The Bezaleel Israel Eco-Village in far northeast Washington, having been a small farm for over 30 years, now hosts the BZ Permaculture Farm Collective. The Farm Collective is a non-profit mutual benefit society. We grow fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, livestock, seeds and nursery stock using permaculture and regenerative agriculture methods. We grow our produce to market in our local community and for our own sustenance. For the past three years we attended the Northeast Washington Farmers' Market in Colville, WA and offered a weekly CSA; however, for 2025 we are taking a hiatus from intensive market farming to focus on the Eco-village infrastructure needs. Our open-pollinated, heirloom seeds continue to be offered for sale online.
We align closely with the principles of the International Peasants’ Movement
viacampesina.org,
Peasants for Climate Justice
peasantsforclimatejustice.org,
and The Poor People's Campaign
poorpeoplescampaign.org.
The BZ Farm is not "certified organic." We do not use synthetic poisons or use GMO seeds (in fact we save the seeds for over 90% of what we grow). We use compost and cover crops primarily for fertility or else soil amendments that are approved for certified organic farms and permaculture systems. BZ and I are both experienced permaculturists and we call our produce "Permaculturally-Grown."
Let's Build This Permaculture Farm Together!
The BZ Farm is a non-profit organization set up as a mutual benefit corporation for our member farmers.
Please Consider Making a Donation.
(donations to the farm are not tax-deductible)
Our member farmers grow fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, livestock, seeds and nursery stock using permaculture and regenerative agriculture methods. We grow our produce for market in our local community and for our own sustenance. At BZ Farm, we know that change starts with people like you. Every act of kindness, every dollar, and every moment of your time brings us closer to achieving our mission. Together, we can create a more vibrant farm and contribute in these troubling times to greater food security in our local community while demonstrating a new business model for other farmers to adopt.
Help with the farmwork is welcome too! Casual visitors can volunteer (and learn)
Despite not farming as intensively this year, we will still be growing crops like potatoes, onions and garlic, plus our seed crops, tending the orchard and the ducks and goats. You are welcome to come spend a day or two or more with us at the BZ Farm this coming growing season. Come lend a hand, learn some tricks, go home with an armload of food.
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There will be a long list of tasks as the 2025 growing season ramps up, reaches its peak and settles into fall. With just two of us here, we're are going to be slammed. Any visitors are welcome to participate. We're also trying to open up some time in 2025 to catch up with some infrastructure maintenance. It's a great opportunity to learn some building skills.
If you can get away and you'd like keep us company, we would welcome you. Come see what we're doing; breathe some fresh forest air, get your body moving. We're building fences, planting and transplanting, preparing our growing beds, constructing outbuildings, etc.
Please let us know if you're interested. We like to have visitors any time during the growing season. We do ask that folks contact us before showing up.
Phone message and text: 914-246-0309
Email: collective@bzfarm.org
We ask all visitors to sign a liability waiver to protect ourselves and the land. We want the BZ Farm to forever be a source of fresh, clean, permaculturally-grown food for our beloved friends in the Northern Stevens County community and this helps to ensure that.
Thank you!
Folks who seriously seek permanent residency can apply to be apprentices who can become collective members (Eco-village members and Farm Collective members) and can earn income with the Farm Collective. Other collective enterprises based at the eco-village could be established.
Visitors please make arrangements in advance.
collective@bzfarm.org
Prospective collective members, please see our home page and our page on apprentices. There you will find links to our application.
Ready to unplug from "the system" and put down some roots in your ecosystem? Apply now by answering a couple of questions. This could be your new future.
In 2023, the BZ Permaculture Farm Collective was established on the grounds of the eco-village as a Washington State Non-Profit Mutual Benefit Corporation. The Farm Collective is permitted to steward the rich soils, waters and plant communities and to practice regenerative production and subsistence agriculture on the grounds as a non-profit micro-farm. Membership in the Farming Collective is separate from membership in the Eco-Village, but Eco-Village collective membership is a prerequisite for being a member of the Farming Collective. The non-profit simply manages the farmers’ common property. Members of the BZ Permaculture Farm Collective and Eco-Villagers who contribute labor to the farming operation are all self-employed farmers. Volunteers may also contribute labor and receive a stipend. Members of the BZ Permaculture Farm Collective serve on its Board and participate in the governance and operational activities of the farm. A farmers' Collective is a DIY approach to self-reliance and cooperation.
For the three growing seasons we have demonstrated the economic viability of the farming operation here despite being severely limited by a labor shortage. We have a small on-line vegetable seed business, we were selling at the farmers' market in the nearby city of Colville and we had a small CSA program to supply our fresh produce to folks in our area who don't have a grocery store close to home. We are nowhere near reaching the productive potential of this land or satisfying the local market demand. We can make a living farming here-- living simply-- but only if there is enough of us contributing to the effort. Consequently, we are scaling back the farming operation until conditions change.
Farming, building and other activities on the grounds of the Eco-Village must be done in accordance with permaculture ethics, principles and objectives to the extent possible and contribute to the development and implementation of the Eco-Village permaculture design.
BZ Permaculture Farm Collective - The following structure is currently being experimented with:
Village Collective members may apply for membership in the BZ Permaculture Farm Collective and if approved their labor expectations would adjust to those of the Farming Collective. Members of the Farm Collective must be members of the Bezaleel Israel Eco-Village Collective.
With the exception of Bezaleel Israel who is by default a Farm Collective member, members of the Farm Collective each year commit to an annual average of 30 hours per week of farmwork between March 1 and October 31 and an annual average of 15 hours per week between November 1 and the last day of February with reasonable time off. Farm Collective members are expected to contribute an additional amount of labor to Eco-village tasks equivalent to 10% of their hours of farmwork averaged annually.
Eco-Village Collective members who are not members of the Farm Collective may, with the guidance of Farm Collective members, contribute to the farming effort as self-employed farmers and receive patronage refunds.
People who are not Eco-Village Collective members may, with the guidance of Farm Collective members, contribute to the farming effort as Guest Volunteers or Regular Volunteers. Regular Volunteers are those who volunteer three or more days in a given month.
Twenty percent of gross receipts from farm sales accrue to a fund intended for monthly distribution to Farm Collective members, Village Collective members and Regular Volunteers (in the form of a stipend) based on patronage hours contributed to the farming effort beginning Jan. 1 each year.
Volunteers may take home a few day’s worth of produce on the days they volunteer and receive one voucher for each month they contribute labor that is good for two days of free shopping at the Farming Collective’s stand at the farmers’ market or on-farm sales and 15% off farm produce for the remainder of the market season.
Five percent of gross receipts accrue to a fund for Eco-village expenses. These funds are administered by the Eco-village Collective.
Five percent of gross receipts accrue to an Eco-Village fund for emergencies until the emergency fund reaches $1000. These funds are administered by the Eco-village Collective.
The Farm Collective is expected to provide significant amounts of food for the use of those living at the Eco-village.
Village Collective and Farming Collective members, but not volunteers, are eligible to receive annual distributions of surplus funds at the end of the calendar year. The amount available for distribution is determined annually by the members of the Farming Collective and is based on total patronage over multiple years recorded.
Former Farm Collective members are eligible to opt in to continue to receive their share of patronage refunds and annual distributions after leaving the Farm Collective.
All activities of collective members engaged in farming activities shall be guided by the Principles, Ethics and Objectives of Permaculture.
The Farm Collective members communicate among themselves on a regular basis, meeting regularly and when necessary. Any two Farm Collective members may call a meeting of the Farm Collective members, providing at least 14 days' notice to the other Farm Collective members either in person, by voice, electronically, email or postal mail. The meeting notice must include a written description of the issue(s) for the meeting agenda. Those Farm Collective members in attendance at any duly-called meeting constitute a quorum.
Except in the case of the Exit Procedure (consensus minus one), the Farm Collective members employ the consensus process in their decision-making as described in the article titled Consensus Ingredients by Caroline Estes. Volunteers may be invited to meetings, but have no voice in decision-making.
Honoring Labor
Apprentices, Journeypersons, Resident Stewards and Regular Volunteers who contribute labor to the BZ Permaculture Farm Collective are all eligible to receive an equal rate of remuneration in the form of "Patronage Refunds" or in the case of volunteers, a stipend. The farm enterprise operates on a "cash basis," meaning that gross receipts are made up of the cash that the Farm Collective actually receives and do not include any accounts receivable (money owed but not yet paid). Of the gross receipts collected in the Collective Farm Account each month, a percentage that is set from time to time by the Farming Collective accrues to those who contributed labor that month and is distributed monthly on the basis the percentage of hours each member contributed to the whole during the current growing season. The remainder of the funds in the Farm Collective’s account are used to pay for farm operating expenses– tools, equipment, supplies, repairs, infrastructure, utilities etc. Members of the BZ Permaculture Farm Collective decide what funds are used for operating expenses. Funds from the Farm Collective’s account can be distributed on the basis of patronage to Eco-Village Collective Members who contribute labor to the farming operation as year-end dividends under certain conditions. Dividends may be distributed to current and former Farm Collective Members proportional to their individual contributions to the total number of hours worked (the Whole) carried over year to year. Using this model, workers begin to build limited equity in the farm enterprise which they retain even in the event they leave the Farm Collective.