Jessica Robertson (née Roder) - owner
My passion for the natural world infuses all that I do. I am heavily influenced by childhood summers spent in a canoe in the wilderness of northern Canada, as well as work on my uncles farms. This calling led me to complete degrees in biology and outdoor experiential education from Queen’s University, and later a master’s in city planning at the University of Manitoba. Wild Craft Permaculture is the next step on my journey, and was started in 2011 as a way of further merging my values with my work so that I can contribute to both grassroots personal sustainability, and community scale resilience.
After wrapping up some community economic development work in good ol’ Winnipeg I was lured to the metropolis of Edmonton Alberta to work as the head planner and sustainability specialist at ONPA Architects. There, I was able to affect much positive change in the city both through an award winning urban revitalization project, The Quarters, in downtown Edmonton, and through my extracurricular legacy, Operation Fruit Rescue of Edmonton. Other exciting work conducted there was with ONPA’s sister company, Pivot. Through a National Research Council grant we were able to research and publish a book on regenerative design and develop an extremely complex matrix of indicators to test new community scale projects for sustainability on a variety of different factors from food security to water efficiency.
After applying permaculture principles to my work as an urban planner for over 2 years I took my Permaculture Design Certificate with Verge Permaculture in the summer of 2010. This incredible course made me reconsider how I spend the rest of my life energy. A desire to be closer to family led me back to Ontario and the birth of Wild Craft Permaculture ensued. I have felt very welcomed in my neighbourhood of Wortley Village, and love London’s river trail system, vibrant downtown, and Carolinian forest ecosystem. My daughter and our three dogs can often be found foraging for wild edibles in The Coves near our home.
Wild Craft’s Guild of support
The following people are indispensable to Wild Craft. They help support our work as well as forging their own paths.
Matthew Robertson, aka The Handy Hubby
Having grown up surrounded by construction, Matthew has been fine tuning his talents for years. A specialist in salvaged and weathered materials, he rarely misses an opportunity to lend new life to aged lumber. Working with refurbished products deems a delicate planned approach - a cornerstone of Permaculture. Encouraging a good layout and design promotes efficiency while minimizing waste. Matt always receives a shiver of pride when a project comes to close, knowing it was built with the planet in mind. Recently he’s been given the chance to bring food production and green construction together, the perfect match! To add a beautiful and sustainable aesthetic to your garden or home, come to Matt with functional designs you would like custom built such as a raised wicking bed, a solar dehydrator, an herb spiral or anything you can dream up.
Stacy Meyerink, aka The Keeper
Stacy grew up in Hanover, a small farming community in Grey-Bruce Ontario. While there, she developed a love of the outdoors and enjoys hiking, camping, cross-country skiing and cycling. She loves to spend time in her vegetable garden and enjoys trying to grow new things.
For over ten years Stacy has been supporting adults with Developmental Disabilities, which has been a rewarding career that has taught her a lot. A love of gardening brought her back to school for the Horticulture Technician program at Fanshawe College. Stacy graduated in April 2013 having learned design principles, indoor and outdoor plant care, plant propagation, and landscape maintenance including turf practices with a focus on plant health care and Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Stacy has an avid interest in Permaculture principles and seeing them work on an urban scale and enjoys working with Wild Craft Permaculture. She is also an amateur beekeeper and tends several hives just outside of London.
Jayme Cannon, aka The Traditional Herbalist
Jayme Cannon didn't fully understand what she was getting herself into when she signed up for the Traditional Herbalist program at The Living Earth School of Herbalism in the year 2000... little did she know that her decision would forever change the way she saw and experienced her world.
While researching the medicinal properties of an every day cuppa tea, she was excited by the history and mythology that she found interspersed amidst her research. She went on to share her discoveries through teaching at the Royal Ontario Museum, as well as colleges, libraries and cafes (and wherever she has an audience). Jayme has an engaging teaching style that stems from her desire to educate and entertain.
Jayme’s herbal training began with a strong focus on local, sustainably wildcrafted medicine. Much of her dispensary has been harvested from forests, so when she discovered Permaculture and Food Forests, she knew she had found a path that would further deepen her connection with the plant world.
