Rural Intentional Communities

By Diana Leafe Christian
Published on June 4, 2018
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Rural communities can have homesteading, LGBTQ, spiritual, and/or eco-friendly focuses.
Rural communities can have homesteading, LGBTQ, spiritual, and/or eco-friendly focuses.
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“Finding Community” by Diana Leafe Christian highlights appealing living alternatives for like-minded people who seek to create a family-oriented and ecologically sustainable lifestyle.
“Finding Community” by Diana Leafe Christian highlights appealing living alternatives for like-minded people who seek to create a family-oriented and ecologically sustainable lifestyle.

Finding Community(New Society, 2007) by Diana Leafe Christian presents a thorough overview of ecovillages and intentional communities and offers solid advice on how to research thoroughly, visit thoughtfully, evaluate intelligently and join gracefully. Intentional communities or ecovillages are an appealing choice for like-minded people who seek to create a family-oriented and ecologically sustainable lifestyle — a lifestyle they are unlikely to find anywhere else. This section shines on what rural communal living is like.

Homesteading Communities

Classic back-to-the-land rural homesteading communities focus on growing food and/or raising livestock, and practicing the necessary homesteading skills for living a self-reliant country life. In some homesteading communities everyone works on the land, for example, when the community has a farming or food-producing operation. In others, while people grow much of their own food onsite, they also earn income through their own small onsite businesses or by working in nearby towns.

The 11 members of Birdsfoot Farm live on a 73-acre agricultural property in upstate New York with woods, a stream, and community buildings. In their two-acre vegetable garden they grow certified organic produce for their CSA farm, local retail outlets, the local farmer’s market, and their own use. They also operate Little River School, employing three teachers and serving local students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Their vegetable business and Little River School provide income to some of their members, while others work in jobs off the property. As in many rural communities, Birdsfoot Farm members are active on social justice and environmental issues.

Sandhill Farm, in rural northeast Missouri, has 135 acres and 5 year-round members, assisted by many interns who live onsite during the growing and harvesting seasons. Sandhill Farm’s land includes gardens, orchards, woods, hayfields, cropland, bee yards, and pastures. An income-sharing commune, Sandhill members earn money by growing organic sorghum, soybeans, and herbs, and processing and selling sorghum syrup, tempeh, garlic, mustard, horseradish, and honey. They also generate an income by doing administrative work for the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), whose office is on their property. One Sandhill member offers group process consulting nationwide; another is an organic farm inspector. “We like to keep our lifestyle simple and healthy,” they note on their website. “We tend to work hard, especially during the growing season, and get satisfaction from providing for ourselves as much as we can while maintaining close ties with neighbors, friends, and other communities. Core values include cooperation, nonviolence, honesty, and working through conflict.”

The 7 members of Edges community, who live on 94 acres of wooded and cleared hills near Athens, Ohio, also grow and put up much of their own food from their organic gardens. And while community members do many homesteading tasks, including gardening, ordering community food, maintenance, construction, land restoration, and permaculture projects, many also have fulltime work on the property or offsite. One Edges member operates a successful renewable energy design and installation business; two others operate an onsite bed and breakfast and Wellness Center; and one is a psychologist at Ohio University. Other members work at a cooperative bakery in Athens, do book editing at home, or market ecofriendly air filters.

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