The amount of people interested in homesteading is exploding right now! This is amazing, but how do you create a homestead community, and why would you want to? How do you create a community of like-minded people that you can learn from, exchange tips and tricks, and rely upon?
See what has been working for this dynamic duo based in Humboldt County, Iowa. This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Why you want to create a homestead community
- Obtain food you feel more comfortable in consuming because of care practices
- Expand your skills and knowledge
- Become more food secure
- Grow with together with actual people, instead of separately
- Mature in your faith
How we started building a homestead community
Honestly, the progression of this journey has been designed perfectly by God. Ideas, structure, guidance and more have been purposefully placed for Marla and I to align our vision and the direction of where we want to go. This isn’t by luck, or by coincidence. Did you know the Bible doesn’t speak of luck or coincidence? It doesn’t, not once. Because God’s plan for you isn’t luck, happenstance, or by coincidence.
Matthew 10:30 says, “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” Luke 12:7 says, “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” If God takes the time to intricately make you then count the hairs on your head! Then surely, he loves you and has a purposeful plan for you! We have been praying for God to come into our lives to connect with others to build his kingdom.
Marla and I came up with a vision to guide us in where we want to go:
Together we want to educate, share knowledge & prepare children and young adults for life skills, food security and to build a nutritional foundation while building a community and creating a living wage for both parties by using sustainable gardening practices while focusing on spreading the good news and light of Jesus.
In order to do these things we made some goals, which we’re still working on!
- Post to Facebook and Instagram once a day using 2-5 hashtags per post
- Create two short videos per week for YouTube
- Upload two blog posts per week
- Start running a podcast by September 1, 2023
- Facilitate two in person classes per month
- Five year plan-details to come!
How to create a homestead community by hosting classes
Marla and her husband have been so gracious in hosting classes at their homestead, which is much closer to the town of Humboldt, Iowa, than our homestead (30 Miles from Nowhere). Maybe someday we’ll have some classes out there, however for the time being we wanted to focus on where the people are.
From there, we’ve been trying to iron out the best days of the week/weekends to have classes. This will be different for different communities, and you may need to do a little testing to see what works well for your community. Also keep in mind, if there is a local farmers’ market and/or vendor show, those can be great ways to do something for no or minimal cost, that will create exposure for you.
We created a class schedule for six months at a time. You can view our schedule here.
We plan to have a schedule to put out for January through June by September 1. If you haven’t explored the world of Canva, I would highly recommend using it to design your flyers, infographics, announcements and more. It is very user friendly, and there is so much there!
For each class we created an event page on Facebook that contains the details for each class including:
- Cost
- Location
- Class Size
- RSVP information
- I highly recommend using the site bit.ly to create short links that you can verbally tell people that can be remembered. It’s FREE to create ten short links a month. Be conscientious about when you want to create links, and then you’ll be fine!
What about advertising for your homestead community classes
We have spent zero dollars on advertising. Our local newspaper wrote an article about things we are doing, and are so grateful for the coverage! Advertising is free on Facebook, and we’ve been sharing information there on several pages for now:
- Iowa Homestead Barter & Trade
- Algona Moms Club
- Hobby Farming Iowa
- Homesteading and Farming for Women
- Homesteaders of Iowa
- Wright County, IA for sale NO RULES
- Wright County For Sale
- Garage Sales for Storm Lake, Newell, Pomeroy, Pocahontas & Surrounding Areas
- Buy, Sell Trade Pocahontas County Iowa
- Pocahontas IOWA area buy/sell/trade
- Wright County IA Community Events/Notices
- Northeast Iowa Homesteaders Barter Sell Trade
- Iowa Shops Iowa’s Farms
- North Iowa Men’s Stuff
One thing Marla does a really good job of reminding me of is that you are selling the people an experience. So, totally up to you on how you want to have people feeling when they leave. People love to eat and talk while they are nibbling on goodies. 🙂 So, I would recommend planning for that! People’s love languages are different, but if you can hit on a few of these, I think you’ll be in really good shape!
- Words of affirmation
- Quality time
- Physical touch (ok, well, maybe not this one so much! But, maybe a handshake?!!!)
- Acts of service
- Receiving gifts
For us, we want to make sure each event points back to our vision, so we ask ourselves these questions in planning:
- Will they be educated on something?
- Will they be able to share knowledge with each other?
- Will they be able to build nutrition?
- Will this provide a space to build community?
- How are we spreading the good news and light of Jesus?
In all, I would recommend just starting. Starting and doing something doesn’t mean it needs to be perfect, nothing we do will be perfect, and neither are we! Moses says in Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” Start doing something in the direction you believe the Lord is leading you. It isn’t by luck, or coincidence thoughts and ideas come to your mind. God has you.
You’ve got this. He’s got this. I’m cheering you on! If you want to find out more about some of my other entrepreneur friends, visit them HERE! Listen to, and follow God’s instructions for YOUR life.
This is the start of something GOOD! (I can tell!)
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I could not resist commenting. Well written!
Thank you!!!