10 Ways to Create a Community of Homesteaders

If you’re looking for your tribe, wondering if it even still exists, or otherwise attempting to build relationships in your home, on your homestead, and in your neighborhood, never fear! Here are ten simple ways to create community that can work for anyone – old, young, shy, gregarious. If you’re a human being and you’re alive, you can do at least one of these ten things!

Despite was modern culture seems to teach through social media and secularism, the human family innately seeks connection and relationship. We’re constantly trying to create a community of support around ourselves!

Even those whose social batteries get burned up quickly still need other people to feel connected, share ideas with, and even be told when we’re on the wrong track.

For many, our first community is our family. This is where we learn to be people – good people, useful people, improving people.

Even if our first family life presented a challenge in this process of becoming a good human, you and I can make a change in our lives moving forward.

We can intentionally create a community of:

support
learning
friendship
work
sharing
love

And so much more!

More Reading for Later:

15 Service Project Ideas for Kids

Create a Hygge Homestead

3 Practical Ways to Become a Homestead Mentor

I’ve kept the list of ideas to ten, but don’t let that limit you! If you can think of another way to build community, please share it in the comments section at the end so that other readers can be benefitted by it.

Sometimes, to really create connection, that’s all we have to do – share ourselves, share our ideas, and take the time! It doesn’t have to be complicated.

In fact, in our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead, every single section in every single chapter of the book (that spans over 300 pages!) there’s a community building challenge. From topics like gardening, preserving food, finances, family life, sustainable living and more, The Do It Yourself Homestead helps you consider ways to create community in every aspect of your homestead life.

5 Reasons We Don’t Create Community

Before we brainstorm together fantastic ideas on how to create a community of homesteaders, let’s get real about why we aren’t already doing it. We all have our reasons and some of them are actually legitimate.

Time

Our lives are so different from those we might idealize from days gone by – we’re just so busy! I could make a case that we’re too busy, but regardless, we all feel the pressure of time.

The simple truth is that we make time for what’s important to us and making a commitment to create community with our homesteading friends and neighbors is no different.

We’ll either make the time or we won’t. There is no in between.

Space

Logistically, some of us just don’t have the space for big gatherings. Or we feel like the space we have isn’t homestead-y enough to host other homesteaders. (More on this “performance pressure” idea in a minute.)

So, we don’t host big gatherings and instead focus on small ones! Or we meet at larger venues like parks and farms.

We’ll find a way to overcome space issues like we overcome other obstacles to important goals.

Social Skills

Some of us have introverted homestead personalities or we simply exhaust our social batteries getting through our everyday responsibilities. We simply don’t feel like being the one to take the initiative to get a community going.

This can be so hard to overcome – something akin to overcoming inertia. However, getting started is always the hardest part of any new venture. Once we make it past that, we often find that the project wasn’t as difficult as we anticipated.

If you know that you’ll never create community on your own, recruit your gregarious friend (you know you have one) that can help you make first contact and get people to participate. You make the plan and let them do the talking!

If you don’t have the wild and crazy friend, consider option #10 on our list – it’s at the very bottom. It might be just the thing to help you get started.

And don’t waste any energy berating yourself for being reserved – your nature is a gift! Read our article, The Homestead Personality Test to learn more about that!

Performance Pressure

Sometimes, we have a community-building impulse to invite those new neighbors over for dinner and then we realize the house is messy. And the yard needs weeding. And the dishes aren’t done.

As homesteaders, we often grade our homesteads by a ridiculous and rather useless standards concocted by stress and too many clicks on trendy “homestead” reels and threads.

Wash your dishes and tidy your house so there’s space for people to sit. Or host the event in the backyard. Call the weeds your “foraging garden” and let them grow.

After that, just get over it and invite people into your imperfect space. It will make them comfortable enough to invite you into their imperfect space.

Illness

A certain worldwide heath event inspired a heightened concern about gathering with others for fear of contracting an illness. Only you can decide what’s safe for you and your family.

If you’re hosting an event:

Be sure to provide a a restroom and place to wash hands before meals, especially if the event is outside.
Remind the children not to pick their noses or chew on their shoes.
Let everyone know ahead of time that if they’re actively ill, they’re invited to stay home and you’ll let them know how it goes and invite them again.
If you have people who are worried, remind them that they can always opt out of any activity and that you can’t really ever guarantee a safe environment free of germs. Especially on a homestead.

Sometimes, we have to choose between what feels safe and what adds to our growth and development. My only advice is to be patient with those who feel differently than you.

This attitude will serve you well as you create community moving forward.

Create a Community of Homesteaders

This list has been created over several decades of associating with homesteaders, gardeners, permaculturalists, neighbors, fellow congregants, and generally human beings in various settings. The ideas here can be used by pretty much any personality type, depending on where you are this week, this month, this year.

#1 – Mind Your Inner Life

This is at the top of the list because you’ll never have the energy or sustained interest to create community if you’re not taking care of your “inner landscape”. If you are going to be the instrument (or at least one instrument) of growth in your community, you’re going to need to have your ducks in a row at least in some measure.

Be sure to have the following daily:

Quite study and reflection time – this should include prayer/pondering and perhaps some journaling.
Regular exercise and healthy eating – this will keep you active and prevent stagnation.
Enough rest – seriously, sleep enough!

These things seem simple but they’re really the foundation of everything else we do.

When we don’t tend to these basic, personal needs, things around the homestead and home start to fall apart. (Read our article Manage & Deal With Homestead Burnout to get an idea of what I’m talking about.)

Learn to Say No

This might seem counterintuitive to beginning a project like building community but along with cultivating a balanced inner life, I’ve found it necessary to learn to say no to lesser activities.

The first community most of us build is in our homes. Focusing on that and dedicating time to it will necessitate we don’t do other things. At least, not ALL the other things there are to do.

When we branch out into our neighborhoods, congregations, and town squares, we’re going to need more focus. We’ll also need to maintain the relationships we already have.

The truth is, we don’t have time for anything that doesn’t help us build and maintain our families and friends and the networks of support that we come to value.

That’s ok – it’s ok to let go of the fluff and nonsense in our lives to give our attention to more important matters. But it can be hard at first; new and weird and uncomfortable.

As my good friend Kathie reminds us in her article A Handmade Life,

Learn to say no. No to the extra activities that don’t fit into the primary priorities.

This is hard for any number of reasons. No one likes to be the killjoy and no one wants to miss out on time with family and friends. No one likes to turn down the community effort worth supporting.

There is a time and a place for everything. Simply make sure before saying yes that it’s important to your handmade [and homestead] life in the long run.

#2 – Look Up & Say Hello

Ya’ll, we need to put down the dang phones. Just put them down. Then, we need to look up and around.

Are you in the grocery store line? Instead of scrolling, joke with the lady behind you. Say hello to the cashier and ask her how her day is going.

Feeling nervous sitting by yourself in church for the first time? Do NOT pick up your phone, thereby telling people you’re unavailable for conversation. Ask if you can sit by someone you don’t know and introduce yourself.

Even if you feel awkward and out of place! The only way to get comfortable meeting new people and finding our place in new situations is to make eye contact, make voice contact, make human contact. Even it it’s hard.

If all you can do to get started is to put down the phone and try to smile at people, do it. It’s a great place to start!

#3 – Schedule Fika

Ever heard of fika? If you’re a Scandinavian or a fan of hygge, you certainly have. In Scandi culture, fika is something akin to “taking tea” for our British friends or the siesta hour for our Latin friends (though not as long).

Fika is a coffee break with coworkers, a quiet tea date with a friend, or a simple snack with your kids before you start homestead chores for the day. It’s a time set aside for deliberate face to face interaction with another person.

Fika almost always includes a treat like cinnamon rolls, or cookies, or scones.

The point is to breathe, converse, eat something tasty, and enjoy being alive. Fika isn’t an elaborate event and it shouldn’t even take much time. It’s simplicity is its genius!

Pull out your schedule for the week, pick a friend or a family member, and get fika planned.

Be sure you’re providing your kids with the equivalent of fika with their friends and especially with you! Look them in the eyes once a day, sip a cool drink together, and just chat.

For more ideas, visit our Four Seasons of Homestead Fika Ideas article.

#4 – Invite a Friend to Invite a Friend

This idea can be used in so many situations.

Let’s say you’ve invited a friend over for fika; ask them to bring a friend of theirs that you’ve never met. Spend some time getting to know this new person and see if you make a connection. If so, invite them to another event!

Each time you go somewhere with a friend, have them bring along another person for you to meet. This is SO easy and you will find that you’re learning so much about people and their stories.

You may find not just friends, but new mentors on subjects you’ve been wanting to learn about. Or new tour guides for places you’ve been wanting to visit. People are fascinating, smart, and helpful – let these new friends expand your experiences!

Again, do this with your kids friends, too. Their circles need to expand and strengthen just like yours do.

#5 – Host a Crappy Potluck Dinner

Why a crappy dinner? Because this is a low-key potluck event that isn’t frilly or fussy AT ALL. Have people bring whatever they have in their fridge. In fact, make a rule that they can’t go to the store first!

We’ve hosted and participated in countless of these informal, barely planned potlucks and they always work out just fine. Everyone has enough to eat, even if it’s random, and we have great conversations.

This works well with holidays since everyone is already feeling festive. If the holiday is “big” like Christmas, be sure to plan ahead of time or even after the actual holiday. Some of the best Christmas fun can be had is that dead week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Plan a crappy potluck and extend the season’s fun!

I think holiday celebrations on the homestead are so important that I wrote a whole book on how to work them into our homesteading lives. If you need help planning this kind of holiday fun, grab your copy here: Homestead Holidays.

#6 – Volunteer

Especially if we’re struggling with the blues, volunteering is the quickest way to cheer ourselves up! Service change also our mindset and introduce us to new people. When we start really talking and listening to people, we inevitably get perspective on our own struggles.

Depending on our age, mobility, and whether we have children in tow, here are some simple volunteering ideas:

Visit an elderly care center or children’s center and ask what they need. Sometimes, what they need is something as simple as someone to read to residents or play board games with them. Especially at children’s centers or shelters, the big kids go off to school but the littles are left with nothing interesting to do except zone out in front of technology.
Donate time at your closest community garden and help weed, water, and generally tend the perimeter of the garden to keep it looking tidy. If someone is struggling with their plot, help them out with your knowledge and expertise, if they’ll let you.
Find a local place that serves meals to the homeless and offer to help preparing and distributing the food. Take some time to talk to other volunteers and the patrons themselves. Always be listening for their stories – let them teach you something new!
Pick up trash in your local park or greenway – this is an easy one to do with kids! To make this an event, ask some of your kids school friends or families from church to come help. Make it a family night event! Once you’re done, have a picnic together.

#7 – Form an Interest Group

A great way to form deeper bonds with people you already know somewhat is to create community around a shared interest. Examples of these possible interests are:

Books – which could be fun fiction or homestead DIY titles. (The Do It Yourself Homestead includes a year’s worth of book suggestions and other ideas for a homestead book club, FYI.)
Crafts of every imaginable variety from sewing to candle making to paper making to everything in between!
Topics of study specific to homesteaders like homestead livestock, growing your own food, permaculture, and more.
Homeschooling unit study projects or special events like science and history fairs.

Really, the possibilities are endless because people’s abilities and interests are endless. If you know of even a few people who share a common interest, form a group!

You can keep the group informal or you can use Robert’s Rules to form a board, if you want to create lasting structure. We’ve done seed saving groups where we’ve tried both structures and they both have their pluses and minuses.

Regardless, you meet many people over time and old acquaintances become new friends.

#8 – Swap Group

Similar to an interest group, a swap group is focused on trading surplus items. This prevents waste and builds community all the same time!

For example, if you have surplus garden produce throughout the season, get together regularly and trade what you don’t need for what you do. If often happens that one garden grows a glut of zucchini while another has more blackberries than can be used before they spoil.

Homestead Chore Swap Group is probably my favorite iteration of this kind of community! We all have homestead work that needs to be done but we’re often short of hands.

Begin a rotation where all the group members visit all the homesteads in the group one at a time doing whatever needs to be done. You sacrifice a few hours a week or month and then get the whole community at your place to help you get your work done!

The group that works together stays together!

#9 – Take a Class/Teach a Class/Host Co-op

This is such a fun way to create community that we made a whole section for it in our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead. Classes don’t have to be elaborate to be effective; in fact, the best ones are usually simple and based around shared traditions and homestead-y topics.

Here’s a little quote from The Do It Yourself Homestead that shares advice on what to do when we attend classes:

Instead of simply walking in and sitting down when you attend classes, the first thing you can do is to greet the teacher. A friendly handshake and a hello will connect you with the instructor and help their words be more memorable.

Ask them how long they’ve been involved with their topic, if they enjoy teaching about it, and if there are further resources you should seek out after you’ve enjoyed their class. All that information may be answered on their handout (so make sure you get one) but having a conversation with the person prepared to mentor you for an hour or two will help you connect even more with their message.

When you do take your seat, don’t be afraid to talk to the person next to you—yes, even you introverts. Have conversations during the class break with other students, check out any items that might be for sale at the class and, of course, ask questions during the instruction.

Teaching Classes

This idea might be overwhelming at first, so here’s a little more help from The Do It Yourself Homestead in the form of a small challenge.

I suggest the first thing you do is pull out a piece of paper and brainstorm everything you’ve done in your life so far—education, employment, hobbies, side work, community service, religious service, clubs and groups, homemaking skills, etc. Write it all down and then start branching off each topic with some specific details.

For example, I could note that I’ve kept bees for around twenty years. Cool, bees are of interest to a lot of people these days. Let’s get more specific. I could branch off from the basic idea of bees and create classes like:

How to get started with beekeeping.

How to involve kids in beekeeping.

How to capture a swarm of bees.

How to fail at beekeeping (Yeah, I’ve done that, too).

Ten must-have pieces of bee keeping equipment.

Best books for beekeeping.

These topics could be covered in local University Extension forums like Master Gardening classes or as simple classes in your kitchen or backyard. You can lecture for your book group or ladies’ church auxiliary. …

There’s no limit to the number of places you can share your knowledge and passion. There are too many possible directions to send you off in to be of much use giving you specifics for this level of teaching, but as you are ready, your mentors in these venues will appear.

For now, just kick around the idea of teaching in your home or local library.

#10 – Online Meet Ups

Since 2020, we’ve all become a lot more accustomed to online interaction. There are so many ways to meet up via video, whether from our phones or laptops.

Apps like Marco Polo, FaceTime, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams make live conversations so easy to have and most have free options!

If you don’t want to or can’t get out to create community as much as you’d like, bring the community to you via video calls! Make a schedule and stick to it as much as possible so that the group knows you’re dependable.

You can form interest groups just like you would if you were meeting in person. You can even record meetings for those who can’t attend. And you can do it all from the comfort of your own home. In pajama pants!

What did I miss? Have more ideas? Share them below in the comments section for other readers, please!

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