The idea of co-operative cooking and eating was one of the things that excited me most about Dancing Rabbit when I was learning about the ins and outs of living in an intentional community. As a parent of three, my partner and I were flabbergasted at the idea that we could cook once or twice a week for a group of friends and children in a communally stocked kitchen, full of fresh produce from the cooperative garden, and have lunch and dinner served to us every day. What I didn’t expect was the howling. Initiated by the cook, the howl is then echoed by every Belly World eater in earshot, so that the howl of mealtime could reach the whole farm. My kids loved it almost as much as I did; any excuse to scream into the sky twice a day, right?
The BBB (Bloom and Build Brigade) is an ever-rotating corps of work exchangers. These are people who have come to Dancing Rabbit to work some 30 hours a week of various labor in exchange for a tent platform (although some rent available indoor spaces), access to the Common House (with warm showers, composting toilets, electricity, and wifi), and of course, access to the stocked outdoor kitchen, dubbed Belly World.
Work exchangers, or “wexers” as they are affectionately referred to, come from all walks of life to experience Dancing Rabbit in a truly unique way. Wexers might work in the Dairy Co-op, making cheese or handling the milking and caring for the animals, which includes tasks like moving fences and helping shepherd the herd to new grazing spots. They may also help with natural building or maintenance projects around the farm, spend their days weeding or processing fresh produce in the BBB garden, or just assisting with random needs that pop up throughout the village. For instance, a few wexers and Rabbits helped me raise my woodshed that had fallen over in a past storm—something I needed upright before winter. Whatever needs doing on the farm, the wexers are there to help.
Wexers may come for a couple of weeks or months at a time, and unlike seeing Dancing Rabbit through a visitor program (which is a separately unique and fulfilling experience), it allows them to see aspects of DR and get dirty with its projects in a viscerally direct way.
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