In late 2024, I decided that 2025 would be my year of community building.
Not the kind of community that lives in online comment sections or group chats—though those have their place—but the kind that grows roots right where you live. I wanted to make a point of connecting with people in my local area, face to face, dirt under our nails, conversations over tea, hands full of seeds or apples or mason jars.
I knew it might feel awkward at first. (Let’s be honest—walking up to strangers and saying “Hey, want to build a better world together?” isn’t exactly small talk.) But I told myself: I’m willing to be awkward.
And once I set that intention, something shifted.
Planting the First Seeds
You know how it goes—when you’re open to something, it starts showing up everywhere.
When a neighbor posted in a local group offering seeds for trade or giveaway, I didn’t just scroll past. I suggested, “What if we do a neighborhood seed and seedling exchange?”
And we did.
It was small, but joyful—neighbors swapping tomato seedlings and stories about last year’s zucchini that wouldn’t quit. There was laughter, dirt, and that unmistakable spark of “we should do this again.”
Then came another nudge.
When I started posting about the community fruit harvesting project, people didn’t just “like” the post—they signed up and showed up. One person even reached out to me directly after reading my post. We clicked pretty much immediately. She’s since become a dear friend and the person who helped me get a plot at our local community garden.
That’s when it started to feel like something bigger was forming.
Growing Together
Those early conversations in the garden—about growing food, redistributing surplus, and building a more resilient local network—turned into hours of dreaming and scheming.
We talked about what it might look like if more of us came together to share skills, time, and abundance. What if there was a place for all the people, projects, and ideas we were dreaming up and doing—seed exchanges, fruit harvests, time banks, repair cafés, workshops, swap meets—to intertwine and support one another. To do more, and create more, and thrive more, together.
That’s when we gave it a name: The Green Bean Collective.
Because just like a green bean holds many seeds—and one plant can produce countless pods—we wanted to create something that could keep growing, sprouting new ideas and connections with every season.
What the Green Bean Collective Is (and Isn’t)
It’s not an organization with a big budget or a corporate mission statement (and it may never be). For now, at least, it’s a living, breathing experiment in community care.
We’re not here to “save the world.” We’re here to connect with it—to connect with each other. To share skills, resources, and time. To learn from our elders and teach our kids that local food and mutual aid aren’t relics from the past—they’re the future we can build, right here at home.
Right now, The Green Bean Collective is still in its sprouting stage. But the ideas already taking root include:
- A tool and resource library (for gardening, preserving, and DIY projects)
- Workshops and skill shares—from seed saving to mending to fermentation
- A community café or co-op space, a “third place” to gather, create, and collaborate (the dream!)
- Expanding our fruit harvesting and redistribution network so surplus food nourishes more people
- Creating think-outside-the-box ways to help people with no garden start growing their own food
- Building a mutual aid network that thrives on reciprocity, not charity
Our Vision
We imagine a community where abundance is shared, where people greet their neighbors by name, where skills and tools are as communal as the stories we tell while using them.
A community where everyone has something to contribute, and where we measure success not by profit, but by connection and community resilience.
You’re Invited to Grow With Us
This is just the beginning.
We don’t have all the answers (and that’s the fun part). What we do have is a growing circle of people who care deeply about food, land, equity, climate justice, and one another.
If this resonates with you—if you’ve been longing for more connection, more collaboration, and more meaning—you’re already one of us.
Follow along as we grow The Green Bean Collective. Better yet, get involved: bring your ideas, your time, your curiosity. There’s room in this pod for everyone.