We are a small family in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, in the middle of the largest beech forest in the world. I was drawn here in 2008 because of the forests, orchards, Carpathian buffalo, the great ecological diversity and the high degree of subsistence in the small-scale farming way of life. Living shepherding and knowledge of the common land is also an important factor. We also have a garden and our small farm is home to water buffalo, horses, cows, poultry, rabbits, dogs and cats. We mainly keep rare local breeds. Our diet follows the recommendations of the Weston A. Price Foundation, i.e. based on the diet of indigenous communities and a traditional diet without industrial foods such as sugar, wheat flour and the like. We also try to limit our use of digital media as much as possible because we don’t want to be exposed to any more radiation than we already are without asking. We are for a holistic way of life and therefore a humane treatment of people, animals, plants and Mother Earth without poisons or other instruments of destruction. We are therefore also for a mindful and egalitarian coexistence between men and women and community members. This, among other things, is what we understand by matriarchal. Our goal is also to live free of oil- or electricity-dependent technology, but we are not there yet. It is important to us to treat our neighbours with respect and openness and to maintain good contact with them, even if they are often different and have different manners, diets and local laws. We want living together to be as enriching and respectful as possible for all parties. We are therefore not aiming for a closed community. There is also always a lot to do on our farm, so it is an advantage for visitors to join in and get to know us properly. Otherwise, as already mentioned, we can also imagine a kind of community with dropouts, in which, ideally, everyone has their own small self-sufficient farm and thus integrates into the existing village structure. The people here still live at least partly traditionally, so that basically everyone keeps a cow, chickens and pigs, has a vegetable field, makes hay in the summer and goes mushroom picking in the autumn. We like that very much and we do not want to encourage the existing trend to give it up, which means that the beautiful local cultural landscape is becoming more and more wild, i.e. overgrown with forests. We do not want to be foreign bodies or role models of the western and patriarchal lifestyle.

 

Another requirement if you are not ukrainian is having the will to learn Ukrainian, Russian or the Ruthenian dialect. In the future, we find it exciting to revive abandoned forest gardens or agro-forestry systems, including animal husbandry, especially sheep and goats. If tourism, then gentle tourism. We also think the rediscovery of traditional (art) crafts and handicrafts is important and worth supporting. Creative answers are needed to the question of how to earn money here and we are happy to share our ideas in person. In summary, we would like to see more people in our area who share our values and ideas. 

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