ABOUT US
“Throughout the living world, we find living systems nesting within other living systems.”
– Fritjof Capra
More than 40 years ago, founder Harriett Crosby began buying land on Catoctin Creek to protect it from development. She set up a nonprofit learning center to address the environmental challenges threatening life on our planet and to find and develop local solutions to global problems. Today, the Fox Haven Organic Farm, Ecological Retreat, and Learning Center is thriving on 730 acres in Jefferson Maryland, fulfilling this vision.
Since the 1980s, Fox Haven’s forest and farmland have been a training ground for innovative sustainable farming and conservation practices. Through projects that restore the health of the land, protect water quality, improve habitat for wildlife, sequester carbon in the soil, grow health-giving food, Fox Haven models sustainable healthy ecosystems that can be replicated in other places and influence leaders and policymakers from Washington and beyond.
Though our urgent global problems can feel overwhelming, Fox Haven is one of the thousands of groups across the globe that are working on countless regenerative life-giving, compassionate solutions and are part of an ecological paradigm shift. You can be part of this shift, too. Inspired by the genius of nature, we’re learning new ways to live in harmony with the natural world and see the sacred in all life. Read Voices of the Land, Fox Haven’s conceptual foundation. This document is a blueprint and a roadmap for learning how to think like nature.
Come visit Fox Haven–slow down, come back to your senses, feel the healing power of nature, learn something new, become part of something greater than yourself, and participate in solving global problems.
WHAT IS FOX HAVEN?
Learning Center
Fox Haven Learning Center uses its beautiful natural campus of woodlands, streams and farmland, gardens, orchard, barn, and dairy parlor for educational programs for adults and children. Fox Haven’s classes for adults encompass a wide range of topics spanning foraging for wild edible foods, gardening, cultivating mushrooms, food production, cooking classes, yoga, and meditation to personal immune health, all honoring nature as our teacher. Many classes are currently offered as virtual courses, as well. Our children’s programs have long been the highlight of K-12 teachers and home-schoolers with a well-developed set of offerings, customized to age, grade, and curriculum, to teach environmental literacy and the wonders of the natural world to our next generation. Learn more about Fox Haven’s classes for adults and programs for children.
Rentals & Retreats
Fox Haven is also an ecological retreat, a safe haven for individuals and groups to step out of the bustle and experience the vital energy of nature. Core to our founding vision, grounded in nature and contemplative practice, we established places to bring people together. Our refurbished Dairy Parlor meeting space hosts up to 99 people with a full complement of meeting furnishings and AV support. Three renovated houses provide a cozy and well-appointed home away from home for an individual, family, and group retreats. Learn more about our facilities for rentals, gatherings, and retreats.
The Farm
The impact of chemical-intensive farming poisons the land and all the tiny microscopic organisms in the soil, it pollutes waterways, destroys habitat and wildlife, including bees and beneficial insects needed for food pollination. To address these problems, Fox Haven Farm, LLC established over 500 acres as certified organic farmland, with 50 acres in rotational grazing of cows. A naturally managed 4-acre heritage apple orchard and herb farm were added and are managed by our non-profit team. We use innovative agricultural practices that build biodiversity that is sustainable and healthful for people, animals, and wildlife. We bring spirit into the cultivation of land and are rebuilding the soil biome, protecting water quality, and mitigating global warming. Learn more about these techniques and our sustainability models and regenerative practices on our projects page.
Fox Haven is a diverse, inclusive, and growing community.
Get to know more about our team of wonderful dedicated staff, the board of directors, and instructors. Meet some of our amazing partners and supporters. Learn how you can volunteer or intern at Fox Haven and be part of something greater than yourself that’s restorative, beautiful, and life-giving.
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