Quite often in “green” circles of conversation, the question is often asked, “Is The Farm an Ecovillage?

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

It has been a bountiful year for peas. From just a three rows about 8 feet long we have been harvesting about half a gallon of peas per day.

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.

It’s only logical that much of the the focus and discussion on sustainability is centered around housing. The definition of “green building” can be very broad, as evidenced on the many different shows airing on the cable network Planet Green. These programs profile homes around the country and around the world, and it can be both inspiring and eye opening to see what constitutes “green” construction. In an effort to live in a more sustainable way, we all make compromises, doing what we can to make responsible and at the same time practical choices, decisions affected by both our pocketbook and our situation.

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.

Hear ye! Hear Ye! Come one, come all to the Annual Farm School Holiday Bazaar!!!!!
Since 1991, The Farm School Holiday Bazaar has been a local celebration of Crafts, Music, and Children’s craft table FREE while you shop!
On Saturday, December 5th, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., The Farm School will host it’s Annual Holiday Bazaar. Each year, vendors from throughout Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia bring their unique and affordable wares to The Farm School in Summertown for one day only. The Bazaar traditionally features handcrafted gifts, clothing, jewelry, plants, books, tie-dyes and much more.
This is a great opportunity for local community members to find many varied products and services. Many folks return year after year to do virtually all of their holiday shopping at this event! All vendors donate a percentage of their sales to the Farm School in what has become their biggest Fundraiser of the year. And as always, support of The Farm School contributes to a sustainable future for our local community.
Coffee and breakfast breads will be served in the morning with vegetarian lunch and desserts available until 4:00 p.m. Other offerings include The Farm School’s time-honored Craft Table where kids can work on holiday themed crafts while adults take their time to peruse the diverse merchandise on hand.
The Farm School is located at 151 Schoolhouse Road, Summertown, TN, 38483 off Drake Lane 1¼ miles west off Hwy 20. For directions, visit: thefarmcommunity.com on the web or contact The Farm School at 931-964-2325 or thefarmschool@gmail.com. Peter Kindfield: peter@thefarmcommunity.com | www.thefarmcommunity.com/thefarmschool/

They came from far and wide, from Portland to Vermont, Hawaii to Florida, Texas and the Midwest, Manhattan and L. A. But the real flavor that made this Congress special was the representatives from the south and when I say south, I mean Mexico, Belize, Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, Trinidad, Cuba and Argentina. They came with culture, music, videos, new vision, and a lot of great energy.

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 Continue reading this post…