To the critical eye, the answer may be No. After all, virtually all homes and businesses are connected to the grid. While there are various examples of passive solar design and other forms of alternative construction spread throughout the community, many of the homes and businesses appear to be built with fairly conventional construction methods and materials.

In the paragraphs below, I will explain that while not perfect, the Farm indeed fits all of the criteria of an Ecovillage and then some, with many of its Green attributes not immediately apparent, but embedded into the fabric of the community.

To begin, below is one universally recognized definition of an ecovillage along with a short description of how The Farm fulfills this requirement. However, it is understood that this definition is kept broad in order to include the efforts by many different types of ecovillages, whether they be urban centers or rural enclaves.

Robert Gilman, a recognized expert in sustainability and positive cultural change, lists the following characteristics for an ecovillage:

1. Human scale

It is generally understood that an ecovillage should be small enough that everyone can still know each other.

The Farm’s has a 35+ year history of placing a high priority on the importance of family relationships. Our population size allows our residents to develop multiple circles of friends and connections on many different levels. Residents live, work, play and interact with each other on a daily basis.

2. Full featured settlement

The Farm has many of the features of a small town, including its own school, a clinic, its own water system, along with multiple businesses and a wide range of social activities. Farm Midwives deliver our babies. The community also has a cemetery with over 100 plots.

3. Harmlessly integrates human activities into the natural world

Over 1000 acres of The Farm’s 1750 acres are kept completely wild and with no development, used primarily for by residents for hiking and horseback riding. All residential areas are merged with the hardwood forests along ridge tops leaving valleys separating neighborhoods undisturbed. Swan Conservation Trust, a nonprofit founded by Farm members in 1994, now owns and manages an additional 1475 acres as a nature preserve surrounding The Farm community . Altogether, The Farm and its extended network currently control over 4000 contiguous acres.

4. Supports healthy human development

From the very beginning, this has been a cornerstone of The Farm’s mission as evidenced through the work of Plenty International, our relief and development organization, The Farm Midwives and the work of the Ecovillage Training Center.

5. Can be successfully continued into the indefinite future

We have realized that sustainability is very much about passing on your ideals to subsequent generations. In recent years, The Farm has turned a corner as new, young families build homes and establish a life here, carrying forward the vision started by the original founding members.

6. Has multiple centers of initiative

As described by Diana Christian, author of Finding a Life Together, this term refers to ecovillage members having direct autonomy over the initiation of their home, business, finances and other issues related to their personal life with the community.

Farm members have many ways to be directly involved in expressing their own destiny. We are a mix of collectivity and intense personal freedom.

We’ll explore this topic more in future editions, specifically identifying some of the best examples of green living and alternative technology within The Farm Community.

In the meantime, make plans to come see for yourself by attending one of our many workshops or special events.

http:/www.greenliferetreats.com

Join us for a weekend of great food and great fun! (Check out these reviews of our February and Oct. 2011 Vegan Cooking Retreats.)

Cooking Classes include:

• Soy and Tofu Recipes
• Raw Foods / Raw Desserts
• Cheese Alternatives
• International Cuisine
• Recipes for Kids!
• Using Your Dehydrator
• More to be announced

Additional Activities:

• Farm History Slide show with a special focus on our Diet and Nutrition Evolution
• Yoga and Meditation
• Saturday Night: Farm Community Dinner
• Saturday Night: Live Music

Jump start your life on the road to better health, learning from cooks that really know how to make vegan food taste great!

Workshop presenters include authors and Farm Community residents with decades of experience in the preparation of delicious vegan meals.

Weekend registration includes all meals, activities and live entertainment on Saturday night.

Registration: (click here)

• Single - $250 per person
• Couples - $450
• Students - $175
• Children ages 5 -15 - $75 (We can assist with childcare)
• 4 and under Free

Click here for a list of accommodations on The Farm

	Join us for our vegan community dinner and Saturday night entertainment. Great Food! Great Fun!
For more activities, check out: The Farm Community calendar Green Life Retreats Calendar

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As your host, I will be sharing with you the unique insights that we have developed over the last 40 years of life in spiritual community. In my time here I have had the opportunity to travel much of the world and experience many cultures. I have been immersed in the brilliance of life’s greatest joys and have been cut by its deepest sorrows, utilizing a connection to something greater than myself to light and guide my way on this path we call a journey to higher consciousness.

Join us as we come together for a very special weekend.

Liberate your mind! Rejuvenate your soul!

We will gather in circle that every heart

may be opened, and every voice be heard.

Douglas Stevenson

• Farm member from 1973 on the path of nonviolence
• 2 years in Guatemala and 7 months in Belize doing relief work
• Founding member of PeaceRoots Alliance
• Musician - leading group song and chants
• Workshops:
  

  The Spiritual Path

  The World Peace Diet

Douglas videoing the pyramids of Tikal, Guatemala Kathleen Rosemary & Healing Touch

• Co-founder of The Farm community 1971
• Mother of 3 grown children, all born at home
• Left the accounting/management profession to help people get their bodies and energy in balance
• Licensed Massage Therapist since 1999
• 20 years of study, practice of energy therapies, including Healing Touch, Reiki, Qi Gong
• Taught Healing Touch to nurses and massage therapists for 8 years around the U.S. and abroad
• Welcomes guests for revitalizing retreats at her guest house on The Farm

Introduction to Healing with Energy

Energy healing or energy therapy is a non-invasive way to help ourselves and others regain a sense of inner balance and harmony, thus allowing the body to more readily heal itself. Kathleen calls it “prayer in motion,” as we can express our caring through touch and simple Presence in someone’s energy system.

Kathleen will present basic concepts and then give participants practice opportunities to experience their own and other’s energy fields and chakras. We will do centering, grounding, attuning, assessment, and treatments.

Kathleen Rosemary Peter Kindfield & Tai Chi

Peter Kindfield is a PHD education administrator that left the NY Public School system to fulfill his vision of alternative education that creates leaders who question authority. Now principal of The Farm School, he is also a Tai Chi Master.

In this workshop Peter will lead us on the fundamentals of Tai Chi, a Chinese discipline developed to produce mental focus through slow, relaxed movements.

Tai Chi Chuan is a traditional Chinese martial art that is practiced by many as a means of relaxation. Our introductory class will give participants a chance to practice the smooth flowing movements of Tai Chi as we learn about some of the big ideas of Tai Chi. We will learn that while it is natural to get tense in tense situations, it’s always more effective to relax.  We will also learn that relaxing enables us to listen to others, to follow their energy and to select a response that best fits their incoming energy.

Peter Kindfield The Farm is the home of Spiritual Midwifery, and birth is considered one of the sacraments we treasure.

There will be an opportunity to meet with one of the midwives to explore this important aspect of The Farm.

Spiritual Midwifery and the Art of Birth

	Left - We like to start Saturday morning of our weekend events with a bit of yoga, a refreshing way to launch the day. Right - The view from the Meditation Meadow
Steps Along the Spiritual Path Retreat - October 28-30, 2011 Registration $300 per person includes accommodations (Fri & Sat) includes meals (Fri supper - Sun brunch) (Each registrant is asked to bring a specific food item to contribute.) Click here to register online or make the check out to (and mail to) Village Media Services Douglas Stevenson PO Box 259 Summertown, TN 38483

]]> http://thefarmblog.org/?feed=rss2&p=78 http://thefarmblog.org/?p=74 http://thefarmblog.org/?p=74#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:22:03 +0000 ds http://thefarmblog.org/?p=74

Green Life Retreats, The Book Publishing Company

and Mail Order Catalog present the

Vegan Cooking Retreat

Join us for a weekend of great food and great fun! Cooking Classes include:

• Soy and Tofu Recipes
• Raw Foods
• Cheese Alternatives
• International Cuisine
• Recipes for Kids!
• More to be announced

Additional Activities:

• Farm History Slide show with a special focus on our Diet and Nutrition Evolution
• Yoga and Meditation
• Saturday Night: Dinner with The Farm Community
• Saturday Night: Live Music and a Dessert Buffet!

Start your year on the road to better health, learning from cooks that really know how to make vegan food taste great!

Workshop presenters include authors and Farm Community residents with decades of experience preparing of delicious vegan meals.

Weekend registration includes all meals, activities and live entertainment on Saturday night.

Registration: (click here)

• Single - $250 per person
• Couples - $450
• Students - $200
• Children ages 5-15 - $75 (childcare provided)
• 4 and under $25

Click here for a list of accommodations in The Farm Community

Motels in the area also available.

	Classes will be held in our Community Center, also the location for our community dinner and Saturday night entertainment. Great Food! Great Fun!
For more activities, check out: The Farm Community calendar Green Life Retreats Calendar

We grow Snow Peas which have an edible pod.

They taste great raw in salads, steamed, or added to stir fry.

We pick the pods when they are full and plump. That’s when they are sweetest.

Since the pea harvest is much more than we can eat fresh, I freeze some to save for the winter.

First I remove the stems and the tough “string” that goes down the spine.

Next I steam the pods for 1-2 minutes to stop the action of the enzymes. If you do not steam your peas, the enzymes will continue working even after the peas are frozen and they will lose their flavor and become mushy.

I arrange the peas in the steamer so that they are all equally exposed to the hot water vapor. One cup of water is sufficient.

After my timer goes off, the peas go directly from the hot pot to another pot containing ice water.

This removes the heat quickly and keeps your peas from becoming overcooked, keeping them crisp and fresh tasting.

The cold peas are transferred to a towel on a cookie sheet where they are dried to remove any excess moisture.

Next the towel is removed.

The peas remain on the cookie sheet and are transferred to a freezer.

I place the cookie sheet on the bottom shelf of my upright freezer where temperatures are coldest. You want the peas to freeze as quickly as possible.

Spreading the peas apart on the cookie sheet also allows them to freeze separately rather than being stuck together in a large mass.

After a few hours I transfer the peas to a freezer bag for long term storage. I put a date on the bag so I know exactly when the peas were harvested and frozen.

Throughout the winter we can serve the peas as a vegetable, add them to a stir fry or as addition to soups.

The Deltec Home

One of the newest homes built last year on The Farm is a Deltec, a 8-sided round house "kit," also known as "The Original Green Home."

The components for the home, including roof trusses, floor system and pre-wired wall panels with exterior siding, are all manufactured with green energy generated by 273 solar panels at the company’s facility in North Carolina, and then delivered and assembled on site.

The home here on The Farm incorporates passive solar design with primary windows installed on the south side of the home. A two foot roof overhang helps block out the higher elevation summer sun while allowing the lower elevation winter sun to pass through the windows bringing warmth and sunlight into the interior. In addition, "light tubes" have been installed to bring passive solar lighting into the interior rooms.

An exterior deck wraps around the home, constructed of locally milled sassafras, which is naturally rot and bug resistant. The kitchen, living area and bedrooms all have bamboo flooring. All in all it is a beautiful and unique living space. More on Deltec homes.

Here on The Farm many of the homes were constructed during the 70’s, when working with recycled building materials was both an ideological choice and an economic necessity. Over the decades we have continued to build on and improve our living situations as I will illustrate in the first of my on-going series, Green Homes.

Our “recycled cabin”

I live in a what I call a recycled log cabin. Half of the logs came from an 1800’s log cabin from around the Nashville area. The original cabin was disassembled by Farm work crews back in the 70’s and the cedar logs were re-stacked to form one half of this home.

The other logs came from oak trees harvested on the site where the cabin now stands, hand hewn into shape by a member of The Farm who became one of the cabin’s first residents. Many of the support beams throughout the home also came from the local timbers harvested from the building site.

Exposed support beams

The log walls are about 8 inches thick. Because wood is comprised of plant cell walls, the millions of tiny air pockets make an excellent source of insulation, keeping the cabin warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Although they do not require any painting or maintenance, on some of the interior walls we have sanded the logs and coated them with linseed oil to bring out the natural honey color of the wood.

Interior walls coated with linseed oil

The entire floor system and the framing for the second story and interior walls all consist of recycled lumber acquired by Farm salvage crews. Throughout the 70’s, The Farm was involved in the demolition of hundreds of buildings across the region, bringing back the the materials to use in the construction of homes and community buildings back on the land. This was economically feasible because there were no labor costs due to the collective economy that was in place at that time. Once it became necessary to pay workers wages after The Changeover, it was no longer cost effective to acquire salvaged lumber through demolition.

Our sub-floor of old barn wood

During the communal period, this home housed about 40 people, including several families and assorted single folks. After The Changeover the house was duplexed and it remains that way today. By sharing resources, we are able to live comfortably while dividing various expenses, keeping our cost of living down. For example, our two families share one electric meter, one propane gas connection for our cooking stoves, one water heater, one washer and dryer set, and the list goes on and on. We have also shared costs of improvements to the home over the years.

One of our first investments together was a wood furnace in our basement. The furnace heats both sides of the house with a forced air or central heat system, which keeps all of the dust, debris and smoke associated with wood heat out of our living areas. We spend about $300- $400 per year on wood, which we use whenever temperatures go below freezing

Our wood furnace

A couple of years ago, my wife and I had an addition built on to our side of the home to expand our living space. It features a floor of Vermont slate. We added a computer controlled electric radiant heating system to the floor, which actually can use less energy than most water based radiant heating systems. It is enough to keep our side of the home warm when temperatures are above freezing.

The exterior siding on the addition and on our second story is cypress, a wood that is naturally resistant to rot and insect damage. It requires no painting or exterior treatment.

Vermont Slate

In Tennessee, we are concerned as much or more about keeping the home cool in the summer than gathering heat in the winter through passive solar. For this reason on our south wall we installed tall, narrow windows that let in light without allowing a lot of heat come through.

We also built the addition with six inch stud walls giving us two more inches on insulation than is typical in standard home construction. Under the siding there is an extra layer of foam board, providing yet another layer of insulation.The north walls feature extensive Low E gas-filled windows and a sliding glass door to maximize our view and to let in cool air during the summer.

Out back, our deck is constructed on locally harvested sassafras lumber. Sassafras wood is laden with natural oils, making it also naturally bug and rot resistant.

The Sassafras deck

The latest home improvement has been the addition of new flooring in our upstairs hallway and bedrooms. We chose to use bamboo both because it is a renewable resource and because it is also one of the more affordable options. The downside of bamboo is that although it resembles hardwood in appearance, it is actually quite delicate and susceptible to scuffs, dings and dents. We felt that the upstairs floor would not be exposed to the same amount of traffic that our downstairs receives and hopefully it will hold up OK. We’ll know if that was a good decision in a few years.

Our other options could have been pre-finished hardwood or locally milled hardwood from the nearby Amish community. The Amish hardwood would have required extensive sanding and finishing, something that can be endured with new construction, but impractical when remodeling.

Bamboo flooring

It has taken many years to get where we are now. Instead of a mortgage, we have always worked with a “pay as you go” plan, doing a few improvements or projects each year. We have always been happy that we were not burdened under the weight of a mortgage, but these days it feels very good indeed.

I really like the flavor and texture of Ranch Dressing, but prefer this vegan recipe to the standard sour cream. It’s quick and easy to prepare and satisfies that desire for a creamy dressing.

• 1 cup vegan mayonnaise (Vegenaise or Nasoya Nayonaise)
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix all ingredients together in a blender and combine until smooth. When I am in a hurry I even forgo the blender and mix everything together in a jar with a small whisk.

Enjoy!

Broccoli Plants

The Lettuce Bed

Last week The Farm School participated in the Bio-Regional Congress in many ways. The congress was a convergence of people looking to better their life’s through the way they interact with nature. It was also a space for all who came to share what has been going on in their various projects. The school offered nature based education to all the children of the congress. Most of the High School students attended the congress during and after school hours. Also the Congress used classrooms as a space for holding open-space workshops. This was a beautiful sharing of knowledge. With more than five countries represented at the
Congress, this really was an international event. – Noah Kindfield, Farm High School