Pay it Forward Farm: a food forest, future education center, mecca for wildlife foragers, and the new liveable home for Sophie Viandier as well as three interns and a German Shepard.

After almost a year and a half of ceaseless work, Sophie can begin to rest, a little. The water is running, the electricity is done, the ceramic shower mural is completed, and nearly all the interior trim is painted.

However, a look outside the newly furnished living room reveals future projects: an empty greenhouse, the beginning structure of a composting toilet, and the budding fruit forest. Sophie, a working machine and a connoisseur for all things efficient, commented on her progress: “The place has come a long way, but there is still so much to be done.”

To understand Sophie’s vision for her property, you have to understand the concept of permaculture. “It’s cathedral-building thinking,” says Sophie, “realizing that you may not live long enough to reap the benefits of a place, but knowing that someone one day will.”

The “pay it forward” motto reflects this mindset, as does every aspect of the farm. The newly planted apple, mulberry, peach, pear, and plum trees, still too young to harvest, “will benefit whoever is around for the next 40, 50, or 70 years,” said Sophie.

Powering the Grid

Sophie had to apply the Pay it Forward concept more literally when purchasing solar panels. The expense of the panels, originally thought to be too costly to offer an immediate return on her investment, was justified knowing that everyone can benefit from the limited environmental impact of using a renewable resource for electricity.

In fact, the solar panels are connected directly to the grid, so that when the system generates more electricity than Sophie needs, she earns renewable energy credits, and the surplus goes directly into the grid and is available for others to use.

Inexpensive electric bills, independence from fossil fuels, generating excess energy for others, and currently running at a four kilowatt-hour excess all make Sophie very happy.

To look at Sophie’s property, the permaculture-naive eye would see a few small raised beds full of vegetables, a chicken coop, some newly planted fruit trees, and vegetation everywhere. When taking a guided tour of the property while listening to Sophie’s thorough explanations and unbridled enthusiasm for her work, one begins to envision the detailed “food forest” blueprint on display in her living room come alive.

According to Sophie, a food forest is designed to mimic a natural forest, using layers of vegetation that perform either specific or multiple functions, such as fixing nitrogen, providing wildlife habitat, water filtration, or shade. It is a “hyper-efficient version of nature’s self-maintaining, balanced system,” explains Sophie. “It has many more human-based plants near the house that all support each other. When properly designed and installed, there is very little human input aside from harvesting, preserving, and pruning.”

Sophie believes that animals will also be an important component of her farm because of their capacity to fertilize, eat food scraps, mow the lawn, till the earth, trim the trees, eat grubs and pests, and provide meat and other edibles. Sophie points to her chickens as an example. “My chickens are laying eggs, providing compost, and digging up my Japanese Knotweed, a highly invasive plant that has crept onto the property and can devastate water ways.”

She appears undaunted by the work in front of her, and fueled by the progress she has made thus far.

Rebuilding the Soil

A significant emphasis of Sophie’s current focus involves preparing the land so that it is both fertile and makes the best use of resources. These efforts include terracing the land as well as building and refining a system of ditches and water storage ponds to more efficiently utilize the rain water. She is also planning a gray-water system which can be utilized to water plants.

In addition, she is rebuilding her soil. “Like many properties in the area, my topsoil was most likely sold years ago.” Sophie continued, “The fertility of the land lies in the organic matter and the microbes that make up the top layer of earth. I’m mitigating my problem with organic matter.” The rye, clover, and buckwheat which she planted, along with weeds growing on the property, will add a layer of material to start building upon.

In addition to plant mulch to augment the soil, Sophie is researching plans for a composting toilet to collect “humanure,” a term coined by Joseph Jenkins in The Humanure Handbook. “Obviously this sounds icky,” said Sophie, “but after several months of decomposition, humanure is safe to put on plants.

“This is extremely important in my mind, because it completes the cycle that has been broken by the modern ‘take, make, waste’ system; a linear one in which there are many ecological and economic consequences. In this system, I am returning the nutrients I took in the form of food from my land.” Sophie clearly has a keen sense of recognizing resources which could easily be overlooked.

Playing a Role in Andover

In addition to her work in creating an environmentally sustainable property, a primary goal for Sophie is to examine the needs of the Andover community and determine how Pay It Forward Farm can play a role. She is committed to what she calls a “re-localization of resources.” The concept emphasizes that all community members have a direct impact on their neighbors. This in turn encourages responsibility and produces a strong sense of community, as members deliberately strive to support their neighbors in various ways.

Sophie believes one of her contributions to community building will be through teaching about permaculture and sustainable living. In addition, she looks forward to providing a place for community events such as the recent art show she hosted of encaustic works by local artist Edibeth Farrington.

Her election this year as an Andover selectwoman will also provide her with a more complete understanding of the town’s needs and how Pay It Forward Farm may contribute.

Permaculture Education

This winter, when work around the farm has slowed, Sophie would like to begin offering classes and presentations on permaculture. She has already hosted presentations by the Andover Energy Group and permaculture tours of the property with Colby-Sawyer, Proctor Academy, and the UNH Cooperative Extension. She also routinely organizes plant exchanges through the central New Hampshire permaculture meet-up group at the farm.

For Sophie, teaching comes naturally, but she believes she could benefit from some proper teacher training. As a result, in August she plans to obtain her Permaculture Teacher Certification through D Acres, a not-for-profit educational center in Dorchester which specializes in sustainable living practices and organic farming.

Sophie’s certification will help establish Pay it Forward Farm as an education center and sharpen her natural ability to teach. “Ideally, Pay It Forward will be an experiential education and demonstration site for the community focused on ecological restoration, food production, and ‘green’ building,” she said.

Today, the farm is bustling more than ever with activity, as Sophie invited three individuals to intern for the summer. In exchange for work on the property and help with the Penacook Community Center Garden, her interns receive room, board, and knowledge about sustainability, permaculture, and how they can give back to their community.

Eva Moss, one of the three summer interns, explained what she has gained from her experience thus far: “Living here has prompted significant personal change, and I see that in little ways. I drive less, flush less, and spend less than ever, but more importantly, I’m getting an understanding for what a functional, affordable, and regenerative way of life looks like with permaculture at the core.”

The magic of Pay It Forward Farm is already making an impact, even as it evolves. To learn more about what is going on, you can “like” Pay it Forward Farm on Facebook at Facebook.com/PayItForwardNH.