THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEIR HAND UP

The locals who put their own money in

The hardware store was shut for the day, and the owner had his table set for the doctor, the retired farmer and the couple who took the step.

A customer couldn't wander in, because the door was locked and this talk wasn't for the counter. The hall was another night, and this afternoon was only the people at this table.

There was a dairy on the far side of the district, and the farmer there was getting ready to step back. The couple had already walked that dairy with the farmer who stood with them, mostly letting the man who was stepping back do the talking.

The list of what needed fixing was on the table, written down before anything was bought. The records had been read and a valuer had been over the farm, so the same check was in front of everyone there.

They wanted this district to keep farms in local hands, and this dairy was the place they had brought to the table. They called it a community owned farm, and they said it in the plain words they would use with a neighbour.

The doctor, the retired farmer and the owner were people the street already knew, and the couple were there as the farm workers who started it.

The doctor, the retired farmer and the hardware store owner backed the farm together. Each of them put their own money in. The couple put their own money in as well.

Nobody paid the couple to start this. The farm would be owned locally, and a family would farm it.

They stayed with the list after that, and they took it in the order it was written. What needed fixing was already on the paper, so nobody added a job that wasn't written there.

Nobody put a figure next to any line, and nobody turned the page into an offer. Nobody at the table asked a neighbour to join them, and nobody took a promise home.

Everyone at the table had the same page, and they finished that page before they stood up. The couple would still be farm workers in the morning, and the doctor would still be the doctor the town already had.

The owner sold to the farms around the district, and that trade stayed outside this talk. The couple sat at the table as the farm workers who took the step, and the locals sat there with them.

The couple had the farm work they already did to front up for at the usual time, and they kept an eye on the hour. The open call that would choose the family was still ahead, and it had its own day.

When the list had been gone through, the owner put it with the papers kept for the farm. The light went off as they left the hardware store, and they pulled the door shut behind them.

The dairy they sat down for was the one on the far side, and the people at the table lived in that district. What they decided was carried by people the street could find, and the paper from the check stayed with the owner.

This is an illustration of how it could unfold when it goes right. The district and the people in it aren't any one place or person.

Community Owned Farms is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.