On the last day, the team set off for a study tour. The destination this time was ’Emerald Village’. This farm, where its own community-building work is carried out, is located in the administrative area of Egerszalók. At the same time, it is far from the populated area and its approach also posed us challenges. You can only get close by car and find the place on foot. It was the hottest day during the seven-day meeting, so it was good to arrive in the shady, choppy, fairy-tale environment and wash away in the stream of cold, clear water flowing through the area. Two members of the communitiy who lives there welcomed us while the others did “their job”. As we have learned, there is ongoing work in such an area: on the one hand for self-support and on the other hand for visitors and self-organized programs. It was surprising to us that a secluded farm community was such a busy and lively place.
We talked to the leader, who does not like to be called a leader, rather than a founder of the place, about her community-building experiences. We have learned that the composition of the team has changed many times throughout its history. The reason for the change is the difficulty in negotiating goals and frameworks. Because cohabitation and work require family-specific cooperation and closeness, human relationships prove fragile and frustrating when faced with such a challenge. There is no doubt that Emerald Village is a leader in organic farming. Also in the related knowledge transfer and involvement. However, it is a fact that the creation of a larger community of stable, cohabiting people is delayed. We discussed the factors and opportunities for this in the conversation.
The introduction of the human technologies we developed in the project in Emerald Falva was also discussed. At the same time, the result of our action research is not in itself “user-friendly” to become a complex service and requires further work. Our developing methodology currently requires dedicated team members who can start service development. That’s why we agreed, to stay-in-touch and occasionally inform each other about each other’s promotions. The community of Emerald Village is also ready to act as a test audience to try out first our developed services and give us feedback.