Unique rustic house with towers and metal roof in a lush green setting.

Heart-Culture Farm Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2005

What we do

Located on an historical 1890’s homestead on the West edge of the city of Eugene, Oregon, Heart-Culture Farm Community is committed to experiments in sustainability. Our setting, on the edge of the Fern Ridge Wetlands Wildlife Preserve, lends unique opportunities and challenges, as we work to listen to the land, encourage rare wetlands species to thrive, and learn to steward our livestock in a way that increases the health of our local ecosystems.
Much of our food is grown on-site, including fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, and meats. Some long-term residents are experienced in traditional farm skills, including butchering and wildcrafting. We pasture our livestock and feed them organic and non-GMO as much as possible. Weston Price and traditional diet life-ways are an inspiration.
Heart-Culture is a family-oriented community. The Continuum Concept, Attachment Parenting, Hand in Hand Parenting, and Waldorf education have all influenced our community parenting style. Some babies and toddlers are raised diaper free (Elimination Communication), with extended breastfeeding and cooperative parenting as the norm.
We recognize the importance of both ecological and interpersonal sustainability. We are committed to personal and interpersonal growth. Each individual is responsible for their own growth path, with some group activities. Participation in conflict resolution processes is mandatory. Emotional growth is key to sustainable communities, and living in community is, in itself, a part of our growth path.
One of our current major focuses is on climate change resilience, including adaptive gardening and increasing our reliance on neighbors for a localized economy. To that end, relationship skills that transcend political differences are really important to us.
Out of concern for the damaging effect of wireless radiation on health and ecology, we allow very limited use of radiation-emitting devices on the property. Cell phones must be on Airplane Mode the majority of the time; internet is via a wire (no WIFI).

Our Mission

Cooperative Childraising, Sustainable Food Production, Climate Change Adaptation

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Community type
  • Coliving
  • Ecovillage
  • Activities
  • Farming

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2005
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2006
  • Started living together

Video

Gallery

  • 9 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
14

How to join

1. Decide which space you would move in to; 2. Visit for 1-10 days if possible; 3. Get consensus from current community members; 4. Sign a rental contract and pay first and last months’ rent and move-in fees.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Call or email to schedule a visit.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Modified Consensus

Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Conflict resolution approach

The leadership core group members buy in to an LLC to become land owners. Financial decisions are largely made by the owners group; other decisions require full resident consensus.
Leadership core-group uses consensus decision-making.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a one-time fee, investment, or share purchase to join the community separate from accessing housing
  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Join fee: Yes
Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Yes
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
$35,000 buy-in to become a land-owner. Land owners have ongoing financial obligations (for repairs, taxes, etc). Others pay rent and utilities, varying depending on the space.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Outdoor Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced
  • Wildcrafting / Foraging
  • Livestock / Animal Husbandry

Community activities and engagement

  • WWOOF'ing, Guest Farming

Substance use culture

  • Substance use is prohibited in the community
  • Religions
  • Quaker
  • Native
  • Wiccan, Paganism, or Earth Religions
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By several individuals through an LLC or a Tenancy In Common agreement

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Coliving

    Shared living spaces with private bedrooms/bathrooms and communal
    kitchens, dining, and social areas.

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • 33 - 66%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics
  • Land area size
    33 acres

Guest Book

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Location

  • Oregon, United States

Heart-Culture Farm Community

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
1 month ago

Rooms in Beautiful Location in downtown East Austin

Mountain Laurel House has upcoming room openings on August 1 and September 1 to share our house in central East Austin close to downtown. Rent is $925 per month with $75 to cover your share of the utilities and maintenance. You provide your own food. We enjoy sharing a meal at the dining table at least once a month for fun, to check in on our lives, and talk about housekeeping together. To apply, email do*************@***il.com with subject line Room at Mountain Laurel House. Request the brief application questions and we’ll provide more info and answer your questions. Mountain Laurel House is in a great location! It’s on a green cul de sac, with a wooded lot to the southwest and a green open space to the west. It’s close to the East 11th & Rosewood dining and entertainment district and right across from the Carver Library and a bus stop. We’re in walking distance to downtown Austin, the State Capitol, Huston-Tillotson University and a short bike or bus ride to the University of Texas; and, south or east of here, Lady Bird Lake and Boggy Creek hike and bike trails, park lands, swimming pools, pickleball and basketball courts. I kayak on Town Lake aka Lady Bird Lake or swim just across downtown at Deep Eddy or Barton Springs fresh-water, spring-fed swimming pools. We enjoy sharing a meal at the dining table at least once a month for fun, to check in on our lives, and plan housekeeping together. HEB is a short 5 minute drive east on 7th St. and Whole Foods is about a ten minute walk from here on 5th St. Amenities in the house include a dishwasher, utility room with a clothes washer-dryer and an optional clothesline, high-speed internet, a big dining room table for meals or activities, and a large screen TV for movie nights. The yard has beautiful native wildlife habitat gardens, veggie and herb pots, a large Cedar Elm, two Live Oaks, a fruit-bearing Fig, a Champenelle grape vine, and a Chili pequin. The cul de sac is a large park-like
  • Promoted
Offer
Offer
  • Marketplace
6 years ago

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves Books for Sale

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant introduce Cohousing with stories and pictures of both Danish and American communities. Beautiful photographs and line drawings illustrate the warmly written account of how these communities came to be. Specific information on legal and financial aspects of working with developers, group process, and design issues make this book informative as well as inspiring. This is the book which brought Cohousing to North America. This book is the much prized second edition which has become a rarer and somewhat of a collectors item. Its community case studies were not included in the more recent publication. It preceded Creating Cohousing which is widely available. I acquired 25 cases from a local distributor who closed down. If you would like three or more copies for yourself, to share with your friends or to market your group, please let me know. I would love for them to be made useful and find great homes. Books are paperback (hard copy was not an option at the time from the publisher) all brand new, in Oakland (CA) so could be picked in Oakland or mailed to you. I would very much like to recuperate what I paid which is $10 per book. So, If you would like three or more shipped, I will add the postage, packing and handling fees. I have sold several cases (18 books per case) for $150 per case ($8 per book). I have a little wiggle room on the pricing. Please let me know if you are interested. Use the Send Message button on this page.
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 years ago

Twin Oaks, an established, income-sharing, village-scale community is seeking new members

Twin Oaks is looking for new members! Founded in 1967, Twin Oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing community made currently 70 adults and 15 kids, living on 500 forested acres in central Virginia. Twin Oaks has strong social justice values including feminism, racial justice, and queer culture. We host a Queer Gathering and Women’s Gathering each summer, and we have a number of working groups around racial justice issues in general and in an intentional community context. Please visit our website twinoaks.org for more information and directions on how to apply for a Visitor Period. A Visitor Period is the first step towards becoming a member. We can offer: your choice of full-time work in our income-sharing community businesses (heirloom seeds, hammocks, and others) and/or domestic work areas from organic gardening to milking cows and cheese-making to office work to technical jobs and more! an individual room in shared housing; each member has their own personal bedroom and shares a kitchen, living room and bathroom with others in their house. Each residence has its own culture and range of ages. all meals are provided in our communal dining hall and/or in smaller kitchens for individual eating. We generally accommodate all special diets. (gluten-free, vegan, no garlic, etc.) income-sharing includes health-care and monthly stipend for extra We are looking for: people with various life skills and/or a willingness to learn people who share our values of social justice, sustainability and living closely with a diversity of people people with a generally responsible and pro-active approach to community living experience or interest in non-hierarchical, shared decision-making BIPOC, women and non-binary people especially encouraged The first step towards becoming a member is to participate in one of

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A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

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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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