Carya Grove is an intentional off-grid sub-community within Bear Creek Community Land Trust (https://bearcreekcommunitylandtrust.org/) on current Bear Creek Community Land Trust member Tanner Radig’s 11 acre leasehold consisting of a mix of clay hills with oak + hickory woodland, prairie, and cedar shrub land.
Right now it is just me and my family (Tanner (30), Cera (27), one boy (9), and one girl (6)) along with occasional visitors, friends, and wwoofers but we would like to find other folks to collaborate, live, and work with longer term and or seasonally. We do not have strong set in stone ways on how to go about this, but do have some vague ideas, are informed from past community experiences, and are open to ideas and figuring it out along the way.
Tanner runs a plant nursery (Perennial Crops Nursery LLC) on the land and is slowly building off-grid infrastructure. So far there are two access gravel roads installed, selective tree/brush clearing, a pond for swimming/fishing/habitat/gravity fed water to the plant nursery, compost toilet outhouse, small cabin, camping spots, bus, and an in-progress multi-purpose shed/outdoor kitchen being built. It is off-grid in the sense of not having grid water or electricity. A future root-cellar, greenhouse, workshop, outdoor kitchen, seed/food processing building, laundry and shower house, office and other 4 season dwellings are envisioned being built eventually.
We could imagine sharing space with up to 10 or so long-term communards as well as visitors, work-traders, education events, and part-timers. In this intentional sub-community we are interested in possibly sharing a homestead (land, housing, infrastructure, gardens, equipment, vehicles, livestock, work, etc) communally/cooperatively. We currently have a shared coop truck and try to carpool when possible. Ideally meals, cooking, gardens, harvest, land projects, child care, and infrastructure can be shared in ways that make sense for everybody.
We have really good neighbors at Bear Creek Community Land Trust, The White Rose Catholic Worker Farm, and Emberfield HeArt Collective Ecovillage. A 45 minute drive northeast is Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Sandhill Community Farm, and Red Earth Farms Community Land Trust. La Plata is 6.5 miles away with an Amtrak Station and all the basic businesses and farmers market. Kirksville is 15 miles away with a small airport you can fly to Chicago or St. Louis at, a farmers market, and is a small university town with all the things towns have. Columbia is 1.5 hours south with a huge city and large airport.
The name Carya Grove, like everything, is open to change. I had to decide on a name to make a listing so I took a shot at it. Carya means nut. In botany it is the genus of hickory, which I feel very connected to, am passionate about growing, and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) grows here well naturally. A grove is “a small wood, an orchard, a group of trees.” Due to my current passion/focus being on developing long-term agroecological systems, the name seemed fitting for the time being.
Everything can change/evolve. Some main interests of Tanner’s are experimenting with and developing intensive agroecological food systems for sustenance, off-grid systems to meet needs with the land and each other, and co-iterating a land-based egalitarian culture embracing commoning, cooperatives, and non-monetary modes of economic transactions within the community, aspiring interdependence. To aid in this, Tanner is planning large plantings to trial many species + varieties + selections and maintain a germplasm repository for further propagation and slowly working on off-grid infrastructure. The mission can be eventually collaboratively honed and co-iterated. The Bear Creek Community Land Trust mission statement is: “to uplift the health of people and the earth by weaving our lives together as an inclusive, interdependent community. We are co-creating a culture that keeps us rooted in place, wild at heart, and connected to all that is sacred. We come together to responsibly grow food and build homes; dismantle systems of oppression within and without; reimagine and recreate the Commons; and explore traditional crafts and technologies of human and animal power: We choose to live more simply, creating a sanctuary from ways of life that undermine health and wholeness. We offer to the world what we know and create through cottage industries, education and immersion opportunities.”
Starting with a visit and building a relationship is where to start. From there we can figure things out depending on the situation and eventually ideally figure out more of a system once more are involved. There are multiple opportunities for long term membership.
1.Making a personal agreement on a person to person basis about living/working on the land together.
2. Alternatively somebody could go thru the formal Bear Creek Community Land Trust Residency Process outlined on the website (https://bearcreekcommunitylandtrust.org/mission/) to then become eligible to legally be either a co-leaseholder to Carya Grove, or able to lease another available Bear Creek Community Land Trust Leasehold as a collaborating neighbor.
Please call Tanner Radig about your interest and timing 563-676-1736.
The whole membership decides collectively.
Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.
Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.
With one founding family present we are the defacto “leader” but envision more people joining and figuring out a more egalitarian community governance system ideally making a leaderless/leaderful community.
Members contribute a percentage of income to community funds.
Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Yes
This can work many ways. I could imagine transitioning to be totally income-sharing, voluntary contributions, consensual expense sharing on a case by case basis, rent/work-trade for part-timers/residents etc. I’d like to figure out what makes sense based on the situation and strategize moving away from the monetary economy.
I am a member of Perennial Crops Nursery LLC that functions as a producer cooperative with two other members (one in Lafayette, TN at The Garden community, and one in Rock Island, IL) and that is how I make income. It’s possible for others to become members of this plant nursery business as well as other individual and or cooperative business ventures from the land. There is lots of opportunity for animal/livestock integration, coppice agroforestry products, basketry, clay pottery, animal/fur/leather goods, natural building, green woodworking, and food production as well as educational events.
Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Vehicle Share, Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Swimming pond or pool, Outdoor Kitchen, Large Scale Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Stage or Auditorium, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Recreational vehicles, Waterfront access, Internet
Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.
Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
interaction while maintaining independence.
Shared living spaces with private bedrooms/bathrooms and communal
kitchens, dining, and social areas.
Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.
Communal living with shared resources, property, and often income or work responsibilities
Geographically close groups of independently-owned homes whose residents actively cultivate community relationships and shared values.
A residential project: people live here as their primary home.
An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).
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