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?