Kurki: why eco-villages are so important

We are lucky in Tampere, we have a beautiful eco-village only 45min drive accessible to learn tons of things. And for those who want to travel without polluting, the bus 55 is taking you there. I’ve been there with family and friends a couple of times.

The place is called Kurki and it’s located in Vesilahti, by the lake Pyhäjärvi. It’ s a community ecovillage and a biodynamic farm (which mean organic basically but I’ll explain the differences later if I have time...).

In 2011, after years and years of searching the perfect place, the farm was bought by four families willing to turn the existing farm into a biodynamic farm and build an ecological community village alongside it.

Currently, 8 houses are inhabited by the founders families and new members. A farmer is part of the village and working all around.

Everybody works here, as teacher or engineer, or for the village. Everybody contributes somehow and they share a community house where they all have lunch together from time to time, an oven in the garden and a beautiful sauna. It seems to be a great mix of autonomy and community and what I liked a lot it’s that they are welcoming people to their café and farmer market every Saturday in Summer.

As it says on their website: "The farm cultivates roughly 30 hectares of biodynamically-maintained fields and natural pastures. For domestic animals, there are between 16-20 heads of finncattle, some 20 finn sheep ewe’s and around 20 hens. On top of that, there are several cats and dogs as well. The farm is managed by Ari and Ira Hellstén. Ari manages the arable farming, whereas Ira is a gardener. Animal care is done together. Gardening work, weeding and harvesting are a matter of great importance in the year cycle of the farm. All these seasonal duties are open for the people of the village and surrounding areas to attend."

The ecovillage is running the sustainability projects and they offer 6 volunteering places. They have a yearly program created in 2013 and funded by Erasmus+ ESC (European Solidarity Corps). They all participate to the life of the village with the competences they have. But the most interesting to me is that they work with a school, a pensioner house and a welfare center in Vesilahti to open dialogue and raise awareness about sustainable solutions to daily problems. They will soon blog the outcome of this project on their EcoLogics page.

Because, yes, people here have thought at length about solutions to daily sustainable problems and autonomy. If you open the dialogue, you may gather excellent tips for your cottage, your natural garden or your house’s renovation. It’s all life experience here and it’s beautiful. Considering what’s facing us with the global climate and social crisis, their knowledge is more than valuable for a better management of local resources in a sustainable way.