Does A Commuity Exist of Permie Vegans/Vegetarians and / or Yogis in Dundalk, Durham of Where Else ?

Dear "Permies",

I just discovered this site a couple of minutes ago. A big thank you to whoever created it

I am a Vaisnava ( bhakti yoga ) monk and kirtan musician

I am planning to move from London, Ontario and have been considering the Durham / Dundalk regions because they offer subsidized housing for a bachelor or if I'm lucky a one bedroom, but I am not familiar with either of them, and am trying to get a sense of what these places are like, how long they take for a drive to Toronto, Owen Sound, etc... I notice they each have a little over 2000 residents.

Do both towns have a public library ? What are the closest Farmer's Markets ? Does Durham and Dundalk both have food stores and health food stores ?

I am currently enrolled in a Four Season Permaculture Course Forest Gardening with Shantree & Lorenna Kacera at www.thelivingcentre.com in Lambeth, and would like to have a garden plot to grow some organic food on.

Ideally, I would like to help facilitate a spiritual community based on sustainability with facilties for personal growth, higher consciousness, ayurveda and education

I am looking for a region of natural beauty and tranquility of walking trails in forests or near bodies of water

I am looking for a village where there are drinking water sources that will have the least amount of GMO agricide runoff and similar other poisons.

I am trying to get a sense of where I will find a community of progressive minded people who are vegetarian / vegan, and who are into sustainability and yoga

Is anyone out there familiar with either community of Durham or Dundalk, or know of other villages in the area where there might be like-minded people to connect with ?

Thank you very much in advance for your response

With gratitude,
Gaura Das

PS

Who created this site ? I want to thank them : ) ?

I have a To-Be-Permaculture farm at Dundalk but I am living in Mississauga. In my opinion, Dundalk might be better for your needs given the following reasons.

1. It is the highest in Ontario and has multiple head waters for 3 major rivers in Ontario. My property is head water of Grand River with wet land and the water is clean.
2. It has public library and farmer's market on each Friday. There are grocery stores but I don't shop there so I don't know if food is healthy or not.
3. It is cooler in summer days for any outdoor activities and the air quality is better.
4. So many properties around the town and I am sure you can find the ideal place for your garden.

Let me know if you need more info about Dundalk.

Thanks,

Steve

Steve Forest wrote:Dundalk might be better for your needs given the following reasons.
[...]
There are grocery stores but I don't shop there so I don't know if food is healthy or not.

None of the grocery stores in this area (Dundalk, Markdale, Durham) have much organic selection. I've spoken with the manager at one of the supermarkets in Markdale about it - he says that on regular basis he brings in organic produce, and then he ends up throwing out a bunch of it because the higher prices that he needs to charge for it, results in it not selling.

There is a health food store of sorts in Durham.

There is a sort of organic food store in Kimberly. I say 'sort of', because she sells the produce from a number of market gardeners in this area, who call themselves 'beyond organic' or some such thing. I interpret this to mean that they are not certified organic, but ask you to trust them that they are *so* organic, that they are beyond organic... Is my cyncical nature showing?

There are farmer's markets in most small towns now-a-days, it seems. (Both Flesherton and Markdale have small farmers markets.)

There's at least one person running yoga classes in Flesherton (10 minute drive from Dundalk). My wife takes classes with her. I don't know about Dundalk or Durham.

Every so often Durham seems to experience a severe bad weather event - whether it be flooding, or severe windstorms.

Gaura, have you looked at http://www.farmlink.net?

Hi Gaura,

Great to hear from you. I hope you're enjoying your time at the Living Centre. I did my Permaculture Design Course there. Great people! I can't help you out with the garden plot

I'm part of a place called Greenshire Eco Farms, and we're not quite what you've asked for but close. We're in Victoria County aka the Kawartha Lakes region, which is near Durham. I'm the only vegan out of the 12 farm partners but there are a few vegetarians and we have a rule of not raising animals for slaughter on the farm. We do harvest the eggs of our ducks and chickens though. A few of us are into yoga. Check us out at http://www.greenshireecofarms.com or our youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenshireEcoFarm?feature=watch

Travis Philp wrote:We're in Victoria County aka the Kawartha Lakes region, which is near Durham.

There's the Durham region, which is near you, and then there is Durham, the town, which is not near you (but is near Dundalk, the town).

Thank you Fred, Travis & Steve for your responses.

Although a garden plot would be a big plus, my first concern is to find a one bedroom apartment so I can get settled first.

Thank you for the link to Greenshire Farms

"Beyong Organic" means it is permaculturally grown, which often means with mulch created from local organic plants and no animal manure. It may have other definitions as well.

Thank you for letting me know there is yoga in Flesherton

The headwaters sound wonderful. Does this mean that they are free from pollution ?

Dundalk weather and air sounds better than Durham down the road.

I spoke with Shantree Kacera as to where the thinks the most progressive / organic community in Ontario is, and he said that Guelph is definitely the place. I think Dundalk is about 89 kms from Guelph, but perhaps there are healthy towns closer than that, or perhaps it's worh living closer to Dundalk. The bottom line is that I need to find a place to move to first which provides subsidized housing, and I am trying to become familiar with what are the 47 Counties in Ontario so that I can contact the ones in this neck of the woods , from Owen Sound to Guelph over to Simcoe County near Barrrie.

Depending on the info. I can suss out, I'll make a decision where "home" will be

Thanking you all again in advance

With gratitude,
Gaura

I know the area, and Durham is the town you seek. There are many permaculture types in the area. Not far away is Michael Schmidt the Raw Milk superhero. Durham in particular has many artsy, "hippie", organic, people.