Gardens and Diet

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
-Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Every year Sage Mountain Center teaches us something new about the plants we can grow, the soils we can build and the food we may enjoy. So far we have closed the food gap by producing home-grown food year-round with the support of a straw bale root cellar and greenhouse, canning, drying, and freezing. Among the nursery/vegetable garden, Krater Garden, and the ongoing forest garden experiments, we stay busy increasing the diversity and fertility of the land while contributing something positive with our life energy.

Warren in the garden

Principles and practices we employ include permaculture, xeroscaping, organic, drought tolerant species, native and heirloom cultivars, hugelkultur, various mulching techniques, and rainwater harvesting. Our goal is to be gardeners of Eden and foster ecosystem vitality. We understand that humans are indigenous to Planet Earth and we have an influential and positive role to play in the interconnectedness of all things.

Diet

Sage Mountain Center also embraces a vegetarian / vegan diet as the most comprehensive way to maximize personal and environmental health. Our “soft” approach to veganism recognizes that dietary compromises are sometimes necessary when interacting in a meat and dairy-based society. This approach also recognizes fanaticism as creating its own kind of stress and violence.

Sage Mountain Center greens

By using organic locally grown foods as much as possible, Sage Mountain Center supports sustainable agriculture and farms that are free of pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilizers and genetically modified organisms. With over two decades living the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle coupled with our successful high altitude gardening endeavors, we confidently pave the way for future generations.

produce used for juicing