About the Farmers

Dave Elliott & Sue DeVall

Dave Elliott and his wife Sue DeVall have operated Blue Mountain Farm on the outskirts of Hedgesville, WV, since they bought the property in July 2000. Dave worked as a newspaper editor in Michigan and Maryland for more than 40 years, but usually had a vegetable garden where he escaped to find some peace and quiet. He began farming part-time in 1993, and became a full-time grower in 2006.

Dave’s interest in agriculture began in 1955 on Earl Creech’s farm in Orange, Indiana, where he was frequently exiled for weekends of “hard labor” when mom and dad deemed he had been behaving badly at home. He was, however, an eager prisoner and learned to be a good helper for Mr. Earl, who needed a willing worker and soon became a kind, wise warden and mentor.

Sue is a licensed clinical social worker with a private psychotherapy practice and is associated with Potomac Crossroads Counseling in Shepherdstown.

She grew up in northern Virginia and developed a strong interest in environmental issues, working for Congress Watch, a Ralph Nader organization, in conjunction with Critical Mass to lobby against nuclear power hazards and expansion in the 1970s. During the 1980s she was active in Native American and Central American Indian rights issues. She founded a Native American radio program to provide coverage of issues such as uranium mining, dumping, water contamination and ensuing health problems on the Navajo and Lakota Sioux reservations in the western United States.

Today she is active in the environmental group West Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, serving on its steering committee. She is also a member of the Eastern Panhandle Sierra Club.