Alluvial Farms is owned and managed by Katie Pencke and Matthew McDermott, first generation family farmers. They spent 2014-2015 studying pastured pork production as staff of the Seattle Tilth farm incubator program. In 2016, they launched Alluvial Farms and rented acreage for 2 years.  They purchased 45 acres of raw land in Whatcom County in 2018 and, in addition to farm infrastructure, are developing pork, hemp, grape and agritourism/food service enterprises. Alluvial Farms currently manages a breeding herd of nine sows and one boar, and is projected to harvest 160 hogs in 2022. Matthew has a MS M.S. in Community and Agriculture from Michigan State University, and is a graduate of U.C. Santa Cruz’s apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture & Sustainable Food Systems. Katie has a BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and worked as a conservation livestock planner for Whatcom Conservation District for six years.