As I began to read The Community-Scale Permaculture Farm: The D Acres Model for Creating and Managing an Ecologically Designed Educational Center, by Josh Trought (Chelsea Green Publishing, March 2015), a favorite quote from George Fox rang in my head: “Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them…”

In this book, packed full of practical examples and sustainability practices designed to grow a truly vibrant, flourishing local community, the author shares the model he and his colleagues have been living and developing at D Acres, a living farm and educational center in New Hampshire. He shows how the community-scale permaculture farm meets local needs of people, animals, and ecosystems in an ongoing, evolving, and respectful and, ultimately, sustaining way.

Readers will discover not only practical how-tos for sustainability but expand those ideas into ways they can nourish a thriving community built on a localized economy, a shared land ethic, and the spiritual and ethical components needed to foster collaboration and  productive and harmonious community life.

So even if you’re considering starting small, if you tend to dream on a larger scale and have a desire to impact not only your own yard but the greater community around you, take a look at Trought’s model and see what it stirs up as a possibility for you.