It's Autumn here and harvest season. The 'Honest and Free' stand in town is bursting with people's excess cucumbers, zucchinis, tomatoes. If we ask for seeds on the Facebook Gardeners group, people will find it, and they'll drop them off in this central part of town. Broad bean seeds? Done, a huge jar of purple seeds for all. Bay leaves? A branch of fragrant leaves hangs obediently from the ceiling. The more generous amongst us drop off a few jars of zucchini relish, orange marmalade, split green peas in portions free for those in need to take.
A few weeks ago the notice came for the stand to be removed. The council's law is such that a structure like this, with no permit, is somehow seen as a danger to society. Never mind we all need to navigate around council plantings, and moan that the council still hasn't cut the grass in the reserve despite everyone else getting notices that it's a fire risk. One woman said that she was asked to remove errant snowbells where they had escaped the fence and were merrily nodding, unfettered by council by laws.
The reaction of the community to this was actually heartening - in short, people felt:
- the council had no right to impose such laws when there are many things they don't do for us, despite paying rates
- it's the heart of the community, bringing us all together in trying times
- it aims to address food shortages and supply chain issues
- it's healthy food
- it's Wadurrang country (always was, always will be, Aboriginal land) - we'd rather not recognise council laws
- gardening is good for our mental health, so is sharing
And so on - in fact, we gathered a lot of signatures to a petition AND many letters were written to councillors.
@galenkp's WEEKEND ENGAGEMENT question asks this:
If you could change one thing about society, other than politically, what would you change and why? What would that change mean to you or others now and in the future, how would it impact life and do you feel it would be a lasting change?
I thought of the Honest and Free Stand immediately. In a dog eat dog world where money rules supreme and individualism trumps community, we ain't doing so well. Mental health issues are at an all time high and the fuel price is having a knock on effect on food prices. Intensive agriculture is ruining the land and they say we only have sixty years of topsoil left, and even the food we buy at the supermarket hasn't got the nutritional value that homegrown food has - the soil biome has been stripped of bacteria and microbes that add nutrients that improve flavour and nutrition. Isolation and loneliness kill people - we've lost our human connection.
At the Honest and Free stand, people come together. I've met older people who are starved of company that come to the meetings or drop things off because it's one of the only ways to connect to people. I met a woman who was desperate for female company, and after meeting her through the Facebook group where we discuss the stand and gardening, I invited her for a cuppa at mine - we sat and chatted in the garden about all kinds of things and we parted ways happy.
This small corner of the world isn't going to change the entire world, but, like many shared garden projects that become the hub of the community, it has the potential to unite people. It has the potential to create community where there is none, to enrich people's lives through hope, generosity, a willingness to share and help.
Where are we at now? Well, the council has given a three month stay where they say they are reviewing the laws in recognition of the importance of the stand to the community. Unfortunately, they say, sometimes safety compliance laws clash with their understanding and support of food sustainability and community iniatives and aren't to the agreeance of all community members. We still don't know who complained and we suspect it is only one person.
Which brings me to my other gripe, I suppose. Why is every aspect of our lives controlled by the council and government? We used to live in a relatively free country, or at least we prided ourselves on it. Now we're anything but, and we seem to be in a situation where if one person complains to council, it sets in motion a whole chain of events in reaction to t. Why can't the council say: 'have you tried talking to them about it? We have more important things to deal with, like creating affordable, low impact housing and stopping developments ruin native wetlands' or something like that. Sigh. Live and dream.
Anyway, that's a gripey side rant - back to the question at hand. I would hope this brought about lasting change. There's a young kid in town growing seedlings to offer at the Honest and Free stand because he takes kale from there to make kale chips, and he is always stoked to get apples or other produce. What a good example we are setting for the youth in town, offering this for free. If that's his experience of community, what will he do when he is an adult? What will he teach his children?
That remains to be seen. It all starts with seeds, doesn't it?
With Love,
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Beautiful efforts. Mutual aid, organically grown from naturally free individuals, must be a big scary bogeyman to those pretenders of a "council" (is this one of those fake "kingdom" concepts?).
Keep on keeping on! Eliminate the council, push them out, reclaim ancestral lands from any pretender calling themselves royalty.
Healthy food and community are a danger to society as it makes us less dependent on the system, then again it seems like governments are doing everything to suppress /push out / repell people with alternative viewpoints on life.
This is a beautiful initiative, cute little building and I'll cross my fingers for it to stay ( in use ).
Big green hug
Yes!! All the more reason to fight for it, right? I've always seen gardening as a rebellious act. Vive la vegetable grower!
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Hello River
Oh my word I'm in love with this post and would totally be there with you fighting the council with the community. It seems that the beareucrats are hell bent on killing community spirit one way or another and just beating us down into submission.
It is so sad but the community needs to fight them - at the end of the day these people are elected to council by the residents and the residents absolutely have a say to get them booted out. I'm quite sure if you rooted around enough you'd find some scandal that you could throw at them and they would conveniently leave the Honest and Free stand alone - I know, but sometimes you have to fight dirty, especially when it comes to municipalities and their shenanigans.
Start a petition - if it's only one person that complained, then show them the numbers. The other option is to find someone that lives in close proximity who is willing to put the stand on their own land - then council can't touch it. Obviously it would have to be someone trustworthy and who wants the community effort and cohesion to survive.
I think it's such a lovely initiative and clearly is well supported. I'm hoping that council will ammend their laws and you'll get a positive outcome.
With warm regards
I'm hoping the outcome will be positive... There's precedent in other councils and we WILL go to media of they don't give at least retrospective planning permit.
That's it .. they're so power hungry and the way they raise revenue through fines is unconscionable. It gets depressing here .. Australia is so full on with it's bloody laws.
I'm keen to hear the outcome River, no doubt it may be some time away. Gosh I know, the fines are awful.
Keep your chin up and I'm there with you in spirit.
I really loved this. The fighting Community spirit, the love of freshly grown food, the giving hearts of generosity…what an inspiring community you live in.
I’ve been dealing with this in an emotional way. Foods from the store are not the same and surely taste different now. I’m not sure what kind of meat they are trying to feed us now but I know it’s been altered and factored.
What a beautiful gesture this stand is. It literally is a community garden keeping you all connected. I hope it survives and the community can continue providing nutritional options for those in need.
If you can get Matthew Evans soil book it totally explains why they taste different now .. it's all science! That's why gardeners are on the money when they say their food tastes better. I've been really diligent this year about making sure my garden soil is full of the good stuff... I've been trying not to dig but layer compost, green manure etc.. and boy do my veggies taste full of life!!!
It is very beautiful... So many people love it even if they don't use it!! We all recognize it as SO important to community
This is some great info. Thanks
for the book suggestion. 👌🏽
This is such a wonderful project you have there and would be so sad if it really has to close.
Dont know about the laws very well and about yours not a clue... but maybe you can make a form of association with members out of it? Here some associations have more possibilities to make some things on a private level, but sometimes find a way being out of law, because they have their statutes every member aggreed.
just a thought that came to my mind :-) wish you all the best for the "honest and free" stand :-)
That's a great idea... We certainly are looking at various ways to fight this!
Espacially wiht food some of our modern laws have become really crazy and unnatural
I really wish you all the best and hope your community finds a way to save this project ❤️
Oh @riverflows, that is so sad. A beautiful project, I really hope that you will be able to save it somehow! I think it is more than obvious nowadays that anything authentic, simple, true and free should be forbidden. Anything that makes us happy or brings us together. Unfortunately it is not just local, it is a global issue. I really hope you will have some good news soon!
All the more reason to fight for it. It's sooo upsetting... Greed seems to trump other values! Fuck capitalism, plant veggies and share with your neighbours!
100% with you!
What kind of fucking clown world are we living in? These bureaucrats are treating us as unattended kids or something. I follow this guy on Youtube who's restoring a sailboat and he too was asked to move out for breaking community rules because ONE neighbor complained of noise. This same person never came to the guy for a chat.
I have no idea why people resort to dobbing people in.. it's so cowardly!!! So many issues can be easily solved with a chinwag. Gutted!
And when chatting doesn't solve, we can always go for a punch in the head so strong that hair won't ever grow in that spot again. Seriously, some stuff just annoy me.
Oh yeah it pisses me off no end as well.
I hope you'll be able to sort out the situation and manage to preserve the Honest and Free stand, which is a so nice and I'm sure very needed initiative for the community.
Good luck!😊
This really saddens me, as it is such a wonderful resource and really shows what community is all about. The government has no interest in communities or a desire to help keep them together. If there is anything I have learnt, it is that they want to divide us all. So coming together and making a stand for this is so important xxxxx
I hope they leave your stand alone, permanently.
I hope so too. If not, there is a place we can move it to, perhaps. Just won't be as well tended, although I'll use my organisation skills to whip everyone into following some roster for tending? The thing is when you involve so many people there's always someone saying 'oh no, it can't go there'.
Always the one....