Oregon | Backyard Roots

I revisited Tierra Soul Farm Guesthouse when I was in Portland a week ago. It’s really inspiring to see how it’s grown (and the kids too.) I wrote about it in Backyard Roots because I thought it was such a great idea for urban farmers. Krista and David have such an eye for rustic, cool stuff it’s worth checking out just for the ideas! They’ve added a 1969 Barth Caravan that you can stay in that sleeps three and comes with a kitchen and bathroom. She also offers retreats, classes and farmer/artist residences. Check it out on your next trip to Portland.

You can buy soap, and other cool items including Backyard Roots at Tierra Soul Guesthouse in Portland.

The Gypsy Blue room that I stayed in at Tierra Soul Guesthouse–loved it!

A big farm table in the dining room at Tierra Soul Guesthouse in Portland.

The Corner Caravan sleeps up to three at Tierra Soul Guesthouse in Portland.

Goats, chickens and ducks in the backyard barnyard and Tierra Soul Farmhouse in Portland, Or.

When I saw John Thornton’s cob chicken coop I knew I had to go visit. You really can’t find a more basic building material than cob. It’s an ages old building technique that uses earth, clay and straw. His coop is much more than just cob though. He creatively incorporates recycled windows, doors and a green roof into his design that kind of looks like hobbits should be coming out the front door.

John has also found raising chickens to be an effective therapy tool at his job working with teenagers with behavioral and chemical dependencies. He’s says a lot of the kids have an “empathy disconnect” and teaching them how to care and nurture for an animal is a way to reach them. For the project he had each teenager raise a chick from turning the egg each day while in the incubation stage and then caring for them as they grew. He knew the project was successful when one of the teenagers, who before the program had a hard time expressing any emotion, cried when his chick died.

Having chickens at home was a way to produce food in his yard that was too shady for growing vegetables. He joined a local Portland CSA called Backyard Bounty (it will be an upcoming post) and he barters his eggs to help offset the CSA costs. When I visited he had just added two baby goats. He looks forward to a future of goat milk.