The Gateway — Pole Barn & Kitchen
Rain-fed roofs, herb racks, and the smell of woodsmoke and shared meals. The threshold where neighbors arrive, wash hands, and begin the day’s work together.
Addison County, Vermont
Where Food, Healing,
and Community Take Root
We're growing a food forest, a healing sanctuary, and a living classroom in Addison County, Vermont — and we're just getting started.
“A living space where food security, nature-based healing, sustainable education, and community resilience grow together — rooted in Vermont soil.”
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
Immersive programming for children and adults in permaculture, herbalism, natural building, and ecological stewardship — and we're looking for teachers, farmers, builders, and curious minds to help shape what that looks like.
The land in motion
Five Zones, One Living Sanctuary
This is how we're imagining the land might be organized — a living map that will be shaped by the site we find and the people who help build it. From the gateway where we gather to the quiet heart where ceremony and stillness hold the horizon — one continuous landscape.
The Hearth — Children’s Sensory Woods
Mud kitchens, willow tunnels, and slate for chalk art within sight of the kitchen — play that keeps young bodies in honest contact with seasons and soil.
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
Earth, straw, and clay warmed by thermal mass; a green roof blending into the hillside. Cool-down opens to canopy and elder trees.
The Silence — Medicine Wheel & Earth Altar
Barefoot-only stretches for meditation, Reiki, ceremony, and land-tending — the furthest ring, held quiet so the land’s own voice can be heard.
Perennial abundance
A Living Canopy for All
We're dreaming of a multi-layered edible landscape — chestnuts, elderberries, pawpaw, serviceberry, hazel, medicinal herbs, and native shrubs — open to the public, designed for pollinators, and built to improve the soil over generations.
These are the kinds of plants we're exploring for Vermont's hardiness zone — the final selection will grow from conversations with local growers and the land itself.
| 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 |
| St. John’s Wort | Seasonal mood support; nerve repair | Rocky-edge ground cover |
| Comfrey | Topical support for inflammation & tissue repair | Breaks up Vermont clay; dynamic accumulator |
| Calendula | Skin repair; solar energy in medicine | Pollinator magnet |
| Echinacea | Immune & wound healing traditions | Meadow-edge pollinator plant |
“Every plant holds two jobs: healing the body and supporting the ecosystem.”
Somatic landscape
Rooted in Earth, Open to the Sky
Nature as infrastructure for nervous-system regulation, ceremony, and communal care — slow paths, soft ground, and structures that belong to the hillside.
Forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku)
Winding trails through layered canopy for full sensory engagement. Time in forest air is associated with lower cortisol and steadier regulation — here, the design invites slowness on purpose.
Earthing paths
Barefoot zones with moss and local river sand for direct contact with the ground. A stone or willow arch marks the threshold into deeper sanctuary.
Medicine wheel
A living ceremonial wheel built from Vermont granite and slate, aligned to the directions and the seasonal pulse of this place. A barefoot-only zone for meditation, Reiki, ceremony, and land-tending.
Cobb sauna & living green roof
Local clay, sand, and straw; oriented toward sunset or a significant elder tree. Cool-down faces the canopy. Thermal mass and geothermal principles support year-round warmth.
An open platform for healing
We envision the healing spaces at the sanctuary as an open platform — not one person's program, but a shared landscape where local energy workers, herbalists, Reiki practitioners, somatic therapists, and wellness facilitators can offer their own sessions and workshops. If you have a practice and you've been looking for a space rooted in nature, we'd love to talk.
Access to the land and its healing spaces will always be offered on a sliding scale. If you can't pay in money, you can pay in time — work on the land, care for the plants, help build what we're building together.
Next generations
Where Children Learn by Doing
Natural art and sensory tables, mud kitchens and willow tunnels, local slate for chalk and pigment, and outdoor kitchen space scaled for small hands — early environmental stewardship through play, mess, and wonder. We're especially hoping to connect with local parents, educators, and children's nature practitioners to help design and animate this space.
“Let the children learn what no classroom can teach.”
The artisan hub
The Pole Barn — Heart of the Community
The pole barn is one of our most immediate dreams — and we want to build it the old-fashioned way: with donated and recycled materials, raised by volunteers in the spirit of a traditional barn-raising. If you have materials, skills, or simply strong hands and a willingness to learn, this is where we need you first.
A natural timber-frame pole barn and outdoor kitchen for preservation, herbalism workshops, and shared meals — rain-harvesting roof, ecological greywater for hand sinks, herb-drying racks, and a shared space where community members, local herbalists, and food producers can process and preserve harvests together.
- Built with Vermont hemlock and cedar where possible
- Open through winter for Tea & Fire gatherings
- The social heart — warm in every season
“The social heart of the sanctuary — warm in every season.”
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
Areas around the cobb sauna and medicine wheel are silent zones — no digital noise. Let the land’s frequency be heard.
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
We're looking for the right piece of land — somewhere in the Middlebury, Bristol, or New Haven area — and we're open to all kinds of arrangements: a long-term stewardship agreement, a partnership with an existing organization, a donated parcel, or something we haven't thought of yet. If you have a lead, we want to hear from you.
These are organizations doing aligned work in Addison County — groups we're actively hoping to connect with and build relationships with as the project takes shape.
Organizations we're reaching out to
- Middlebury Area Land Trust (MALT)
- Vermont Family Forests (Bristol)
Educational partners
- Willowell Foundation (Monkton)
- Middlebury College Lands & Waters Initiative
Community networks
- ACORN (Addison County Relocalization Network)
- Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op
- Front Porch Forum — Vermont’s digital town square
Building & technical partners
- Yestermorrow Design/Build School (Waitsfield)
- TimberHomes Vermont (Vershire)
- Whole Systems Design (Moretown)
Plant sourcing
- Elmore Roots (Elmore)
- East Hill Tree Farm (Plainfield)
- Intervale Conservation Nursery (Burlington)
- Zack Woods Herb Farm (Hyde Park)
Resources
How We'll Build This Together
This project is being built from the ground up — literally. We're not waiting for institutional funding to get started, and we haven't committed to any particular grant programs or funding sources yet. What we know is this: we want this sanctuary to come to life through community.
The pole barn, for example, we hope to raise with donated and recycled materials and volunteer labor — in the tradition of the Vermont barn-raising.
Beyond that, we're exploring every option: grants, community fundraising, land partnerships, in-kind donations, and creative arrangements we haven't invented yet. If you have expertise in nonprofit development, grant writing, or community fundraising — or if you simply want to contribute financially — we'd love to connect.
What we can commit to: all costs associated with programming and access to this land will always be offered on a sliding scale. If you have nothing to give but your time and your hands, that is more than enough.
There are Vermont programs — including the Working Lands Enterprise Initiative and community grants through the Vermont Community Foundation — that may be relevant as the project matures. But we're not counting on any particular funding source.
Work-bee
Join the Council
We are calling together builders, dreamers, herbalists, parents, elders, and anyone ready to put their hands in the earth. Whether you have land leads, natural building skills, healing practices, or simply a desire to be part of something rooted and real — there is a place for you here.
There is no cost to get involved. If programming or sessions ever carry a suggested contribution, it will always be on a sliding scale — and working on the land, sharing your skills, or simply showing up is always a valid form of exchange.
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, Reiki, 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.