Your guide to explore, 2017
San Francisco might have been Ground Zero for the counterculture movement of the 1960s, but today its principles live on at a community on the northern edge of Lawrence County.
The Farm was founded in 1971 by about 400 “hippies“ who arrived in a caravan of buses and VW vans with plans to live off the land and help the world around them. Their leader was former Marine-turned-pacifist Stephen Gaskin, whose hugely popular Monday Night Class in San Francisco touched on topics ranging from psychedelics to world religions.
Group members pooled their funds to buy 1750 acres and learned how to farm from neighbors and members of the nearby Amish community. Every resource was held in common as they built homes and businesses to support themselves. The Farm’s population eventually grew to 1400.
Today’s residents number about 200, but after 40+ years The Farm is the country’s oldest intentional community – where people live together based on specific common values. Although The Farm has evolved over time since 1983, residents are still guided by “the desire, by action and example, to have a positive effect on the world.“
Women including In May Gaskin – Stephen‘s wife – helped one another deliver babies on the caravan to Summertown. Ina May became internationally recognized with the publication of Spiritual Midwifery, still considered the Bible of natural childbirth. She is founder and director of The Farm Midwifery Center, which serves mothers from the surrounding community and others who arrive for the final weeks of their pregnancies. The Center also offers basic and advanced workshops in midwifery.
Plenty International is a Farm based nonprofit that has been involved in domestic and international missions since 1974. Hundreds of Plenty volunteers have worked in 19 countries on projects such as village scale organic agriculture, portable water, solar energy, primary healthcare, disaster relief, and ecotourism.
The Farm is also the birthplace of several businesses, a result of resident’s need to earn a living in a rural area. Their commitment to vegetarian cuisine led to the cookbooks produced by the Book Publishing Company and a thriving mail order business. The Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm offers workshops and subjects including permaculture, organic farming, solar energy, and homesteading. Visitors are welcome to explore several small examples of green buildings that are on the Ecovillage grounds.
The Farm’s visitor center is open Monday through Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday, 10 AM to 5 PM. Guests can find a small museum about the farmers beginnings, Book Publishing Compny titles, tie-dye T-shirts, and made jewelry, and maps that indicate areas of the farm that are open to the public.
A driving tour will take visitors by the Farm School, a large passive solar building that serves grades pre-K 12; to The Farm Store for snacks organic groceries; and the nearby meeting hall dome or market day is held every third Saturday, April through October.
Rustic campsites are located near The Farm Welcome Center and Ecovillage Training Center, which also has dorm style accommodations and private rooms. Several residents offer lodging at their homes and private space is available on The Farm as well.
Directions: from US Highway 43 north, turn onto Highway 20 and follow up approximately 17 miles traveling through the community of Summertown in varying slightly to the right at Highway 24 with Turnpike Road. Turn right onto drakes Lane, located immediately passed the Lawrence County line sign. About 1 mile later, take a right onto walker road is dry clean ears to the left. Walker road becomes Farm Road; follow it to the community entrance and the welcome center.
For more information about visiting The Farm, its history and its enterprises, visit www.thefarmcommunity.com
The Farm Welcome Center can be reached at 931–964-3574