About Us:
Brent & Karen Callis

Welcome to Lughnasa Farm!

We're Brent and Karen Callis. For 13 years, the Army moved us every year or two, often to places much less friendly than the Upstate. It made growing anything hard, whether gardens or friendships. When Brent retired, we moved to Upstate South Carolina and finally put down roots on a farm in Walhalla.

We named it Lughnasa (Loo-nah-sa), the old Irish word for August. A thriving muscadine vineyard was already there when we arrived, and to be honest, it was intimidating. Karen had spent years as an equestrian and a retail manager and knew almost nothing about growing. She learned a lot during a few wonderful years at Head Lee Nursery. We read everything we could, watched professional growers, and made plenty of mistakes along the way. We're still learning.

Today we grow in minimal-dig beds and a perennial food forest, using all-natural compost and no pesticides or herbicides. We mostly grow for ourselves and share with the public when we have extra.

"Those look like chanterelles."

In 2020, Karen posted photos from a walk through our woods, and someone spotted a golden mushroom in the background. Four words changed everything. It turned out gourmet mushrooms were growing all over our woods, and one question led to the next: what else can we eat? Karen got certified to forage through Mushroom Mountain in Easley. Now she sells wild mushrooms to the public and to some of Oconee's best restaurants.

Mushrooms led to natural dye. Natural dye led to a pile of beautiful fabric, and that pile led to a sewing machine and lessons from a friend. Two years later, The Selvedge Dyer was born. It's our line of hand-dyed, home-sewn goods, sold only locally at the Foothills Heritage Market and in our farm shop.

Built by hand

Brent is the other half of this farm. He retired from the Army in 2015 and has built almost everything here from scratch: the fences, the horse shelters, the arena, the greenhouse, our "bougie bird house" chicken coop, the vintage camper we turned into a storefront, and our new classroom. If you came to the Farm Crawl, you may remember the bathroom. It's kind of famous in a small town.

Time to share

Learning never really ends, but we feel it's time to share what we know. Our new classroom hosts seasonal foraging, homesteading and natural dye classes, and it's available to rent for anyone else who wants to teach.

There's an old Celtic saying we think of every time we stop and look around this place:

"Heaven and Earth are only three feet apart. In thin places, they are closer still."

We hope you'll come find out why.

Sincerely,
Brent & Karen