Rupert Fike

I can see why this might be a disappointment to a lot of the expected audience for such a work: hippies should be wild; they should 'do drugs', sing protest songs and basically bum. It takes little thought, however, to realise that a community living by these criteria would survive for a very short time.

The Farm, for those who don't know, was founded by a group of California hippies when the authorities stamped upon their kind. They moved to southern Tennessee and pooled all their money to show more purchase a tract of land. They learned to farm, construct both properties and an infrastructure and learned to live off the grid.

This honest book is a collection of writings from members of the community. They show the development from what everybody expects a hippie commune to be, to a fully functioning community. I am sorry that I have overused the word 'community', but it really is difficult to think of another that does full justice to the people of the Farm. show less

(Kt): I have read this book. It has some useful commentary on living in community, but it is not a community like I envision for cohousing. Not one of the more useful books I have read.