Katy Phillips

Katy’s childhood memories of gardening include exploring her great Uncle Lowell’s cellar in Bridgewater, Va where canned tomatoes, string beans, and cucumbers lived. She spent much of her time outside in Louisiana, beneath pecan and live oak trees avoiding stepping on nuts and stinging caterpillars with her barefoot.

Her affection for flowers grew in Vancouver, BC while working for a Master Gardener as a side job. Upon returning to NC in 2009, she moved onto an old tobacco farm and began the work of restoring the soil, apprenticing veteran flower farmers. Alongside the growth of Little Sparrow, Katy started a social care farming project with Reality Ministries, a community of adults with and without disabilities.

She is a hospice and palliative care chaplain when her hands are not soil deep. She has a deep passion for connecting people, cultivating beauty and fostering an intimate sense of place with the land and its community.

Tony Simpson

Tony joins the Little Sparrow team this year to help at the Cary Farmers Market and whenever there is a need for weeding. Unlike many of us, he has an incredible knack for weeding and can clear a row in no time. Tony was a founding member of the Reality Farm and was quickly named our ‘farmer poet’ as he has an ever creative way with words. His affection and care for plants is like no other. 

He loves old houses, vintage cars, Crooner music, Elvis, and every single variety of tomato. Green Zebra. Cherokee Purple. Sun Gold. Brandywine. Lemon Boy. Amish Paste. You get the picture. He has taste tested all of them on his daily tomato sandwiches. And just a fun fact, he is probably the best dresser around and wants to run his own radio station one day.

Tony is a kindred spirit and we are delighted to have him as a part of the Little Sparrow team.

Janice Little

Janice is an art teacher and maker, living in Durham North Carolina with her children, husband and extended family at the Corner House in the North Street neighborhood. She loves to work with her hands, and is partnering with Katy to help with farm-tasks and floral design. Janice has set up a studio space at the Little Sparrow farm homestead, where she is busy hanging and drying flowers and foliage, which will be fashioned into wreaths and wall-hangings. Her work as an educator constantly inspires engagement in a variety of media and a love for experimentation and play within her artistic process. 

Bonnie Sue Ellis

Bonnie has worked with Little Sparrow the last 2 years managing the CSA pick up at the Corner House where she also lives with 8 other incredible humans. Bonnie also helped Little Sparrow with growing and drying herbs and teas this past year. She is quite fond of tea, particularly a good English breakfast with lemon, honey and basil in it. 

Bonnie is growing her own lemon tree in a pot, which now has 14 buds, she makes an incredible salad dressing, loves to watch old matches of Serena and Venus Williams, and is a great Aunt to many. She is passionate about her role at the farm, ready to greet you with a bouquet of flowers. The CSA pick up would not be the same without her!

sayde Laine Anderson

Growing up in the foothills of Colorado, Sayde’s childhood was infused with texture and natural color. From exploring the red and orange clay found on afternoon hikes to the native flower garden growing in our backyard, she learned to appreciate the biodiversity of plants and place from a young age. Her artistic work is a playful experiment of those early explorations. With a deep love for the earth and natural materials, Sayde works at the intersections of plant-based color, textiles, and environmentalism. Her evolving work in textiles and fibers seeks to create spaces to explore who we are as nurturers of the land and our communities. 

Sayde forages and grows dye plants in my neighborhood and partner with Little Sparrow. She is an incredible illustrator, loves exploring all natural places, and is such an incredibly hard working farm hand. She has a incredibly gentle spirit and is a delight to have on our team.

Scott Walden

When not at his IBM desk, Scott has been found fixing fences, scything grasses, mending hoses, picking up tools and even covering plants in freezing wind gusts. He has been the most faithful partner and companion in this humbling vocation of farming. He is attentive to the small things and carries to completion the most mundane, quotidian tasks that would otherwise slip through the cracks and often go unnoticed.

He can make just about anything with a piece of wood, loves Neil Young, tells stories with photos, and can out walk anyone on trail, or city sidewalk. He is a lover of every creature, great and small and has an ache for their ecosystems to be protected and preserved. Scott's gentle, quiet charisma and servant's heart has been instrumental in Little Sparrow’s unfolding.