People come to the farm for all sorts of reasons, and some stories are just so incredible - Leyla's is one of these! From attending Community Farmer Days as a child she recently hosted the most brilliant bird walks at our Wildlife Day. Here's her story...
I started coming to The Community Farm in 2012, when I was 9 years old, alongside my mum and sister to the fabulous Community Farmer Days. I loved the days at the farm, getting stuck into the work and surrounded by a lovely community energy with lots of people of all ages working together. At the end of a day, we would look at a huge field completely transformed by our work; I felt powerful and that together we were making a huge difference. The people we worked with became our farm community and our friends. We would see them each time we came back and make new friends each time, too. Whether it was throwing squash down huge lines of people into crates, or shovelling mulch into wheelbarrows to spread onto beds, I absolutely loved it. This was also the place where I fell in love with the rural countryside, having grown up in big-city Bristol; exploring badger setts, trying to catch field mice, and climbing the apple trees to try and reach the best apples for harvest. I also loved the lovely big shared lunches where we could all relax and chat with each other, and then the feeling of leaving, feeling satisfied with a good day's work and covered in dirt, and then going home to our special Saturday pizza night evenings.
Volunteering at the farm as I grew up shaped the way I related to the land and to nature. I knew that the natural world was what I was most passionate about, so I took Environmental Science at university. As I started to explore the conservation sector whilst I was at uni, volunteering with lots of people outside was exactly where I was happiest, and my remedy for all the difficult content I was learning in my lectures. And I think, slowly, I started to realise that The Community Farm had a larger impact than I realised. I graduated last year, and a few weeks ago got the news that I had my first full-time paid job, as a conservation ranger for the Bristol water reservoirs, situated directly opposite the farm. So now I get to work in the same area and feel at home in my new job!
