August ☀️🌱🛖✨

Hello Earthseed Community!

We are reflecting on the sweet gatherings we have had recently and are feeling deep gratitude for you all for being brave and taking action to live well, embedded in ecosystems, in community, and with others who share that dream. Thank you! ☀️🌱✨

As some of you heard at our monthly “Deepening Connections” zoom call, open to all partners and potential members, a few days ago – we are rooting ever deeper. Our blackberries are beginning to come in and are just fabulous, our gardens are beginning to bear fruit – and don’t get us started on the abundance of kale we’ve got! Bob has been spearheading all sorts of building projects – the workshop with tools and equipment is now fully set up and ready for the builders to come use it, the outhouse now has a raft (just in case a big flood happens – we’ll still get to do our business #2!), the solar panels are functioning even flat on the ground – and our next project will be to get them up and attuned to the sun more. And – you should see our epic solar dehydrator, that looks like a ski jump, and is ready to steward our upcoming apple harvest – yay apple chips!!! And last, but not least – we are getting a yurt onto the land, and we just had our yurt-raising party, which was actually more like yurt-disassembly and very partial raising – judge for yourself:

Going back to our Zoom meeting: during the discussion, many expressed interest in sharing the Earthseed Founding Values Document for contemplation and conversation at our September “Deepening Connections” zoom call. We heard you, and we have shared that document with partners and members for reading and commenting. It is still being drafted, and will eternally be evolving. If you are interested to see it and have access to it, let us know.

We also heard a strong call for a vivid visioning process – a “Pie In The Sky” type of inspirational conversations, where we share about the beautiful community we would like to build and what it feels like to take a walk through said village three years from now, five years from now, 20 years from now. What would that look like for each of us?! 

We are excited to dive deep into visioning – we couldn’t agree more about the inspiring power of story-telling! When I close my eyes and think about what the vivid visioning process feels like, it is glowing orange, hot, and dark enough that our true voices can come to the surface – maybe that’s the glowing ambers  in the sauna ?! 😉 We’d love to share the sauna and exchange our vivid dreams and visions with you this winter.

Supporting Earthseed

• We have less of a need for materials at this moment, but if you have a wood splitter, cider press, or other larger equipment you want to lend or gift us, please reach out!
• Right now, our biggest need are funds to support our monthly costs, until we can build our population and in turn the businesses operating on the land. If you have enjoyed visiting the land and connecting with us on zoom, consider supporting us with a one-time donation on venmo or a monthly donation on patreon. Want to send funds another way? Email us!

Upcoming Events

• August September 4 | Communities Conference & Convergence of Intentional Communities – We are considering driving down to Virginia to the Twin Oaks Community for this annual gathering and have room in our car, if you would like to join us! Learn more here.

In the Next Newsletter (drum roll….)

• We will be launching the first Forest Alchemy Summer Menu! Forest Alchemy is a land-based and plant-magic business by the Earthseed Ecovillage Community. We will launch menus seasonally with offerings from the land. Currently, labor is donated and all profits go directly to supporting Earthseed’s monthly costs.
• We are partnering with our neighbor and Native American Elder Linda Longtoe Sheehan, owner of Two Otters Native American Arts, to offer a Fall Workshop Series with the topics to be: 4-day brain tanning, 2-day medicine bag making, and 1-moccasin making. More details and signups will be coming out next week.

In Community,

Marissa, Bob, Aurore & Aliona