Taylor Malone lives in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee and joined NAFEX in 2012 just before he planted his first orchard. Taylor helps run a small non-profit in his area and has planted a number of urban community orchards, where he helps run educational programs with inner city youth, guiding them how to plant, propagate, harvest, and process various tree crops. He also tends a one-acre personal orchard, and just purchased 40 acres this year in a joint venture to establish a diverse fruit and nut silvopasture farm. Taylor is an active fruit explorer, propagating and distributing local selections from his area, as well those from plantings, orchards, and breeding plots of retired or deceased fruit and nut growers across the country. Along with Eliza Greenman, Taylor does fruit/nut research consulting through their business, The Fruit Explorers. One project of particular importance to him is the vast Tennessee Valley Authority Tree Crops Breeding Program. Headed by John Hershey in the 1930s, the program collected and distributed an enormous amount of top-tier tree crop genetics across the Southeast. Through archival research and horticultural sleuthing, Taylor has been tracking down trees still in the landscape, and the scope of that project will likely keep him on the trail for the rest of his life.