Our Team
Russell Wallack
Russell is Breadtree’s founding farmer. After working in utility-scale energy efficiency, Russell made the jump to food systems work and agroforestry in 2014. Born at the mouth of the Hudson River, and raised in the sandy uplands of the Connecticut River valley, Russell is focused on developing ecological agriculture in service to all life in this region. He believes chestnut trees — an ancient staple food across the temperate world — play an integral role in recreating an agriculture of place; he has dedicated the past 8 years to creating a viable business centered on the growth of a regional industry for this tree crop. He has consulted internationally with multi-billion dollar food supply systems, advised the European Commission on regenerative agriculture policy, and worked with leading regenerative agriculture organizations to impact thousands of acres.
Noah Simon
Noah grew up eight miles from the mouth of the Connecticut River, and has lived his adult life in the Hudson Valley. After studying music composition at the Oberlin Conservatory, he co-founded the consulting firm Fish Partners in 2011. Through this partnership, he spent much of the decade consulting to senior leadership of national and international organizations on design and communication strategy — and designing sustainable economic development strategies for U.S. regions. Concurrently, he lived a double life making music that no one has ever heard, pictures that no one has ever seen, and verses that no one has ever read. Between 2017-2019, he transitioned away from consulting work to found and co-manage a proprietary trading desk, while learning more about life on Earth and the many ways that human cultures have met human needs. In 2020 he began planting with Russell, and in 2021 he joined Breadtree as a partner and fellow farmer.
Bug Nichols
Bug grew up near the mouth of the Genesee River, in sunny Rochester, NY. After moving to the Hudson Valley, she co-founded Fish Partners with Noah (described to the left). In 2018, she left Fish to focus full time on activism and community organizing, with work spanning climate justice, mutual aid & community safety, democratic reform, and land\cultural sovereignty. In that time, she also studied community and body based healing, got certified as an end-of-life doula, ran two local electoral campaigns, and served as the administrative director of a grassroots community center. Bug began planting trees as a Breadtree volunteer in 2020, became a tree fanatic, and joined as Breadtree’s first employee in 2023.
Sam Bonney
Sam grew up on the shores of Narragansett Bay. Their journey towards joining the Breadtree family has been a comically relentless pursuit of curiosity. It’s a difficult story to unravel, with disparate threads tracing back to the countless nagging questions of an idealistic, history-minded suburban kid who yearned for a deeper connection to their beloved New England. All of those threads converged squarely, however, on the unrealized potential of tree crops as both cultural and economic keystone for the region. Sam has had the privilege of working with Champlain Orchards, one of the largest apple growers in New England, as well as alongside tree crops guru Buzz Ferver of Perfect Circle Farm fame. Starting in 2021, they began offering orchard consulting and pruning services with the business Quivering Twig Horticulture. They started planting with Breadtree in the spring of 2021, and joined the crew full-time in 2023.
Jasper Williams
Jasper (he/him) fell in love with agriculture just after high school and has been farming ever since. Growing up tucked in the woods just outside of dense suburban development, he became passionate about finding agricultural models that give back to the earth while providing food for all its creatures. Jasper’s farming experience includes co-managing all aspects of a 20 acre 275 member vegetable CSA for 6 years, cultivating medicinal herbs, caring for fruit trees and shrubs, composting, working with draft horses, milking dairy sheep, making yogurt, raising lamb and laying hens on pasture, beekeeping and co-managing a 400+ hive apiary. He is extremely excited about the future of farming.
Nathaniel Young
I grew up on a former dairy farm along a creek that eventually flows into the Niagara River. After several years working both near and far as an ornithology research assistant and then as an environmental educator, COVID-19 left me jobless and I landed on a vegetable farm. Realizing the joy of co-creation with the more-than-human world after years of studying and interpreting it, I ended up sticking with farming. In the spring of 2022 I started planting with Breadtree, and joined as a full-time employee in the fall of 2023. I look forward to people delighting in the fruits of my labor long after I'm done living.