Narrator: "Modern Pioneering" is funded in part by wild blueberry farmers of Maine.

Wild blueberries are full of flavor and nutrients, a pop full of blueberry taste for your favorite smoothie, breakfast, or dessert.

Learn more at wildblueberries.com.

Narrator: At Muir Glen, we believe that organic farming benefits consumers, farmers, and ecosystems.

Narrator: And made possible by... ...and many other generous donors.

A complete list is available at GeorgiaPellegrini.com.

♪♪ Kendra: This is what I'll do for as long as it satisfies me.

And it still does.

And this is the longest thing I've done as an adult person and felt still satisfied and happy to be in it.

Zia: Well, I am a firm believer that we are so much more than our work and the money that we make.

I have always believed that.

Richard: There's uncertainty everywhere, so I feel like, for me, building skills is much more important.

Nir: It will heal you.

You will get healed doing this type of farming.

Sahairah: Being in community has taught me things that I don't think I could have learned out there.

It just feels like you're unlocking pieces of you that our society doesn't really force you to.

Thor: Out there, in my mind, we have an illusion of a safety net.

Sigrid: We're all doing it together, figuring it out together.

Tom: [ Grunts ] Man: Thank you so much.

Woman: That was great.

Tom: Okay.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Pellegrini: Welcome to East Wind, an intentional egalitarian community in the Missouri Ozarks, where 52 years ago a small group of people came looking for a different way of life.

Its roots trace back to Twin Oaks, one of the earliest modern communes in America.

But East Wind would take on a spirit entirely its own, shaped by the land, by shared work, and by people willing to trade convention for cooperation.

What began with a few people and a belief in collective living has grown into one of the longest-running income-sharing communities in America.

Here, strangers become neighbors, labor becomes shared, and the rhythms of life slow just enough for people to ask a rare question -- What does enough actually look like?

Tom: I came here in 1983.

43 years ago this month.

I'm the oldest member here.

I've seen a lot of things change over the years.

We pretty much share all the resources.

We own the land as a group, and we all make the same amount of money.

Community provides us with food, shelter, health care -- clothing to some extent.

I like how we have democratic decision-making.

We all have an equal say in the government.

I just want my voice to be heard.

[ Laughs ] And I guess I feel like it is.

One thing East Wind tried to do in the early days was create our own culture.

We created our own holidays.

We celebrate the solstices, the equinox, Land Day, which is the anniversary of when we first settled this land.

The people really wanted to create their own culture, wanted something different than outside.

We've got sort of a structure that isn't dependent on any one person.

And, you know, we don't have any specific leader.

East Wind's never been dependent on one person.

It's been dependent on multiple people, and those people change and it goes on.

And, really, I have never made any sense of envying other people for having things I don't have.

I just want to live my life [laughs] and let them live theirs.

♪♪ ♪ I'm so tired of the same old lines ♪ ♪ We rehearse and rhyme but don't believe ♪ Pellegrini: East Wind has endured because it was never built around one person, but around the shared belief that everyone should have a voice and a stake in the life being created here.

And life here begins early.

By 7:30 each morning, Frankie and Nir are already at the dairy barn, coaxing the cows in from the pasture for the morning milk shift.

[ Motor whirring ] Nir: Got here in April of 2021.

Had been farming for a couple of years before that.

Before COVID hit, I was a practical life instructor for a Montessori preschool, which was a totally different world for me, but really cool being able to bring agriculture to kids.

Came to East Wind for the opportunity to get closer to food that I was, you know, much more confident about.

♪ I think we both know how these things go ♪ ♪ Just say you want to ♪ Pellegrini: For some people at East Wind, community life becomes more than shared labor.

It becomes a space to pursue the things they feel most called toward.

For Nir, that calling is animals.

Beyond the dairy barn, he's built a small world of goats, rabbits, pigs, ducks, and geese, slowly learning how to raise more of his own food while giving the animals as natural a life as possible.

It is equal parts sustenance, responsibility, and devotion.

Nir: The animal parts of it just made sense because we have so much space here.

Maybe over a thousand acres at East Wind.

Giving them space and letting them take care of themselves is one of the most relaxing and easiest ways to take care of animals.

They stay down here between the pastures and these woods.

They got everything, which is nice because I don't really have to buy any feed for them.

Pellegrini: How often do you milk with goats?

Nir: I just do once a day.

Just once in the morning.

In this case, I just keep the babies with mama, and they just feed until they're ready, and I take as much milk as she makes.

And whenever she dries off, she dries off.

Pellegrini: How often are you harvesting a goat for meat?

Nir: Only when I have to.

I really hate it.

It's -- It's the worst part of the life.

But for the sake of, you know, closing more of my circle with food and fabric, it's just -- it is a useful thing.

They're really docile.

They're really sweet.

They're really easy to manage.

But having the space to browse and this kind of territory, you see, you know, the ones that are only three or four weeks old already eating, you know, the bark off of oak trees and such to get the tannins to kill the worms, so they're doing it themselves.

I got rabbits over in here.

These are just my breeders that I keep.

They're great little animals.

They have the highest return on investment of any farm animal, including beef.

Pellegrini: How often are you harvesting them for meat?

Nir: As many as they give me.

It's still the worst part.

It doesn't matter what animal it is or anything.

But it's -- it is definitely a wonderful way to supplement a high-calorie need.

Pellegrini: Yeah, and if you're gonna be a meat eater, to have that relationship is really meaningful.

Nir: It's very meaningful.

Yeah.

And when you do it yourself, you get your own hands onto it, it means a whole lot.

Pellegrini: You appreciate it more.

Nir: Yeah.

And it is strange.

You know, I mean, we slaughtered three pigs just the other day.

And despite the fact I knew it was gonna happen, you still see this thing that you've been hanging out with for eight, nine months or something, however long it's been.

And it does still make an impact on you.

Pellegrini: Yeah.

Nir: But here we got some black Berkshire pigs.

I love black Berkies.

As much as I love pork, they're more of a lard pig.

They just get fatter than they get meatier.

Pellegrini: Yeah.

Nir: And as much as I love pork, I love frying things in lard.

You know, sciatica was a big thing, bursitis and tendonitis from just, you know, manual-labor jobs.

I could never take an anti-inflammatory that would work long enough.

This opportunity to just eat eggs fried in lard all the time, like, a lot of my inflammation is gone.

Pellegrini: Incredible.

Nir: Like, so much of my health has been restored.

Pellegrini: Look at these guys.

Nir: Geese are wonderful animals.

Pellegrini: Beautiful.

Postcard or a fairy tale.

Nir: Yeah.

Probably my favorite farm animal at this point.

I love them the most.

They're just -- they're such interesting little monsters.

Couldn't be more fortunate than to have this kind of a space to be able to, you know, bring animals into.

From there, it was just a matter of putting the fence up so they didn't get out to eat the crops, and they take care of the rest.

Pellegrini: And so how do they benefit the orchard, exactly?

Nir: Geese are herbivores, so they're just our lawn mowers.

The ducks are more pest control.

They will eat some of the greens.

When you have this kind of food system where it just happens to be, you know, that person's strawberry day harvested before lunch.

And we just slaughtered a couple of pigs, so now there's bacon in the fridge.

And you're done hilling the potatoes, you come up, and you have this, you know, meal that somebody's already cooked for you that you just get to nourish yourself with, go have a salt bath and take a nap.

Like, it's luxury.

There's so much about this type of farming that we do here that really is regenerative.

It will heal you.

You will get healed doing this type of farming.

Y'all are still sitting.

Oh, my goodness.

[ Geese honking ] I know, I know, I know.

I know, we're close.

We're so close to the nest.

I know, Willie.

You're so tough.

I'll be 43 in August, and I'm in better shape than I was 20 years ago.

I've been under the poverty line for most of my life, so feeling rich just from cooking a meal is something that has been brand-new, and I don't -- I don't want any other way anymore.

Pellegrini: The farther you move through East Wind, the more the boundaries between labor, art, and daily life begin to disappear.

In one corner of the land, Sigrid grows herbs for teas and flowers for natural dyes, turning plants into color with the same detailed intention she brings to knitting.

Sigrid: Was that good?

The land in particular really spoke to me.

The amount of land that's here is unique and special.

So I just jumped right into it.

My favorite thing is definitely working in the herb garden.

That's my happy place, and I try to put at least several hours a week into that.

Pellegrini: What's your sort of goal with the herb garden?

Sigrid: I try and grow as many herbs for our teas as possible.

I've also been growing more and more dye plants over the years, which first started out as just a little personal project.

Somebody gave me some Japanese indigo seeds, and I was like, well, I want to try dyeing wool because I'm a knitter.

I've been knitting since I was 11 years old, and I thought this might be a really fun way to combine two things that I really love.

This is the indigo too I'm knitting a shirt out of.

Pellegrini: Nice.

Sigrid: This is a wool and linen blend, and it has a really nice color because the linen doesn't take the dye in the same way as the wool, so it has a little bit more of a depth and variation in color.

Pellegrini: So you're wearing this, and it's literally everything nature offered.

It's from the animals.

It's from the plants.

Nearby, Richard has spent years developing resilient seed lines adapted to the Ozarks, slowly shaping crops through observation, patience, and repetition.

At East Wind, the garden is more than a source of food.

It is an archive of knowledge carried forward season after season.

♪♪ Richard: I've been managing the garden the majority of my time here, figuring out more and more what works for the land we have, what works for what food people want to eat.

In more recent years especially, I've gotten more and more into seed saving and plant breeding.

And one of my big inspirations is landrace gardening.

And basically it's like having genetically diverse populations of a crop.

And then you can select for specific characteristics -- generally flavor and yield, and, you know, whatever you want to, really, but you also let it be -- there be a good amount of variability.

Nir: Richard's an absolute wealth of knowledge.

He's been here -- I think he's been managing the garden -- this is his 13th or 14th year.

You know, long time.

The whole lower garden that we have down here didn't exist before Richard got here.

Richard: Beyond that little stick there, that's all East Wind saved seed.

These ones here are a different variety I got to just, you know, add something else and see how it works.

A lot of advantages to having a diverse population that can be more resilient and that's just adapted to not just your climate but your way of growing things and your tastes.

And I mean, here, it's obviously community, so there's communal things, like melon season is really nice because it's like we can just put out melons and then just kind of get feedback on, like, this is a really good one, or this one not as great, and just save the most seeds from the best ones.

Nir: The real luxury out of being at East Wind is really what comes out of the ground here.

Especially when you're here for watermelon season.

It's unbelievable.

Pellegrini: Oh, wow, look at this.

[ Gasps ] Look at this big juicy one.

Richard: There's some nice ones in here.

♪ With you as my love, well, I don't need nothing ♪ ♪ Yeah, I don't need nothing with you as my love ♪ Pellegrini: What a treat to have these like that.

Richard: Yeah, it's nice to have them right out here.

Pellegrini: Wow.

Richard: Pick your own whenever you want.

Somebody comes through and picks them each day during the season, but also people can come out and get their own right off the plant too if they want.

Pellegrini: A little afternoon candy.

Richard: Nature expresses itself in different forms, like forms of trees and forms of animals and forms of people.

But people come and go, but the land has been, you know, still here.

♪ My lily of the field ♪ I store the seeds in the walk-in, and I'll grab some.

We're gonna make some cowpeas from last year's crop up for dinner.

Pellegrini: Nice.

Richard: So this is what they look like, ones I've saved from seed.

All the variety.

I feel like, for me, building skills is much more important, have skills that will be useful.

Nir: Doing the work, being a part of the work and pulling that food out of the ground, making the cheese yourself, you know, slaughtering the animal, everything.

It's -- It's all connected to a bigger well-being that is -- is really hard to touch in the average world.

Pellegrini: Over time, many here have found a different rhythm of health -- one grounded less in consumption and more in connection to the land, to each other, and to the quiet satisfaction of making something with your own hands.

And much of that rhythm flows back through the kitchen.

Richard and Nir prepare a meal from the garden harvest.

Sigrid kneads fresh bread, and Kendra and I make a rhubarb berry crisp to share with the community -- small daily rituals that, over time, become their own kind of inheritance for members of East Wind.

Kendra: Did I do it?

Pellegrini: Did this rhubarb come from the garden?

Kendra: It did.

And these blueberries -- we do get a lot of blueberries.

Pellegrini: So we've got melted butter and what else in there?

Kendra: There's flour, oats, almonds, which come from our business because we do the almond butter.

Pellegrini: Yeah.

It's a lot of people to cook for every day, isn't it?

Kendra: Yeah, it is.

And it used to be more.

We're kind of at a really low population phase right now, so we're used to, honestly, about twice as many as this.

The value that you get in nonmonetary terms is exponentially more than I had before.

I want to have choices.

I never want to feel stuck somewhere.

My real dream would be like, how could I work like a part-time kind of job but still live well with that much personal freedom?

And here you really, really get that.

The kinds of food that, you know, you'd pay a lot of money for.

That kind of trade-off just didn't feel like I was sacrificing anything to come and do this.

I'm just gonna mix all that around real good.

And then I'm gonna add this water to it.

Let's do that.

Pellegrini: Richard, what are you cooking?

Richard: The main dish I'm making is quiches.

And some of these things are for the quiches.

Like, these are mustard greens, actually, from the garden.

Some of these onions will be for the quiches, not all.

Some of them will be for the cowpeas as well.

Pellegrini: Ooh, cowpeas.

Yeah, you gave me some of these seeds to grow at home.

Richard: These are the same ones I gave you seed from.

Yeah, stir them around a little bit.

Yeah, making them up for dinner.

Kendra: The people that you're working with are also the people that you live with, are also the people that you're partying with.

It's all the same folks.

And I'm just gonna put every single -- every single bit of that in there.

Pellegrini: So now you'll bake this?

Kendra: I will bake it at half an hour at 350.

Pellegrini: Okay.

Kendra: And if I feel like it needs to get a little bit more brown to get a crispiness, I'll leave it in there for longer.

Pellegrini: At East Wind, community is woven into the ordinary rhythms of daily life.

Clothes circulate through a free thrift store.

Cheese ages quietly along a shaded path.

Hammocks and sandals are made by hand.

Someone teaches another person to repair an engine.

Another chops wood or makes soap.

In time, those skills become part of the culture itself.

Walking the property, I start to see how the community sustains itself through a web of shared knowledge passed between members over time.

Zia: That work?

Okay!

Mongoose: It's just alienating out there, going to work every day.

I think that this way of living is closer to how humans are actually supposed to live, because we're cooperating with each other.

We're supposed to live in small groups and tribes.

Zia: I've gained a wider social circle, and, actually, I was very isolated before coming here.

I spent a lot of time in my house.

Mongoose: I've learned more about myself in the last four years than ever.

Sahairah: You have to grow.

You have to learn how to work through the conflict.

Thor: Two things for me that I always remind myself every day is, not commuting and not waking up to an alarm every day.

I can put up with a lot of things for that.

Kendra: The benefit living here was, you know, you've got this community taking care of you.

Mongoose: If you've got clothes that you don't want anymore, you can just throw them in here and then, you know, other people can wear them.

One of the examples of how we share.

Pellegrini: So if you just get tired of what you have, you can swap it out.

At the end of the day, we don't really need to be purchasing everything new.

Mongoose: You can find some really cool outfits, and then, you know, your friend will be walking around the farm in your shirt or your dress, and you'll be like, "That used to be mine.

I'm glad that you enjoy it."

Zia: In some ways I feel like I'm leaving certain things behind.

In other ways, I feel like I'm moving more deeply into the actual world, in alignment with things that are a little bit less tangible and even more fulfilling.

Sigrid: Community is definitely on the list of an essential need for human happiness.

Life isn't enough without having that.

Sahairah: Being in community has taught me things that I don't think I could have learned out there.

Mongoose: This is one of the best parts about living in a community.

You share all of this equipment, so if you want to learn how to woodwork, you've got everything right here.

It's way easier to get into than having to invest in the equipment yourself.

East Wind gives people the time and resources to actually pursue their passions.

Sahairah: Being able to fix your own stuff, maintain your own things.

As a woman, that's very empowering to me.

Mongoose: Out there, like, you're alienated from yourself because you're too busy working.

Here, you have the flexibility to, you know, create your own schedule.

It doesn't feel like work when it's something that you actually enjoy doing and want to do.

Zia: I'm free to pursue all of my creative interests.

I can write, I can read, I can paint.

I can learn new things like sewing and making butter.

Nobody's telling me I have to work at ranch.

I made that choice.

Pellegrini: Most people seem to have changed their names when they've come here.

Is that something that's encouraged?

Is it just something people do?

Is there a philosophy behind that?

Mongoose: Yeah, you know, it's not necessarily something that's encouraged, but it is something that people do for fun.

So after my first year of living here, I'm like, I love East Wind.

I think I'm gonna live here a long time.

I want to -- I want to change my name.

I want a community name.

So before going away for holiday to visit my folks over Christmas, I put up a note and I said, "When I come back, I want to have a naming party.

Here's a blank page.

Put down some naming suggestions, and we'll narrow it down and vote."

Well, I came back to like three pages of names.

Pellegrini: Oh, wow!

Mongoose: So I felt very loved.

Pellegrini: That's awesome.

Mongoose: I wanted to have a full name, so I wanted three names.

So, my full name is Mongoose Party Beans MacLeod... Pellegrini: I love it.

Mongoose: ...III Jr.

Pellegrini: [ Laughs ] Mongoose: It's fun to change your name, but it felt especially special letting community pick it.

Pellegrini: Yeah, yeah.

Nir: I've definitely told people, at least, that if you came here for the farm and the forest, you'll find a reason to stay.

Zir: It's been the most rewarding work experience for me that I've ever had in my life.

Kendra: Many hands make light work, and living like our ancestors did a little bit more feels good.

Thor: Being able to be a lot more connected, a lot more engulfed in nature versus the concrete jungle and office and the disconnection.

You know, you're a cog in the machine out there.

You're this itty-bitty gear in this giant machine.

Here, you're still an itty-bitty gear, but the machine's so much smaller.

Pellegrini: East Wind sustains itself through a collection of member-run businesses, but at the center of its economy is something unexpectedly humble -- nut butter.

Jars of Valencia peanut butter, cashew butter, tahini, and more are shipped across the country, sustaining 1,200 acres of forest, workshops, meals, and communal life.

Mongoose: Welcome to the East Wind Nut Butters nut-butter factory.

Richard: Getting business and income early on.

You know, the hammocks were the first significant business.

Thor: I'm -- I'm still blown away when I think about a bunch of hippies out in the woods making hammocks, and they're like, "Let's start making peanut butter."

Richard:The nut butters started in 1980, I know, and that had built up by like 2000 or so to be like the main income source for the community and has been since.

Mongoose: And then we have two production lines, and we're actually doing production on line one.

And the other thing that we do that a lot of other manufacturers don't is we will actually roast and mill on the same day.

Pellegrini: Captures more flavor when it's freshly roasted.

Mongoose: Yeah, it tastes fresher.

Pellegrini: -Yeah.

Mongoose: Our big selling point is we don't add garbage to our food.

So we don't add stabilizers or sugars or preservatives or anything like that.

And those are our Valencia peanuts.

That's the East Wind staple.

Pellegrini: Is that right?

Mongoose: Valencia peanuts are sweeter.

They have more high oleic oils, so they're better for your heart.

♪ I thought we could both use some change ♪ ♪ A newer perspective to see how... ♪ Tom: I don't really feel like I've lost anything.

I probably wouldn't be rich if I was living out there.

And I don't know that I want to be.

It's just, you know, the social aspects, friendships.

All that means more to me.

Thor: I hope for this place to just continue on, to be a place for others to come and find and to grow and to learn and to meet amazing people.

Kendra: I genuinely haven't been lonely since like 2009.

Zia: I've always felt like a person who is always searching.

My whole life.

Coming here, I finally felt what it feels like to actually invest in something.

Nora: This place is the people.

It wouldn't be East Wind without them.

I hope that this place can stay an option for people.

I hope for another 50 years of just this place going and going.

Sahairah: I hope it's a place where more people feel welcome and included.

Sigrid: This is a social experiment, and people come here and they learn and they take community with them wherever they go.

Pellegrini: There are easier ways to live than this.

More private ways.

More efficient ones.

Ways where your life belongs only to you.

But after time at East Wind, what stays with me isn't the ideology or even the structure of the place.

It's the participation.

The way people remain visible to one another here.

Meals are shared.

Labor is shared.

So are frustrations, celebrations, breakups, repairs.

Life is not outsourced so easily.

And maybe that's why so many people who come here speak less about escape and more about return -- a return to health, to usefulness, to commitment, and to a sense of meaning, and most importantly to the feeling that your presence matters to the people around you.

East Wind is not a utopia.

The people here will tell you that themselves.

It asks a great deal of those who choose it.

But for more than 50 years, people have continued to arrive here looking for something the outside world no longer easily provides -- connection, purpose, enough.

And perhaps that alone says something worth paying attention to.

Because long after the work is finished and the fire burns low, what endures here is not just the land or the businesses or even the ideals.

It's the simple decision made again and again to gather on porches at night, share tools, recipes, rides, responsibilities, and stories, and in doing so preserve something that has become unexpectedly rare -- the experience of building a life in common.

♪ Can we live right here in this moment?

♪ Narrator: To learn more about the topics featured on this episode, log on to GeorgiaPellegrini.com or follow along on Georgia's Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channel for weekly pioneering adventures, tips, and recipes.

"Modern Pioneering" is funded in part by wild blueberry farmers of Maine.

Wild blueberries are full of flavor and nutrients, a pop full of blueberry taste for your favorite smoothie, breakfast, or dessert.

Learn more at wildblueberries.com.

Narrator: At Muir Glen, we believe that organic farming benefits consumers, farmers, and ecosystems.

Narrator: And made possible by... ...and many other generous donors.

A complete list is available at GeorgiaPellegrini.com.