A Community Farm: One of the most unique educational experiences in Round Valley takes place at the Live Power Community Farm, an organic, bio-dynamic farm located on East Lane whose mission is to create a completely self-sufficient agricultural community where humans learn to feed the soil as much as the soil feeds them.

And as any student who has ever visited the Live Power farm may tell you––whether they be an apprentice from the east coast or a group of elementary school students from San Francisco––this is one school where they truly "walk their talk." Like the early pioneers, and the Native Americans before them, the Live Power Community Farm operates in balance with the natural surroundings. They use no pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides and only compost made from farm materials is applied to their fields. Instead of the normal comsumptive machinery that depends upon fossil energy, they substitute the "live power" of draft horses, which have far less impact on the land and produce a beneficial by-product.

The Educational Mission: As proven stewards of the land, the founders at Live Power Community Farm, Steve and Gloria Decater, openly share their knowledge of the land and their successful techniques with others. Thus they provide an apprenticeship program for adults as well as educational workshops for children. Steve and Gloria learned much of what they now teach from the agriculture visionary Alan Chadwick, who ran his own biodynamic farm and taught apprentices in Round Valley back in the 1970s.

The apprenticeship program is for adults of all ages-from the United States or abroad-to participate in a work-study program, ranging from three months to three years. The only prerequisite for application is "a willingness to participate fully in a hands-on experience of farm life for the duration of one's involvement." And few would deny, this is indeed a hands-on experience! As you might guess, to truly function in the real world, all theory must inevitably merge into action, and all action must dissolve into time tables and alarm clocks, which of necessity boils down to a day of hard work and lonesome silhouettes in the chill of an autumn dawn.

Inevitably, almost by the force of habit from working with the land, the apprentices soon become connected to the natural rhythms of the farm and in a way that may not be possible in the day-to-day world of modern employment. And this often becomes their most significant memory of their times at the community farm: although physically demanding with blistered and soiled hands, life on the farm does in turn provide a world of bounty. In the words of the famous English poet, Gerard Manly Hopkins, "Shear plod makes plow down sillion shine."

Apprentices also learn from lessons, taught by Steven about the rotation of crops, the basis of soil fertility, the orgins and cultivation of plants, and the proper role of humans in the natural cycles. In many of these lessonss Steven stresses that once a farmer begins to cultivate the land, "he has a responsibility to it." Gardening is "the greatest of all teachers," notes Steven, "if you are awake to it."