Solveig Orngard

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Field Crops Education Coordinator

Solveig Orngard joined the Practical Farmers of Iowa team in March 2023 as a field crops education coordinator. In this role, she works with the farmer-led education and field crops departments to engage farmers and coordinate educational programs, both virtual and in the field.

Growing up on an acreage in Boone County, Iowa, that supported a rotating assortment of row crops and a bountiful garden, Solveig developed a deep-rooted connection with and admiration for her homeland of field, forest and riverbank. While attending Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, for music and anthropology, she discovered her passion for outdoor and place-based education at Wilderness Canoe Base, a summer camp adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota.

Her first seasons working there shifted her vocational path. After becoming engaged with food and agricultural systems through a student organization in college, she found an internship at Hidden Villa, an educational farm in California, which united her agricultural and outdoor education interests.

Prior to joining the PFI team, Solveig worked at Toluma Farms, a goat and sheep dairy farm and creamery in Marin County, California, and at Lost Lake Farm, a dairy farm near Jewell, Iowa, that produces cheese from grass-fed cows. She is thrilled to be back in the education world in her home state and looks forward to joining her siblings and parents in revitalizing the family farm in the coming years.

Outside of work, Solveig loves learning new folk arts and crafts, playing various instruments and musical styles, gardening and adventuring outdoors in all sorts of ways. She loves to travel and explore, and hopes she can find a balance between tending her homeland and continuing to visit new places across the country and abroad.