ABC: Agriculture built in community

Agriculture Built in Community

It's not Community Supported Agriculture, it's not a Community Garden. It's not charity and it's not a non-profit. It's creating new systems and ways  of relating to each other and the more than human world.

It's a vision of a world that has never been. Inspired by our collective pasts but with eyes set on a brilliant future. One where individuals come together as equals to create long-term solutions to the world of disconnect where we find ourselves. 

We're here to weave one of many threads in the future we believe is possible. 

Our canvas? 

A humming 1/2 acre of preserved agricultural lands in Dartmouth, MA located between the Helfand Community Gardens, our own Emergence Garden Farm Project & two independent farm projects all under long-term lease from the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust (DNRT). 

Our promise? 

To commit to the earth and co-create an abundant thriving space for ourselves and our human and non-human neighbors. To provide long-term solutions to food security & sovereignty through the simple act of tending a garden.

What will we create together? 

The ABC membership will continue into 2026, but with a new framework meant to draw in those of you that want to build new systems.

I’m calling in co-creators who want to start building the world they dream of. One of connection with each other, the earth, our ancestors and future generations to come.

The one promise that the ABC membership offers this year is this chance to build something together. The ask is that you bring your commitment, willingness to grow, and hope.

I’m inviting you in. 

Our community deserves and needs not a “farm”, but a place to grow together, with each person contributing not the same amount, but an equal amount based on their own resources. 

Ways to contribute:

1. Hands on. 

Come to our meeting on January 24th, 2026 and decide if you'd like to build a community garden space together. We'll open up conversations, answer questions and see if our dream is possible. If you decide to become a hands-on member you will each be asked to contribute an equitable percentage of your annual income, less than a 1/2 of a percent. In return, this amount as well as your hands-on contribution will allow you access to ongoing garden education as well as the fruits of our combined efforts. Anything we grow in the community garden beds will be shared among us.

2. Financial contribution only.

If you love what we're doing but aren't able to be part of the in-person project, you are invited to share some energy through true currency. True Currency is cash or other assets sent as energy into projects that are aligned with your values. While it may look similar to "payments", it is energetically different and creates a more aligned frequency which benefits all parties involved in unforeseeable ways! Some may choose to only contribute financially for now, and participate more as they are more able or the options clarify. 

In January of 2026 we will hold our first meeting to plan for the year. Anyone who joins can participate and have a say in how the membership moves forward. You are invited to attend the meeting before committing to membership.

This is a project that seeks to combine resources to create something deeply meaningful. Beyond growing food together, I hope to reweave the tattered threads left to us from generations of disconnection. 

What if by sharing more we could each need less, consume less, waste less. We could preserve more, honor more, live more. 

What if our towns and villages became places we did not need to vacate and escape from, but those that held us warmly and made us feel loved, needed and valued?

What if the smallest home was large enough to host the community knit night, potluck or even dance! In days past those in some Celtic traditions had a saying, “Mind the dresser!”, which meant just that. We were so close that it did not matter that we may tumble into the furniture. We were close. We were communities. We were connected.

There are some among us, self included, that would prefer to spend the evening quietly most nights without fanfare or big parties. Yet those nights also used to have community mixed in. The neighbor dropping by, the friend coming to cook a meal together, the card game over pie and coffee. 

Instead now we look to be entertained and everything has a price. Even craft night drop-ins these days often have a recommended donation. Our culture is unravelling more and more as we make our lives increasingly transactional. I believe everything we see unravelling around us is a result of this disconnect from each other. Our disconnect from what is truly valuable. Our separation from true currency. The current that vibrates through every cell of our bodies and of every atom on our shared planet.

I’m looking for others who are ready to divest from these transactions in favor of connection. I’m looking for those who understand nothing will happen overnight, and that our project is merely a seed. I’m looking for those who are looking to prioritize building, renewing and electrifying this true currency. 

What will it take? I’m inviting you to join me as part of the ABC membership, which stands for Agriculture Built in Community but could just as well stand for Agrarians Building Culture, Alternative Being Collective or any number of monikers. The name is unimportant, it’s the vibration of what we’re doing. 

This is not another farm. We love and support our small farms and we also see more small farmers leaving the field and leaving the growing to large landowners who rely on underpaid migrant workforces. 

We see the produce that we rely on to power our bodies, minds and souls as more than a commodity. It is vital life force and like us, sacred.

This is what I am calling in. If you’d like to join me, my ask is simple. I have created an equitable way to pool resources by setting the contribution as a specific percentage of your income, and it’s less than ½ of a percent. When you join in this early stage you’ll be able to share what kind of work we’ll do together, whether there will be community dinners, outreach or other ideas yet to occur to me. 

We will have a large shared community garden space that members can tend together throughout the season. It will be a space to learn how to garden as well as grow food with and for each other. I have set aside 1/2 of an acre for this garden space but the size and success of the garden is dependent on the time contributions of our members. 

This year’s membership asks you to contribute less than a third of a percent of your income to join. Instead of a flat fee or traditional sliding scale, your contribution to join is .3% of your income. Call it an anti-tax. Taxes are an obligation, membership is a choice. To figure out what your contribution would be, just multiply your income by .003. For a family or individual making $40,000 a year, that would be $10/month. I will not be asking for documentation or setting specifics about which income numbers to use, this is based on trust and accountability.  

The more members and more time spent, the more abundance for everyone. The goal will be to make things not even but equitable. 

Some may be able to share more financial resources, some may have administrative or logistical skills, others will be enthusiastic about the physical labor. 

The vision is that as a community we will all be accountable to each other and create our shared abundance in a way that works for everyone.

Why? 

Because we believe in the world we long for, and we are willing to put in the work to create it.

I offer my almost two decades of experience farming and gardening to guide our group in creating a shared project garden where we can learn, nourish ourselves and extended community and create a replicable model for this kind of project beyond our own.

Members will not only contribute to our learning garden, but will learn valuable skills to grow gardens at home, for family and in other community spaces. You will learn and contribute both hands-on at the farm as well as having access to my "How-to Build a Garden Step-by-Step" self-paced course.

Every future begins with a single choice. 

What will you choose? 

What future will we grow?