About Us
Sunswept farm is a dream in progress and, like all dreams, has its lofty goals as well as the foot on the path.
We are born out of the back-to-the-land movement of the early 1970s where we recognized the need to reestablish a connection with our planet and a sustainable lifestyle.
During the intervening 30 years, we have homesteaded on 60 acres of outrageously diverse, settled mountain forest, which is naturally full of the herbs and flora of centuries past under the canopy of trees -- some over 250 years old.
We continue the lifestyle that is indigenous to the mountains (building our own house, making our own fiber, food, furniture, and family).
Here we have built our central farmhouse, now listed in Handmade in America, accepting tours by appointment. Permaculture gardens abound (3 vegetable gardens, 2 perennial herb and flower beds).
We are continuing to create and establish bountiful earthscapes moving ever more into the sustainable village life we see growing here.
Our goals are to establish a truly sustainable, handmade farm lifestyle for a small number of people. We are currently 3. This protected land, we believe, can support about a dozen people - forever - living within the land, without diminishing the grandeur of these old mountains but protecting this place as we would protect ourselves and our children.
We work daily on the living structures that make up this farm: gardens, trout pond, milk cow, chickens, pigs, barn, wood and metal workshops, gardens, stone walls, and main farm house, as well as the cottage industries that could provide means to those who live here. We are putting our efforts toward removing recurring bills, such as mortgage, electric, heating needs, so that living here will cost little in terms of money. Our goal is not to expand but to sustain ourselves with a prime eye on protecting quality of life and personal time to enjoy the moment free to create, sing, and find a different momentum and reason for doing.
We have built a full woodworking shop and metalworking shop with the potential for many wood and metal projects as well as possible organization into limited cottage industry as a sustainable lifestyle might benefit.
The modern lifestyle of constant growth and consumption is exchanged for community sharing, developing the farm for us all with an eye on the 7th generation's wellness as well as our own. We seek freedom from the rat race and wage needs as much as possible. We strive to reduce our overhead and recurring bills, downsizing our personal needs and sharing resources to provide community prosperity through access in order to build a futuristically archaic life of living simply within the womb of a land sharing mutual goals of sustainable living on this beautiful blue planet.
The ultimate goal is time to live! play! share! plant! sing! teach! and belong! Currently we are adding living space for others. Sunswept Farm already has a yome in place as well as a small cabin. By the end of Spring, our barn will be up with a third living space included in its structure. Time for more people to be part of this Sunswept Farm’s unfolding!
We have put 66.5 of our 71 acres of land into a land conservancy.
The forested land is now part of "the Forever Wild Project" and the pasture land under our protection will remain farmland. We solicit like-minded people to buy connecting land and to make this part of a Madison County stewardship community, conserving the land and adding to the green corridor connecting to the nearby Pisgah National Forest and the Smoky Mountain National Park beyond.
Solar power has been added to the micro-hydro electric power turbine we currently use, keeping us green and energy independent!
Our five-year goals include putting in a professional kitchen and establishment of a Learning Center where groups of about 20 can attend with their own teachers or can partake in our workshops offered in subjects such as jewelry making, woodworking, blacksmithing, gardening, medicinal herbs, environmental studies, and spiritual growth, just to name a few.
Our longterm plans are to live life centered in "The Path of the Hand," which is the maker's path.
Most of what we have built here, we have built ourselves. A deep wellness comes from this. We are committed to living with the land and simple sustainable living, sharing common goals and dreams of Sunswept Farm, making personal lifestyle changes in celebration of the ancient ways and the wellbeing of our mutual future.
i'd rather be a Could-Be if i cannot be an Are:
because a Could-Be is a May-Be who is reaching for a star.
i'd rather be a Haz-Been than a Might-Have-Been by far,
for a Might-Have-Been has never been, but a Haz was once an Are.
--Milton Berle
For more information, email dory at: dory@sunsweptfarm.net or call dory at: 828-622-7145.