Highland Springs
Food and Farm Club
To Cultivate Connection
Aiming to create a communal path toward practicing deeper connection, season syncing, cultivation, processing, and thinking more deeply about what it means to actively live in harmony with natural systems and one another.
Program Outline
Bimonthly meetings
Every other Tuesday
May through September
10 weeks - Donation based participation
5:30 to 8:30pm
Limited to 12 participants who work and learn about natural systems of soil care, gardening, propagation, herbal crafts, preservation techniques, permacultural tending, and share seasonal meals and conversation regarding observation and process.
Program Goals and Values
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Deepening connection in community
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Rooting into relationship with the natural world
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Creative relationship development to witness and participate in natural cycles of wellness
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Tending the soil, tending plants, and tending to ourselves
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Mutual abundance and gift systems
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Plant propagation and shared harvests
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Observational attunement
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Joyful collection and creation
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Accountability development
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Communal connection to agricultural practices
Projects: Directed Attention and Time
We will spend an entire season in the gardens: observing, gathering, processing, fermenting, distilling, infusing, crafting and connecting to the powers and potential of plants.
Our liminal curriculum will be designed around collective interests and seasonal botanical abundance, but we will design daily practices to tap into the elements in the program outline and each week we will share a seasonal meal while we reflect on our daily practice.
Your Club Organizer and Garden Guide
Sarah Newton will be hosting F&F Club at her home on Highland Springs Farm. She has a certificate in permaculture and practices regenerative farming. She is a master preserver, who has grown over 80% of the food she's consumed in a year (all vegetables, beans, fruits, and some grains) while supporting local farms for dairy and bulk grains. She owned merge restaurant for a decade, where she headed up a seasonal preservation program to extend local farm harvests and share them through their seasonal menu. In 2019 she bought HS farm with her husband and ran a vegetable CSA for two years.
Who is this club for? Ideal member traits.
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Anyone, who has been feeling disconnected and empty in the face of a social system buzzing with noise and lacking rooted and value based action.
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Anyone, who has a garden, wants to build a garden, wants to spend time learning in a garden.
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Anyone, who wants to connect with ancient ancestral practices, natural cycles, and agricultural community building.
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Anyone, seeking earth healing and honoring opportunities, which renew the bonds of love and community that unite us with one another and the natural and spiritual worlds.
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Anyone willing to commit to communicating, listening, tending, and nourishing relationships in the community and in the natural world.
Application Question Prompts
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What are your specific interests in the F&F Club?
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What is your experience gardening or working with/ supporting local agriculture?
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What is your favorite way to commune with or spend time in nature?
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Are you drawn more to flowers or vegetables?
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Do you have experience with medicinal and or native plants?
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Are you comfortable getting dirty and working in an environment full of all levels of life, like bugs?
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Will you be able to commit to coming every other week for 10 weeks?
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What sort of donation would you feel comfortable making for this offering?
Food & Farm Club Value
We are asking for a sliding scale donation for this club:
Between $15-30 per week.
10 weeks
10 meals
10 activities
10 community circles
Sliding scale donations between 200-350 are recommended,
but applicants with passion for this work will not be turned away for financial reasons, and donations to help another applicant join the club are welcome. Donations will cover cost of program materials, meals, and help to support our time on the farm.