Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend
An Introductory Dive into Earthaven
June 4-7, 2026
Earthaven Ecovillage
Near Asheville, NC
Experience Weekend immerses you in the living laboratory that is Earthaven Ecovillage. Earthaven is the ideal setting for a whole-life skills curriculum — a place to see regenerative systems in practice, collaborative food production in action, and community living on a personal level. You’ll connect with the people, businesses, and farms of Earthaven and our extended valley community for a hands-on, skill-building, life-changing experience.
The 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 you an intimate experience of the ecovillage.
Program participants form a nested community within the village by sharing meals, social activities, their experiences, and hearth-tending tasks. Many participants come to the program during or while preparing for a life transition — questioning aspects of their current lifestyle and curious about their options and learning what’s possible. Others come to the program for a retreat from their daily life — a chance to be in a different place around curious and enthusiastic people while enjoying tasty, wholesome meals prepared by someone else. Whether drawn more to the program content or the program context, participants enjoy spending the weekend with a group of people with shared interests in our beautiful southern Appalachian forest.
This year’s instructors include communities expert Diana Leafe Christian, electrician and off-grid designer Chris Farmer, herbalist and farmer, Rachel Fee, and Earthaven Weaver and bookkeeper, Carmen Lescher, counselor and group facilitator, Becky Boisvert, death care midwife and group facilitator, NikiAnne Feinberg.
This was one of those experiences that flowed and built moment by moment into a final crescendo — so full and rich that it’s easy to think that it just happened naturally, effortlessly. But that grace and power to connect and transform people actually only happens because of years of experience, knowledge, wisdom and yes, hard work. I appreciate who you are, and the way you all generously gave of yourselves to all of us who come to visit your home.
Have questions?
In this recording of an info session live call, Program Coordinators NikiAnne Feinberg and Becky Boisvert explain the commonalities and differences between the Earthaven experience programs— Marshes to Mountains, Experience Weekend, and Experience Week — and answer some frequently asked questions.
If you have additional questions, please contact us.
Curriculum
Classes, discussions and activities will explore the following:
Organic Food Production and Natural Buildings
- See sustainable homes (tiny houses, stud-frame, cob, straw-bale, earthship)
- Participate in small-scale farms and home gardens (permaculture gardens, integrated farms)
- Eat nourishing, local, sustainably grown, organic, and wild food
Renewable Energy and Off-Grid Utilities
- Learn about off-grid renewable systems in practice, including photovoltaic, micro-hydro, radiant-floor heating, hot water diversions, wood-fired boiler
- Explore development of energy alternatives to meet the world’s impending energy crisis
Resilient Community and Regenerative Culture
- Learn about Earthaven and other successful ecovillages and land-based endeavors (both rural and urban)
- Explore the three-legged stool of sustainability—the social, environmental, and economic factors necessary for sustainable projects to succeed
- Get an introductory understanding of Earthaven legal structure and participatory governance
Personal Growth and Empowerment
- Connect to yourself, others, and the natural world
- Explore what it means to live an authentic, meaningful, and responsible life in the modern world for you
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.
Thursday
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
Friday and Saturday
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
Sunday
8:00-9:00am Breakfast
9:00am–12:00pm Final Session and Closing Circle
12:30–1:30pm Lunch and Departure*
The Group
We welcome families with children to attend and will do our best to support you and your children. For Experience Weekend families, we offer childcare for children 4-12 years old during our morning and afternoon sessions. The village setting of Earthaven offers a safe and fun place for people of all ages and stages to explore. Parents are responsible for their children during all portions of the program.
Some of the program curriculum involves focused, sit-down presentations, so attending with a younger child will likely mean being less able to participate fully in the program.
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 who would like to attend without an adult.
Being at Earthaven was wonderful. There is so much to learn! It embodies so much of the kind of life I’d like to have — a life in the country with open-minded people who practice non-discrimination. A life with less waste and less reliance on computers and phones. When in conversation there I felt deeply listened to and I was inclined to deeply listen as well. It reinforced that another way is possible — and that way can be joyful and fulfilling, as well as healing for the planet.
I was sad to leave. But then upon arriving home I began to appreciate more deeply the tendrils of loving intention within the urban metropolis — potted basil plants hanging outside the restaurant, the garbage man happy to receive and return a smile and kind hello, and the edible plants pushing their way through the cracked concrete and in the vacant lots. I felt the urge to reconnect with like-minded groups and people in the city. And try again, keep trying, at building more peace, health, and beauty. Visiting Earthaven renewed my energy to be a better human, and restored my hope that we can reconnect deeply with each other, earth, and universe.
Logistics
Earthaven Experience Programs Faculty Diana 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. She is also an author and editor focused on these areas, and a Member of Earthaven Ecovillage.
Diana Leafe Christian
Since his arrival to EH in 1997, 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 in the community, raised turkeys, grown vegetables, co-founded the Forestry Cooperative, designed and installed multiple off-grid energy systems, and a few other things. His newest excitement is dabbling in small-scale biochar production and wood gasification at Gateway Farm.
Chris Farmer
Rachel Fee
Instructor
Rachel is a clinical herbalist, farmer, and mother of four nearly grown children. She was in clinical practice for fifteen years, practicing her own system of “mutt” herbalism that synthesizes her background in Traditional Western Herbalism, Ayurveda, and Southern Folk Medicine. These days her greatest joy and purpose is found in tending the land collaboratively, raising animals for food, as well as herb and vegetable gardening. She’s especially passionate about building soil and creating diverse ecosystems of year-round forage for her animals, resilience of all kinds, and being of service to this wild experiment that is Earthaven.
Becky Boisvert
An inveterate adventurer, Becky (she/her) has grown to see life itself as the adventure. That life is made richer in community at Earthaven where Becky, her daughter Willow, and her co-parent Sanne moved in 2018. She loves bringing lofty, creative visions to life. In her first career as an educator, she taught at an arts-integrated charter school, mentored gap-year students in India and Guatemala, and created a holistic middle school. Since then, she has produced two documentary films, coached individuals and couples toward greater wholeness, and begun holding mediations.
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
Carmen Lescher
Assistant Director, Bookkeeper, and Faculty
Carmen is dedicated to learning how to be human on this planet at this time. She considers herself a generalist and has owned and operated a pasture-based poultry farm; worked on construction crews building passive solar, off-grid houses; and supported many small businesses with online marketing, administration, and bookkeeping.
Financial Co-responsibility and Scholarships
Because some people have more financial means than others, we have created a sliding-scale fee system to accommodate a range of economic realities. We offer several price tiers and leave it to you to select the most appropriate tier. The price range aims to take into consideration economic disparities, historical injustices, and personal circumstances. The system is designed for those with more resources to support those with less.
At Earthaven and through the School of Integrated Living (SOIL), we strive to practice a culture of financial transparency, authenticity, and generosity. Trusting each other to assess their needs, what is within their ability, and when to ask for help. We are excited to include you in our experiment with financial co-responsibility.
We are now offering self-selected scholarships for many of our programs. No proof of need, no questions asked. Just the clear intention of trust that registrants can assess whether the cost of a program is truly a barrier to attendance and the growth of self and community our programs seek to foster.
In addition, we offer partial scholarships (50% of the middle 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, even with the self-selected scholarships. We understand that BIPOC may 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 deeper scholarship, please contact us.
SOIL endeavors to support the healthy flow of all resources; whether that be monetary or the skills and information that seed cultural change; and widen the doors of accessibility to what we offer.
Cost
Tuition
Tuition sliding scale: $450-600
Scholarship rate: $300
BIPOC rate: $262.50
Children and teens (ages 4-18): $200
Younger kids: free
What’s Included
Tuition includes meals, instruction, and all materials. Child care is provided for children ages 4-11 during class sessions. Camping and indoor lodging are available for an additional cost.
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
Please contact us before registering if any of these apply:
- You would like indoor housing and have an electrical device, such as a CPAP, that needs power overnight. The indoor accommodations for this program do not provide overnight electrical power.
- You have a service animal.
- You are bringing a trailer or vehicle longer than 25′. There are limited spaces to park large vehicles at Earthaven.

