FOREST FARMING BY THE STARS
Dark Hollow
A biodynamic farmstead in the hills above the Susquehanna, where farming and bigger questions grow side by side.
We grow food, raise animals, make useful things, care for the land, and explore how people can live as part of the natural world.
A WAY OF LIVING IN THE WORLD
What if our presence could be a gift?
Not conquest. Not disappearance. Participation.
We are part of nature, not separate from it. Everything we do leaves a mark. We plant trees. We raise animals. We build, eat, make, cut, grow, and change the land around us.
The question isn’t whether we leave a trace. It’s what kind of trace we leave.
At Dark Hollow, we bring that question down to earth. Into soil and roots. Sheep and bees. Food and medicine. Work, weather, failure, beauty, and abundance. Into the daily care of one small piece of land.
Our Work
This is where the ideas become real.
It’s one thing to ask how people might live better with the natural world. It’s another thing to plant a tree, raise a sheep, keep bees, grow food, restore a hillside, or make something useful from what the land provides.
That’s the work of Dark Hollow. The farm gives the bigger questions roots. It lets us try things, watch what happens, learn from mistakes, and share what comes from the work.
Biodynamics
Preparations, compost, planting rhythms, close observation, and learning to see the farm as a living whole.
Agroforestry
Growing food among trees, grazing animals in woodland, planting perennials, and making room for many kinds of life.
Animals & Bees
Icelandic sheep and honeybees help shape the farm. They feed the soil, open the land, give us food and fiber, and teach us to pay attention.
Native Foods & Medicine
Spicebush, sassafras, pawpaw, woodland herbs, and the useful plants that have been growing here all along.
Making & Measuring
Wool, honey, biodynamic preparations, chromatography, experiments, handwork, and simple ways of looking more closely.
The Land
Water, erosion, soil, habitat, trees, and the slow work of helping a damaged or neglected place become more alive.
AN IDEA AT THE CENTER OF DARK HOLLOW
Leave a Trace
We will leave traces. The question is whether they take life away or help life grow.
A planted tree is a trace. So is a hedgerow. Compost. A sheep path. A building. A meal. A tool. A child learning the name of a plant. A woodland changed so that it can feed people while still being a woodland.
We don’t believe the best human relationship with nature is simply to disappear. We want to learn how to belong here, and how our presence might leave something richer behind.
Leave a trace. Not a scar. A gift.
Come Closer
Some ideas make more sense when you can touch them, taste them, walk through them, or try them yourself.
Workshops
Seasonal classes and gatherings around biodynamics, grafting, mushrooms, native foods, farm skills, and learning by doing.
Goods
Honey, wool, preparations, spices, medicinal plants, and other useful things that come from the work of the farm.
Writing
Stories and essays about nature, farming, technology, Anthroposophy, community, and the question underneath it all: how should we live?
A farm can be practical without being only practical.
Food matters. Soil matters. Making a living matters. So do beauty, wonder, and meaning. Dark Hollow is a place to see what happens when they belong to the same world again.