About Us

At Rising Fawn Gardens, we are stewards of nature who are devoted to protecting the land, farming sustainably, and building an enduring community that fosters education and wellness.

Rising Fawn is a small community in Dade County, GA located in the valley below scenic Lookout Mountain. It is conveniently located just 30 minutes from downtown Chattanooga Tennessee, and 30 minutes from Fort Payne, Alabama.

We are blessed to be stewards of this beautiful piece of God’s green earth. Through the years, we have poured our hearts and our passions into Rising Fawn Gardens. As our family has multiplied, so have the memories we have created as we have worked together to care for this land. We’ve uncovered roads, cleared trails, built a formal trail system, and created fields for growing. In 2013, a bridge over Lookout Creek was built bringing to a close the days of crossing the creek in the truck. The bridge was truly a bridge allowing us to not only access the farm on any given day, but also created the possibility of opening the farm to a larger community. The intensive bridge-building project paved the way for the building of the Yoga House in 2016. During this time of building basic infrastructure, we learned so much about ourselves and the land. It was a time of complementary learning and mutual caretaking. We now host public programming including retreats, workshops, and open farm days.

In recent years and through all of the projects, we found our niche in growing medicinal plants, beginning with turmeric and ginger. After several years of practice in growing these tropical plants in a subtropical climate, a successful process was developed. As our interest in plants as medicine grew, so did the desire to learn and share more. A plan for a Medicinal Garden was begun. A design on paper evolved over time followed by a careful selection of plants offering healing and support to each system in the body. In 2019, the Medicinal Garden came to life as each plant started from seed or purchased from a local source, or transplanted from our own wooded areas, was gently put in the cultivated soil. Within these borders is a rich ecosystem of plants to nourish not only the human body, but each native pollinator as well. This latest garden addition rounds out our fields of grains, orchards of apples and blueberries, turmeric, ginger, and seasonal vegetables.

Meet the Rising Fawn Gardens Team

Karen LaRussa Persinger

CO-OWNER & STUDENT OF LIFE

Karen serves the land as owner and oversees the daily business operations of the farm as well as the Yoga House rentals and events. She is also spearheading the creation of turmeric-infused product collections set to launch in 2020.

Karen completed the Essentials of Herbalism Study with the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in 2016. She’s also taken several Mindful School courses including Mindfulness Fundamentals and Mindful Educator Essentials. She is a certified yoga instructor and former school teacher. Her passion and talent for teaching makes sharing plant knowledge and nature-based wellness come naturally. To her, Rising Fawn Gardens is an invaluable gift to her family and the community. She spends her days making sure it is taken care of so it can be enjoyed by generations to come.

“Smile, breathe and go slowly” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Steve Persinger

CO-OWNER & CHIEF YARDMAN

Steve serves as owner and as chief yardman. He oversees planting and preserving the Medicinal Garden and fields, clearing and maintaining the trail system on the property and managing the game and wildlife habitats.

Steve’s lifelong experience being in and appreciating the great outdoors has shaped his desire to be a steward of the land and the abundant resources associated with it. He’s spent a vast amount of time learning from Mother Nature firsthand. His gardening experience comes from decades of trial and error in the dirt. Rising Fawn Gardens represents his passion for life. He is forever grateful for the daily opportunity to explore the property, commune with nature and reflect on life.

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir

Joseph Persinger

FARM MANAGER

Joseph joined the RFG team officially in January of 2024 as Farm Manager. Joseph’s primary roles is general farm, building, and equipment maintenance, and working to enhance habitat for wildlife.

From a young age Joseph has had a passion for the outdoors. Whether it be hunting, fishing, cooking, or gardening, he has always been at home outside. He received a BS in Agricultural Communication from Auburn University, and this is where his passion for gardening, farming and land stewardship really blossomed. While in school Joseph worked under horticulturist and plant guru, Tia Gonzales, at the University’s Plant Science Research Center, where he gained many valuable skills that will help him in his role as farm manager. Joseph has a unique perspective as a team member because he has seen the evolution of RFG from raw land purchased in 2007, to the operation that it has become today. He has a deep understanding of the vision that Karen and Steve have for the land and plans to continue that vision as the next generation steward of this great natural resource.

Maria Gonzalez

Communications and Event Facilitator

María’s passion for the natural world has been a constant thread throughout her life. Raised in a bilingual and bicultural household, her earliest memories in nature are of the snowy Big Woods of Wisconsin and Colombia’s Andean cloud forests.

María is a dedicated educator and has worked internationally in Colombia, India, Perú, and Spain. Upon returning to the USA, María continued to teach and serve but desired to transition professionally from traditional education to full nature immersion. That dream materialized at the Wauhatchie Forest School in Chattanooga, TN, where she taught before becoming the Head of School in 2021.

María pursued certification in the Japanese practice of forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) to extend wellness benefits to a broader audience and now guides with accreditation from the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides (ANFT). María is wildly excited to be in a relationship with the people and the land of Rising Fawn Gardens and looks forward to curating retreats with other healing modalities.

“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer