Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Food Production

[Mac Thomson (mac]

We've been living here at Heartwood for 9 years and we're focusing  
more and more on food production -- now that we've evolved beyond the  
move-in stage.  We're a rural community in SW Colorado with 361 acres  
overall, 65 acres of irrigated pasture, a greenhouse, henhouse, and  
many gardens.

A couple years ago, Bevan Williams moved here.  He's very  
knowledgeable in larger scale organic gardening so with his  
leadership, we're now ramping up significantly.  A number of residents  
have recently started the Heartwood Farms Co-op (http://heartwoodfarmscoop.com/ 
).  Like all of our ag operations, it is a separate and autonomous  
entity from our HOA.  The primary purpose of the co-op is to raise  
local, organic food for the community, but keeping it separate gives  
community members the opportunity to opt in or out.  The food is sold  
through an informal store in our common house.  There's also a lot  
that shows up in our common meals.

This past year most of the labor for both the store and the gardening  
was provided by Bevan and Lynne.  They made some minimal profits on  
the food they sold to partially compensate them for their work.  Other  
members make a little money selling food that they make or grow at our  
store (goat cheese, chutney, potatoes, etc).

Cheers,
Mac

--
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment  
to excellence whatever his chosen field or endeavor.''
           - Vince Lombardi
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On Jan 29, 2009, at 4:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:37:00 -0700 (MST)
> From: balaji [at] ouraynet.com
> Subject: [C-L]_ Cohousing and Food Production
> To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID:
>         <30271.128.187.0.164.1233175020.squirrel [at] squirrel.ouraynet.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Does your group produce its own food?  If so, to what extent?  And  
> how do
> you organize the labor and distribution?  Does your group have (or  
> is it
> associated with) a CSA?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Charles W. Nuckolls
> Utah Valley Commons
> www.utahvalleycommons.com