They come from across the country. States like Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan. Some make their way from neighboring cities like Charlotte, even Raleigh. They are college students, those escaping dense cities, those who have abandoned careers and those seeking a simpler living. Mostly, they all journey here for the same overarching reason: to find a way to live in harmony with the earth in a fully sustainable, hands-on, green community. This means growing the food they eat. Relying on alternative energy. And understanding how to become an integral part of a collective. About half a dozen interns live and work at Pickards Mountain Eco Intistute from Spring to Fall. They come here in search of a more amicable life with nature, oftentimes a response to issues like overpopulation, water toxicity, air pollution, industrialization and deforestation. In line with permaculture principles, they -- along with volunteers and residents -- till land, tend the fenced-in community gardens, keep bees, harvest nuts, cook seasonal fresh greens and raise farm animals, all in exchange for room and board. While in residence, they live in yomes (imagine yurt-dome hybrids) tucked into the adjacent forest. Some folks bomerang year after year.

The institute was founded in 2002 by Meg and Tim Toben to help heal the human-earth relationship through earth education and local economy. It sits on 70 acres down the dirt road from the Honeysuckle Tea House, which the Tobens opened earlier this year. Along with a wholly community sustainable internship program, the institute offers volunteer opportunities, herbalist programs, summer camps for kids, lunar eclipse potlucks, and Qigong in the red-roof gazebo overlooking a pond.

The institute is quite the sanctuary...some interns call it magical.

Pickards Mountain Eco Institute - Chapel Hill, NC - Sustainable Community Living

(photographs taken at Pickards Mountain Eco Institute in Chapel Hill)

Imagine the scent of fresh herbs and aged pine, paired with the taste of ambrosial hibiscus tea. Then add the hum of scores of pollinating bees. Feast for body, soul and mind. "The standard reaction is awe of the natural landscape, the beauty, the feeling one gets from being here," says Dana, a community herbalist.

The Honeysuckle Tea House is an open air structure evocative of Indonesia, located in the Chapel Hill countryside on a 16-acre farm about 20 minutes from downtown. Built to be a community gathering place, the tea house grows its own culinary and medicinal herbs, berries and mushrooms that are used in its teas, smoothies and kombuchas -- a drink with anecdotal health benefits made from fermenting sweetened black or green tea with bacteria and yeast.

"This country had been rich in herbal medicine," he says. "It's just been lost. It's more popular in other parts of the world."

The tea house is built on repurposed shipping containers not only to bolster the structure, but to cultivate edible mushrooms used for medicinal purposes. Designed with a sylvan charm, it features timber shelving and tables made from 100-year-old pine, woody scent still clings. The hut-like house is surrounded by vistas of the farm: garden beds spilling over with herbs, a wooden outdoor stage, clusters of picnic tables, a bridge traversing a pond, and a natural playground for children.

Besides selling beverages and local bites, the tea house offers live music, tea-making workshops and herbal consultations. It too accepts the Plenty, the piedmont local economy tender.

"Last September this was flat," Dana says, looking out at farm as if in wonder. "It was just a field."

In a world that can be filled with chaos and routine, the Honeysuckle Tea House is a welcomed escape. Best part, no passport necessary.