Our Story

Mikelle Carver

Mikelle has always been drawn to numbers and improving processes. For many years she refused to settle into a “desk job” and collected an array of experiences, ranging from construction, and restaurants, to dog training.  Through it all, she commonly found herself helping the business owner organize  office procedures, and simultaneously was able to asborb substantial bookkeeping knowledge from those business owners. Approaching bookkeeping alongside these business owners in a hands on manner, instead of from the classroom-teacher perspective, proved to be eternally valuable and enabled Mikelle to naturally transition into a consulting position where her specialized skill is even further reaching. 

In addition to her hands-on experience, Mikelle also obtained a degree in Economics from the University of Washington, where she focused on natural systems and ultimately spent six years at a tax firm honing her skills in QuickBooks cleanup and management.

Then, after acquiring property on Whidbey Island and connecting with local farmers, Mikelle’s interest in where our food comes from, budded into a passion, which led her to become a full time student at the Organic Farm School on Whidbey Island. The school welcomes students from all over the country and teaches an array of class room and hands on courses, ranging from marketing and soil science, to hands on planting, animal management, plus tool and equipment repair. It was there that she developed the skills and know-how for starting and advancing her own farm. 

After an amazing year of farming and a ton of self growth, Mikelle felt it was best she leave field work to the professionals. However, she was still determined to continue to support the agricultural systems and methods she believed in, and knew the best way to do that was by helping those farmer and food entrepreneurs run profitable businesses. 

Today Mikelle still has her beautiful property on Whidbey Island and a “large garden” that she hopes will fully feed her house, and one day provide extras to the community as well.

Rachel deVitry

Rachel deVitry started working on organic vegetable farms after college as an experiment to learn the hands-on side of sustainable agriculture. A native of Lancaster County, PA, she was looking for practical experience to back up her opinions about sustainability and local food. If she hated farming, she figured, it would drive her to graduate school; win-win all around. To her great surprise she fell in love with growing vegetables and has been doing it ever since.

Since 2006, Rachel has grown organic vegetables on farms both large and small throughout the state of Pennsylvania, utilizing mechanized and non-mechanized methods, intensive planting, and year-round growing techniques. This experience has been put to use managing her own small farm, Ornery Ladybug Farm, LLC., and overseeing two urban farms for Urban Tree Connection, based in Philadelphia, PA. Rachel is also a founding board member of Lancaster East Side Market, LLC., a producer-only market serving as a community gathering space and small business incubator. Throughout her farm experience Rachel realized how helpful thorough planning and accurate records can be, and how little time farmers can devote to them. She brought her affection for spreadsheets to her farming commitments, taking on planning, reporting, budgeting, and bookkeeping tasks wherever help was needed.

Evan Driscoll

Evan Driscoll has spent over 10 years working in local food systems and small business development. Evan discovered his love of food and farming in Portland, OR, where he started his diversified fruit/vegetable/egg farm – Sasquatch Acre – serving customers through CSA and Farmers’ Markets. He then moved to Austin, TX, where he was Farm Manager for Green Gate Farms, also a diversified fruit/vegetable farm selling through similar outlets. His experience growing on farms for 7 years led him to explore distribution and sales as a potential solution to the bottlenecks he saw on the farm.

At Sustainable Food Center in Austin, TX, Evan managed a variety of distribution programs including CSA-style worksite wellness programs, Farm to School, and food access programs. He managed procurement at Central Texas Food Bank, managing a large procurement budget. From there, Evan moved on to Foodshed Investors as Director of Operations for their Impact Angel Investor Network, where he gained considerable knowledge on how companies can best position themselves to gain appropriate financing to grow their businesses. He currently serves with Foodshed Investors as an Advisor.

Before joining KTC as an Associate Consultant, Evan was Executive Director of Texas Farmers Market – the largest Farmers Market organization in Texas – where he is now a Board Member. Collectively, Evan has worked with hundreds of farm and food businesses to strengthen their businesses, helping them sustain and increase their positive impacts across social, economic, and environmental outcomes. Evan serves as Treasurer for the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (TOFGA), Board Member with Common Market Texas, and is a Co-Founder and Advisor of the Central Texas Young Farmer Coalition.

At KTC, Evan specializes in business development, financial analysis, and fundraising readiness for food and farm businesses. There is a good chunk of business-owner therapy layered in there, as well. Evan lives in Austin, TX with his wife and two kids. When he’s not working with farm and food companies, Evan is practicing traditional archery, hiking, and tending to his overgrown edible garden.

Bartlett Durand

Bartlett is a creative attorney and businessman with over twenty-five years of high level achievements. His professional background encompasses a broad range of practical legal experience, including academic research, complex litigation, mediation, transactional work and extensive contract work focused on business outcomes. He has started three successful businesses: an artisanal farm-based cheese line from his family’s dairy; a USDA-inspected meat processing business; and a retail butcher shop, The Conscious Carnivore. He gained brief national attention as “The Zen Butcher,” through the development of a farmer-focused organic meat processor in Wisconsin. He was the winner of the Chicago Good Food Festival Business Plan competition, a founder of Seeding Slow Money – Wisconsin, and a finalist is Climate Quest, a national competition for innovative solutions to climate change. He has raised over $2,000,000 in capital for his businesses. 

Through extensive training in law, mediation, and cooperative business models, Bartlett has developed a specialized skill set in finding and resolving capital needs for new business start ups through direct fundraising, loan packages, and grants.

Bartlett lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his family. His wife is a leading consultant for regenerative farming practices.

Rebecca Brumberg Frimmer

Rebecca joined forces with KTC in 2014 after making multiple connections with the organization during annual PASA conferences.  It was a natural fit as we remained connected through our passion for work in farm viability – helping farms, locally focused food businesses, and nonprofits stay in business and thrive.

Prior to consulting with KTC, Rebecca has been a business owner and a marketing and management professional.  She specializes in working with established start-ups in their first or second growth phase, but also enjoys working with nonprofits and more mature businesses.

Her pre-KTC work history highlights include serving as the General Manager of Greensgrow Farms, a nationally recognized, sustainable urban farm and nonprofit, which entailed management of the overall organizational budget and operations including a farm market, garden center, 800 member CSA, low income food access programs, mobile markets, and a community kitchen incubator.  Rebecca was also the Marketing & E-Commerce Manager for Philadelphia’s top specialty food retailer and 75 year old brand icon, Di Bruno Bros.; with multiple retail stores, an online store and warehouse facility, catering company, distributor, and café.  During that time, she did volunteer marketing and events work with PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture), Fair Food, Chester County Cheese Artisans, and Hazon’s Philadelphia chapter.  Rebecca has also served as adjunct faculty with Temple University’s MBA program in the strategic marketing course.

As a former business owner, Rebecca can relate to the pressures of finding time to work ON your business (instead of IN it).  She and her husband, Ben, owned and operated Frimmer Family Farms, a hydroponic greens production micro farm in Roxborough, PA from 2012-2014 until closing down to consult full time while her husband pursued his graduate degree.  Prior to her career in food, Rebecca was a partner in an event planning and production business from 1997-2002 based in State College, PA.

Rebecca’s practice in business planning, financial analysis, marketing execution plans, sales coaching, and operations management touches on nonprofit and for profit organizations, urban farming, pastured livestock operations, veggie farms, retail stores, CSA, direct marketed farm products, artisan food product manufacturing businesses, E-commerce, event production, and feasibility studies related to potential outcomes for farms or regional food systems planning.  She is honored to have been able to share her methods and techniques via presentations at various conferences including PASA Farming for the Future, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, PA Women’s Agricultural Network Symposium, The Mid Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference, and the PA Farmer’s Market Conference.

Rebecca holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) in Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development from George Washington University, and an undergraduate degree in Marketing from Penn State University.  

In October of 2016, she and her family relocated to San Diego and opened up the KTC West office.  When she’s not consulting, Rebecca enjoys playing guitar, hiking, surfing, pruning tomatoes, identifying bugs, and playing with her 1 year old son and 2 cats in the family’s homestead veggie garden.

Tera Johnson

Tera Johnson is a serial entrepreneur whose mission is to create the next generation of regenerative food and farming businesses. A Principal Consultant at Kitchen Table Consultants, Tera provides fractional C-Suite and consulting services to food and farm businesses across the country to help them become profitable for good.  Since its inception, KTC has brought business management experience, deep industry knowledge, and financial, management, and marketing best practices to over 500 organizations in 35 states.

The founder of teraswhey, Tera participated in the full arc of creating and selling a successful investor-financed food company. Prior to joining KTC she was the founder of the Food Finance Institute (FFI) at the University of Wisconsin System and winner of the UW-Extension Chancellor’s 2017 Wisconsin Idea Award, Tera has been a frequent speaker, teacher and financial consultant to sustainable food and farming businesses, social venture funds and investors. 

At FFI she launched the first component of its learning platform, a podcast series called Edible-Alpha that features Tera interviewing a wide range of food entrepreneurs, funders and technical assistance providers on how to make money in food (now boasting over 50,000 downloads). While at FFI she trained hundreds of technical assistance providers to work with food businesses to build financially viable enterprises using financial and operational business model metrics, market research data and best practices in financial management and leadership.

Formerly the Board President of Slow Money Wisconsin, she currently sits on the selection committee for the Nutrition Capital Network and on other corporate boards. In 2014, Madison Magazine recognized her on their MList of leading Innovators in the city. Her business was named the 2010 Innovator of the Year by WEDC. Also in 2010, she received the Dairy Business Innovation Center’s Innovation Zone Award and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce and the WEN network named her company a Wisconsin Company to Watch. Her factory received the 2009 gold medal in the Green Building category from the Associated Builders and Contractors of WI.

Mike Koch

A local food advocate and award-winning entrepreneur with a distinguished track record of innovation, Mike has more than two decades of professional and entrepreneurial experience. With his partner and husband, he co-founded FireFly Farms in 2000, and went on to build a successful goat cheese business from the ground up. After two years of herd management, construction, and licensing, FireFly Farms began commercial manufacture of their now highly awarded line of goat’s milk cheese in 2002. FireFly Farms’ growth over the past 17 years has spurred the development of a vibrant and growing regional community of family goat farms, cheese makers, cheese mongers and a growing network of wholesale and retail distribution partners across the nation. FireFly Farms is committed to ensuring that its operations are sustainable economically, socially, and environmentally in order to create lasting value for its employees and regional community, while protecting our natural environment for future generations.

Under his leadership, FireFly Farms’ cheeses have won over 115 national and international awards for excellence in taste, aesthetics and quality. In addition to cheese awards, FireFly Farms was the proud recipient of the United States Chamber of Commerce Dream Big Small Business Award. Prior to dedicating himself full time to eating and making cheese, Mike had decades of experience leading in organizations large and small, for profit and not-for-profit. He has demonstrated expertise in strategic marketing and communications, as well as fiscal acumen honed over two decades in leadership roles in the financial services industry.

Mike served as FRESHFARM Markets Executive Director in Washington DC, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to create economic opportunities for small farmers and food producers through the creation of a vibrant, producer-only farmers market network. Mike has also served in the Garrett County Maryland Government leading its community and economic development teams. Mike has also served in executive roles in support of the American housing finance system at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mike started his professional career as a teacher and athletics coach. Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

Mike has long experience in community service through his contributions to various non-profit boards
of director. Mike has served for:

• The National Capital Chapter of PFLAG
• FRESHFARM Markets
• The Muscarelle Museum of Art on the campus of the College of William & Mary
• The Diversity & Inclusion Council of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
• The Garrett County Economic Development Corporation

Helen Kollar-McArthur

A native of North Carolina Helen grew up surrounded by the sites and smells of the eastern region’s tobacco belt and hog farms. She transplanted to Pennsylvania for her graduate studies at Pennsylvania State University where she earned an MS in Bio Behavioral Health, an interdisciplinary program that heavily emphasizes the holistic analysis of complex issues. Along the way she cultivated her own interests in sustainable farming methods, trying them out on her own homestead and diligently tracking her own progress, profitability and failures.

Helen gradually moved away from academia and into a more practical application of her skills. From being a general laborer on a number of farms to serving as the Educational Programs Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), to most recently acting as the Operations Manager of a small scale multi-species abattoir, she has had her hands in multiple facets of the agricultural community. She understands wholeheartedly the complex nature of ag-based business and the fears that come along with working in an industry where so many uncontrollable variables factor into success or failure. With a passion for organization and a drive for evidence-based decision making Helen joined the KTC team at the beginning of 2019 as a part-time Staff Consultant and she continues to keep her boots on the ground working on a diversified livestock farm. In her downtime she is still meticulously tracking and analyzing the progress of her own homestead tucked away in the Penns Valley area of Pennsylvania.

Ted LeBow

Ted LeBow is a serial entrepreneur. His first business venture (in 1980) was a farm in Idaho where he bought his first tractor, signed his first loan with the Production Credit Association and started waking up in the middle of the night worrying about the rain ruining his hay crop.

He graduated in 1989 from Cornell University School of Agriculture with a Business Management Degree. He’s run eleven small businesses, six of which he owned all or part of. Since 2008, he’s grown two small business management consulting firms. As of 2017, JRI Consulting and Kitchen Table Consultants have served over 200 small businesses. Ted is currently focused on building Kitchen Table Consultants (which he co-founded)—a practice that serves sustainable food and farm related companies. He and his team are an Entrepreneur’s Best Nightmare.

Ted’s two passions are financial sustainability and growing entrepreneurs and their teams. He is driven to help entrepreneurs to understand HOW they make a profit, not how much profit they make. He has worked with hundreds of small business owners, all over the country, creating and helping them execute against their financial goals. He regularly presents seminars around cash flow, profitability and how to know if you’re profitable. Ted was  the Interim Executive Director for The Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, a non-profit focused on promoting profitable farms that produce healthy food for all people while respecting the natural environment, has sat on multiple non-profit Boards of Directors, and has helped entrepreneurs and non-profits raise over $60 million in debt, equity, and donations.

He has lived in Bala Cynwyd, just west of Philadelphia, since 1997. In his spare time he shares a fleet of 1950’s era tractors and equipment with Philadelphia urban farms, cuts and mills his own lumber for live-edge furniture, fly fishes, builds bamboo fly rods, and participates along with his wife (as much as possible) in the lives of his three daughters (18, 22, 24).

Elaine L. Lemmon

After a 15-year career growing organic produce for hundreds of CSA customers, restaurants, grocers, and farmers’ markets, Elaine has not only developed skills as a dynamic business owner, but also a deep understanding of the daily challenges farmers face in trying to keep a family’s farm economically sustainable. As the owner and operator of Everblossom Farm, she carried, nursed, and nurtured two children while weeding, watering, planning, stressing about, and celebrating her farm business.

Elaine’s desire to farm began with a goal to do what she loved and was quickly elevated to the purpose of educating her community on why to care about what you eat. In the beginning of 2017, she joined the team at Kitchen Table Consultants with hope and excitement for helping KTC strengthen local farm and food businesses to create statewide, contagious consumer awareness – and most importantly, to keep small businesses economically healthy.

Her client work includes forensic accounting, financial management training, and coaching and strategy for small businesses.

Heather Lyons

Grounded by a deep reverence for the way our ecosystem nourishes us and a fundamental sense of responsibility to return the favor, Heather is driven to flex her expertise in accounting and finance in a way that empowers the stewards of our food system. As a teenager, creating a small vegetable garden out of simple curiosity and then delighting in a harvest of too many green beans was the catalyst for her desire to learn more about the food system and how she could help to improve it.

As a member and now a leader in the Snohomish County (WA) 4-H Horse Program, Heather has developed a deep appreciation for and commitment to creating opportunities for connection, support, self-motivation, and community. She is also inspired by the success of her entrepreneurial mom’s solely operated business which relies on a keen mindfulness of customers’ needs as well as the boundaries and scope of the business itself. Those values fueled Heather’s desire to serve small businesses in her community, so she pursued her CPA license and gained high-level skills at a small CPA firm.

After 5 years of financial statement preparation, tax work, retirement planning, litigation support, Heather became curious about what happened before the numbers got to her desk. She transitioned to a public-sector position at a local community college where she was able to participate in the complex inner workings of a large and demanding organization on a tight budget. At the same time, she joined a tiny team starting up a hyper-local, sustainability-driven food hub and got her first taste of combining her love of numbers with her passion for the business of farming. Joining KTC is an exponential opportunity to mash up all of Heather’s experience, drive, and curiosity to contribute to a food system that works better for its producers and its consumers.

Lindsey McDonnell

Lindsey was drawn to Kitchen Table Consultants because of the mutual passion she and KTC share for helping farm and food based entrepreneurs use numbers to carve out a sustainable living for themselves. After graduating from SUNY ESF, the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Upstate New York, Lindsey began work at her local Cornell Cooperative Extension Office. She was privileged enough to participate in the inner workings of the hops resurgency that began in Madison County and then boomed throughout New York State. There she saw key components of NYS Farm Brewery legislation being drafted, the internal process of forming a growers 501(c)6  lobbying association, grants being written for a statewide hop educator, and fielded questions from hop growers and grain processors on costs and licensing to get started. 

After a brief but intense stay at CCE, Lindsey decided to switch gears from the non-profit world and focus on small business ownership. She preferred the autonomy of the decision making process business ownership allowed and also saw the potential to use profit for good, to make a positive impact in her local community. She spent the next 8 years building Kriemhild Dairy Farms, a grassfed dairy agribusiness making european style butter and creme fraiche. Lindsey took on all aspects of the business, from human resources, to bookkeeping to fundraising to taking butter making courses in Wisconsin and at Cornell University to even driving a commercial grade butter churn cross country for their own creamery. While Lindsey absolutely loved her work and time at Kriemhild, it wasn’t quite yet the dream life she wanted for herself. 

In 2018 Lindsey moved on from butter to buttercups, but not the peanut butter kind, more like the ranunculaceae kind found in the specialty cut flower industry. She formed two businesses that year, her flower farm (dba) Catalpa Flower Farm and the other an independent consulting and bookkeeping LLC. Lindsey once again found herself immersed in two trending and rapidly resurging ag industries, specialty cut flowers and hemp. It has been in these last few years and through her work with over two dozen clients, that Lindsey has begun to truly understand how various ag related businesses can grow and provide a stable living for their owners and employees. She knows that having good numbers and a plan for profit are essential tools for owners and managers. In desire of working with a team, Lindsey has finally found her niche with Kitchen Table Consultants and joined the company in December 2021.

Lee Michaels

Growing up in farm country in southern Michigan, Lee’s passion for food came from a young age. Lee has been gardening his entire life and worked in the fields, greenhouses and farm stands of the local food scene throughout his youth. The family christmas tree farm taught Lee and his sister the family entrepreneurial spirit as well as help pay for college.

After graduating from Michigan State, Lee headed toward a career in the marketing and advertising industry. After relocating to Traverse City, he reconnected with his love of food and began working at Cherry Capital Foods. What started with the sales team lead to purchasing responsibilities and eventually Lee became the VP of Operations.

The experiences and challenges of operating a food hub and distribution company have taught Lee the value of our foods’ journey from farm to mouth, some of them very simple and many very complex. Taking a small company like CCF to the next tier requires a strong strategic plan, metrics and goals. He is excited to bring his knowledge and perspective of the food industry to the KTC team and clients.

When not working on food systems, Lee can be found in the kitchen, garden or workshop, crafting something with his hands. He is the father of two beautiful children, a die-hard Spartan and a lover of all four seasons.