Fauna Forest Farm:

A place where roots are remembered,

earth is tended,

and community is fed.

Our Mission: To contribute to cultural and ecological resilience and wellness through transformative education and therapeutic experiences on a thriving and fruitful farm.

 

  • Mother's Circles: Nourishment through Matrescence

    June 3-July 1

    5:30-6:30p

    This group will be a sacred space for mothers to explore and reconnect with their inner knowings and wisdom, reclaim a sense of WHO you are now that you are a mother, while gaining clarity around the potential and possibilities that the journey of matrescence catalyzes for mothers. 

    Reserve a Spot

  • Feathered Fun at Fauna Forest Farm

    Saturday, July 12

    9:00am-noon

    Join Jess Chittum and storyteller, Emily Katt for a magical summer morning at Fauna Forest Farm’s Feathered Fun Day Camp! Young adventurers (ages 6-10) and their caregiver or parent will step into a world of feathery friends, playful stories, active games, and crafts.

    Reserve a Spot

  • Girls' Summer Programs

    Summer 2025 Programs:

    June 9-13: For girls ages 10-14

    June 16-20: For girls ages 5-9

    ~Empowering girls through connection with earth, each other, and their inherent creative power~

    This program is designed to resource girls through the nature-based arts, dance and mindful movement, wilderness survival and homesteading skills, and nature-connected experiences supporting overall emotional wellness and resilience. 

    Reserve a Spot

  • Community Story Tree with Shae

    Upcoming Story Tree Date: Friday, June 27th

    10a-11:15a

    Storyteller: Shae Keane

    Join us at the Earth School’s beloved “Story Tree” seasonally —where the children gather under the story-filled branches of a tree on the farm to receive a storytelling and nature-connected songs from the woodland puppets, of the beauty, wonder, and resilience of the natural world— and of how this miraculous blueprint of nature, so too, lives in us.

    Cost: $15 per family

    Learn More & Register

  • Earth School Enrollment: NOW OPEN!

    For children ages 3.5-14

    September 2025-May 2026

    The Earth School at Fauna Forest Farm focuses on holistic, experiential, project and play-based learning within a farm and forest context. Our focus is on the cultivation of critical thinking skills, ecological identity, social and emotional intelligence, and fine and gross motor skills. Through project-based learning, this program integrates the natural sciences, cooking skills, music, art, and literacy. 

    Apply Now

  • Fall Women's Retreat

    Earth, Art, & Heart for Women is a weekend retreat designed to support women in honoring the seasons of their heart and soul, as well as to support deepened relationship with both the outer and inner landscapes of our lives. Women taking part in this retreat will be guided in the art of council, a nature-connected practice of sharing from the heart, informed by the wisdom of the land. Women will also be guided in a collective beauty-making practice.

    Learn More & Register

Nature Connection Access Fundraiser

May 31, 2025 noon - 6pm

Drop-In

Philosopher’s House 117 West Fairview Avenue Johnson City TN

Creating Crafts, Music, and Community

All proceeds go to the Nature Connection Access Fund, a local 501(c)3 non-profit expanding access to nature for all ages.

Mommy & Me on the Farm

May 29 - June 26

Join us on the farm, beginning the very first day of Spring to celebrate in community the natural wonders of the season. 🌸

Every Thursday 9:30a-11a

May 29 - June 26, 2025

$100 for 5 sessions for Mama and 1 child

$140 for 5 sessions for Mama and 2+ children

Register to reserve a spot, as spots are limited.

2025 Children’s Summer Programs

  • Woodland Medicinals: Hands-on planting workshop of ginseng and ramps

  • Making Maple Syrup: tree identification, tapping, and boiling the sap down into syrup

  • Mushroom Log Inoculation: when to cut logs, which mushrooms grow on which species, participants inoculated and took home oyster and lions’ mane mushroom logs

  • Fruit Tree Grafting: rootstocks, scion, a bit of history of fruit production in the US, basics of backyard fruit growing, participants grafted and took home 3 heirloom apple trees

This past year, we have hosted workshops on:

Register your interest for on-farm workshops!

Community Events

Beginning in 2016, Shae and Taylor began hosting “Food Forest Fridays” near downtown Johnson City on a small urban food forest they planted with the community. The number of people who came out for these events was inspiring…. but also difficult to fit everyone! We are enthused to now have a farm that will fit everyone with plenty of room to spare, where we can continue events connecting community with local food, the natural world, and one another.

Join us for events that may include community veggie harvesting, maple syrup making, stargazing, nature crafting, etc.

If you’d love to join us, sign up to receive event updates below:

Sign Up to Receive Updates

What would you love to see on the farm?

It is important to us that the farm be a place that seeks to meet the needs of the local community. Is there a nature/farm/forest-based program or experience you would love to see developed on the farm? Share your idea here!

 
 

“...the care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy and after all our most pleasing responsibility."

— Wendell Berry

"What shape waits in the seed of you to grow and spread its branches against a future sky?" - David Whyte

Seed balls and exploring natural pigments this week at The Earth School! The children cast their seed balls across the farm in hopes of covering the land in flowers to bring beauty, as well as nourishment for the pollinators... a beautiful dream 🌻
Seed balls and exploring natural pigments this week at The Earth School! The children cast their seed balls across the farm in hopes of covering the land in flowers to bring beauty, as well as nourishment for the pollinators... a beautiful dream 🌻
Dear child, this world, this life, this being human, will, at times, shatter your heart in ways you cannot yet know nor is it time for you too. But when that time comes, I dream of your heart filled to the brim with beauty- the kind that rises us
Dear child, this world, this life, this being human, will, at times, shatter your heart in ways you cannot yet know nor is it time for you too. But when that time comes, I dream of your heart filled to the brim with beauty- the kind that rises us to our feet in the morning when everything hurts; the kind that brings solace to chaos; the kind that is a balm upon the tender wounds of the soul; the kind that can save a life-- Yes I want nothing more than to surround and fill you with beauty such that when you come to know fully the way people hurt people, the way people hurt the planet, the way life brings such profound loss along with it; you will not be swallowed by its darkness. You will remember That pink sky at sunrise; The vibrancy and scent of peonies in May; The feeling of a cow kissing your nose; The softness of the butterfly dancing her dainty feet across your arm; The collective silence listening in reverence to the joyously singing Wood Thrush; The way nature never stops gifting us light in the dark: sun, moon, stars, fire, lightning bugs; The gentle spring breeze upon your face as you let the earth hold you-- toes to the bright, blue, boundless sky. When that day comes, and you contact the world's brokenness-- I dream your heart filled, so too, with its wholeness: The many seeds you helped to sprout, flower, and fruit; The gardens you grew with your friends that fed the pollinators and your people; The seed balls you made to cast across the farm with hopes of covering the land in flowers; Songs of belonging sung together around the warmth of a fire; The feeling of being unconditionally loved by your community for exactly who you are. So that, one day, when you feel lost looking upon all the shattered pieces, your heart is lifted on the winds of memory to find its way back home to all that is whole, to all that is love. Yes, child, this is my undying dream for you: That you be surrounded and filled with beauty.
At The Earth School this week, the children in the Scouts class explore shapes. They are invited into exploration of shapes through a storytelling prompt, "Shapes of the World," about a girl and boy who embark together upon an adventure to
At The Earth School this week, the children in the Scouts class explore shapes. They are invited into exploration of shapes through a storytelling prompt, "Shapes of the World," about a girl and boy who embark together upon an adventure to recover the lost shapes and colors of the land: the oval petals, the circular sun, the crescent moon, the bright green lines of grass, etc. Through their retrieving of the colorful shapes and arranging them in a beautiful way piece by piece, the old turtle, whose shell is covered with various shapes, is able to make the children's images come to life with the magic in his shell-- recovering the beauty of the world. 🌻
Magical storytelling with Erin of the rainbow trout in spring 🐟 !
Child, you are made of earth: Like the seed, You are made to sprout, flower, fruit the love of your heart Into a sprout bursting with vitality, Into a flower blooming with beauty unafraid, Into fruit, feeding the world in the precious way only y
Child, you are made of earth: Like the seed, You are made to sprout, flower, fruit the love of your heart Into a sprout bursting with vitality, Into a flower blooming with beauty unafraid, Into fruit, feeding the world in the precious way only you can. And I look on in awe of your unfolding; In joy of your surprise; In deep wondering of who you are becoming-- And bless the incredible mystery of it all. 🌻 This week at The Earth School, the children tend the garden, begin building a trellis for the peas, plant flower seeds in seed trays, practice yoga in the sunshine, commune with the cows, climb on new natural playscapes made of logs tree trimmers have dropped off, practice the art of collective storytelling, and prepare for their upcoming Fauna Kids Farmers Market, covering seed packets with artistic beauty, and crafting nature connected song books.
Musical stories of spring time JOY with Erin at The Earth School 🌼
"We need to be earth kind." -Earth School student, age 4 The joy of planting time @ The Earth School 🌼 !
"We need to be earth kind." -Earth School student, age 4 The joy of planting time @ The Earth School 🌼 !
Dear friends, we have been donated potter's clay and are wondering if any local potters would be inspired to guide a workshop for the Earth School children on making clay pots that we would then fire for them? If so, please feel free to message us!
Dear friends, we have been donated potter's clay and are wondering if any local potters would be inspired to guide a workshop for the Earth School children on making clay pots that we would then fire for them? If so, please feel free to message us!
Register now to reserve a spot in summer program at The Earth School at Fauna Forest Farm! Visit: www.faunaforestfarm.org/summer to register!
Register now to reserve a spot in summer program at The Earth School at Fauna Forest Farm! Visit: www.faunaforestfarm.org/summer to register!
Seed balls and exploring natural pigments this week at The Earth School! The children cast their seed balls across the farm in hopes of covering the land in flowers to bring beauty, as well as nourishment for the pollinators... a beautiful dream 🌻 Dear child, this world, this life, this being human, will, at times, shatter your heart in ways you cannot yet know nor is it time for you too. But when that time comes, I dream of your heart filled to the brim with beauty- the kind that rises us At The Earth School this week, the children in the Scouts class explore shapes. They are invited into exploration of shapes through a storytelling prompt, "Shapes of the World," about a girl and boy who embark together upon an adventure to
Magical storytelling with Erin of the rainbow trout in spring 🐟 !
Child, you are made of earth: Like the seed, You are made to sprout, flower, fruit the love of your heart Into a sprout bursting with vitality, Into a flower blooming with beauty unafraid, Into fruit, feeding the world in the precious way only y
Musical stories of spring time JOY with Erin at The Earth School 🌼
"We need to be earth kind." -Earth School student, age 4 The joy of planting time @ The Earth School 🌼 ! Dear friends, we have been donated potter's clay and are wondering if any local potters would be inspired to guide a workshop for the Earth School children on making clay pots that we would then fire for them? If so, please feel free to message us! Register now to reserve a spot in summer program at The Earth School at Fauna Forest Farm! Visit: www.faunaforestfarm.org/summer to register!

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At Fauna Forest Farm, inclusion is very important to us— we strive to be an affirming safe space for all. We welcome people of all races, ethnicities, national origins, abilities, ages, religions, sexual orientations, genders, and gender identities. If you identify a way in which our programs or events could be more inclusive, we invite your feedback and are grateful to hear from you. If you are someone who must regularly navigate challenges of accessibility (wheel chair accessible, etc.), please reach out to us ahead of events. We do our best to keep our offerings and events accessible.

Land Acknowledgement: We want to acknowledge that, as a farm located in Jonesborough, TN, we are on the ancestral lands of the Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee) and S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) peoples.