A lifestyle focused on self-sufficiency and living off the land, homesteading has been very much on the rise since we were all confined to our homes in 2020. It involves cultivating food, raising livestock, and often producing your own energy and goods. A homestead typically includes a home, farmland, and various outbuildings like barns or greenhouses, with enough space to grow food and potentially raise animals. In the United States, the concept gained prominence with the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered settlers land in exchange for cultivating it. This expansionism contributed to the culture of farming and living off the land that continues in America today, but also to the significant displacement of Native American tribes and the deepening divide between the North and the South. Similar practices of self-sufficient living have existed globally for thousands of years. In the 20th century, homesteading had a huge renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s: the ‘back to the land’ movement swept through the United States as a natural partner to the hippy movement, and was immortalised in the UK in the sitcom The Good Life. These days, however, the practice, like so many other cultural movements, has its spiritual home on Instagram and TikTok, and it's all looking a lot more aesthetically pleasing than it used to.
‘Homesteading used to be the norm. In fact, it wasn’t even called homesteading for the longest time. It was just the way Americans lived — a sustainable, agrarian lifestyle,’ describes Homesteaders of America. According to their poll of nearly 4,000 homesteaders, over a quarter of current homesteaders have only been participating in the way of life for three years or less, and nearly half of the poll respondents were Gen Z or millennials. The upswing in young homesteaders is clear on social media, where women in floaty dresses and bare feet boasting chicken coops and courgette flowers are taking over TikTok. This special brand of rural influencers is able to capitalise on our preoccupation with their country idyll to gain an income stream through their social media endeavours, from sponsored content to Amazon affiliate links on Kilner jars.
Homesteading often emphasises a return to traditional methods of farming, gardening, and homemaking, with a strong focus on sustainability and independence from modern consumer culture. It's the 1970s lifestyle all over again, but surely the ubiquity of social media would have horrified their hippy predecessors? Isn't there some irony in the duality of attempting to be off-grid whilst remaining firmly online? Maybe so. Many homesteaders that I talked to described connecting to the land and spending time in nature – but what about the time spent cultivating their online following? Probably, as with most attempts at morality or sustainability, hypocrisy is par for the course.
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Influencer and homesteader Sarah Smith of @smithfarm1914 tells me that this is the “beauty of modern homesteading: we take pieces of the convenience of the world around us while trying our hardest to sustain skills of our past that might be forgotten through generations because of the convenience of consumerism.” Sarah uses Amazon Store Front (like a personal, curated online store) to share her resources with followers whilst making a commission. She explains that when you're 'influencing' it is hard to avoid storefronts because of the barrage of requests from followers looking to emulate the homesteading lifestyle.
The convenience of social media is not only a useful resource for homesteaders, but for those looking to learn about adopting a farm life. “Society has strangled skill straight out of our hands, and I think social media is now a resource for a lot of people to learn," says Sarah. The fact that #learnontiktok was one of the most popular hashtags of 2023 proves this, as does the fact that ‘cottagecore’ (an aesthetic movement that celebrates quaint, rural life) stands as the biggest ever TikTok trend at 14.4 billion views according to the Business of Fashion's reports. For Sarah, as with many other homesteader-cum-influencers, it's about balance: “There is a side to social media where consumerism is crammed down our throats, which is why a lot of the time we try really hard to reuse on our farm. We try to buy locally as much as possible but there are things we can’t avoid having to go to a big chain for.”
Consumerism is one of many things that young homesteaders are trying to avoid when they exchange city life for something quieter and more natural. “In 2021, we were living in a large city (Dallas, TX) when a snowstorm shut down the power grid for a whole week. Our home did not have a fireplace, we had no food storage, roads were not drivable, and grocery stores were closed. We found ourselves huddled under blankets in our nice three-bedroom suburban home with three small children (including a newborn) in freezing indoor temperatures," explains Taylor Moran of @leafandlearn a homesteading account with nearly half a million followers. “Our home had no power, and we were powerless," she says. A lack of power and control is a continual theme in homesteading, with Business Insider finding that many homesteaders said their reason for choosing their way of life was that they ‘like controlling more parts of their lives, including what they eat.’
The Covid pandemic was a major factor in this drive towards individualism, where so many people felt scared by their lack of agency and distrustful of those in charge. Homesteaders of America found that 52% of their poll responders stated that 'government unrest and policies' was a big drive for their starting a homesteading journey. The same poll found that 8% of homesteaders didn't vote, which could also indicate a shared desire to live outside of society. Just as some homesteaders might choose to homeschool their children, the ‘home’ element of the lifestyle is often in opposition to ‘state.' When I ask Erika Nolan of @instar.gardens about her motive for starting a homestead she answers simply. “One word: Health. I saw the food my mother was given post-cancer operation, and I knew there was a better way. I set out on a mission to grow fresh food and nourish my body and mind.” Another system that homesteaders are trying to circumvent.
So, these homesteaders are all aligned in their desire to avoid societal limitations due to a growing distrust in the system. But what kind of lifestyle are they running towards? “It’s become about more than just ‘being prepared’," says Taylor, “We are now simply connected to the process of life, and that’s been far more valuable than we could have ever imagined.” 56% of responders in the same Homesteaders of America poll cited a ‘longing to live a more simplistic lifestyle’ as their reason for homesteading.
“We both have a love for old-fashioned things, nature, and of course, knowing where our food comes from. So raising our own meats, preserving food from the garden, and often cooking from scratch are what makes our farm worth all the long hours and rough hands,” says Sarah of her homestead, which has been in her husband's family since 1914. She describes finding ‘roots running so deep on the land which you work with your bare hands, that you find time gets a little slower and you’re more present at home.' Erika describes her life as “incredibly peaceful and abundant” with a vegetable patch that supplies most of her produce: “The vegetable garden is the least amount of work and comes in phases of tasks, with the majority of time spent frolicking around flowers and snacking right from the plants!” This bucolic antidote to modern living is what so many of us are fascinated by on social media. I personally wouldn't care to admit to the hours I've lost watching a pregnant woman with flowers in her hair build a chicken coup.
Say I want to spend a little less time watching someone else's rural life and actually take some steps towards a sustainable, self-sufficient life…what do these homesteaders prescribe? “The biggest advice we could give to someone who wants to get started homesteading is to just start now. Even in the suburbs, even with a small yard or simply a windowsill – you can start learning how to grow food," says Sarah. Erica agrees, “start any way you can with the space you have, whether it's herbs on a windowsill or meat rabbits in an apartment. Every little step you take towards this lifestyle brings it all more into fruition. Mother Nature will always throw off some plans or expectations, so be flexible and find the learning in each lesson.” Whilst I might not be jumping to install rabbits in my north London flat, I wonder if I could be inspired to spend a little less time watching videos of other people's gardens, and a little more time in my own.
