While staying in Utrecht, the city where my house lives, I felt a sense of confined freedom. Yearning for communal living in nature, I set out to find a place of nurture. My desire for growing food had grown each time I thought about the taste-less produce I bought in supermarkets, so I set out to find a communal food garden. After considering joining a small family oriented garden next to the railway track behind my house, I remembered why I never was attracted to it as much: it was not lively (most days empty) and just seemed like a playground for events. (Plus I always felt reluctant to eat veggies grown under the constant churn of railway blasted iron.)
But when searching online I found an organization named Food for Good, which sees many volunteers working in their paradise garden every single day! It has a very simple approach: you can show up when you feel like it and either just be there or take on some activity from the list of chores. No pressure, only invitation. Just the way I like to live!

So far I am really happy to have become part of the group, and feel at home every time I come. I enjoy myself getting to know one another, and this simple way of being is rewarding me at every step with joy and wonder. Such different people with such different backgrounds, all enjoying the fruits of the paradise they feel they belong. Some have had recent hardships to endure, others are social glue that bind the ones that might feel a bit separate. Introvert and outgoing characters sometimes joining in shared activities, at other times enjoying the calm of working alone in nature. Plus we get to taste this wonderful labour of love, when offered to take home some of the days harvest :)