Photography

For Huntermoon, every element of the Heart-Culture community is intertwined. “A big part of our vision is, how do we meet real human needs?” she said. “We do that through our relationship with the land. Like, how do we grow food or interact with the ecology in a way that increases the health of the ecosystem for all living beings and its capacity to support us as humans.”

Life at Heart-Culture can be hectic for Huntermoon. Between morning chores, homeschooling her and another family’s kids and tending to her many crops, it can be difficult to find time to slow down. “Sometimes I get a nap in there,” she said. But sometimes those de-stressing moments, like pausing to watch her dogs, Loki and Bearly, play, arrive at the perfect time.

Huntermoon’s 8-year-old daughter, Tegra, followed her closely as she checked in on her variety of projects around the farm. She said that living at Heart-Culture always requires her to be prepared to parent. “My experience being a mother is that I have to be constantly interruptible––and my kids aren’t the only ones interrupting me,” she said. Go to OR Magazine...

Hutermoon spends some time every morning training her puppy, Loki. The exercise they did this morning was a recall game where Huntermoon wraps his leash loosely around the armrest of the tractor and tells him to stay. She runs a couple yards and calls him over, waving the ball excitedly. The trick is to make it fun, she said. Because she is training Loki to herd sheep, he has to come because he thinks it’s fun, not because he wants a treat.

Included in Huntermoon’s list of morning chores is milking the sheep. The sheep give milk primarily from the months of Feb. to May, in which Huntermoon uses the milk to make cheese.

In one garden bed, Huntermoon said she can fit up to 80 plants. She carefully places each plant in between the rows of drip line, working with a speed and skill that shows her expertise. “We would need to grow way more than we do to be self-sustaining,” she said.

At Heart-Culture, community members are continually looking for new ways to reuse “waste.” Outside Huntermoon’s home, a large pile of Domino’s Pizza boxes grows, awaiting repurposing.

Once the sheep is milked, Huntermoon carries the pot back to her home to begin the cheese-making process. The first step is to strain the milk into a jar. Huntermoon fills about a jar a day during the period when the sheep give milk.

The jars of milk from the previous week sit on the countertop. Once they thicken, which only takes a few days, Huntermoon pours the milk solids and whey into a cheesecloth which she then forms into a ball, ties and hangs above the sink to solidify. When the sheep are giving milk, she eats the cheese with just about everything, she said.

Merrily Sutton stands in her yard with a view overlooking Eugene. The camellias, roses, and Japanese fringe tree that line the path reflect Sutton’s love for the Earth.

Central Lutheran Church sits on the corner of Potter and 18th Streets, across from the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery. To Merrily Sutton, who represents Central Lutheran in the Earthkeepers, her faith is a big part of why she joined the group. “I feel like my drive to save the planet is very much related to my love of God and what God provided us,” she said. “And the fact that there is no plan B.”

Interfaith Earthkeepers appealed to Ron Hess because of its community-minded approach.“The things that make communities strong have to do with people supporting each other, helping each other, sharing their lives and working together,” he said.

Though called a church, Sue Craig said in many of the Unitarian congregations she has been a part of there have been many people of other faiths involved including those from the Jewish, Buddhist and Catholic faiths. “A lot of us don’t consider ourselves Christian at all,” she said. “I mean, I really think Jesus had a great message but that’s about it.”

Sue Craig stands next to one of her rhododendron bushes. Though her flowers bloom beautifully, Craig can see the effects of climate change right in her neighborhood. “I’m out on Fern Ridge reservoir, and this is about the third year that it’s definitely not full and it’s not going to get full,” she said.

First United Methodist Church is fondly known as the “toaster” church due to the way it looks, Sutton said. John Pitney, who started both That’s My Farmer and the Interfaith Earthkeepers, served as associate pastor of First United Methodist, along with his wife, Debbie. They retired in 2015 and moved to McMinnville and built a net-zero house.

In the backyard of their new home, the three Afghan women reflect on their bond. “I just met them here,” Zulaikha said. “But here, we get very close to each other, and right now we are like sisters.”

Zulaikha, Zahra and Maryam show off the bracelets that Anderson and Anderton gave them upon their arrival in Eugene.

Janet Anderson, left, and Evelyn Anderton hosted the three Afghan women when they first arrived
in Eugene. Hosting international students, Anderson said, is a way “to have Americans realiAze that people are people no matter where they are [from].”

Janet Anderson and Zahra share a moment together after the Afghan women moved into their new home.

Amid the chaos of packing, Zulaikha takes a moment to play with Cricket, Anderson and Anderton’s miniature Goldendoodle.

University of Oregon student Bryce Worthington sits outside St. Thomas More Newman Center, where Catholic students such as him can attend Mass, study or hang out and participate in social events. Worthington says one thing he loves most about being Catholic is the community. “We’re all very together and we’re all very welcoming.”

Tristen Mora often comes to Mt. Pisgah to hike. He said it’s one of the ways he finds meaning in his life outside of religion. “I’ll just go out there and take my mind off things,” Mora says. Often when he is on these hikes, he says, he thinks about potentially going back to the church he attended as a youth.

Mora with his friends, Kendal Peterson (left) and Jean Carlos Ortiz-Orman (center). Mora says his friends mean a lot to him. He met Peterson when they were both working as phlebotomists in 2020; Ortiz-Orman and More are now roommates. “Having a good group of people around me,” Mora says, “it’s very lightening.

Worthington says when he prays, he runs his fingers along the Rosary, counting the prayers with each bead so he doesn’t lose his place.

Worthington displays the three Rosaries he uses when he prays. The black one is from his grandfather and the white one is from his parish back home in Campbell, California. He uses the white Rosary the most, he says, because it is more durable than the other two; he doesn’t worry about carrying it around with him.