
York County's Agricultural past and present
Agricultural York was inspired by the History Center Museum’s exhibit on growing. This area prominently features an array of agricultural stories tied to our county’s history. In this new series, we hope you learn about the people, places, and things connected to local agriculture. Each session highlights different organizations within the agricultural community like family farms, wineries, apiaries, and Penn State Extension. We hope you join us in this new winter series!
Series Themes & Dates
- January – An Overview of York’s Agriculture
- February – Urban Wine Making
- March – Rooted in Agriculture: The 4-H Program
Our Presenters
Learn a bit more about our presenters for each Agricultural York session.
Tim Abbey
Tim Abbey has been a Commercial Horticulture Educator with Penn State Extension since 2006. He is a graduate of Juniata College where he received a Bachelor of Science in Biology/Ecology. He later went on to receive a Master of Science in Turfgrass Integrated Pest Management from University of Maryland, College Park.
Heidi Reed
Agronomy Educator
Taylor Zahn
Extension Educator, Livestock
Mark Rhodes
Mark Rhodes, a diversity educator, and strategist, conducts diversity culture audits and needs analyses,
devise, and conflict resolution and inter-group communication workshops. He works with each client to
better understand their strategies and action plans and facilitates diversity, sexual harassment
prevention, multicultural customer service to its employees, customers, and other constituencies for a
more productive and profitable future.
Mark has consulted with fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profit
organizations in the U.S. and has spoken at several conferences and universities. He has trained
employees from the senior executive suite to the factory floor.
Mark is also a commissioner with the City of York Human Relations Commission for the past 25 years.
Current owner of Mark & Val Wines, an urban winery and one of the first black owned wineries in Pa.
Pam Tracey
Pam Tracey is a 4-H Youth Development Educator for the PA 4-H program in York County. She is a 4-H alum from York County and a graduate of Delaware Valley College (now University) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Small Animal Science. She previously worked as a 4-H educator in Cumberland County for seven years and has been back in her home county since 2016. Her favorite part of the job is seeing youth learn and grow into the best versions of themselves. She enjoys being able to share her hobbies such as sewing and animal husbandry with 4-H youth.