At the first glance, our packing might not look sustainable or environmentally friendly, and you might ask yourself why doesn't a place like Camphill Village use a different option for its packaging, since there are many options available on the market these days.

The answer is that you’re actually receiving previously used packaging that’s been received by Camphill Village’s community members throughout the year. Our community’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond reusing and recycling as many materials as possible. We also compost in all the households throughout Camphill Village, as well as in our café and coffee shop. In our eyes, saving all these materials from going to landfills and decreasing the consumption of new materials is the most sustainable option.

The new workspace for our online store allows us to expand our recycling efforts. With more space, we are able to keep a bigger stock of recycled boxes. It is crucial for us to have a large variety of boxes on hand, so we can always find the right size for each order.

With nearly 300 people living here in Camphill Village Copake we receive a great number of boxes every week. We collect boxes and packaging materials from the Coop, the medical office, and the households. Our crew sorts out all the useable boxes and stacks them up in our new workshop space. We also collect bubble wrap, air pillows, and wrapping paper, which we sort out as well.

Once we have it all organized, we can pack the next orders in an efficient and the same time ecological way.

Thank you for supporting our efforts to make a difference.

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As the 60th anniversary events are filling the village with happiness and joy, memories and stories are coming to life. The weaving essence between community and the individual becomes apparent as the main substance of village life. We would like to share with you one of these stories from the Bookbindery craft studio; a more recent “success” story. 

Andrea’s Treasure
This is the story of Andrea Baring. A pinkish lavish lady with jewelry eyes that spread positivity and joy wherever she goes. Andrea always loved beads, from the day she remembers herself. Throughout the years, she developed this hobby with the help of her parents, siblings, friends, caregivers and many other people she came in contact with. She took courses and accumulated a rich collection of beads she loves and adores. She dreamed of becoming a famous jewelry maker and one day having a brand.

But Andrea needed help. With her short attention span, like a little jumping bead herself, she needed something to thread her dreams together. Working in the Candleshop next door, Andrea would come to the Bookbindery to make sure everyone was happy. The paper beads that Peter diligently rolls (an amazing individual story of its own), was a main attraction to her. And that is how it came about that Andrea would join the Bookbindery part time, to develop her hobby and have the space and assistant that was needed to create her dream treasures. It was not easy to prevent those beads from rolling and jumping all around the shop, to silence the distractions that were calling her attention, and to let her precious beads go, so they can become a bracelet or a neckless and then to say goodbye. Like our saying in the workshop, “Give it to the world”.
Andrea’s first tryout in the local Christmas Yule Fair was a huge success, with everything sold out.
I would often tell Andrea (to encourage her to give up her beads): “let go and you will get back ten times more”. And before long, the saying became a reality.

Donations keep coming
“Beads are contagious”, like Andrea says, because many members of the Bookbindery started to do beading as well. Very skillfully and joyfully, too. It quickly became known in the village that the Bookbindery crew started to thread, and various people donated their beads to us. Miraculously, the wave rippled far and wide and we also started to get jewelry donations from the greater community, and from friends and acquaintances of the village.

Recently, we got a huge donation of jewelry, many made out of crystals. Andrea appreciated this very much, naming the different crystals, after the virtues that they hold and the healing effect that they promise. 

Camphill Village Raffle - everyone wins!
As we encourage Andrea: “This is the time to give to the world”. Ten times and more has come our way, and we would like to share the abundance with you. That is why we are launching this raffle sale celebrating our 60th anniversary. We invite you to purchase a ticket to one of the three jewelry surprise gift boxes: Beauty ($25), Magic ($50) and Treasure ($100). Each surprise box contains valuable jewelry made with gem stones (donated) as well as various jewelry items made in the Bookbindery. Andrea says that a good piece of jewelry with beads, pearls or crystals will surely make you happy and attract good energy and luck to your life. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for being a friend and a customer of Camphill Village.
Happy 60th Anniversary!

Explore Andrea's Treasure

From the first Camphill house in 1961 to the reopening of our Village Green Café, Coffeeshop and Giftshop complex. Our aim is to celebrate and honor the dignity of each individual in our community. This video shows a small glimpse on how we live and work with people with developmental differences in an integrated community setting.

Stay well. We’ll see you before we know it.

From all of us at Camphill Village Store.

In early March, the nights are cold and the days are warmer and sunny. These are the ideal conditions for tapping sugar maple trees. In North America, sugar maples are tapped as far southwest as the State of Missouri, and as far northeast as Nova Scotia.

While larger maple syrup operations use an efficient system of tubes stretching through the forest and draining into one single large collection container, Camphill Village still employs the traditional hands-on approach to tapping our sugar maples.

If you visit us during maple season, you’ll be delighted to see every pathway and patch of forest adorned with glistening aluminum buckets. Each sugar maple on our property receives a drilled hole into which we insert the tap before hanging one of the 13-quart buckets unattended to collect the sap until we return to that tree.

You may think 13 quarts produces a lot of syrup, but that’s not the case. In fact, there’s a 40 to 1 sap to syrup ratio! We’re lucky to be able to boil the hundreds of gallons of sap that we collect in our own sugarhouse.

We load firewood into our cast iron woodstove, and boil the syrup all day until it’s ready to bottle.

So if you’re in the Village in early spring and you catch a glimpse of smoke billowing out of the sugarhouse, stop in for a fresh sample of one of our most celebrated traditions. You can also order some HERE.

Beeswax is a natural wax produced by female honeybees—the workhorses of the colony. They use it to form cells (honeycombs) within the beehive, where their honey is stored. For centuries, beeswax has had various applications through many aspects of human life.

Good for your skin
When mixed with other natural ingredients (such as essential oils and honey) beeswax is a great choice for natural cosmetics, especially skin products: moisturizing creams, acne remedies, stretch marks and anti-aging solutions as well as fungal and skin infection treatments. Beeswax has an amazing ability to moisturize the skin, protect against irritants, and repair rough, dry or chapped areas while still allowing the skin to breathe. Beeswax is rich in vitamin A and possesses other soothing properties that soften and re-hydrate the skin, assisting in healthy skin cellular reconstruction.
If you suffer from cracked or chapped lips, our Healing Plant lip balm can provide much-needed relief.

Good for your body
Beeswax offers mild anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral characteristics that are not only beneficial for our skin, but for our bodies as well. A study published in the Korean Journal of Internal Medicine found that beeswax alcohols mitigate fatty liver disease and improve cholesterol levels. As a natural remedy, beeswax is used in natural and homeopathic products to assist in relieving pain associated with inflammation. Other remedies include beeswax as an ingredient to treat respiratory-related symptoms like cough.

Good for your Soul
For good reason, many of us think of candles when the topic of beeswax arises. Beeswax candles relieve stress and promote relaxation, and unlike synthetic paraffin-derived candles that could be detrimental to your health, our 100% beeswax candles burn brighter and longer while giving off a sweet, warming honey aroma.  

Good for daily use
Did you know that beeswax has a plenty of other uses around our home life? Let’s look at some of them:

Arts & Crafts - Beeswax is used in the ancient folk art called Batik, a method of fabric dyeing using hot wax and dye. Another traditional folk art is Pysanka, or Ukrainian egg decorating, which uses the same wax-resist method. Pysanka roots from the word “pysaty” which means writing, and indeed, designs are not painted but written with beeswax on the eggs. You can also switch from common paraffin crayons to beeswax crayons, which tend to be sturdier than their soy counterparts.

Food Storage - Did you know that according to National Geographic, 91 percent of plastic is never recycled? Luckily, cotton cloths dipped in beeswax and mixed with natural oils and resin are quickly becoming a natural alternative to plastic wrap for food storage. You can wrap cheese, half a lemon, bread, fruits and vegetables. You can over a bowl or pack a snack for your next adventure. A Vermont-based company called Bees Wrap is making beeswax food wraps that are washable, reusable, and compostable. They provide a versatile and durable solution for sustainable food storage that can be used again and again.

Household & Maintenance -  one of the main characteristics of Beeswax is its ability to coat, seal and protect. That’s why it can be helpful in the house in so many ways:

• A fantastic lubricant for old squeaky furniture joints, sliding glass doors, windows or drawers to restore smooth and quite movement.
• Coating nails & screws -  once you coat your nails and screws with beeswax, they do not splinter the wood while you hammer them in.
• Coating your hand tools, cast iron, shovels (and their handles) with beeswax will keep them from rusting.
• Furniture polish—Beeswax is a great furniture polisher. Mix it together with coconut oil and use a clean cloth to rub it onto your wood furniture.
• It’s good to keep a small cake of beeswax in your sewing box. waxing the thread before use, makes it easier to thread the needle and will keep the thread from knotting.

Beeswax, in all of its natural versatility, can be purchased in many different places, including many farm markets, homeopathic and health stores, and right here through the Camphill Village Store. Keep some at home. We’re certain you’ll find it useful!