This centrally located Sign of Things to Come is in the main camping area: Enchanted Encampment where it directs visitors around Dandelion's 190 acres. From the meeting, eating, sleeping, house, Hub of Happiness, you can walk on the Magic Carpet Trail to one of the rain catchment and swimming ponds, Sea of Infinity or Lake of Dreams. After a rewarding day of working in the garden, Primal Sustanance, you can clean up in the cobb bath house, Reign of Grace.

Above: Metal spire for Faithful Fountain is being dropped onto its destination in Dandelion Ballad.

Learn Sustainability by Living on Dandelion:
Here you find a detailed list of most of the sustainably realated things you will experience and can learn about first hand on Dandelion:
-Resource Conservation is Primary here . We live close to the land on Dandelion, depending on personal work and onsite resources to provide so much of what we eat, drink, burn, etc, with an eye to the future of the world. This is a HUGE goad to responsible resource use. This means CONSERVATIVE use of all our resources, from water, firewood, toilet paper, food, fuels etc. We constantly remind ourselves and others here of the urgent need to conserve and minimise our footprint on Dandelion and the world in our every day living. This is a learning challenge/opportunity for all Dandelion participants short or long, to gain green habbits for now and forever and to pass these to others in service of our shared earth.
-Housing: All living spaces large and small are of passive solar design, save the original ranch house (Huge Happening) and have natural wood heat.
-Natural buildings We are working on our 3rd cob building and will be experimenting further with recycled and natural materials as Enchanted Encampment,
our mini educational ecovilliage campground continues to develop in 2010.
-Alternative energies: There are photovoteyic solar energy systems for the host house and water pumping for drinking and irrigation systems for the whole farm. Wind power via our old Jacob wind generator is being resurected soon for additional power. We are slowly moving entirely away from the grid, propane/natural gass use starting with the volunteer host house.
-Heating for Spaces and Water: Passive solar building design is augmented with wood stoves, burning prunings and fire reduction/harvested wood. This is for heating both living space and water through the use of interal coils or "heatilator" in the wood stove fire chamber for hot water. We enjoy this extremely effecient solar/fireplace hot water system in the host house. A solar/demand hot water system is being installed on "Reign of Grace" Bath house.
-Free and Low Energy Refrigeration/ Cooling of Foods: In the host kitchen and in several other locations on Dandelion, north exposure, vented cool storage areas serve as refrigreration in winter or coolers in the summer for food storage. We also use a solar PVextremely efficient refrigerator in the warm months for garden produce. This chest style fridge can convert to a freezer in the winter when our larger pantry/coolers double as refridgerators. This fridge runs on 75 watts...unbelievable!
-Cooking: Although we use propane still, in cold weather we also use an airtight, effecient wood cook stove that provides heating, cooking and hot water simultaneously and is fueled by on site sustainably harvested renewable firewood. When the sun is abundant, which it is often even in the winter, the host house solar PV system powers our solar electric cooking using a small electric oven, electric burners and other electric kitchen aids. We are now also enjoying a sun oven and a larger solar oven/solar drying combo made by solar cooking fan/volunteers..THANK YOU Lee and Kristen!.
-Food Preservation: Since we live almost exclusively from our gardens and orchards year around, we use cool vented storages areas for holding fruits and some vegetables that will keep for long season fresh eating, fresh cooking (PIES!) and fresh juicing. Root vegetables are stored mostely outdoors in garden beds with heavy mulch protection from freezing, We preserve excess perishable summer food production for off season by freezing, canning, drying and fermenting. Greenhouses and frost protected growing beds outside in winter augment stored food with fresh living greens for drinks, salads and cooking. We enjoy cold tollerant citrus from the greenhouse year around.
-Fermentations and other cultures for preservation/food/health: Since most foods want to ferment, if not previously fermented before eating they often do that in the stomach. Fermenting food boosts digestablility, while helping preserve the food naturally as the ancients did, and by the use of these fermented foods incluning more probiotics for immune system resiliance, production and absorbtion of enzymes, and some vitamines, and wonderful flavors.. The list of fermented, cultured foods we make and enjoy is constantly growing. Amongst others it includes: slow cool sourdough for optimal digetable breads and chipati, kombucha, rejuvalac, koji for making miso, various long and short misos (that makes salt more benign, adding vitas, enzymens and vegitable bullion, etc), tempeh (tastes like nutty chicken, natto is anti cancer, anti heart disease or stroke, kimchi and occassional raw goat milk yogurt.
-Greenhouse 60x30ft. "Chanting Frog"...with a cystern/ pool/heat sink, grows mostly fruit trees, spring starts, Oyster and shitaki mushrooms.
-Greenhouse (small) is for starting garden seedlings and propagating unusual perennials using mist and other techniques. The small GH also provides solar heat gain into the host house..
-Nursery: In "Plant Lust" Nursery we propagate from seed, cuttings, grafting, etc., to encrease our planting stock of well researched plants for permaculture.
-Gardens are varied and many here. We live as much as possible from the main garden "Primal Sustenance" that is a deer fenced permanent bed, NO TILL/ forest garden in progress, containing also many grapes (yearly juice pressing, concentrate and rasin making), apples and pear trees (yearly juice pressing, concentrate and drying), gojis (fresh and dried), cane berry patch, benificial insect garden, medicinal and culinary herbs, new plantings for developing stable humus, carbon sequestration, and our own nutrient rich herbal plant fertilizers.
-Walnut Orchard: Walnuts are used liberally in our diet, especially soaked and then dehydrated for yumminess and extra good digestability. Producing trees are yearly increased by grafting older established black walnut trees to English Walnut in June.
-Apple, Pear, Plum Orchard: Yearly we work on orchard improvements with hardier/tasty new to us varieties grafting in Feb-April. Pruning happens all winter.
-Olive Orchard: Contains besides olives: Jujubee trees (Chinese Dates) and Goji berries in production '08 and some of the other unusuals below.
-Unusual Food Trees and Shrubs: in the educational center and other gardens of Dandelion include: Seaberries, Gooseberries and Currents, Goldenberry, Gumi and Autumn Olive (improved varieties for fresh raw eating), Russian Quince (yummy fresh), Strawberry Tree, Aronia, Honeyberry, Saskatoons, improved Elderberries, Japanese Rasin Trees, Cornelian Cherries, Hardy Kiwi, Barberry, timber and edible bamboo varieties and much more.
- Water, is becoming a serious issue for Calfi. We have worked hard to bring up our system to 2 large ponds, several vernal ponds and swales for charging the water table..many shallow wells, solar powered water pumping to houses, gardens, orchards, etc. Rain Water from roofs to cistern/catchments provide rain water year around for drinking. Ponds are stocked with fish and have a very healthy frog and crawfish population too. All these are to be harvested ONLY in dire emergency. We eschew killing creatures and attempt to serve the natural balance of Dandelion via biodiversity.
-Wooded areas serve for fuel when we reduce the fuel density for fire safety on Dandeliont. This is a sustainable way of providing wood for heat and cooking. Improving natural pests control with bird/owl houses in near by wooded areas and pollination with orchard bee nests. Areas, open and wooded, not near housing are left untouched as wildlife habitat.
- Art to Inspire: We are always working to beautify our practical life on Dandelion. We create artistic, unusual arbor/plant supports, building enhancement, etc. and sculptures using mig welding from scrap metal, wood working/carpentry art of scraps/recycled wood, mural painting with recycled paint, mosaic of recycled tiles etc, and other techniques/skills volunteers bring with them.

Future projects need your help: Grey water systems, methane generation, better wood/winter cook stoves, unique architectureal designs for very small cob cabins and much more! Bring your interest, inspiration, and skills!