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Land Projects
At TLC Farm, Portland's sustainability movements are creating one example of how urban density human habitat can coexist with thriving food systems and native ecologies. Our demonstration projects, all of which are workshopped and volunteer-run, illustrate how specific technologies and practices work, and how they can interconnect.
You're welcome to come and walk through the land, learning from the signs along the self-guided tour. But the best way to get involved and learn about what it's like to build a new world, is to help create it alongside the rest of us!
The areas we're focused on are:
- Gardening
- Primarily focused on food production using standard organic and permaculture techniques: sheet mulching for weed control, interplanting, insectivories, etc. Primarily annuals and small perennials. Coordinated through the Garden working group, which has regular meetings.
- Food Forests
- Planning and implementing multi-story food forests both within existing native forest and orchard areas, and from scratch. In the medium-term we intend to establish a Food Forest Research Center in collaboration with local permaculturists, educational institutions, and urban policy planners. The purpose will be to develop experimental trials of various micro-habitat configurations and assess human food productivity, native habitat suitability, and human habitat usability. The goal will be to identify combinations that can be used on both public and private land to create corridors of stacked habitat and function.
- Building
- Working with volunteer professional architects, designers, and builders, TLC Farm pushes the envelope for regenerative design in Portland: built environments that are fully integrated into energy, water, food ("waste"), and habitat cycles with the rest of the local ecology. This includes a wide variety of demonstration natural building techniques (strawbale infill, cob, light straw/clay, earthen plaster, earthen paint, poured earth, earthbag, etc.). Saturday work parties frequently include a building element.
The easiest way to get connected is to come out to a workparty.
Or contact us: farm@tryonfarm.org
Together, we're building a better world!
Workshops and Workparties
TLC Farm is an amazing place to learn ideas and practices for growing sustainable culture.
Check out this page for the current schedule of events.
Past workshop topics have included:
- Earthen plasters
- Wild fermented foods
- Medicinal plant identification
- Basic Gardening
- Permaculture Design
- Carpentry for women
- Primitive Skills
- Cheesemaking
- Chickens!
- Needle Felting
- Bird language and tracking
- Earth Activist Training (a permaculture design course)
- Plant wisdom and earth songs
- Food forest design
- Indigenous lifeways
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and many more!
Most workshops ask for a donation on a sliding scale or offer work-trade, to assist in paying for the presenter, facilities, and materials. Want to present a workshop? email work...@tryonfarm.org or call our office at 503-245-3847.
Mission
TLC Farm brings people together to root into relationships with each other and the land, by sharing tools for community-based sustainability and social change, and tending resilient ecosystems.
TLC Farm is a unique community-created venue for public and private events -- great for workshops, retreats, weddings, birthdays, meetings, parties and more.
We also teach workshops and lead educational field trips, and host regular workparties and community events.
Our Willow Creek Forest School is an outdoor, place-based farm and forest kindergarten for children ages 3-5, from September to June.
TLC Farm programs and land tending is completely community created and run by volunteers and donations. Thank you for your participation!
Economy
TLC Farm as a non-profit organization has accomplished a great deal with very little operating income. At the same time, we have raised a very large amount of money in order to protect the land we occupy from development (see our history). An important part of our "open source" approach to this project is making the accounting for our operations as accessible as possible.
See below for IRS 990 returns for 2006 - 2022.
History
Once upon a time, the land of TLC Farm was slated to become a housing development. The journey to protect the land and transform it into a public resource has inspired many, and we invite you to read about the campaign to "Save the Farm" is this Farm Story written in 2007 by our writing intern, Emily Aronowitz, from Green Mountain College in Vermont.
If you want to get more into the nitty-gritty of how we accomplished the task of saving the land, here is a technical overview of the land acquisition. Enjoy!
Do you want to see how the land has changed and been used over the past many years, please view the 10 years of photos.
Click the photo to go to our Flickr page for the TLC Farm Story photo album!
Partners
An overview of some partners with our organization, and how we work with them.
- Cedar Moon
- An ntentional community that co-manages the land with TLC Farm. Currently has about 12 adult and 4 children members.
- Sacred Lands Alliance
- A residential collective that co-manages the land with TLC Farm. Currently has about 5 adult and 1 teen members.
- OSALT
- The land trust that leases the land under a 99-year ground lease that requires the land to be used sustainably and educationally.
Join TLC Farm's email update list
Monthly Updates
TLC Farm sends out regular monthly newsletters, which contain information about upcoming events and opportunities at TLC Farm. Check out this month's update!
To receive these updates over email,
Hands-on Sustainability Education
Hands-On Sustainability Program
Tryon Life Community Farm provides students of all ages with opportunities to connect with the natural world and each other to create a true sense of place and community. Our goal is to encourage people to develop a lifelong appreciation of the processes that support life, and to offer wisdom on how to steward them sustainably. To do this we offer this space for collaborative learning about social and ecological responsibility.
The Hands-On Sustainability Program offers one-time and multiple visit field trip experiences for students of all ages to come and learn about applied sustainability and creating community in a participatory way.
Activities include an interactive farm tour and seasonally appropriate hands-on activities and lessons on specific sustainability and ecology themes in these areas: ecological gardening, natural building, restoration and watershed ecology, and ecological living skills. We also offer service-learning projects.
Facilities include:
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"Village Green" open gathering area
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Outdoor kitchen (with earthen ovens)
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Ecological Living Demonstration Projects (gardens, animals, naturally built structures, etc.)
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Trail leading into Tryon Creek State Park (650-acre forest)
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Large organic garden to nibble at and work in
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goats, chickens, and bees
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and much more!
Bring your group out to the farm!
Field Trip Scheduling: TLC Farm offers field trips Tuesday through Saturday. We are an all-volunter program, and will work with you to coordinate a time that is good for your group and our volunteers. The farm is open to the public Tuesday-Sunday between 9-6pm for self-guided tours, and it is closed on Mondays.
Cost : TLC Farm runs on donations, and requests that visiting classes donate $10/visit plus $5 or more per student if at all possible.
Contact us: For further information or to arrange a visit, please contact our education coordinators, at edu[at]tryonfarm.org or by calling 503.245.3847.
Groups served include: Portland area schools, Boys and Girls Aid Society of Oregon, Girl Scouts, Portland Impact, Head Start, YMCA, Pacific Crest Community School, Waldorf schools, International School, charter schools, Lewis and Clark College PSU, PCC, and homeschool groups. Click here www.tryonfarm.org/share/calendar for our calendar to see who's visiting us!
Recflections about the program:
"Many of the students were totally new to the concepts of intentional living and, during discussions, expressed that they got a lot out of what they experienced at the farm. We would like to (endlessly) thank you for your patience with everyone. Earthen building was their favourite activity, but canning and making cheese was also a highlight for many people during reflections throughout the rest of the trip - as well as learning about the edibility of plants like fennel & broccoli leaf. The space was excellent for the students to open up to each other." - Hannah, coordinator of a New Student Orientation group from Pacific University.
Resource Links:
Other local educational farms:
Zenger Farm - located in SE Portland in the Lents neighborhood
Sauvie Island Center - located north of
Organic Education Center at Luscher Farm - located outside
Feedback and participation welcome! Please send bug reports to web@tryonfarm.org
