Help Yourself

It was 2008, in Todmorden, a small town in West Yorkshire, England.

Two women, Mary Clear and Pam Warhurst, had a very simple idea. What if growing food in public places could bring people together?

Mary Clear started at home. She planted vegetables in her front garden. She lowered her front wall so passers-by could walk in. Then she put up a sign: "Grow your own. Or share this stuff."

At first, it took six months for people to understand.

One day, a family took a few vegetables from her garden.

The next day, they came back. With a curry they had made.

Then, with people from the town, the two women picked up spades. They planted herbs and vegetables wherever people pass: outside the health centre, near the train station, along the canal.

In front of the police station, they sowed sweetcorn, because it grows fast and tall. Next to it, signs in red, amber and green: not ready, nearly ready, help yourself.

Nobody asked for money. Nobody asked for permission. The fruit, herbs and vegetables were there for anyone who wanted to pick and share them.

According to Pam Warhurst, the police even told them that vandalism had gone down year after year.

Mary Clear put it her own way: everything they did rested on kindness.

Their movement was called Incredible Edible. It had a motto, which Pam Warhurst shared on a stage in 2012:

A patch of sweetcorn doesn't ask who you are. It only asks that someone water it, and that someone else pick it. Ubuntu would recognize the gesture: we become someone by feeding others, and by letting them feed us.

Today, there are more than 120 Incredible Edible groups in the United Kingdom. And more than 700 around the world.

It had all started with a lowered garden wall.

And with a dish of curry, brought back the next day.