Barbara Rose, Bean Tree Farm at Dancing Rocks

What’s going on!

At Dancing Rocks Community, my home since 1985, I harvest water, build soil, plant trees, garden, harvest and prepare native foods on a 20 acre Permaculture residential community. Nested in a lush Ironwood/Saguaro forest in the northern Tucson Mountains, we share the bounty of this place with students, interns, family and friends. I teach with the Sonoran Permaculture Guild team, and also organize, host and teach educational events on site.

Bean Tree Farm is not your ordinary farm- we don’t do much conventional organic row crop irrigated agriculture. We welcome rainwater into the landscape through gently placed earthworks and cisterns. This way we can increase the health and productivity of the land as we grow, harvest and teach about the cornucopia of delicious and nutritious foods and herbs that are already here- native and adapted to Sonoran Desert soils and climate. Once people taste the flavors and understand the nutritional benefits of eating local, they get excited about re-wilding their homes and neighborhoods with native plants.

Also;

~ I consult and design for clients who want to reduce energy and water use, and to integrate their dwellings into the larger landscape (new and retrofit), often as a team with Bill Cunningham- www.southwest-solar.com, Technicians For Sustainability- www.tfssolar.com, and others;

~ I co-manage Bean Tree Farm and Lodge, the educational (f)arm of our community, which facilitates workshops, tours and coordinates Permaculture projects with the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, Prescott College, ECOSA and others;

~ Practice the arts of natural building and passive solar design such as earth plastering, adobe, rammed earth, cob, and straw buildings (in new construction and renovation);

~ Help organize local Democracy Schools (check out www.celdf.org) with the Sourdough Starters;

~ Founded Silverbell Trading in 1987, a passive solar, green business featuring local and native arts and books (retail store closed June 2010).

I love what I do, and invite everyone to explore and enjoy this kind of work/play. I’m especially interested in creating a succession model that will enable my old age (coming soon!) to be spent fiddling around in the garden, singing, dancing and playing with small children! Over the last decade, midwifing my parents, family and friends on their Hospice final journeys, and becoming a grandmother to Madeline Grace, I am amply reminded that what we have is Now, even though we work for a future we can all believe in. So I savor the 100+ degree heat that brings on the summer harvest of native desert food and monsoon rains, the morning and evening skies, laughing with friends and family over a shared meal, and am grateful to be here.

Other connections

~ Member of our neighborhood’s Safford Peak Watershed Education Team (SaPWET)

~ Steering Committee member, Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan

~ Consultant to local governments and local developers in envisioning/planning healthy communities

CONTACTS: (520) 979-2796, brosearth@gmail.com; beantreefarm@gmail.com

Uplands in bloom, bean trees (Palo Verdes and Ironwoods) and Saguaro- a beautiful, delicious and nutritious harvest!

News and Current Opportunities

There are opportunities for both residents and students at this time. Also go to class listings page on this website.

Bean Tree Farm

We’re working with volunteers and student interns finishing up the additional cistern plumbing we installed over the summer, and inviting new potential students and staff to apply for residence/internship opportunities in 2010.

The lodge renovations are nearly complete, providing students, family and guests with a new all-solar remodel, community kitchen and bath/compost toilet facilities. Check out our Bean Tree Farm brochure (below) for information about staying awhile and learning about permaculture in the Sonoran Desert!

Bean Tree Farm

Click the link below to download information about opportunities for work/live community membership.

permaculture-membership

Here’s a link to KUAT’s latest Arizona Illustrated show about wastewater and compost toilets:

http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2009/10/7/kuat-wastewater/

Selected Projects Overview- where we’ve been and where we’re going

Completed (c), works in progress (wip), simmering (s)

~ (wip)- Bean Tree Farm and Lodge, 2008, expands our non-profit educational activities, and provides incentives for diverse cultural/agricultural cottage industries arising from Permaculture ethics and practice. Our offerings include ongoing seasonal workshops with native food/feasts, herb craft, earthbuilding/sculpting, music/instrument making, in the larger context of earth care and conservation. We offer extended stays for student and family groups at Bean Tree Lodge, a rammed earth solar home built in 1989, and a historic 1930′s stone cottage. Bean Tree Farm’s name (made famous many years before by the fine author and farmer Barbara Kingsolver in “The Bean Trees”) raises awareness that virtually all native Sonoran Desert trees and many large shrubs are legumes, fixing nitrogen for understory plants, and providing all who harvest with delicious, nutritious foods, growing and thriving without tilling, irrigation, or toil, beyond a little low-tech rainwater harvesting and mulching; increasing the bounty by caring for the land.

~ (wip)- Dancing Rocks, 1994-present, an eco-logical residential community of 5 homes and guest cottages clustered within a Saguaro Cactus/Ironwood Forest preserve. Currently three families are owner-residents. 6 month- 1 year trial residency, ongoing internships and work study programs for students and WWOOFers are ongoing. The community barn is nearing completion and provides space for classes and workshops, and will be surrounded by a native plant nursery. We are finalizing our second draft of a Homeowners’ Manual (see below). CCRs (conditions, covenants and restrictions, below) define and protect the conservation values and eco-logical behaviours unique to this kind of development. For instance, our requirements call for the use of “solar clothesdryers” (clotheslines) rather than electric or fossil based machines, humanure composting toilet systems instead of flush toilets.

Link to first edition Home Owners Manual

Link to DRPCccrs 5/09

~ (c)- Scenic Drive Pilot Project: A Model for Water Harvesting, Watershed Restoration and Education: Report and Recommendations. Prepared for the Town of Marana, 2007

~ (c)- The stone house, a passive solar earth /straw renovation of 1930′s historic stone well house. Designer, owner contractor, 1994/95.

~ (c)- Sylvester House, historic adobe renovation for Native Seeds S.E.A.R.C.H.- project planning and coordination, 1993/94.

~ (c)- Silverbell Trading, 1985-present, a gallery/trading post featuring local and native arts, crafts, and books about sustainable living. Also features passive solar design, green/recycled building materials, and natural plaster and finishes. Renovation of historic Casas Adobes storefront, 2002. (Moving in June 2010)

~ (c)- Kino School, conceptual design project for 10 acre site, permaculture class, teacher/consultant, 1995.

~ (c)- Mitchell Residence, permaculture landscape renovation for 1 acre site, designer, project manager, 1996/97.

~ (c)- “Becoming Beneficial Developers in our Own Backyards”, a 17 minute video/dvd about the Safford Peak Watershed Education Team (SaPWET) project (below), 1999-2002.

~ (c)- Northern Tucson Mountains Resource Conservation/Education Project, funded by Pima County, Marana and Pro-Neighborhoods. A 3 year project to envision and promote healthy communities while restoring Sonoran Desert habitat.
project coordinator, 1997-2000.

~ (wip)- Ryan Residence, permaculture landscape restoration for .15 acre homesite in urban adobe subdivision, consultant, designer, project coordinator, 1999-2000.

~ (wip)- Safford Peak Watershed Education Team (SaPWET) ongoing, seasonal workshops, work parties and social events to promote relationship/stewardship within our neighborhood watershed and larger community. Connecting urban and rural
communities by the water resources that flow through them.

~ (s)- Sol Food, a wild and native natural foods/sustainable living/catering/teaching/design business, is currently morphing into Bean Tree Farm.

~ (s)- Green, solar “shopping/trade center” for local green businesses and office space, incorporating integrated renewable energy, water, site and materials systems, with a park, farmers market and gardens, performance areas, urban habitat restoration, new or renovation…

Articles

The Explorer, Ancient Common Sense, Aug 30, 2006

Builder News Aug. ‘O4- Dancing Rocks: Living Lightly In A Land Of Little Rain

Tucson Weekly- Permacultural Shift, November 12, ’97

Az Daily Star- Harvesting Water, July 31, ’97

The Rain Harvesters, September 26, ’97

The Citizen- Resident Pushes Benefits of Natural Run-off,October 28, ’97

Permaculture Drylands Journal- Ferment and Human Nutrition, a review, August 94

Store Information

Silverbell Trading
7119 North Oracle Road
Tucson, AZ 85704
520-797-6852
Hours: 10-5, daily, closed Sunday

We will be closing the retail location June 2010, continuing a selected offering of arts, crafts and books through Bean Tree Farm.