Earthen Grove Ecovillage

We are cultivating a community spirit of contentedly connected, earnestly engaged, and artfully present people. Who flow through work and play, thought and song, story and stillness; secure in a sense of belonging, inspired by a sense of responsibility, and healed by living in the epicenter of your own artistic blosoming.
Earthen Grove is a forming regenerative community in Halifax, Vermont, on 11.5 beautiful acres of woodland. With 1 acre of leased agricultural land in Guilford, VT.
We are a human-scale ecovillage that employs sociocracy to coordinate a variety of productive activities collaboratively.
The main cabin’s first floor is communal; it has a community-scale kitchen, a full bathroom with laundry facilities, a library, & community lounge. The cabin has gravity-fed spring water, a large woodstove for heating, wifi access, and is currently on the grid for electricity. Every member of Earthen Grove has access to these amenities from 6 am to 8 pm (unless negociatied other wise). There are two private dorms upstairs that are presently occupied.
There is an extensive body of communal knowledge and experience in human-scale natural structures that are a joy to craft, cost very little, and the whole family can engage in the artful process. We believe in small structures that are sculpted around personal needs. New members come, build these small natural structures to live in, and share the already existing cabin for larger amenities.
We grow using no-till, Veganic practices in the context of permacultural design. Our dietary standard is a high-protein vegan diet (the community is vegan, but you aren’t required to be vegan to be a member). We intend to be capable of feeding the whole village from the food we grow locally.
We operate around sharing meals and helping with day-to-day tasks like cooking, chopping firewood, gardening, building projects, herbalism, childcare, and community education.
The following is a collection of books that were instrumental in the birthing of the Earthen Grove vision. They illustrate aspects of community that we wish to cultivate.
“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer
We love the free form but earnestly engaged and dynamically represented way that this group meets together and engages intellectually and as friends. As well as how they weather challenging times, making each other stronger in the face of adversity by creating a cozy culture that brings sweetness to the darkest times.
“Dies the Fire Trilogy” by S.M. Stirling
We love the Community resourcefulness and the way they collaborate to solve problems and meet needs. As well as how they use a strong community identity to build a sense of interpersonal continuity and ownership of making the community a place that they want their posterity to live. Routinely, people will set out to solve problems that would make the community more secure. And those who can’t help directly are quick to find a way to support. This story also illustrates how communities can develop a sense of inner continuity and pride by gathering around the development of a particular set of skills that make you feel unified and formidable as a community. It also illustrates having community rituals that help ground and connect the community, keeping them on the same page as far as where you are in the wheel of the year and what needs to be done now to fulfill the potential of the season, as well as helping community members feel seen, needed, and nurtured in the seasons of their own lives.
“The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
“If more of us valued food, song, and cheer above horded gold, it would be a merrier world.” We wish to build small hobbit holes, and that means comfort. And all hobbits (Earthen Grove community members) share a love for things that grow. Small houses with small gardens tucked in around larger fields, orchards, and forests. And occasionally embarking on adventures together, even if it might make us late for dinner.
“The Hand-sculpted House” by Ianto Evans, Michael G Smith, and Linda Smiley
This inspiring book on human-scale natural building is really good at helping to redefine what ideal human habitation looks like. And how to truly sculpt a place of belonging that fits you like a glove and makes you feel more like yourself in a truly wonderful way.
“Will Bonsaill’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening” by Will Bonsaill
Will Bonsaill has a profound logical argument for the utility and practicality of veganic gardening, weaving field and forest together to form a nutritionally stable organism. He takes gardening from a colorful side note on your plate to a filling mainstay that can feed you the whole year round. He covers seed saving, growing beans and grains, mulching, and many strategies to make human soil engagement competitive with the seeming efficiency of mechanical and animal agriculture.
“Many Voices One Song” by Ted J. Rau & Jerry Koch-Gonzalez
Is a direct but approachable explanation of how sociocracy enables people to collaborate around a common aim, allowing deep alignment without vertical power structures. Incredible freedom and autonomy in the context of responsibility and accountability.
This Spotify playlist represents a color palette of music that resonates with the vibe we presently carry.
Peasanty, profound, timeless, earthy, mythological, wholesome work, natural insight, or adventure-oriented. Vocal and Acoustic.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4NlmLYzliX2CmDKcFFppfU?si=07g85i74T1ywzs5G-5eUvw&pi=EV9Dg0D6T-KF7