Earthaven Ecovillage

Earthaven is an aspiring ecovillage founded in 1994 on 329 acres in the mountain forests of western North Carolina, about 50 minutes from Asheville. We are spiritually diverse, and value sustainable ecological systems, permaculture design, elegant simplicity, right livelihood, and healthy social relations. We have both vegetarians and omnivores, and some of us raise livestock for food. We hope to become empowered, responsible, ecologically literate citizens who model bioregionally appropriate culture for our time and place.

We intend to become a village of at least 150. We use a modified form of the N Street Consensus Method for decision making, and have paid for and own title to our land. We are in the process of restructuring our legal arrangements, and we pay annual dues. As of 2016 we have 51 members. We have built roads and bridges, community buildings, members' homes, multi-household residences, gardens, constructed wetlands, and off-grid power and water systems.

We are developing a small village-scale economy. Some of us work in small, onsite businesses or nonprofits owned or run by members, including Useful Plants Nursery; Culture's Edge, an educational nonprofit; the School of Integrated Living (SOIL), an educational nonprofit); or by offering services such as tours, campground lodging, carpentry and home construction, home care, child care, and healing arts.

As a learning community dedicated to sharing our resources with the public, we offer workshops in Permaculture design, natural building, consensus decision-making, Sociocracy, creating new ecovillages, herbal medicine, health and healing, and women’s mysteries. We also host large events such as the Continental Bioregional Congress (2005), the annual Southeast Regional Permaculture Gathering (2002-04), and a Village Harvest Festival (2008-2009) We welcome students and other learning groups, and support homeschool parents of children at Earthaven and nearby. We are seeking hardworking, entrepreneurial people, including but not limited to organic growers and farmers; people with solar system, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical skills; healers, artists, and families with children.