Hickory Run Agrivillage
The Village

A village has an economy. That's what makes it a village.

Agrihood, Agricommunity, Agrivillage, what's the difference?

Three words get used for places like this, and they aren't synonyms. Look at the noun each one reaches for.

Agrihood

A hood is a neighborhood — a subdivision with agriculture attached. The house is the noun, the farm is the modifier. The farm is an amenity, carried as a cost, and when budgets tighten it’s what gets cut.

Agricommunity

A community weaves the farm into the identity of the place and protects it, often permanently. That’s a real achievement, and the best examples are lovely places to live. But the farm is still in service to the residents. It’s secure, and it’s secondary.

Agrivillage

A village has commerce. Trades, a marketplace, employment, exchange with the region around it. The farm isn’t protected from the economy — it’s the source of it.

What's in the village
The farm market store
Open seven days a week, stocked from this farm and from our neighbors’. If a grower within driving distance is farming regeneratively or certified organic and the quality holds up, we want their product on the shelf: eggs, dairy, bread, honey, preserves, meat, whatever they do well. A producer too small to justify a storefront of their own gets one here, with foot traffic that came for the farm and stayed for everything else. Helping them do well is part of what this village is for.
The weekly farmers market
April through October, along the historic tree-lined drive of the original farmhouse. Featuring local farmers and vendors for a uniquely local experience. Meet local artisans and farmers. Enjoy the other activities on the farm happening nearby and the atmosphere.
COWORK at Hickory Run
A desk you can walk to. Take a monthly space and run your business from it, or book a room for an afternoon. One evening or every weekday. A startup, a small business, a community project that needs a room and a whiteboard, or the one remote meeting a year you can’t take from the kitchen table. There’s no commute and the window faces a field. Lunch is at the farm store or cafe, and at the end of the day you’re ninety seconds from your own kitchen. Bringing a client out to a working farm is also not the worst first impression anyone’s ever made. And if you’ve been working alone at home, the best part is that there are other people in the building.
Village shoppes
With overnight rentals (Airbnbs) above them for visitors and tourists.
Hospitality
Short and long-term rentals, for visitors, for people trying the place on, and for your family at holidays, weddings, life events, festivals, or any other occasion.
The Event & Conference CenterPhase 3
A 300-plus person venue with a commercial kitchen served by the farm. Well appointed for weddings, festivals, or corporate events.
On curation

No franchises here. Not one. We are selecting creators, not filling space.

A conventional development leases to maximize rent and ends up with a strip that happens to sit next to a farm. We're selecting for alignment instead: community living, longevity, wellness, everyday necessary goods, and local craftsmanship. A baker. An herbal shoppe. A functional medicine practice.

Hood, Community, Village
The Three Generations of Agricultural Placemaking · White Paper v1

Hood, Community, Village

The Three Generations of Agricultural Placemaking — Judith Horvath · Regenerative Ag Design, with Ohio Sustainable Farm Development

Everything on this page is the short version. The white paper is the long one: the three generations laid out with the projects that illustrate each, the enterprise economics worked node by node, the three-ring legal and financial structure, and what the model produces at scale.

Download the white paper (PDF)
The farm letter

Not ready yet? Hear from the farm.

A short note each season: what's growing, what's being built, and when you can come see it.