A Residential Land & Community Stewardship Program
Hands on the Land
A seasonal invitation into land care, shared living, and relational responsibility.
"Hands on the Land"
A Land & Community Stewardship Program
A different kind of work/stay Program
The Abundance Community Farm "Hands on the Land: A Land & Community Stewardship" residential program is an invitation to remember a new, yet ancient way of being human — one rooted in land, with shared labour, and real belonging. In a time of ecological and social unraveling, we return to land and community as teachers. At Abundance Community Farm, we tend soil and relationships side by side, learning how shared work, compassionate communication, and reverence for the Earth can restore what has been fragmented by individualism and extraction.
Through regenerative farming, shared living, and relational practices, participants learn not only how to grow food, but how to live together with care, accountability, and presence. This is a space to practice a more ecocentric, connected way of life — one our collective future depends on.
This is a 15 hours work per week land and community stewardship residential program in exchange for vegetables and fruits from our gardens, housing, mentorship, and learning. This program weaves regenerative agriculture with emotional regulation and relational skill-building, and lived experience of community. This is not ordinary volunteering — it is an invitation to grow the inner and outer capacities needed to steward land, community, and self for the benefit of future generations.
Hands in the soil. Feet on the ground.
Learning what it means to belong.
A Seasonal Residential Program Rooted in Land, Community, and Stewardship
Meeting the World in a Grounded Way
What is unfolding in the world on multiple levels–political, social, economic, environmental–is calling us to fundamentally change the way we are in the world, how we relate to ourselves, to each other, to the Earth and to all the beings that call her home. To move through this polycrisis in a way that supports Life rather than destruction, we need to unlearn the myths that have brought us to this critical crossroad in the story of human kind on this beautiful blue planet we call home. We need to remember our collective embodied emotional intelligence and learn the social, emotional and relational skills that will enable us to work together as we imagine what else is possible.
Remembering an Older Way of Being Human
The Abundance Community Farm Workstay is an invitation to remember an older way of being human — one rooted in land, shared labor, and belonging. In a time of ecological and social unraveling, we return to land and community as teachers.At Abundance Community Farm, we tend land and relationships side by side. Through shared work, honest communication, and reverence for the Earth, we practice ways of living that restore what has been fragmented by individualism, extraction, and disconnection. This is not a return to the past, but a remembering of what still lives in our bodies, our lineages, and the land itself so that we can serve the stewarding of a better future for ourselves and future generations.
Land, Community, and Practice
ACF’s "Hands on the Land program” weaves regenerative organic farming with shared living and relational practice. Participants contribute approximately 15 hours per week to the care of our vegetable gardens, food forest, greenhouse, animal care, and medicine garden. In exchange, they receive food from the land, a room in shared housing, mentorship, and opportunities to learn by living.
In addition to tending crops and soil, participants are invited into practices that support community relational healing and resilience: consent culture, emotional regulation, circling, nonviolent communication, and simple ritual ways of honouring the land and each other. These practices are not add-ons; they are the social and emotional infrastructure that makes regeneration possible, and they are embedded in the way Abundance Community Farm aims to be in relationship with land, community and the wider web of life.
Community as Initiation
We are honest about community. Living and working together can be deeply nourishing, and it will also surface our edges, unconscious habits, triggers, patterns and shadows. Here, community is understood as an initiatory path: one that requires self-awareness, emotional responsibility, and the capacity to stay present when things are uncomfortable.
This program is for people who are already engaged in their own inner work and who have practices to regulate their emotions, and for self-awareness, reflection, and accountability (or those who are willing to learn). It is not designed for those seeking a place to process unowned trauma, be held through crisis, or idealize community as a healing solution. Participants are expected to own their emotions, take responsibility for their impact, and seek support without offloading their healing onto others.
Designed for stays of two months or longer, this program invites both the outer work of farming and the inner work of relationship.
Toward an Ecocentric Future
The Abundance Community Farm "Hands on the Land" seasonal residential Program exists for people who feel the call toward a more regenerative, connected way of living — and who want to build the capacities required to live it. It is designed for people who are willing to engage both the outer work of farming and the inner work of being in relationship, because these are the skills and ways of relating that these times need. It is through this work that we ground back into the heart beat of the Earth and remember that we are not separate. That is the ecocentric path.
Our sincere wish is for participants to leave feeling more connected to the Earth, more ecocentric (vs egocentric), and more grounded, abundant, self aware, resourced and embodied— with practical regenerative farming skills, stronger relational capacity, and a deeper sense of themselves as stewards of land and community, and ready to carry these capacities into other projects and places. We also welcome those who feel called to return to deepen their skills.
If something in you stirred…
or felt quietly recognized while reading this—
That is your invitation to lean in and join us.
In this webinar we will cover
Frequently asked questions
