Melinda Rabbit Defeo

Specialty Grower and educator

Melinda’s interest in growing things began in the hills of Chilmark on her great-grandmother’s farm. Time on the farm became the foundation for her life-long passion for preserving and sharing the island’s agricultural heritage.

Her grandmother’s self-sufficient persona instilled a strong can-do attitude and a predilection for homesteading as a way to be independent of external circumstances. Moving back to the island full-time in the 80’s, Melinda and her husband Mark built their own home in Edgartown where they continue to raise food and family. 

As a school of hard knocks horticulturalist and a Radcliffe-trained landscape designer, Melinda first took on cultivating children at the newly opened Polly Hill Arboretum where she combined agriculture, horticulture and botany to create experiential learning opportunities for both young and old. 

When life shifted, as Enrichment Director at , she used the 162-acre Katama Farm as a resource to create programs to connect people to the benefits of sustainable local food systems; challenging them to learn where their food comes from, value the labor it takes to produce it and create change in the world through what they choose to eat. 

With a deeper understanding of food issues, Melinda’s focus shifted to community engagement and an advocacy for local farmers and eaters. She is a founding organizer of Slow Food MV and the Island Grown Initiative and an active board member for over a decade. Awarded a Vineyard Vision Fellowship in 2010, Melinda worked within the school system to build school gardens and curricula across the island. She ran the Edgartown School Farm & Garden program from 2009- 2021 and has been privileged to watch many of her young gardeners grow into competent eaters! 

As much a farmer as a teacher, whether milking a goat, mucking a stall or role playing the life of a tomato, Melinda continues to bring her enthusiasm and experiences to the field. Her work at Slough Farm has taken her full circle as she once again cultivates these things in the Friendship Garden and grows educational endeavors on the farm.