Our Story

Sunflower Regenerative Community is housed in a 12-sided passive solar home built by natural builder Doug Beall in the late 1990s — a structure whose geometry shapes everything from its acoustics to its spirit. The community was founded in 2017 when Rachel Balkcom secured the mortgage on the property with a clear intention: to create something together. She was joined by Ian Sanderson and Cody Spyker, and Sunflower was born.

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Drawing on their backgrounds in community living and Ian's Indigenous lifeways, the three founders built shared norms, ethics, and values around three commitments: living in diverse, mutually supportive home community; regenerating the two acres the house sits on; and building genuine relationship with the broader — and largely Republican — rural community around them. They found their first three housemates and got to work.

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What followed has been years of emergence. Sunflower has been a gathering place for neighbors organizing against fracking, a venue for biodynamic farming workshops, and a concert hall — the acoustics in the 12-sided great room are, genuinely, remarkable — for live music fundraisers.

 

Naropa grad students moved in and graduated and moved on. Relationships evolved. The community experimented with how to share costs, including trading farm labor and construction work in lieu of rent.

Today, Sunflower has settled into a new clarity. Mortgage and home expenses are fully shared as Rachel continues paying down the loan. Our energy is focused on two things: gathering people through workshops, shared land use, and growing food together — and intentionally cultivating a household whose members combine real experience in community living with a deep commitment to working the land. Over time we've moved toward a home that is predominantly (though not exclusively) female and nonbinary/AFAB.