Earthworm Housing Co-operative

Mission: Practical ecological living, with a realistic apprehension of sustainability issues. Beyond that we do not define ourselves by what we eat, believe or do; though individual members do have various strains of activism, spirituality, dietary ethics and personal codes central to their lives. Tolerance and understanding are way more important than signing up to any particular code. Be yourself, but be enough of a grown up to have thought about that.

From www.ic.org/directory/earthworm-housing-co-op/:

Once a commune, now a co-housing project with a shared house in the middle, Earthworm Housing Co-operative owns three residential buildings and seven acres of land on the border of Shropshire, Hereford and Powys.

We make decisions through regular meetings and on a day-to-day basis always by consensus. The group's membership and direction have undergone several changes since the co-operative was formed in 1989, but the same original principles and ideals remain, including an ecological focus, managing land for resilience, productivity and health, limiting use of products that poison and pollute, and trying to be more ethical consumers.

We farm our land by organic methods, using techniques from fields as diverse as bio-dynamics, permaculture and old-boy allotment-style! We use composting toilets and have recently built a wetland system to process sewage, greywater and wastewater from the house. We grow seasonal vegetables, herbs, and fruit in the gardens, polytunnels and greenhouse.

Vegans, meat-eaters and people in between all share space, collaborating and communicating clearly and well.

We host some gatherings, courses, and camps, but mostly members are just getting on quite conventionally, making their livlihoods in our border region.

Some members are parents, some are growers, some are brewers and some are teachers. Our origins include Germany as well as Ireland, England and Scotland. The co-op has had literally hundreds of members since it was legally constituted in 1989, but has been quite stable since 2011, focusing on the renovation of all the buildings.

It began as a 'commune' in 1975, and many waves of people have contributed to the abundance and challenges we now enjoy as a productive, outward-looking housing co-operative.

A service of the Data Commons Co-op. The project has been supported by Equal Exchange, the Cooperative Charitable Trust, the USDA, and many others - thank you! Tech volunteers over the years include: Benjamin Bradley with support from GAIA Host. Ben Mauer with support from Quilted. Paul Fitzpatrick. Ronin Tech Collective, Brattleboro Tech Collective, Sligo Computer Services. Jason Lemieux. Default map tiles courtesy of MapQuest. Default map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA.