Tracy Palmatier is a Registered Dietitian registered with the Commission of Dietetics and is also licensed in the state of North Carolina. She is a graduate of East Carolina University and earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Nutrition. With over 10 years of nutrition experience beginning in community health and research, moving on to adult weight loss in a private clinic, then clinical nutrition in the hospital setting. Tracy was a Clinical Nutrition Manager serving in a 200 bed facility in rural NC. Now, founder of Root Source Health and Wellness, LLC.

She now has returned to her passion of preventative functional nutrition through education from pediatrics to geriatrics. One population that is near and dear to Tracy is Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. She has been providing education and counseling to this population for nearly 8 years.

Tracy is currently pursuing a Registered Herbalist Certification. She resides in the Piedmont of NC with her husband and son on their 15 acre farm.

Finding The Farm

The intuitive calling to move started for me in about 2014. We were ready to leave Eastern NC to somewhere with more land, to have a garden, chickens, and goats. Our vision was to live a more sustainable life.  We were living in the suburbs of Greenville, NC at the time. By 2016, Jason started a new job working in Cary and commuting over an hour to work. The opportunity finally came to find the home of our dreams. After looking for several months, we decided to write down what our dream homestead would look like. Not long after that, the farm came up for sale along with a farm house and a second brick ranch home – which was totally out of our price range. But I loved it just from the pictures. We continued to look and started the purchasing process on another home with a just ok piece of property. I didn’t even like the house! Looking back, I guess the pressure of finding a house set in, and thankfully it did not go through. During the inspections, the farm came back up for sale, now with the brick house being sold separately. It was now in our price range. I jumped on it immediately! We went out to look at it with our realtor Rose, asap. 

Rose took us to look at a classic farmhouse in the area before the farm and it was a dud. It had very little land and was very close to other houses. We starting driving from the little town into beautiful green pastures with black Angus grazing everywhere. I was sitting in the passenger side of Rose’s SUV and remembered saying, WOW! Where are we?? This is beautiful! And just then, we made a right turn up our hill and pulled into the driveway. I was in awe! I practically jumped out of the vehicle. The feeling I had was like I was in a dream! I KNEW, this was it! As soon as I stepped out, I was in love with everything – the house, the land, the energy, and the….overgrowth? There was SO much work to be done with landscaping but I could only see the beauty through all the weeds and brush. My husband’s first impression was, Nope, no way! Rose said, “This is a vacation home, not a forever home”. I could not believe they were not feeling and seeing what I did. With a bit of coaxing, my husband came around and we went through with the purchase. I’ll never forget the first night there. It was so dark and quiet, and I thought, what did we just do?!?! A few nights later, we woke to a pack of coyotes yapping. A sound we had never heard before and scared us “right good”. Then the first freeze came and our pipes froze but thankfully none broke. We learned then how kind our nearest neighbor was. It took months, maybe even years to feel settled way out here. Now, years later, we couldn’t imagine living anywhere else and so grateful to be caretakers of this magical property!