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Presenters

At the Central Arkansas Homestead Conference, attendees will have the chance to learn from a diverse group of presenters sharing practical skills and hands-on knowledge. Topics range from beekeeping and rotational grazing for healthier land management, to growing techniques like high tunnels and container gardening that maximize harvests in any space. Families can explore sessions on homeschooling and embracing a crunchy lifestyle, while others dive into essential homestead skills such as canning and food preservation. Safety and preparedness are also covered with first aid workshops and live chainsaw safety demonstrations. Whether you’re new to homesteading or looking to deepen your self-sufficient lifestyle, the conference offers something for everyone.

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Joel Salatin
Polyface Farms

Joel Salatin with Polyface Farms speaker, Joel Salatin, 65, calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson. Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate. With a room full of debate trophies from high school and college days, 15 published books, and a thriving multi-generational family farm, he draws on a lifetime of food, farming and fantasy to entertain and inspire audiences around the world. He’s as comfortable moving cows in a pasture as addressing CEOs in a Wall Street business conference. His wide-ranging topics include nitty-gritty how-to for profitable regenerative farming as well as cultural philosophy like orthodoxy vs. heresy. A wordsmith and master communicator, he moves audiences from laughs one minute to tears the next, from frustration to hopefulness. Often receiving standing ovations, he prefers the word performance rather than presentation to describe his lectures. His favorite activity?–Q&A. “I love the interaction,” he says. He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products. When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems. Salatin is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movement. He writes the “Confessions of a Steward” monthly column for Plain Values magazine, the “Homestead Abundance” column for Homestead Living magazine, and three columns a month for the e-magazine Manward. He also co-hosts a podcast titled BEYOND LABELS with co-author of that book Dr. Sina McCullough. A frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts targeting preppers, homesteaders, and foodies, Salatin’s practical, can-do solutions tied to passionate soliloquies for sustainability offer everyone food for thought and plans for action. He also hosts his own podcast with Dr. Sina McCullough called BEYOND LABELS after their book of the same name. Mixing mischievous humor with hard-hitting information, Salatin both entertains and moves people. Seldom using a power-point and often speaking from an outline scribbled on a yellow legal pad, he depends on theatrics, style, and compelling content to hold attention and defend innovative positions. The rare combination of prophet and practitioner makes him both a must-read and must-hear in a time desperate for integrity leadership and example Joel has authored 12 books: PASTURED POULTRY PROFITS – Net $25,000 in 6 months on 20 Acres SALAD BAR BEEF YOU CAN FARM – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise FAMILY FRIENDLY FARMING – A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament HOLY COWS AND HOG HEAVEN – The Food Buyer’s Guide to Farm Friendly Food, is an attempt to bring producers and patrons together in mutual understanding and appreciation EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO IS ILLEGAL – War stories from the local food front. THE SHEER ECSTASY OF BEING A LUNATIC FARMER FOLKS, THIS AIN’T NORMAL – A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World Website: https://polyfacefarms

Haven Waters
Holistic lifestyles

Hippie Mama Household Back to the basics! We are an outdoorsy family of 5 making a daily effort toward a simple, holistic lifestyle. I started a small Facebook group called Hippie Mama Household when we found out my oldest son struggled with ADD/ ADHD. To avoid medication, we made the efforts to eliminate synthetic food dyes in our kids diets to help combat excessive behavioral issues. From there, I went down the rabbit hole of everything toxic in our lives. Synthetic food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, etc. What we eat, what we drink, what we visually consume, the amount of sunlight we receive; everything has an impact on our mind & bodies. While we are not yet where we would like to be, we have done our best to eliminate synthetic dyes from our diet, switched to alot of non toxic products in the kitchen such as glass & cast iron in place of plastic & non stick coated cookware, we are beginning to garden & raising chickens. We are ultimately trying to create our own little homestead where our boys can grow up and learn the basics of life. Hot topics: Homebirth/ midwifery Outdoors with children Non toxic switches Synthetic food dyes Facebook: Hippie Mama Household TikTok: hippie_mama_haven

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Janel Tilley
Canning Basics to Running a Farm Store

We have owned and operated Tilley’s Market for the past two years and count it as one of our greatest blessings to serve our community through it. From the very beginning, our goal has been simple: to create a place where people feel welcome, where good food and good conversation come together, and where our love for Jesus and for others shines through in everything we do. Family is at the heart of who we are. We are the proud parents of three daughters and one son. Our oldest daughter is married and lives in Morrilton, our middle daughter is in heaven — she was tragically killed in a domestic violence situation in 2020 at the age of 24, and our youngest is a student at Quitman High School. Our son is married and lives in Los Angeles. Each of our children have shaped our lives in a unique way, and we are grateful for the joy, laughter, and memories that family continues to bring us. Whether we’re tending the garden, baking fresh breads and desserts, or preparing homecooked meals to share with our neighbors, we pour our hearts into every part of this work. Tilley’s Market is more than just a place of business to us, it’s an extension of our home and our faith. We are honored to serve our customers, who have truly become friends and family, and we look forward to continuing to grow, serve, and share our hearts with the community that means so much to us.

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©2026 Central Arkansas Homesteading

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