The Gateway — Pole Barn & Kitchen
Rain-fed roof, cobb oven, herb drying and prep, year-round fire. People can gather for learning, food, medicine prep, and more.
Addison County, Vermont
A living space where food security, nature-based healing, sustainable education, and community resilience grow together
— rooted in Vermont soil.
A food forest, healing sanctuary, and living classroom in Addison County — just getting started — the first thing we need is land.
The vision
Growing a reciprocal relationship with place
Food security
We envision free, nutrient-dense food grown for public foraging — a perennial edible landscape where abundance is shared, not sold.
Healing & sanctuary
A held space for energy work, therapeutic sessions, and nature-based wellness — open to practitioners and participants at all income levels.
Living education
Hands-on learning for kids and adults — permaculture, herbs, natural building, stewardship — co-shaped with whoever wants to teach or learn.
The land in motion
Five Zones, One Living Sanctuary
From gateway to quiet heart — one continuous landscape, shaped by the site and everyone who builds it.
We build from what's already here when we can: stone, clay, sand, fallen timber. Picking land means asking what it wants to give.
The Hearth — Children’s Sensory Woods
Play and sensory space within sight of the hub. Learning that no classroom can hold.
The Mid-Forest — Food Forest Canopy
Nuts, berries, and medicinals stacked in layers — the sound of the road fades here, replaced by birdsong and the rustle of leaves.
The Core — Cobb Sauna & Living Roof
Earthen sauna, green roof, cool-down toward the trees — clay, sand, and straw from nearby when the site allows.
The Silence — Medicine Wheel & Earth Altar
Forest bathing and earthing lead inward to the medicine wheel and earth altar — ceremony, stillness, land-tending.
Perennial abundance
A Living Canopy for All
Layered, public edible plantings — nuts, berries, medicinals, natives — for pollinators and long-term soil.
| Plant | Healing role | Ecological role |
|---|---|---|
| Elderberry | Immune support; fever reduction (flowers & berries) | Fast growth; dappled shade for sanctuary zones |
| Linden / Basswood | Heart-calming tea; anxiety support | Deep nutrient accumulator |
| White Pine | Vitamin C; cortisol reduction via scent (forest bathing) | Windbreak; year-round anchor |
| Comfrey | Topical support for inflammation & tissue repair | Breaks up Vermont clay; dynamic accumulator |
Somatic landscape
Rooted in Earth, Open to the Sky
Slow paths, soft ground, structures that fit the hill — nervous system and community together.
You are medicine men & medicine women. It is time to rise up. Find your medicine, it is what will heal the world. What makes you happy, what makes you feel alive, is your medicine. It is time to walk out your door & love & create.
Forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku)
Canopy trails — unhurried by design.
Earthing paths
Moss and sand underfoot; thresholds mark the way inward.
Medicine wheel & earth altar
At the trail's end: wheel and altar for ceremony and land-tending. Fieldstone from the land — not quarried truckloads.
Cobb sauna & living green roof
Sunset-facing where the land allows; thermal mass for year-round use. Clay, sand, straw — local when we can.
An open space for healing
Room for practitioners — plant medicine, body and energy work, somatic care, and more. Sliding scale always; time and skill count when money doesn't.
Hands on the work
Help Build This
Five first structures — whoever shows up with tools and heart shapes the details.
Pole barn & outdoor kitchen
The community heart — shelter, food prep, and gathering through every season.
Salvaged and donated lumber; locally felled timber; reclaimed barn materials — this is how we want to build it. You can donate materials — get in touch.
Cobb sauna & living roof
Warmth, ceremony, and a roof that belongs to the hillside.
Clay, sand, straw from the ground and nearby.
Medicine wheel & earth altar
At the end of the healing trails — ceremony and listening.
Fieldstone from the land, not quarried stone.
Children's sensory woods
Mud, willow, slate, and room to get gloriously dirty.
Local slate, willow, wood — no plastic, no treated lumber.
Food forest canopy
Layers of nuts, berries, medicinals, and native plants for everyone.
Native seeds and local plant starts — if you have divisions, cuttings, or volunteers from your own garden, they belong here.
Next generations
Where Children Learn by Doing
Mud kitchens, willow, slate, outdoor kitchen for small hands — play as stewardship. Parents and educators, we'd love your help shaping it.
The artisan hub
The Pole Barn — Heart of the Community
Barn-raising style: donated materials, volunteer labor — materials and strong hands welcome first.
Timber-frame pole barn and outdoor kitchen: preservation space, shared meals, rain harvest, greywater hand sinks, herb racks. Hemlock and cedar where we can; open in winter for Tea & Fire.
The Stewardship Agreement
A living covenant between people and place
Reciprocal foraging
Harvest no more than one-third of any plant. Each harvest asks for an act of service — weeding, mulching, or clearing a path.
Quiet zones
Quiet zones around the sauna, wheel, and altar — no digital noise on the trails that lead there.
Chemical-free sanctuary
No synthetic fertilizers or ‑cidal agents. Healing cannot live in a poisoned landscape.
Energetic exchange
Practitioners offering paid sessions contribute 10% of their time to Open Sanctuary Hours for neighbors.
Seasonal rhythms
The sanctuary follows Vermont’s wheel of the year. The pole barn stays open in winter for Tea & Fire against rural isolation.
Land & allies
Finding Our Home
1–5 acres near Middlebury, Bristol, or New Haven — stewardship, partnership, donation, or something we haven't thought of. Have a lead? Tell us.
Ideal land characteristics:
- Mix of open meadow and established woodlot
- Existing or potential water source (stream, spring, or pond)
- Accessible by foot or bike where possible
- Suited to perennial plantings and small natural structures
Organizations and neighbors doing aligned work in Addison County — conservation, food, building, healing, or plain love of place — we're glad to connect.
Resources
How We'll Build This Together
Community-built first — grants, fundraising, and partnerships as we grow. Financial help welcome; grant-writing and development skills too.
How you can help
What We Need Right Now
You can help even before we've found a piece of land — seeds, tools, mulch, cardboard, whatever fits. Biggest need: land (or a lead).
Sheet mulch starts with cardboard; woodchips — the more the better.
And above all: land
This is the ask that makes everything else possible
1–5 acres near Middlebury, Bristol, or New Haven — community access, perennials and small structures, lease or donation or conservation — your terms to discuss.
Tree cover or edge habitat helps; water matters; fieldstone, clay, or timber on site is a plus. Reach out if this could be your land.
I have land to offer →Plants & seeds
Native and cold-hardy especially welcome.
- Fruit trees
- Nut trees
- Berry shrubs
- Medicinal herbs & seeds
- Native perennial wildflowers and ground covers
- Native shrubs
- Living willow cuttings
- Mushroom spawn or inoculated logs
Soil & site prep
Mulch, compost, sheet mulch — the base layer.
- Woodchips — loads of them (arborist chips especially welcome; the more the better)
- Straw bales or hay (for mulching, cobb building, and compost)
- Cardboard (clean, uncoated — for sheet mulching under woodchips)
- Compost or aged manure
- Leaf mold or collected autumn leaves
- Biochar
- Topsoil (screened or unscreened)
- Pea gravel or clean gravel (for paths and drainage)
Natural building materials
Stone, clay, sand, straw, timber — salvaged or local.
- Fieldstone or ledge stone
- Clay subsoil (for cobb)
- Sand
- Clean straw for cobb
- Timber — barn wood, air-dried lumber, standing dead, or selective-cut logs
- Reclaimed roofing
- Living willow stakes
Tools & equipment
Barn and garden tools.
- Shovels and spades
- Digging forks and broadforks
- Garden rakes and lawn rakes
- Hoes and collinear hoes
- Mattocks and grubbing hoes
- Wheelbarrows and garden carts
- Buckets (5-gallon especially)
- Tarps (various sizes)
- Watering cans and hose + fittings
- Tree planting bars
- Loppers, hand saws, bow saws, pruning saws
- Post-hole digger or auger
- Come-along or block and tackle (for moving stone)
- Levels, measuring tapes, string lines
- Outdoor extension cords and power strips
Water & rainwater
Catch and move water gently.
- Rainwater barrels (55-gallon or larger)
- IBC totes (275- or 330-gallon)
- Downspout diverters and fittings
- Soaker hose or drip irrigation
- Hand pumps
Fire & gathering
Oven, fire rings, outdoor cooking.
- Fire grates, fire rings, or outdoor fire bowls
- Cast iron cookware (Dutch ovens, skillets, griddles — for outdoor and cobb oven cooking)
- Firewood (seasoned hardwood)
- Salvaged outdoor seating — benches, stumps, log rounds, Adirondack chairs
- Picnic tables or outdoor table materials
Infrastructure & structures
Salvage and reuse.
- Salvaged lumber and framing material
- Reclaimed windows (for cold frames and seedling starting)
- Wire fencing and T-posts (to protect young trees from deer)
- Solar lighting
- Pallets (for temporary staging and compost bins)
- Rope, twine, and baling wire
Ready to offer something from the list?
I have materials or tools →
Work-bee
Join the Guild
Builders, dreamers, parents, elders — land leads, skills, or curiosity welcome.
Free to get involved. Any suggested fees stay sliding-scale; time and skill are always currency.
I have land
Know of 1–5 accessible acres in Addison County? Reach out.
I can build
Timber framing, cobb, natural building, earthworks.
I can heal
Energy work, herbs, somatic care.
I want to learn
Families, teachers, volunteers, curious neighbors.
I want to contribute financially
Help us acquire land, source materials, or sustain the project's early phase.