Twin Cities Ecovillage Project

THE PROJECTS

 

Duxbury Land Project

Duxbury Land Project is developing on 40 acres near Duxbury, Minnesota. If you are interested in organic farming, rustic living, and being close to tens of thousands of acres of public land, reach out to the primary organizer Dylan Linet at dlinet@gmail.com

 

SOLIS (beginning construction June 2024)

We are gathering a team to build and inhabit an intergenerational, multicultural ecovillage where our lives will be rooted in the land and powered by the Sun. 

SOLIS is a humble collective of people wishing to abandon economies of consumption, competition, and exploitation. It is a laboratory for experimentation in different ways of being human, a workshop for ecological ingenuity, a playground for creative expression, a retreat for the solace of green things, a dance party in the woods. 

We call this place SOLIS after the Sun which will be our primary source of food, energy, and existential orientation.

The ecovillage is located about 90 minutes north of Minneapolis, on 66 acres of diverse Minnesota ecosystems: oak and maple forests, birch and aspen, tamarack bogs and duck ponds and a flowing river. The community of humans at SOLIS see ourselves not as owners or developers, but as stewards and caretakers of the land during our short time on Earth. 

The community practices non-hierarchical self-government using principles of sociocracy learned from the wisdom of indigenous societies and modern collectives. Seeking to be liberated from supply chains, we are learning how to live in relationship with the land through traditional agriculture and alternative construction practices – growing and processing much of our own food, building homes and furniture from natural and reclaimed material, and learning to live with the rituals and rhythms of the seasons.  

We believe humans are meant to live in shared community, as an antidote to the isolation and loneliness that characterize our society. We intend to create a place where people of all ages can share in life together– share meals, share labor, share knowledge, share caretaking responsibilities, share crisis, share joy. We desire to weave a fabric of social support to create stability in times of both joy and crisis. 

It is our goal to thrive – to experience healthy, meaningful existence rooted in the interconnected web of all life. We wish to renounce our roles as consumers, rejecting our place in the factory-to-landfill conveyor belt in exchange for our place in the family of things. We intend to become creators, makers, gardeners —, active participants in our own lives. We believe that a life lived in the light and by the power of the Sun has more potential for human and ecological thriving than a life lived by the power of fossil fuels and manufactured plastics. 

We believe that an ecovillage offers a model for human living that is more secure in the face of climate change and empowers us to sustain ourselves simply and ethically. Most of all, we believe that a life lived in harmony with nature in community with others is more meaningful than a life of technological alienation and social isolation;. We are not motivated by guilt of what has been or by fear of what may be. We are called by curiosity and wonder, by joy and generosity, and by humble gratitude for all the gifts the Earth will give us as we simply learn to receive.