Podcasts Culture Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson Jenna Pollard - Timber Framing, Organic Farming, Community, & Purpose

Jenna Pollard - Timber Framing, Organic Farming, Community, & Purpose

Published: Dec. 7, 2023, 7:38 p.m.

Jenna Pollard is a timber framer, a farmer, and an advocate for organic agriculture, but at her core, she is a teacher. The list of Jenna\u2019s inspiring projects, causes, and interests is too extensive to summarize in a few sentences, but to give you an overview: She hosts workshops for women in which they learn the art of timber framing and build structures as a team from the ground up. She\u2019s a team member with Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (also known as WWOOF), where she helps to provide opportunities for aspiring farmers to build their careers. She\u2019s also a committed traveler, community builder, reader, and all-around inspiring human.

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Born and raised in South Dakota, Jenna grew up immersed in the outdoors and various outdoor adventures. After college, she went to work on an organic farm, which began her professional passion for working closely with the land surrounded by a community of like-minded individuals. As you\u2019ll hear, she continued to follow her curiosity and has enjoyed a fulfilling and wide-ranging career\u2013 she worked as a teacher in Japan, built her own timber-frame home on the South Dakota prairie, and became deeply involved in helping to develop the skills and confidence of future farmers and timber framers. But if there\u2019s a thread that connects all of Jenna\u2019s work, it\u2019s her commitment to building community through hard work and shared purpose\u2013 one of my favorite topics to discuss.

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I first learned about Jenna through a short film by Patagonia Workwear that profiled her women\u2019s timber-framing workshops\u2013 I\u2019ve linked to the film in the episode notes. So I was thrilled that our schedules aligned so that we could have this conversation, and I learned so much for her. We discussed her upbringing in South Dakota and how her outdoor-focused childhood laid the foundation for her career. We discussed the intricacies of timber framing, and why it is such a powerful skill for building community and confidence. We talk a lot about WWOOF and its Future Farming Program, and Jenna offers some ways that aspiring farmers can get involved. We also discuss books, how Jenna accomplishes so much, how Patagonia has encouraged and supported her work, lessons learned from Japan, and much much more.

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If you want to connect with Jenna, attend a workshop, or learn more about WWOOF, there are links to everything in the episode notes. Thanks for listening, hope you enjoy.

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • 2:30 - Where Jenna grew up
  • 4:15 - What Jenna did for fun as a kid
  • 6:30 - Turning points in Jenna\u2019s life regarding self-sufficiency in the outdoors
  • 8:45 - Post-high school for Jenna
  • 11:00 - How something like WWOOFing drew Jenna\u2019s career attention
  • 13:30 - Books and thinkers that influenced Jenna\u2019s agrarian lifestyle
  • 16:00 - Defining \u201ctimber framing,\u201d and exploring why it captured Jenna\u2019s attention
  • 20:00 - When Jenna decided to start teaching timber framing
  • 21:15 - Discussing the process of Jenna building her house in South Dakota
  • 24:45 - How Jenna came to specifically teach women how to timber frame
  • 38:15 - How Patagonia became interested in Jenna\u2019s timber framing classes
  • 30:45 - Continuing to explore the importance of Jenna\u2019s work with women
  • 33:00 - Jenna\u2019s success stories from her classes
  • 37:15 - The relationships that Jenna builds through timber framing
  • 39:15 - Jenna\u2019s students\u2019 goals
  • 40:45 - Discussing WWOOF
  • 43:15 - Discussing the 2024 Future Farming Program
  • 47:15 - How Jenna manages to do all of this!
  • 48:15 - Jenna\u2019s time as a teacher in Japan
  • 52:30 - Whether or not Jenna ever questioned her path
  • 55:15 - Jenna\u2019s book recommendations
  • 1:01:15 - Jenna\u2019s parting words of wisdom

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