Community sufficiency & market independence

We believe self-suffiency is a myth — we all depend on various systems to survive. Most of us depend on markets, which tend to favor quantity over quality. The best example is industrial farming: market forces push farmers towards monocropping and petroleum-based fertilizers, which produce massive amounts of nutrient-light food. We see this pattern repeat everywhere: medicine that treats but does not cure, housing that shelters but discourages community, education that informs but misleads, all behind paywalls.

We believe the only solution is to take responsibility for our own reproduction, but we can't do it alone. Our goal is community suffiency: a way of life in which our survival depends not on markets, but on the willing cooperation of neighbors. To get there, we need non-market technology: low toil, closed-loop, sustainable growing practices inspired by our ancestors and refined by experimentation.

• Restoring an overgrown apple and pear orchard primarily for cider production.
• Bokashi Composting to process a wide variety of food scraps and minimize composting toil (Bokashi is an anerobic process requiring no turnovers).
• Hügelkultur raised beds to utilize decaying wood and minimize need for active watering.
• Bio-char production (from fruit tree prunes) to emulate terra preta practices in our raised beds.
• Inoculation of larger fruit tree prunes and logs with edible mushroom spores.
• Improving the energy efficiency of our farmhouse to reduce our heating oil consumption by 90%.
• Looking for a Farm Steward. Could it be you?