Spring 2025 Report:

Earthseed Ecovillage Blossoms with Hope and Connection

Earthseed Ecovillage, Jamaica, VT – April 2025

This spring, Earthseed Ecovillage has come alive with new energy, forging pathways toward a vibrant, cooperative future. Nestled in the rolling hills of southern Vermont, our community is growing not just in numbers but in vision, rooted in harmony, stewardship, and shared dreams. Here’s a glimpse of the inspiring developments unfolding at Earthseed this season:

Welcoming New Voices and Visions

Over the past few months, we’ve had the privilege of interviewing dozens of remarkable individuals eager to contribute their skills and passion to Earthseed. From permaculture designers to cooperative business innovators, educators to artisans, these potential co-founders and members bring a kaleidoscope of expertise. Many are exploring making Earthseed their home, drawn to our commitment to consent-based culture, land restoration, and meaningful connection. Each conversation feels like planting a seed for the interdependent pods, businesses, neighorhoods and communities we envision here at Earthseed.

Learning from the People’s Project Network

In early spring, Marissa and I journeyed to The Garden, a thriving shared land community near Lafayette, Tennessee, and the heart of the People’s Project network. This open-door commune welcomed us with warmth, offering a living example of autonomy, equality, and earth stewardship. We immersed ourselves in their practices, learning about their Mutual Aid Network, which connects communities for resource sharing and permaculture projects. We were particularly inspired by the Two Dollar Revolution, a grassroots movement pooling small contributions to acquire lands for collective use, held in trust for those who uphold cooperative values. Our time at The Garden sparked ideas for how Earthseed can deepen its role in this network, fostering free lands where all can grow together.

Planting Seeds of Resilience

Conversations at The Garden also introduced us to the People’s Project’s tree-planting and riverbank protection efforts in Lakota territory. Last year, their call to action rallied communities to plant thousands of trees, and we’ve heard whispers they aim to double that number in 2025 and launch a major effort alongside the local lakota communities to protect ecosystems within 900ft of major lakota riverbanks that have been damaged by cattle grazing.  Inspired, we’re exploring how Earthseed can further partner with local Abenaki leaders and other nearby indigenous leaders to steward the land with respect and reciprocity, crafting alliance agreements with all as a budding startup society founded on the principle of consent.  

Expanding Horizons with Mahalo and Permatours

Closer to home, our friends at the Mahalo community in Western Brattleboro are renovating and expanding on an adjacent parcel, creating new spaces for creative living, permaculture, and communal gatherings. Syd Harvey, co-founder of Permatours and executive director of Kinship Earth Flow Fund, has just moved in there along with others in the Permatour team. Permatours may soon bring hands-on learning experiences to Earthseed, sharing workshops on regenerative building and design that align with our permaculture goals. Meanwhile, Kinship Earth’s Flow Fund is helping resources move seamlessly to communities like ours, bypassing applications and other bureaucratic hurdles, empowering groups to focus directly on strengthening their communities. 

Building the Foundations of Tomorrow

Back at Earthseed, progress continues on the land we purchased in 2022. Work continues on two curvy structures to support the Building, Gardening, and Ceremony/Gatherings sociocratic circles, and the bandsaw mill hums as we craft lumber for future spaces. Plans for achieving financial sustainability and village growth continue to move forward, fueled by our cooperative plant-based Forest Alchemy line and the diverse services offered through our Handy Humans Collective. Additional income streams and tax cost reductions are about to be realized through two different forest management measures taken recently in collaboration with the Family Forest Carbon Program and the state’s “current use” forestry management process. As spring unfolds, Earthseed Ecovillage stands as a testament to what’s possible when diverse hands join in purpose. We’re not just growing a community; we’re cultivating a way of life that honors the land, each other, and the future. 

Interested in joining us? You are welcome to join our Zoom calls, or plan a visit for an event or outside of that, or become our partner, or join as a member or even as a co-founder, or plug into any of our our cooperative businesses. Let’s plant the seeds of tomorrow, side by side.

—

Love, Bob

P.S. Here are some offerings that we have to share this summer:

• Earthseed Network April Zoom Calls: on April 23rd at 7pm and April 27th at 3pm we will host a call on zoom for 1.5 hours to share project updates and connect in the digital space. This is a great way for folks who are new to the project to meet folks in our network and to learn about what we are cooking up for this summer. In an effort to meet people’s schedules, the 4/23 and 4/27 calls will contain the same content so you probably only want to attend one, but you are welcome to come to both!

• Co-Living 🌱Labs🙏 : this summer we will be hosting a series of Co-Living Labs for our emerging network. On select Sundays, we will gather for the afternoon with a facilitator to practice or experience a relational practice that builds connection to self, others, and the land. Join us the day before for an afternoon of working in the garden, a potluck dinner, and fire with drumming/song/dance and sleep on the land. Or, arrive on Sunday for communal breakfast and the lab starting around 12pm. If you would like to facilitate a lab, please let us know! The lab topics will be announced in May, along with RSVPs. The dates for the labs are: 6/8, 6/22, 7/6, 7/20, 8/3, 8/17, 9/14, 9/28 **this is a great opportunity for potential residents to visit Earthseed, meet our growing community and get to know the area!**

• Building 🔨Work Stays⛺ : this summer, we are shifting the offering for people to participate in our building projects. We are looking for locals who can make a weekly commitment on weekdays or Saturdays for a length of time (like, 6 weeks or 3 months) and folks who want to stay on the land for 3+ days to do a ‘building work stay’ with us. The work projects for this season will focus on auxiliary structures, like a hard outdoor kitchen, 3-season sleeping sheds, a mobile work and tool shed, and finish siding the solar sheds. This will prepare us to break ground on the first common house in the winter. We hope you will join us! Email here or reach out to Bob directly (802) 444-3001

• Save the Date ☀️ June 20 ☀️ for the Summer Solstice Celebration : we are planning to host a celebration for the Summer Solstice again this year, with the added elements of a drum circle and forest walk to visit the sacred mother trees on the land.