About us

About Resilience and Our Founders

Resilience is a member supported, non-profit group with interests in self-reliant living, sustainable agriculture, Antique Native American Ways of living in harmony with Nature and sustainable rural development. We also operate Resilience Research Farm which does plant breeding and systems development for farmers practicing sustainable and organic agriculture and forestry.

Resilience Research Farm is operated by and based at Nature’s Pace Sanctuary in Hartshorn, Missouri. The community was founded in 1995 by Herman Beck and Linda Lee who presently serve as Elders. The 175 acre Nature’s Pace Farm and Spiritual Retreat Center is located within the Ozark National Scenic Riverways National Park in Southern Missouri’s Ozark Mountains. We reside in a quiet, secluded valley surrounded by nearly 200,000 acres of park and conservation land and are nearly 8 miles from our nearest neighbor. We live a dual lifestyle wherein we live very basic personal lives limiting the use of modern conveniences (our personal housing ranges from small cabins lit with oil lamps and heated with wood, to aboriginal-type wigwams) and yet use state-of-the-art office and web technology in our businesses. For example, we are able to operate this web site due to the modern miracles of satellites and computers, yet we limit the use of commercial radio and TV and we produce or forage nearly all of our own food.

Resilience Research Farm is actively seeking a caretaker, a farm manager and apprentices interested in vegetable and livestock gardening. For more information give us a call at 573.858.3559, E-Mail us at Herm@ResilienceOnLine.org , or drop us a line via snail-mail at Resilience Research Farms, Hartshorn, MO65479. When querying us please share as much about yourself, your skills and your dreams as possible.

Herman Beck-Chenoweth is an author, farmer, researcher, speaker, video producer and homesteader. He began living off the land in 1974, after leaving a corporate career. His work has been widely published in such magazines as the Mother Earth News, American Small Farm and Farming . He is the author of the book Free-Range Poultry Production and Marketing, wrote and hosted our Free-Range Poultry video, and serves as the Executive Director of Resilience and the related Resilience Research Farm. Herman enjoys farming, raising chickens and turkeys, self-reliant living, foraging foods and nature photography. He also takes care of our Atrium where we raise citrus fruits and bananas. He has a few too many cats and loves them all.

Linda Lee was reared on a farm and treasures life in her cabin in the Missouri Ozarks. The abundance and diversity of plants, animals and weather changes as well as the incredible landscape are continual sources of renewal. She enjoys the treasure hunt that awaits a stroll along the Current River or up a hollow. Will the discovery be a special stone, a plant, a bird, a tree or some other being placed upon Mother Earth for it’s own unique purpose? She is an advocate of plants as medicine as well as food ala Susun Weed and Joyce Wardwell. Linda is Resilience’s Program Director. She looks forward to offering Nature’s Pace Sanctuary as a setting for retreats, conferences and workshops where others may enjoy the beauty and bounty of the Ozark Plateau. She especially looks forward to offering women’s programs.