Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on March 24, 2022.

There’s a new focus at The Floyd EcoVillage, new baby lambs, new farmers, a farm store expansion with indoor/outdoor café seating and new programs on the horizon.

For more than a decade, the Event Center at the Floyd EcoVillage (2 miles from town at 188 Eco Village Trail) has been a host location for weddings, concerts, proms, bridal shows, fundraisers and more, and that will continue. The EcoVillage is also an intentional, multi-generational residential community complex promoting energy conservation building design, on-site renewable energy production, sustainable agricultural practices and holistic and environmentally sustainable lifestyle practices. Those objectives were recently reaffirmed by EcoVillage owners Jack Wall and Kamala Bauers, employees, farmers and the onsite community.

“Our direction has changed since the pandemic. It made us realize the bigger picture and where we need to go, which is more about self-sufficiency, community and being more attainable to everyone in the community,” said Event Center Coordinator Maggie Hessinger, who outlined some of the changes.

Art camps with environmental themes for children under 12 are being planned for the summer. Led by Sophie Moeckel, who is currently studying environmental sustainability and works at the Floyd Country Store, the camps will include dying sheared wool from the farm’s sheep with plants on site and felting. Moeckel has expressed an interest in working with children full-time to help them connect with the land, Hessinger said.

Other changes at the 75-acre EcoVillage include the installation of electric car charges and a windmill, providing power that will supplement the village’s solar power sources. Two Sunday’s a month the EcoVillage will offer programs to include animal tours, making teas, salsas and fairy houses. Incorporating the EcoVillage’s farm food production and the Event Center’s certified kitchen, plans are being developed for virtual and in-person culinary cooking classes and farm-to-table pop-up dinners.

Farmers Corey Hamza and Christine Mann moved into a home at the EcoVillage in January, after moving to the region from California and farming in Franklin County for two years. They brought their business, Rivenwood Gardens, along with their animals, cows, pigs and sheep, with them.

Mann, who is expecting the couple’s first child at the end of March, expressed her gratitude for the infrastructure that the previous farmers at the Ecovillage put in place. Hamza noted that the previous farmers were employees of the EcoVillage and that he and Mann are not, adding that the owners wanted farmers to live on the property as they farm.  Although the homes are long-term rentals, there is interest in exploring land trust, non-profit avenues so that enterprises at the village can gain more equity, he said.

Currently, the couple has been expanding the farm store with plans to stock it with their own certified organic and naturally grown produce, other locally-sourced products and some prepared food, making it a one stop shop.  It will be half a grocery store and half a café with indoor/outdoor seating and eventually a woodfire pizza oven outside.  “We plan to hire two employees,” said Hamza.

The Rivenwood Gardens at the EcoVillage also offer CSA farm shares and will be selling their farm goods at The Floyd Farmers Market and the Grandin Farmers Market in Roanoke. The farm store is set to open sometime in April from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

The EcoVillage is mostly known for its state-of-the-art Event Center, the pavilion and pond, home to fish, turtles and other wildlife. There is also a medicinal herb garden next to the farm store that is open to the public, a meditative memorial flower garden, chickens and trails on the property.

The EcoVillage is also home to a creek-side campground with 10 sites, a bath house and potable water, along with three cabins with full air and heat, kitchenettes, private baths and porches and a grid-tied solar earth- bermed Lodge with 7 rooms on two floors. Rooms and suites at the bermed lodge have kitchenettes and there’s a downstairs communal large kitchen/meeting place, making it a perfect place for family reunions, which are on the schedule for this year.

The Ecovillage is hoping to connect with the public-school system to offer the property as a learning field trip destination for students to interact with the animals, pond wildlife and to participate in programs. “It’s important to us that we start involving children and young people more in this move towards sustainability,” said Hessinger.  She suggests anyone wanting to learn more about the EcoVillage call 540-745-4434, email floydecovillage@gmail.com or visit their Facebook page. __________Colleen Redman