Earthwork Harvest Gathering 2024 Special Announcement

Dear friends,

We have some big news to share.

This year's Earthwork Harvest Gathering will be the last of it's kind! Since 2001, our family has welcomed folks onto the land for a three day cultural celebration. We are so grateful for the blessings that it has brought and so proud of what we have done together.

Our lives and our world have changed a great deal in recent years. After taking a break during the pandemic, we've seen an increase in costs paired with a drop in ticket sales and volunteerism happening. In 2022 we lost a few thousand dollars and dipped into our own savings to pay our bills. In 2023 we lost more. This year the ticket sales are even lower than they were at this time last year. It's become very expensive to build something like this. Rather than changing the fundamental nature and DNA of Harvest, we are embracing the intentionality of honoring this year as the last of it's kind, and then taking time to restructure and build what comes next.

So, if you've been waiting to come back to Harvest Gathering one of these years, this would be the year. September 20-22.

We are a family owned business, not a non profit. This is a family farm, not a venue. We have no full time staff and our leadership is increasingly taxed by the intensity of the work and the dynamics at play. Our family needs to come together and focus on succession planning at this time. My Dad will be 80 this year and the plans we make as a family moving forward will have generational impacts. I'm still very much recovering from Lyme Disease and two concussions in recent years. I wasn't sure what my capacity would look like this year and I need to follow my Doctor's orders to greatly reduce my stress if I am to recover and be whole.

Harvest Gathering has been a huge part of my work, my life, my community, and my identity. I love it so much I can't find the words. I also have the inside view of everything behind the curtain. This has been a visionary collaboration we've shared. Part of being a visionary is knowing when it's time to bring things to an end to make space for what's next. I am asking for your trust and support in this discernment.

The time has come for Harvest to be brought to completion, in it's beauty and wholeness, and we've got more in store. There are some very exciting shifts in leadership and new partnerships on the way. All in good time.

We are deeply dedicated to continuing to host community and make offerings here on the farm. Thanks to you, we have infrastructure, community, momentum, trust, and more moving forward. On the other side of this year's Harvest, we will have space to work on what comes next and we have the opportunity to do some really special things with amazing partners and collaborators. We hope you can continue to be a part of that journey ahead. We hope that all of the seeds of the Harvest Gathering will continue to grow in you and become nourishing and beautiful gifts for the world.

See you on the farm in a few weeks.

Love and Dust,
Seth