Growing Into Community
I’d love to share some big changes our little family brand is growing through, dear reader, including an announcement, or proclamation of change. You may remember us dreaming into community last December.
The truth is, Ann and I are coming to value community more and more in recent years. Maturing and becoming parents has a lot to do with that—we want future generations to have what they need to thrive. So has observing and interacting with our culture through a lens of homesteading and permaculture.
I’ve come to realize that our modern western culture is deficient in healthy communities, and this deficiency is a primary disease that plagues our culture. Many of the huge problems we face as a species—such as wars, diseases, climate change, anxiety, depression and more—are all linked in some way, to a lack of healthy community.
What does a healthy community look like? This is a great question with no one right answer. In fact I think a gradient of diverse answers is exactly what we need.
Permaculture encourages us to value reciprocity and equality for everyone, including greater than human lives. In contrast, the mainstream culture values power and wealth accumulation for the self, at the expense of others.
We have a lot to heal and a lot to learn. (If we can be humble and curious enough.)
Part of our family’s healing process now includes inviting community into this brand, Homestead Culture. Behind the scenes, we’ve spent half a trip around the sun organizing some rootsy folks who are choosing to offer homestead related conversations, inspiration and education in community.
Now, in the mid-point of the year, and still in the wake of the potent summer solstice, we are getting ready to come forward publicly as a community brand. We’ll be sharing many new offerings in the coming months.
The first change you’ll notice is more voices coming through our blog and email newsletter. In fact, our very next email will be coming from Ruby. (I can’t wait for you to meet her!) Keep an eye out for her introduction and first article next week.
Teaser: We’ll also be sharing free live homestead education on the regular. More on that soon!
We have a lot in the works, and I am so glad you are here with us during this time of transitions. You’ll be meeting more of us soon and I want you to know that everyone in our fledgling community is excited to bring forward their stories, ideas, education and offerings through Homestead Culture.
In the meantime, I’d love to share a short story with you.
As we seek more community in our business, Ann and I are also looking locally for community connection. Recently a mother-friend and soon-to-be homeschool teacher announced that she wansd to create a local skill share group for young kids and their parents.
“Yes!!” was our reaction.
We offered our fava bean harvest to help kick off the skill share. Kids love opening dry bean pods, but they get even more excited when the beans are a mixture of diverse colors. Our Festive Fabio Fava Bean Grex has more than a dozen styles and colors of beans, and each kid enjoyed the surprise of finding what colors they’d discover in the next bean pods.
Parents harvested the bean pods and brought them to the kids who were gathered around big bowls of beans. Parents got to learn some basics about gardening with fava beans and a few other crops, while kids got a wonderfully tactile, vibrant, social experience. They all took some beans home for planting this fall.
Seeing the kids get so excited about opening the beans together brought me a lot of joy. They shared their excitement with each other. I enjoyed seeing them engaged for quite a while until their little bodies and minds desired something new.
Bringing children and parents together over such a simple activity was the perfect way to spend a summer morning.
This simple childlike joy feeds my heart and offers me a chance to reconnect with more of my own inner child’s joy.
What am I homesteading for if not more joy in my life?
My heart is this human’s home. I want to feed my heart good nourishing heart-food, to help heal the deficiencies that our modern culture leaves me with. Healthy community is one of the nourishing foods that my heart is longing for.
Quality of community is so much more important than quantity. You know what I mean. We have more quantity than ever before, in the form of an over-abundance of social media messages (and other online medias).
One thing I can promise you is this: Our new Homestead Culture community is dedicated to quality. This is true, because we all agree we are missing quality community in our lives—we all agree on wanting to provide and receive nourishment in these ways. And we want to offer that nourishment forward reciprocally. We are coming together to heal and seek nourishment in community—with you, if you’d like to join us.
4 responses to “Growing Into Community”
Thank you!!
Spot on for my dreams.
Terry, I like the way you dream 🙂 Thanks for the kind response!
This is such a beautiful message and I 100% agree. Where are you guys located? I’m sure it’s not in Wisconsin but I’d love to be part of your community and I’ve been wanting to start my own community garden and kitchen for a year now! Very inspirational, thank you! 😊
Hi Jade from Wisconsin! Thank you for getting in touch and reciprocating with us! Ann and I are located in Southern Oregon, but the community of homestead teachers that we’re organizing with are spread out through the country. Your dream of a community garden and kitchen sounds magical and so important for families and human hearts in this day and age. Thank you for joining along with our journey and supporting us!
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