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
Archaeological sites along the Maine coast show that swordfish existed in the Gulf of Maine between approximately 5,500 and 3,700 years ago. Excavations at multiple Maine sites have produced swordfish rostra, vertebrae, and other remains, indicating that Wabanaki ancestors harvested and processed these large fish for millennia. In this presentation, Dr. Bonnie Newsom will discuss...
The Good Life Center Board will lead this hands on workshop that will cover the basics of the principles of composting as well as how to construct a well designed compost pile. Participants will learn about Scott Nearing's composting strategies as well as how enhance the overall fertility of their garden with time tested composting...
This talk considers the history of "commoning" as a way in which generations of people around the world and right here in Maine have resisted private property, settler colonialism, and enclosure by moving more lightly across places, from swamps and forests to urban edges and oceans. Can sharing energy, food, and transport help us achieve...
