It was a glorious Friday afternoon as we showed up at the beloved Stepney City farm. It had been over a year since we had been at the farm helping out, so it was wonderful to be given the opportunity to return. This is largely in part thanks to Becky who wasn't there tonight but had done all the liaising and organising, just leaving me to swoop in on the day with everything in place. Thanks!

Task owner and Stepney City farm hero Siobhan gave us all a quick tour around the premises, crucially showing us the compost area where we were due to put all our collected foliage to be ultimately turned into rich compost to be used across the site. They have a rather advanced system in place and we were using bay 1, of their 6 bays.

We were then split up into two groups with Si and Eimear enthusiastically volunteering to sweep the yard, whilst I joined Siobhan, Frankie and Sree in the delightful Children's garden, tackling some of the many weeds that have sprung up whilst the garden has been somewhat dormant.

The hour flew by providing much entertainment, education (thanks to Siobhan for fielding a seemingly unremitting series of questions from us!) and sunshine ☀️

Progress was impressive as the yard looked much clearer and we made real inroads into the weeds in the Children's garden, with a particular notable success being Frankie and Sree teaming up to remove some particular robust mallow 🌿

Special mention to Frankie who proved to be a very effective brand ambassador in helping encourage Siobhan that she should join us as a member of GoodGym and come along to some of our tasks - looking forward to you getting involved Siobhan!

We rewarded our hard work with a cold drink in the farm cafe outdoor area which was pleasingly thriving 🍻 🍸

This was the first of a series of Friday night sessions over the next month or so, and we'll be back at the farm next Friday night to pick up where we left off (there is plenty more to do), so keep an eye out for the listing to get involved as places will no doubt get snapped up quickly.