A backyard farm
Lynden House
A third of an acre behind a 1920s house, three streets from the creek. There is a well that predates the city water, six long beds, a greenhouse Margaret's husband built, two goats called Biscuit and Nettle, and eleven chickens. She has been growing here for thirty-one years and cannot do it alone any more.
What she wants is not a community garden. It is ten or so regulars who know where the tools live, come when they say they will, and stay for dinner on the first Sunday of the month.
Roughly where
What grows here
The ground
- Pasture
- Goat paddock
- Under glass
- The greenhouse
- Beds
- The long beds
- Orchard
- The orchard strip
Comes out of it
Apples · Eggs · Garlic · Tomatoes · Zucchini
What’s ripe on any given week goes to the people who grew it.
Days anyone may come
A public class is the ordinary way in — you meet the place and the place meets you, and nobody has to decide anything yet.
Nothing open to everyone just yet
Lynden House isn't running a public day at the moment. Asking to join is the other way in, and the host will tell you when the next class lands.
How joining works
You ask; the host or a steward answers. Where you stand is set on this piece of land alone — being trusted at one backyard grants you nothing at the next one.
How big a day gets
Lynden House caps a work day at 12 people, and never goes past 20. Small enough that everybody there knows who else is coming.
What’s on the place
Greenhouse
Some of it takes a training before you touch it — the host will show you, and the full charter is waiting inside.
The rhythm
Family dinner the first Sunday of the month, five o'clock, everyone welcome.
Land steward
The county firefighter
Run the work days, teach the well and the animals, initiate volunteers, work across properties.
In returnPaid from what the pod pools together — plus shares.
Certified volunteer
The volunteer firefighter
Come on your own, inside the hours the host set, once you've been initiated on this land.
In returnAn hour of work is a share of the harvest.
Learner
The community that shows up when there's a fire
Come to classes, helper half-days and work days, with a steward on hand.
In returnA goodie bag to take home. Nobody counts your hours yet.
Anyone
A neighbour
Come to a public class. Find a farm near you on the map.
In returnWhatever you learn, and a ticket price where there is one.
The rest of what the host asks — the hours, the norms, the trainings, the waiver — is in the charter, and you read it the day you’re let in.