This fall marks a new beginning in the life of educational programming at Earthaven. Two of the village’s educational organizations have merged. Culture’s Edge and School of Integrated Living (SOIL) are now one. Read on to learn more of their histories and how the merger evolved. 

 Culture’s Edge was founded in 1996, two years after Earthaven. Early Earthaven members studied the skills needed to develop an ecovillage and then taught those skills at Earthaven. Culture’s Edge became a regional leader in permaculture, natural building, and healing arts training, attracting students and apprentices from around the world to study at Earthaven. Culture’s Edge continued offering workshops over the years, though the number declined over time as instructors moved away and new organizations started providing educational programs in the region. 

 In 2013, NikiAnne Feinberg and Lee Warren co-founded School of Integrated Living (SOIL), an educational organization and social enterprise that teaches whole-life skills for a radically different and sustainable future. SOIL aims to populate the world with empowered, skilled, and conscious leaders dedicated to creating regenerative change and healthy relationships. 

 In 2019, Culture’s Edge started rebuilding its board after Earthaven’s restructuring process was complete and more community energy was available for creative educational endeavors. Over the years, the idea of developing online education had been swirling in the village as a way to more diversely address Earthaven’s educational mission and boost the local economy for community members. The revitalization of Culture’s Edge couldn’t have come at a more apropos time to pursue online education.

 In this COVID-19 era, SOIL had to cancel all of its 2020 in-person programs and the outlook for 2021 is still uncertain. With the strong team that SOIL has cultivated over the years and a new website equipped with the technology needed for online programs, plus the fact that several people were involved in both organizations, the obvious question was…why not consolidate resources and efforts by placing in-person and online educational offerings under one roof? So they did. 

 With the merger, Culture’s Edge continues to be a non-profit organization focused on Earthaven’s mission and SOIL is the educational face of Culture’s Edge. Educational opportunities at Earthaven are poised to reach audiences further afield. The casting of a wider net couldn’t come at a better time, as the sustainable way of life at Earthaven is becoming more relevant in light of many of today’s systemic challenges.

 Stay tuned for the rollout of SOIL’s new website, as well as its newest programs: a free audio podcast, new online workshops, and virtual tours of our village. 

 In the meantime, check out SOIL’s in-person 2021 programs by visiting the current SOIL website or sign up for the December 6 Virtual Village Tour on the Earthaven website. To get the latest news about SOIL’s programs, subscribe to SOIL’s newsletter.

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July’s Restorative Circles (RC) Conference hosted by Culture’s Edge at Earthaven brought together about 30 Restorative Justice and Nonviolent Communication practitioners from around the world to strengthen the network of resources for deep, global societal change, starting with right where we are. Using Open Space technology, the conference sessions were collaboratively curated on site. Sessions included: “notes from the field” of RC educators and practitioners, “semi-simulated circle” practice sessions, discussions about dealing with trauma and other hardships met in this work, and using RC with children and in families. The Conference enhanced the growing connections between those who’ve been working together over the past six years and those new to the group. If you’re interested in being a part of the planning and design for the next Restorative Circles Conference in 2021, email the Culture’s Edge staff at: culturesedge@earthaven.org.

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Well, well, well! It’s been many a year since Culture’s Edge at Earthaven hosted a natural building camp. But this August (24-29), we once again are offering a full six-day adventure into the world of cob and its sophisticated cousin, compressed earth block.

Both cob and the blocks are started with the same basic ingredients—a good, clay-y soil, and sand. Cob, however, also has a significant amount of straw crushed into it and is put on quite wet in cobs, or loaves. Compressed earth blocks are made without additional water or straw, and often a small amount (ten percent) of Portland cement is used in the mix.

The other big difference is that the neat rectangular blocks are made by a big machine requiring mechanical power, and are set in place with an earthen mortar, whereas cob can be made by a pair of folks and a tarp (although it can also be mixed several other ways) and requires no mortar at all.

Since cob is a basically seamless material, the way the molecules adhere to each other depends especially on the water and the straw in the mix. Ideally, the soil is soaked in water ahead of time to allow the molecules to fully absorb the water and become as sticky as possible. The straw acts like a crisscross of fibrous “nails” that interweave the cob mix and make it the most solid of natural building materials. Another similar earthen material is adobe brick, which is a hand-made version that is pressed wet into forms. Adobe brick thus takes significant drying time to use and is probably in its best setting in dry climates.

At this year’s Natural Building Camp, participants will be working on a cob and block tower for the new Village Arts Building at Earthaven. The recently built rubble trench foundation with its two-foot stacked stone base wall will take a couple of rounds of cob and then be continued with the earth blocks.

The Camp will begin with a comprehensive tour of natural and green buildings at Earthaven, featuring a wide variety of traditional and experimental techniques. Our experienced staff and natural building interns will be on hand to demonstrate, teach and guide participants through the basics of hands-on natural building. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion, plus all the good things about summer camp—group meals, walks in the woods, dips in the creek, and starry nights around the campfire.

As the famous cob builder, Becky Bee, explains in the documentary First Earth, there’s nothing like natural building to bring people of all skill levels together, creating the very sense of community we seek by the process we use to do it. We’re very excited to be reintroducing this delightful approach to housing ourselves and our activities to the public. Folks are welcome to sign up for the entire six day camp or to come just for the weekend. More information is available at www.culturesedge.net.

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Culture’s Edge

We have also become the umbrella organization for independent educational projects, including the Forest Children Program, Camp Katuah, The Natural Building School, Patricia Allison and Friends’ Sustainable Living Skills internships and classes, and a program we simply call Earthaven Ecovillage, our volunteers who host tours and facilitate long-term on-site work study opportunities.

This year we are planning to sponsor workshops in Qigong, The Power of Manifestation, Homeopathy, and Plant Wisdom.  See www.earthaven.org for a listing of current classes.  Tax-deductible donations of any size can be earmarked for any of these programs.  You can support scholarships for education, or tell us that you want us to use your donation wherever it’s most needed for education and outreach.

Culture’s Edge was established as a not-for-profit company in 1996, shortly after Earthaven was formed. Culture’s Edge was a way to focus our passion for education and create opportunities for livelihood.  At first we offered courses in the three areas central to our own development: permaculture, natural building, and consensus decision making.  Over time, training in the agricultural arts, building arts, communication arts, and healing arts were added, filling almost every weekend from May through October for several years running.

While focusing on internal reorganization in 2006, we slowed down and most of the classes held that year were privately organized.  This past year, the introduction of Health Dept. requirements into Earthaven’s midst (see article, Are You Hep?) cut short our educational calendar for the season, which, though hard on the village economy, did give us the opportunity to consider how our future plans might branch out.  In particular, we feel excited about expanding longer-term internship programs, in which the opportunities for life changing experiences are the greatest.

This year, Culture’s Edge is offering the courses and programs that nurture a healthy & sustainable world and offer you practical solutions.  Our programs are taught by a dynamic team of instructors and contribute to Earthaven’s village economy.

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Culture’s Edge was founded in 1995 to help catalyze healthy, sustainable, and regenerative culture at Earthaven and in the bioregion. In the past, Culture’s Edge has organized public classes and workshops at Earthaven in permaculture design, natural building, and other topics to teach and demonstrate a more sustainable way of life. Encouraged by Tracy, a nonprofit administrator who joined Earthaven in 2006, Culture’s Edge began seeking grant and donation money last November to undertake a different strategy, and they decided to focus at the heart of any region’s culture: its food.

“This is seed money, like a ‘flint spark’ to get our programs going and develop our ability to seek more funding in the near future, thanks to the Resourceful Communities Program,” says Tracy. “They wanted to help us build our capacity as an organization, because they see we meet their ‘triple bottom line’ for environmental stewardship, social justice, and sustainable community economic development.

“Both Rutherford County, the county in which most of Earthaven’s property lies, and neighboring McDowell County, are economically depressed. Families and younger workers in these counties often have to commute outside the area for work or leave the area entirely if they want to have decent livelihood. Small family farmers are especially hard hit. Paradoxically, there’s a huge demand for locally grown organic produce, dairy products, meat products, and biofuels in our region–more than local farmers can supply right now. We want to help them, and our own farmers at Earthaven, such as the Gateway integrated agricultural project, to build sustainable farms and connect to these markets. There’s a lot of connecting-up we can help facilitate!”

Culture’s Edge would like to offer local organic farmers and growers meeting space, office and administration services, and staff time to research how local farmers can develop their entrepreneurial–and ecologically sustainable–plans. Part of the grant money will be used for Culture’s Edge to rent office space at Earthaven for several months and pay for staff time to develop a database of potential funders and donors, potential workshop participants, and local organic farmers. The grant will also support board development, to find and train more Culture’s Edge board members. (Current board members are Paul Caron, Arjuna da Silva, and Suchi Lathrop, as well as Channing Ayers, a neighbor from nearby One Stone intentional community.)

Grant money will also pay for staff time to establish relationships with and promote other local organizations engaged in similar work: to make connections with Foothill Family Farms, a co-op of farmers and growers practicing sustainable agriculture in McDowell County; the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA); Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP); McDowell County Cooperative Extension Service (Tracy recently gave its director a tour of Earthaven); and the Alternative Technologies Program at Appalachian State University.

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