kim scheidt

Fred Frank V Bur wrote:Are there places there for one coming to build their home structure, and plant a number of things to have growing that would be good for subsistence and needs? This would generally be a good approach.

yes, we have space for people who would like to build a home structure for themselves and to either utilize our existing garden space or to work to create more garden space for planting whatever they are excited about growing.

Hi,
We've posted here before but haven't quite found our "tribe" yet so are giving it another go :-)
We're located in Northeast Missouri, a 12.7 acre homestead within a network of intentional communities https://www.ic.org/directory/dandelion/
Right now it's just me and my kiddo but we've hosted a lot of other folks over the years just no one has been a fit to really stay longer term for all kinds of various reasons. Longer term we are definitely looking for like-minded friends who want to make their home here with us and who don't mind rustic life. It's beautiful and peaceful but also there are the chiggers and ticks and poison ivy and the hot humid and the cold cold and no oceans or mountains, but a good quality mid-western life. We are LGBTQ+ friendly, and honestly prefer people who have been socialized female because we have encountered a lot of sexism in the past from those socialized male but also would be open to a partnered male or really anyone who feels like they would be interested to meet us and visit and potentially make a home here with us.
Please reach out if you feel so inspired, we don't charge money to stay here but you may need to figure out your own finances to a certain extent though we have some housing available and can offer to pay for food in exchange for help in the gardens and orchard and whatnot. Really mostly looking for good platonic friends who are into sustainable/regenerative/rustic life, because 12 acres is too much for just us :-)

Hi, we have some spaces available at our homestead of Dandelion https://www.ic.org/directory/dandelion/ that is located within a network of other intentional communities, we are a sub-section of Red Earth Farms and have close neighbors of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage and Sandhill Farm.
Our place is very rustic and would be similar to camping though there are buildings to stay at we are off-grid and have limited resources. We do our best to live in a way that if everyone on the planet were living this way that there would be enough for everyone. We would prefer if a person had been vaccinated for Covid although that's not a deal-breaker. We prefer non-tobacco users and non-stoners/drug addicts and are LGBTQ+friendly. Might be a good opportunity for a small family or folks who come with a friend because it can feel a little remote though we have lots of opportunities to socialize with other community folks as well. Please email kim@ic.org if you are interested in exploring and for more details.
We are in Northeast Missouri, USA on 12.7 acres and we get all four seasons of weather, rolling hills landscape, chiggers, ticks, poison ivy in the summer and snow and ice in the winter but it can be really nice. We are perhaps most interested in longer-term people who might want to stay and make a life here however we're open to hosting shorter term visitors/work exchangers if we have time/space/energy.

I am in northeast Missouri in a homestead community and I am very interested in talking with other women who might be a good fit for our place. In the past it has mostly been men who have interest in coming here and I'm getting so tired of toxic masculinity that is so common in males and often subtle but consistently present. I'd love to instead surround myself with other females (or folks of any gender who truly care about gender equality and mutual respect)
It's quite rustic here in comparison with mainstream but very peaceful. I'm often a little scattered and busy with work and relationships and life so need people to be somewhat independent minded and self motivated. I'm not great at "managing" other people and telling them what to do but I'm a caring friend and wish to have friends living here with me where we can meet our needs in ways that are mutually beneficial.
We've got 12.7 acres, young orchards and a pond and lots of garden space and try to grow a lot of food for us and our friends who we share with. Some basic housing is available but no indoor plumbing. Like I said we're rustic but it's a choice for demonstrating a way of living that is a lower ecological impact that is still a really great life.
We get the four seasons in about equal duration so we get really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter but it's always changing and I personally think it's a pretty good location for riding the waves of climate change as they come though I do understand that middle of nowhere Missouri isn't for everyone :-)

a couple other pics, couldn't find one of the summer bulb size, will be sure to take some photos of that stage this year

the biggest onion we've gotten during the summer season when they get big is probably a little under 3" diameter, and our largest bulblet tops are maybe the size of a half dollar. definitely the larger bulblets do consistently produce larger onions as adults. I'm also selecting for onions that only have about 3 at the base and often that is correlated with having only 3-5 bulblets at the top.  
AND....in order to get the largest onion bottoms I think it's important to remove the stalk that it sends up to produce those bulb tops. I've done many side by side comparison of clone onions growing from the same location and the one where the stalk was removed in a timely manner created a larger onion (similar to annual onions and garlic and maybe to be expected). So, it's a tricker in some ways trying to expand the stock and also picking off the stalk that would create seed bulblets in order to create something larger in order to see how big it could get. In our experience, on average when onions are allowed to grow the bulblet stalk they then seem to be about 2/3 the size it would had the stalk instead been removed.
I don't take a lot of pictures.... here's one from today, they are getting into their dormancy stage and would then be divided out before spring hopefully but this is a fine example specimen.
I can post a few older pictures too.

We're in zone 5b, and of course the hoop house emulates a warmer climate but they can perform well outside too. It's just the bulb tops and the divisions I've been using of the walking onions so I suppose it's the same genetic material as the parents in some ways however they do certainly display a lot of difference, the plants must readily mutate and when given a happy growing environment (water, space, warmth) thrive more too. And in my experience I don't think the bulbs always are 100% like the parents but the divisions mostly are, I like to plant out a mix of both honestly as I select for the characteristics -- I do appreciate newer helpful mutations but I feel more confident when propagating from division that they'll be most what I want to encourage if it's coming from a quality parent plant.

hi,
anyone else excited about breeding perennial onion? I've been working on improving for many years, and my goal is to get a perennial onion approx the size of my fist during the summer harvest time (~3"diameter?) though it's also nice to get lots of the "spring onions" smaller size too in spring and fall.
And what I especially love is that they are perennial and propagate both by division and by the seed head bulb tops, and they seem to like to grow almost anywhere.

We've got some that relatively consistently portray the traits we're selecting for, in the environment of a high-tunnel in Missouri, USA, though they also do well in the outdoors here, just maybe not quite so large as those grown in the hoop house. The line of them isn't completely stabilized yet and a lot depends on how they are treated once someone plants them of course. Anyway, it's one of the things I love. And if other folks had other varieties they'd been working on improving that potentially would be cool to share/trade too.

hello,
I have a listing https://www.ic.org/directory/dandelion/ with more description, and we'd probably not be hosting people again until Spring, however wanting to begin conversation with anyone else interested in this type of lifestyle here so that we can plan to have a more robust year in 2022.
preference given to females or single moms or BIPOC folks however mostly just a good personality fit with us is what makes sense, and we get on well with males too :-)
16+ year old permaculture homestead, 12.7 acres, neighboring intentional community network, clean air/water, healthy food, wood heat, off-grid, low-impact, not always easy, human-scale agriculture, very nice people.
we live 1/4 mile walk from the road and often travel 2+ miles per day on foot, hauling things, etc.
I haven't owned a refrigerator for 17+ years though I do sometimes have access to one, however have learned to preserve food through dehydration, fermentation, canning, and also growing produce such as squash, sweet potato, garlic, onion, turnip, daikon, vegetables that last us through the winter with easy storage in a cool corner. And my best friend neighbors keep me in lard, eggs, happy meat and whatnot through the winter.
self-motivated individuals would be best, and anyone most interested in living closer to nature in a somewhat rural and rustic setting in rural northeast Missouri.
open to questions, email kim{at]ic.org

Sandy Ann wrote:So when you mention visitors are you referring to volunteers...?

Yes, every year we host people who are interested in learning about this way of life sometimes just for a few days, sometimes for a month or the whole season as work exchangers. We typically provide their meals in exchange for a few hours of work each day. Sometimes visitors donate a little money to offset the energy of hosting them, depending on their financial means. We've met a lot of nice people that way (some weirdos though so it's great to screen carefully, talk on the phone first, etc)