Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend
An Introductory Dive into Earthaven
October 7-10, 2022
Earthaven Ecovillage
Near Asheville, NC
Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend immerses participants in the life of Earthaven Ecovillage. If you would like even more time at Earthaven and additional ways to explore and experience community life, consider staying for the Ecovillage Action Week, which begins the day Experience Weekend ends.
Our ecovillage provides the ideal living laboratory for a whole-life skills curriculum — a place to see regenerative systems in practice, food production in action, and community living on a personal level. Participants connect with the people, businesses, and farms of the Taylor Creek Watershed community for a hands-on, skill-building, life-changing experience.
The Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend curriculum encourages participants to examine sustainability through social, ecological, economic, and eco-spiritual lenses. Through tours, large-group discussions, classes with community members, shared meals, and time to explore the land on your own, this learning journey gives participants an intimate experience of the ecovillage. SOIL instructors, together with the community at large, support participants to build important skills, foster awareness for global issues, empower the self, increase connection, and develop the resources required for daily life.
This Experience Weekend is shorter version of the Experience Week for those with tighter schedules or budgets.

Note: The May 27-30 session is full. Contact us if you want to be on the waiting list.
Curriculum
Classes, discussions and activities will explore the following:
Organic Food Production and Natural Buildings
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Green homes (tiny houses, stud-frame, cob, straw-bale, earthship)
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Small-scale farms and home gardens (permaculture gardens, integrated farms)
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Nourishing, local, sustainably-grown, organic, and wild food
Renewable Energy and Off-Grid Utilities
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Off-grid renewable systems in practice (photovoltaic, micro-hydro, radiant-floor heating, hot water diversions, wood-fired boiler)
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Development of energy alternatives to meet the world’s impending energy crisis
Resilient Community and Regenerative Culture
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Earthaven and other successful ecovillages and land-based endeavors (both rural and urban)
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The three-legged stool of sustainability—the social, environmental, and economic factors necessary for sustainable projects to succeed
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Earthaven legal structure and governance 101
Personal Growth and Empowerment
- Connection to yourself, others, and the natural world
- Designing an authentic, meaningful, and responsible life in the modern world
In addition to classes, discussions, and activities, you’ll enjoy meals with community members as well as authentic community experience within your SOIL participant cohort.

Program
This long weekend program consists of expert lectures, fireside storytelling, community conversations, land-walks, and tours to provide an intimate, well-rounded and powerful learning experience.
Friday
1:00–2:30pm Arrival, Check-in, and Camp Setup
2:30-3:30pm Welcome and Orientation
3:30-6:00pm Tour of Earthaven
6:30–7:30pm Dinner
7:30–9:30pm Opening Circle
Saturday and Sunday
8:00-9:00am Breakfast
9:00am–12:00pm Morning Session
12:00–2:00pm Lunch and Independent Time
2:00–5:00pm Afternoon Session
5:00–6:30pm Independent Time
6:30–7:30pm Dinner
7:30–9:30pm Fireside Conversations with Community Members
Monday
8:00-9:00am Breakfast
9:00am–12:00pm Final Session and Closing Circle
12:00–1:30pm Lunch and Departure*
*Ecovillage Action Week begins Monday afternoon. If you’re registered for that experience you would have the afternoon to yourself and join the new arrivals starting at dinner.
The Group
This program is primarily designed for adults. However, mature young adults under 18 years old are also welcome. Please contact SOIL to discuss the enrollment of passionate individuals under 18.
We welcome families with children to attend and will do our best to support you and your children, however we are not able to offer childcare. As much of the content involves focused, sit-down presentations, attending with a young child will likely mean being less able to participate fully in the course.

Sliding Scale Tuition
Because some people have more financial means than others, we have created a sliding scale fee system to accommodate a range of economic realities. The high-end of the scale reflects the value we believe the program holds, and the low-end offers a more accessible entry point.
By choosing a higher price point, you are helping make the program more accessible to others for whom the low-end may be cost-prohibitive. Please consider your needs and resources to determine what might be a stretch, but not a strain.
Cost
General
Tuition Sliding Scale: $375-475
What’s Included
Tuition includes meals, instruction, and all materials. Accommodations as well as transportation are available for an additional cost.
Scholarships
We offer partial scholarships (50% of the bottom of the sliding scale) to black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) with financial needs who otherwise would not be able to afford to attend. We understand that BIPOC experience more financial and institutional barriers to participation, and this is one way we are able to create more access. If you identify as BIPOC with financial needs and would like to receive a scholarship, please contact us.
Logistics
Instructors
Earthaven Experience Programs Faculty Diana is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, about forming successful communities and ecovillages and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community. She speaks at conferences, offers consultations, and leads webinars and workshops internationally on starting successful new intentional communities, how existing communities can resolve conflicts and become more healthy and thriving, and sociocracy, a self-governance and decision-making method she finds especially effective for communities.
Diana Leafe Christian
Earthaven Experience Programs Faculty Chris has cleared his own farm field, designed and built passive solar homes using the wood from the trees he has killed (including his own Microhut), held leadership positions at Earthaven Ecovillage, raised turkeys, grown vegetables, co-founded the Forestry Cooperative, designed and installed multiple off-grid energy systems, and a few other things.
Chris Farmer
Earthaven Experience Programs Faculty Dimitri is a naturalist, natural builder, and naturopathic doctor, one who teaches that wellness comes from cultivating a deep connection to the natural world. His other passions are nature awareness, foraging for food and medicine, gardening, and supporting bonds that engender a tightly-knit community.
Dimitrios Magiasis
In-person Programs Director, Faculty Throughout the last two decades, NikiAnne has been immersed in community and in service to a wide range of educational endeavors focused on nature connection, personal empowerment, and community resilience. No matter what she’s teaching, NikiAnne is always on the same mission: to raise awareness of our whole selves – gifts, passions, blind spots, shadows – and help those whole selves find and fill niches in their communities.
NikiAnne Feinberg
Online Programs Director, Faculty Debbie has a lifelong passion for learning, including university degrees in geography, computer science, and technical communication. At Earthaven, she has been involved in governance, promotions, and partnership culture, and was a partner in the Useful Plants Nursery for eight years. She is currently drawing on her technical and management background to develop and promote SOIL online learning programs. Her current interests include growing fruits and nuts.
Debbie Lienhart
Registration
Complete the registration form once per participant. It takes 5-10 minutes, and you will complete your enrollment with a credit card authorization.
After your enrollment is processed, you will receive several confirmations…
- An automatic confirmation of receiving your registration form
- A payment confirmation from our card processor
- Confirmation that your registration has been processed
Note: The May 27-30 is full. Contact us if you would like to be on the waiting list.