After a successful run in Portland, the exhibition Maine’s Untold Vegetarian History travels to The Good Life Center in Brooksville for the 2026 season. Reaching back 300 years, Maine’s Untold Vegetarian History features stories of Mainers who changed what vegetarians eat and opened access to plant-based foods. Learn about the riots, activist newspapers, prophecies and back-to-the-landers who...
“Turn Off the Machines” — a public screening of a new film about the alternative lifestyle of Ethan Hughes and his family of Belfast, Maine. Suggested donation: $10
In this talk we'll see how the Nearings use economy has evolved into the maker movement and Fabcities. Fabcities are cities that produce everything they make using a circular economy. Atoms cycle locally while ideas, designs and best practices flow globally and open source. Lonnie Gamble is a professor, educator, and sustainability leader working across...
Sourdough 101: What is Sourdough? A workshop and in-depth conversation about Fermented Bread and Culture for all levels of skill and experience. Bring your questions and curiosity and take home some starter. Suggested donation: $10
In this conversation, Eliot Coleman & Barbara Damrosch will share stories of Scott & Helen Nearing—the homesteaders who shaped their lives—and explore what the Nearings' revolutionary politics and radical experiment in simple living still has to teach a world hungry for alternatives. Barbara Damrosch has been growing food and writing about it for nearly fifty...
Since the 1950s, the United States has seen a steady decrease in gathering spaces that effectively foster meaningful, long-lasting support networks and community belonging. As the country becomes more divided and individualistic, we see an uptick in isolation and a decline in public health and well-being. In this talk, explore the three components of community...
In 1976, inspired by the ideas of Helen and Scott Nearing, Sherrie Lovler and Norm Lee began a back-to-the-land life in upstate New York. They later founded The Good Life Get-Together, a yearly summer gathering with workshops for those drawn to the back-to-the-land movement and published Homesteaders News magazine for over nine years. Helen and...
Thousands of people have visited the Nearings' final homestead, at The Good Life Center, in Harborside, Maine, and many have seen the Bullfrog documentary film about their lives. At this gathering, Greg Joly will offer live commentary on the Nearings' homesteads, their life-ways, and the political and economic radicalism that undergirded everything they built. Greg...
Much of history has been buried by the passage of time. Join writer and history researcher Avery Yale Kamila who will first read Moral Treason, a paper she wrote for the Elizabeth Oakes Smith Society exploring 19th-century Maine author Oakes Smith's early work as an editor and involvement in the previously unknown Portland Female Anti-Matrimonial...
In this talk, Sarah Speare, CEO and co-founder of Tootie’s Tempeh will share the story of how a food company stood up to nearly every norm in business to become best in its category. Sarah Speare is the CEO and co-founder of Tootie's Tempeh, a worker-owned cooperative in Biddeford. Tootie's is the first commercial tempeh...
Join The Good Life Center for a MOFGA Gather & Grow Tour at Forest Farm! Following the tour, participants are invited to join for a short documentary about The Good Life Center, as well as a picnic lunch and discussion by the water. BYO lunch! Register here.
Learn how to make wicking buckets for your plants! Anyone who wishes to make their own Wicking Bucket should bring a 5 gallon bucket. Suggested donation: $10