What started as “selling what we grow” became helping create stronger local food infrastructure for our region.

Growing the Next Generation

One of the most meaningful and unexpected parts of this journey has been mentoring young people.

Through Wayne County High School’s Pioneer Launch program, we’ve welcomed more than 20 high school students into our farm, market, and café businesses as paid interns.

They’ve helped care for animals, harvest produce, prep food, serve customers, pack orders, and learn what it takes to build something from the ground up.

What started as a farming venture has become something much bigger:

a mission to grow the next generation of local food lovers, farmers, and entrepreneurs.

Elmcrest Farm Hub Today

This year, we refined our model even further with the launch of the Elmcrest Farm Hub.

This program allows us to bring even more food, from more farms, into the hands of people who might not otherwise have access to farm-fresh goods.

What started with our pasture-raised meats and eggs has expanded into an aggregated free-choice, CSA-style membership offering local food delivered directly to customers’ doors.

Today we work with farms throughout the Twelvepole Valley and across the tri-state region to make local food more accessible, more convenient, and more connected.