Meet the Team at Tierra Miguel Foundation

Milijan Krecu was born in a farming community in what was Yugoslavia. He immigrated with his family at an early age to New York City. After a few years in the Big Apple his family then moved to the sunnier locale of Los Angeles. Mil’s interest in preparing food began in earnest when he realized that not all food was fresh and home cooked. It was through a myriad of home study, classes, trial and error and shear food enthusiasm that he has come to be known as the “Farmer Chef”. This combined with his rural roots and the cosmopolitan environments of LA and NY sparked an interest in foods from around the world. Mil has been experimenting and perfecting growing, cooking and eating ever since. Presently Mil is the farm manager at Tierra Miguel farm in Pauma Valley. Tierra Miguel has the distinction of being one of the only non-profit, organic, educational and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in America!

Jonathan Reinbold is the Executive Director of Tierra Miguel Foundation. In addition to handling day-to-day operations of the organization, he is also the project manager of the San Diego Food System Working Group, a collaboration of public health officials, food justice advocates, county policy analysts and agricultural producers. The Working Group is nearing completion of a Food System Assessment & Action Plan to address the gaps and weaknesses of San Diego’s food system. Additionally, Jonathan has led the development of the San Diego Growers, a group of small and mid-scale farmers focused on increasing the long-term viability of agriculture in San Diego and enhancing economic opportunities for local growers through the establishment of a Regional Food Hub. Jonathan earned his MA in Environment & Community from Antioch University Seattle.

Bob Hillestad has been a regular 1st Saturday of the month volunteer for years. Now along with volunteer weed pulling he is pulling weather data from our station and producing climate summaries. Bob worked in meteorology from 1972 to 2000. While his BS is in Earth Science and MS is in Environmental Studies, he took classes in meteorology, micrometeorology, agricultural meteorology, climatology, and hydroclimatology. In 1970, about to be drafted, he enlisted in the Navy Reserve and finished a secondary teaching credential before serving 2 years of active duty. He was fortunate to get into the Naval Weather Service where he gained education and experience.

Bob has worked in many areas of field meteorology and air quality on projects for the National Park Service, State of California, EPA, regional air quality districts and in the commercial sector with flight testing aircraft and ventilation. Organic gardening has been another major interest of Bob’s since 1969 when he helped start an organic garden at CSULB. He lives in the Rincon Springs area and grows fruits and veggies as organically as possible. He will do his best to answer weather and climate questions and to apply weather and climate information to Tierra Miguel Farm.

The Crew: German, Olegario, Liliana, and Gilberto. Petra was absent when this photo was taken because she was out having her baby. Olegario, the proud father, has worked on Tierra Miguel’s land on and off since its inception. German and Gilberto are cousins hailing from Oaxaca, Mexico. They came to Tierra Miguel with experience from other organic farms. German does the bulk of our tractor driving, and Gilberto drives the harvesting in the fields. Liliana picks, weeds, plants, and helps Petra with the washing and packing.