I guess it’s not that surprising. Almost everyone uses social media in some form or another these days. But I’ve gotta say, when Julie (the girl who’s never opened a Facebook account), twisted my arm into committing to Instagram (because by then I was getting tired of having too many personal sites to keep updated on), I was pretty doubtful that I’d a) use it much, or b) discover it to be the best tool I’ve found for connecting with other farmers.
Yep. Instagram. Very surprisingly, it has painlessly and quickly become my main go-to for sharing farm photos and information, viewing photos and reading info from other farmers, receiving encouragement from other farmers, and very much feeling part of a community of new/ young farmers/ homesteaders/ permaculturalists. Blog? Facebook? Twitter? Oh ya, I guess I’ll try to keep those up, but Instagram is where I like to spend most of my online time.
It is so, so inspiring and empowering to see glimpses of the day-to-day lives of other people who are removing themselves from the typical 9-5 lifestyle to pursue personal food-growing, arts-and-craft-making, community-building, and living off the land. A lot of these people are young – young adults, young families, and young to the concept of homesteading. But from what I’ve been able to tell, they’re having a great time balancing the realities of life in North America (I’ve connected with some farmers from other parts of the world too, but most of my connections so far are with Canadians and Americans) with their desire to adopt a more close-to-the-earth lifestyle full of all the things we think of when we hear the words ‘simple pleasures’.
When I first signed up for Instagram, I never imagined finding myself inspired enough to write a blog post about the experience, but the sincere words of encouragement and sense of belonging to a unique and warm community that I get from the time I spend on Instagram is really (for real) fulfilling. There’s a good, solid group of new homesteaders sharing their lives through images and words there. I encourage others to check it out.
Here’s just a few of my fave farm-y Instagram connections so far:
- agraconteur
- zephyrriver
- amysfarm
- sunspeck
- zinniablossom
- shareyoursound
- farmercourtney
- farmgroupie
- farmerjay1
- wild_agrarian
- hives4humanity
- ok_jae
- jenorjenny
- weatherface
- soilseeker
- wonjoolley
- longestacres
- wildroseurbanhomestead
- vvictorygardens
- bakerhands
- startafarm
- designbynature
- norcon
- missmiainthegarden
And you can follow us at: farmforlife
** Instagram is an online photo sharing and social networking site. More info here for those of you who aren’t familiar with it. **