Diane Saccone, MS MT (ASACP) ERYT 500 spent the majority of her career in the field of Clinical Laboratory medicine changing careers after her move with her husband to Western North Carolina in 2005.
Diane built a yoga company serving the community through teaching therapeutic yoga at several farms throughout Madison and Buncombe County while co-founding the therapeutic yoga teacher training program at Asheville Yoga Center. She also developed the active older adult program at the YMCA of Western North Carolina where she served as the Director of Healthy Aging Initiatives and traveled through the Y of the USA as a subject matter expert on aging; lecturing and teaching evidence based falls prevention programs across the country.
In 2011, Diane established an experimental winter market through the YMCA at Woodfin. This led to the expansion of a permanent winter market model that was taken over by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) where it still flourishes today.
In 2020, after being laid off from the Y due to the COVID pandemic, Diane began to help her neighbor Seth Salmon, owner of Wildwood Herbal Farm.
Together, Seth and Diane decided to dedicate all produce production to helping the older adult population gain easy access to freshly harvested nutrient dense seasonal produce leading to a volunteer led workforce and partnerships with Meals on Wheels Asheville Buncombe County and Council on Aging Asheville Buncombe County.
When not at the farm or teaching yoga, Diane enjoys nurturing her gardens, practicing wild crafting and traveling with her husband of 40+ years.