“One of the participants offered a gift: a beautiful waldorf inspired doll, <the spirit of the orchard>. A fairy with a fruit in her hands. So precious.”
Os Pedagogical Orchard is a growing ecosystem of care, (un)learning, and imagination rooted in two hectares of land in Prahova, Romania, that was once abandoned. It is becoming a place where children, plants, elders, and newcomers co-flourish through play, inquiry, and seasonal rhythms. At its core, the orchard is an invitation: to co-create a model of emergent education rooted in nature, community, and deep listening. Through camps, workshops, and communal stewardship, it explores what nourishes the full development of children and what spaces and relationships make that possible.
Our project consisted of two main components. The first was the physical construction of the infrastructure we needed in the orchard. We built a gathering space around a fire — a fire circle — with benches, designed to hold up to 30 people. This is now our central place for community gatherings. The second component was organizing an inaugural community event around this fire circle. This happened on November 15, 2025. We hosted 30 participants — adults and 7 children, ages ranging from 4 months to 10 years.
The day included both activities for children and shared time for adults — with storytelling, food-making, and blessing the space. An experienced facilitator shared a practice of connection with the land, where the participants had the opportunity to encounter a being from the orchard. Each participant was invited to offer a personal blessing and intention for the place. We then shared food in a spirit of gratitude and presence. Both the building and the event were done in a spirit of reverence towards the orchards and her beings: we asked for permission, we made offerings and listened to the orchard as she guided us.
To build the fire pit, we invited volunteers and coordinated three dedicated workdays, during which five volunteers joined to help with construction. We also led a collective process of choosing the site for the fire pit by asking the land for permission, making offerings, and letting the orchard guide us toward the most suitable spot. This spirit of co-creation was a core value of our approach.
Further activities included music offering, guided connection with the land and orchard, e-mail registrations and on-line outreaching which resulted in a group of 40 families interested in joining future encounters. We prepared the orchard for guests by cleaning and marking a walkable path through the trees so people could explore the space safely. This was essential, as the orchard is a neglected space that hasn’t been cultivated in years.
“I was about to light the fire and even though I prepared little wooden sticks, cardboard and everything…the fire just didn’t want to start. It was only when a 4-year-old boy came to me with a drawing made by him – a colorful heart – that instantly lightened up the fire. The event was filled with such moments, blessings and gifts.”
Rather than preparing everything ourselves and simply presenting it to the community, we chose to co-create with them from the start. We asked for help — and five volunteers showed up to support the digging and building of the fire pit, which took two full days and involved six people working together. This hands-on effort deepened people’s sense of ownership and belonging.
Some challenges – learning opportunities
The location of the orchard is remote, and most of the participants had to drive around four and a half hours to get to the location and back home. This raised concerns about whether people would actually join the event. Fortunately, they did, and in numbers that surpassed our expectations. We had to close the registrations because there were too many people who wanted to attend. We’ve never experienced this before.
The orchard, being an abandoned space we are slowly reactivating, still lacks basic infrastructure for hosting a larger group. We had limited chairs and tables, outdoor toilets, and no running water. These limitations required us to improvise and be really organized. We made it work and we are proud of it.
Despite these difficulties, we managed to hold the space in alignment with our vision, and this experience helped us better understand what we need to prioritize in future developments.
One strong theme that arose is abundance. The orchard revealed itself not only as a physical space, but also as an inner territory — a land of abundance that has long been neglected, uncultivated. In this way, tending to the orchard becomes an act of reclaiming abundance within myself. This has opened up a series of questions that now guide me:
- How can I tend to and cultivate a new perspective of abundance — within and around me?
- How can I look at the world with abundant eyes?
- How can I nurture and grow the spirit of generosity, gratitude, giving and receiving?
- How can I see myself as a gift? What are the gifts that already surround me, but that I don’t yet recognize?
- How can I cultivate enlifenment – a vital and radiant way of being in this world (as maybe the highest form of abundance I can imagine)?
- Now that I live just across the orchard, how can I become more available to the opportunities and relationships this land invites?
