How MysticPine Farm Is Growing Health and Opportunity

Stephanie Miller’s journey to create MysticPine Farm began as a deeply personal mission. A decade ago, in a small town in south-central Virginia, she purchased a wooded parcel of land with two interrelated goals: to grow food and to heal herself. Newly diagnosed with diabetes, she committed to choices that could restore her health. Today, she is in remission. “Once you have a condition that directly relates to food, to heal yourself is a completely different journey,” she says. Farming became her therapy, her purpose, and her way of reclaiming a connection to the land that runs through generations of her family.   

A Legacy Reawakened 

In 1922, Stephanie’s great-great-grandmother purchased family land that is just a few miles down the road from MysticPine. “She bought it so her family could do sustenance farming,” Stephanie explains. “My grandfather was the last generation that I know of to farm. They grew tobacco, cows, meat, chickens, an orchard. My great-grandmother only bought sugar and salt, and maybe chicory.”  

That legacy stayed dormant for decades after Stephanie’s grandfather left during the Great Migration. She grew up in Philadelphia, traveled the world, and spent years in corporate America before deciding it was time to come home. “I figured I’d see what kind of trouble I could get into,” she laughs. 

Stephanie's land was far from ready for farming. “Just three years ago, this was all trees," she recalls with a sweep of her arms. Clearing the property was grueling. “It took me a season just to get the rocks out of one area." For years, she did everything by hand, inching her way forward. “Bootstrapping is not for the faint of heart," she says. “When you’re starting with woods, it’s a different curve than buying a farm."  She raised chickens for five years—at one point nearly 200 birds—before fox attacks and lack of help forced her to let that go. “Honestly, it was a good thing," she admits. “I didn’t have enough folks to help out, and it encouraged me to rethink what I really wanted to do.” 

Today, MysticPine is a thriving operation with high tunnels, perennial beds, and demonstration areas for herbs, mushrooms, and fruit trees. Young peach trees, elderberries, figs, and even a small pineapple guava (a unique fruit tree from Georgia) dot the landscape.  

Stephanie’s approach is intentional: soil first, nutrient density next. “That’s why I started a Rainbow Your Plate initiative, promoting colorful, nutrient-rich meals," she says. “Anthocyanins are cancer fighters. Beta carotene, vitamin A and C—those are the things we need." Her culinary training informs her farming philosophy. “All you need to make stellar food is stellar produce," she says. “People don’t need 35 ingredients. They need good quality home-cooked food that nourishes their bodies.” 

Beyond its purpose as a food farm, MysticPine is also a therapeutic care space. Stephanie lives with chronic migraines which often cause vertigo, nausea, and memory loss. “It’s debilitating," she says. “But the farm tells me I’m still capable of moving forward. Even when I spend days in bed, the idea of getting up to check the plants is enough to get me outside." She created the farm as a judgment-free zone for others with health challenges. “If you’re wobbly, I’ll put a chair next to you. If you need to sit on the ground, that’s fine. There’s no masking here.” 

Scaling Up with Support 

Scaling up required resources, and a Farm Vitality grant from American Farmland Trust (AFT) was a turning point. “It was a game changer,” Stephanie says. “I was able to get an accountant on my team, which freed up my brain power to do more community work. One less thing to worry about." The grant also supports her goal of organic certification, a business decision that sets her apart. “Very few Black women are organic certified," she notes. “It sets a standard." Certification is costly but essential for her plans to expand into value-added products and retail markets. 

In addition, infrastructure improvements are also transforming the farm. New protected growing spaces have significantly expanded her production capacity, and recent upgrades have improved day‑to‑day operations, allowing her to work more efficiently and focus on long‑term planning. Grants supported the development of additional workspaces and tools that make field preparation and planting less labor‑intensive.  

“Before, everything was done by hand," Stephanie says. “Now we can plant 16 rows at a time instead of six.” She dreams of adding more conservation practices, sensory gardens, and edible landscapes. 

Community engagement is central to the MysticPine mission. Stephanie partners with local churches to distribute food and hosts workshops for kids. “We did five or six workshops last year," she says. [need to add a sentence here to better explain the reach of the program] “We showed kids different kinds of corn, including rainbow popcorn. That starts a little seed in them that maybe will sprout later."  She also works with AFT’s Women for the Land program, creating spaces for women farmers to connect and support each other. “It’s so healing and therapeutic," she says. “Just being on the land wasn’t enough. I had to engage with it and with the people who help support it.” 

Reconnecting to the Land, Restoring Sovereignty 

For Stephanie, farming is about sovereignty and cultural reconnection. “Our natural relationship to the land was broken," she says. “It’s almost necessary for us to be in community with it again." Food security, she believes, is a human right. “Having enough food means honoring the sacrifices of our ancestors and being an active participant in your own health." She’s lost 50 pounds in the last year and continues to advocate for nutrient-dense diets. “Spend more on food and less on medication," she says. 

Stephanie has a vision of MysticPine as a cooperative network of farmers doing good work together, a farm that nourishes body and soul, and a model for resilience. “The bigger you dream, the more everything becomes possible," she says. “When you grow something from a seed, it gives you a reflection into life you don’t normally see.” Out of the ashes of chronic illness and systemic barriers, Stephanie has built something extraordinary—a farm that heals, teaches, and inspires.