Jojoba Hills: A Community Built on Cookies (Literally)

Long before Jojoba Hills had paved roads, sparkling facilities, or a reputation for being the friendliest co‑op in the West, it had something far more powerful: cookies.

In the early days, when the park was little more than a dream sketched in desert dust, volunteers showed up with shovels, rakes, and a willingness to build something out of nothing. What they didn’t show up for was money — because there wasn’t any. What we did have was a bottomless supply of homemade cookies, and it turned out that was more than enough.

Need someone to dig a trench? “Sure — is there a chocolate chip cookie in it for me?”

Need a crew to raise a storage shed? “Absolutely — but save me one of those oatmeal raisin cookies.”

Need a team to move a boulder the size of a small Buick? “Fine — but I want two snickerdoodles and a brownie.”

And so the park rose, one cookie‑fueled work party at a time.

Today, decades later, the tradition continues. Our volunteers still keep Jojoba Hills running — maintaining roads, landscaping the grounds, painting the gate, and solving problems before most people have finished their morning coffee. And while we’ve upgraded our tools, improved our processes, and added far more amenities, one thing has never changed:

We still pay in cookies.

It’s not a wage. It’s a thank you. It’s not compensation. It’s community. It’s not a transaction. It’s a tradition — one that reminds us that Jojoba Hills wasn’t built by contractors or corporations, but by neighbors who believed in the place enough to roll up their sleeves and accept a fresh cookie as fair payment for a hard day’s work.

So today when someone is trimming a tree, painting a shed, or wrangling a wheelbarrow across the park, you can be sure of two things:

1.    They’re a volunteer.

2.    There’s a cookie waiting for them somewhere.

At Jojoba Hills, we don’t just build community — we bake it.