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          W.V. Elevatal Conflooence (Fall install)

Nov 11-14, 2022

W.T. Farm? Union, WV

 

Elevating on a West Virginia mountain for the the final confluence of the year

 

There will be a gathering mid-November for a knowledge and skill share centered around land-based topics of perennial tree culture, annual food production and preservation, animal husbandry, and personal physical maintenance. The specifics of these four general topics are to be determined by those that are attending over open space affinity circles, amazing home cooked farm food, and robust group activities. A confluence is the grassroots idea of relationship building through self-initiating and self-organization.

 

“The coming together of questions and subjects we are passionate about, 

tempered with an insatiable curiosity, 

we the people, 

sharing our experienced based knowledge, 

are the vigorous tributaries of a conflooence.”

 

Admission: participation in 8 hours of group activities over the course of the weekend helping with orchard tasks along with kitchen volunteering, or other event support related activities as needed.

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Accommodations-

 

Floor and Board: At this (well-behaved kid) friendly event there's plenty of camping options and cozy floor space. The venue is at W.T.Farm. We will all participate in preparation of meals and many ingredients will come from the farm. Please find out what contributions are needed to round out the meals. Dress for warm and dry, and bring sleeping gear for the floor or camping outside.

 

Thursday: Pre-conflooence sauna construction, and preparations

Friday: Gathering for and evening meal

Saturday: open space and affinity circles

Sunday: More circles

Monday: lingering around

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The vision of a

“Confluence” vs a “conference”

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...uses Open Space technology and envisions a world where there is an upper case emphasis on collaboration while lower casing the Top-down, headliner “experts”. Open Space is a self-organizing social technology that makes the most of the skills and resources from the people that show up, so expect the unexpected because what makes humans so special is together we are more than just some parts. We hope to share knowledge and skills regarding all aspects of growing our own wholesome food in the context of an established perennial tree crop farm. If you are interested in, passionate about, or have ideas around the skills of perennial tree crop culture, annual agriculture, animal husbandry or maintenance of personal health maintenance, you and your friends' presence will be welcome. We will, as a group, decide what we want to share and learn. If enough people show up there could be multiple concurrent circles happening at the same time. The focus is not so much on cloning one "expert's" experience, but rather cultivating the vigor of hybridizing dialogue that comes from sharing real experiences with one another. With that, we build mutual respect, create new ideas, connections, and confidence, seeing perspectives from many angles which are conflooencial tribulations.

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Work Trading-

Intermittent tasks we do together throughout the weekend amounting to 8 hours of reciprocation for attending the event. This could look like helping in the orchards planting trees, mulching, hauling and burning brush, harvesting and processing cherries and other fruits, or working on the deer fence which is only more exposure to first hand experience. If you are a producer of chemical-free food then we can negotiate a trade for food to supply the gathering. 

 

RSVP-

If you plan on attending, please RSVP as soon as possible. This courtesy makes planning so much easier for those that are involved in creating this opportunity.

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Venue-

W.T. Farm? is a perennial tree cropping project on top of a mountain in southern West Virginia. The original 2 acres of pear orchards were planted by Bill Whipple in 1987 and he has continued to plant a wide array of perennial species and their varieties for trialing and experimenting to this day. The latest initiative being a 30 acre nut orchard featuring cultivar black walnuts, hybrid chestnuts, hickory oil orchard and seedling fruit orchard. Many ongoing experiments include trialing of fruit and nut cultivars with selections being made of the most successful under a low input, no chemical management in order to propagate their next generation. W.T Farm? has been constantly assessing productivity, harvestability, and experimenting with value adding of crops for economic viability of marginal and diverse species now for 35 years.

 

Bill Whipple

W.T.Farm?

Union, WV 

Acornucopiaproject1@gmail.com

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If you are kindred in your pursuit of a world that is completely nuts. I invite you to browse through the website. Find out how to get involved in this ground shaking project . We can always use help sorting nuts and check with us about foraging in the upcoming season. The A.P. is an all inclusive endeavor and there is something here for everyone. Please sign up for our newsletter.

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In the news

Appalachian Voices article- 11/2021

Wanderschool Podcast- 1/30/2020
WNC Magazine- Nov/Dec 2019 issue

Mother Earth News- Podcast 6/21/18

Mountain Express- cover article 2/2018

Mountain xpress- acornucopia 2017

Mountain xpress- Nutty Buddy collective

Laurel of Asheville- Nutty Buddy Collective

wpvmfm radio interview 11/2016

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“If At First An Idea Is  Not Considered Completely Nuts Then There Is No Hope For It”

                                           - Albert Einstein