The Franklin Farm is seeking a new farmer to live in apartment B. If you love local, food, you’ll fit right in!
You don’t have to be an “actual” farmer, but I’ve been really impressed the way my friend Holly has turned most of their lawn into edible landscaping. Here’s how Holly describes their community:
the franklin farm is an intentional community in grand rapids, michigan on “the eights.” there are two homes (four apartments). we are looking for not-necessarily like-minded individuals. however, if you’d like to join us here are some thoughts:
1)we live in our low-income community for a reason. those reasons vary, but wanting to actively love the neighborhood is necessary.
2)we are passionate about passionate people. we’re looking for folks we can learn from, grow with, support. passions such as poverty and equity, social justice, environmental sustainability, local economy, and community development (and all the subsets thereof) would probably fit well at the farm.
3)we are called the franklin farm because we believe (among many other things we refuse to lose faith in) that local economy, sustainability, and really good food are an important and joy-giving part of life. we’re doing a little experiment here in our urban context, and will be turning all our lawn into a gorgeous abundance of food-producing plants, trees, and bushes (and probably a lot of weeds along the way). if you are interested in growing, storing, creating, or eating homemade foods, we’ll probably get along really well.
the franklin farm is not, unlike some intentional communities, a big house with everyone sharing one bathroom and one kitchen. we each have our own spaces, but we get together to share a meal once a week and we spend lots of “porch time” together. this summer, we’ve turned our yard into garden, as a way to become more sustainable and be able to feed ourselves well in the process. you don’t have to be a farmer or a gardener to join us, but if you do enjoy such pursuits, we’d be happy to have you come along for the ride!
If you’re interested in renting, contact Holly at holly.artwords @ gmail . com
Sounds like a great opportunity – close to people, but not too close – all the benefit of co-housing without needing to ‘buy in’. Our intentional community is more like lots of people sharing each house – we like it more, but it can be more confronting for people.
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