Honor the Past. Forge the Future.

At the heart of our Scotts, Michigan campus sits a timber-framed blacksmith shop. On any given morning, you’ll hear the rhythmic ring of a hammer on an anvil as a student learns to forge a simple weeding tool. It’s a scene that feels like 1826, but the impact is aimed squarely at 2026 and beyond.

The Local Spark In our folk school, we teach heritage skills not just for nostalgia, but for agency. When a local Michigan gardener learns to forge their own tools, or a small-scale farmer learns to harness the power of oxen, they are gaining independence from volatile global supply chains and fossil fuels. They are rediscovering a "right-sized" technology that respects the land and the community.

The Global Reach But the story doesn't end at our property line. The same tool design perfected in our Scotts forge is digitized and shared with our partners in regions like East Africa and Central America. In many parts of the world, industrial tractors are too expensive to buy and impossible to repair. By sharing the "low-capital" innovations we refine here in Michigan, like a multi-purpose tool bar or an improved ox yoke, we empower smallholder farmers half a world away to increase their yields, feed their families, and build climate resilience.

Your Role in the Story When you give to Tillers International, you are the bridge between these two worlds. You are ensuring that the master blacksmith in Scotts has the coal to teach the next generation, and that a farmer in a developing nation has access to the digital plans they need to build their own future.

Your gift ensures that the wisdom of the past remains a powerful, living tool for a sustainable future. You aren't just preserving a museum; you are powering a movement.