Building a Community Around a Dream

THE START OF THE LITTLE GREEN WAGON

Why did I start blogging? If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know that my husband and I live on a farm, raise chickens, and run a pumpkin patch. We’ve done this together for 7 years now. Can I tell you the truth? The first five we struggled. No one knew we sold eggs and we had no clue how to market them. We didn’t get a ton of business to our pumpkin patch – but instead we got theft. A lot of theft.

Three years ago I almost threw in the towel. We had a baby and we were killing ourselves trying to build our little patch when we caught someone literally filling his truck bed with our pumpkins. He said, “Oh…I just thought this was a pumpkin patch, I didn’t realize someone owned it.” 

First of all, I call BS on that. But second of all, he had a point. We had a wagon set up on the end of the road, but there was no face behind it. You couldn’t feel the heart and soul we had put into it. You didn’t know who we were. 

I decided in that moment that I was going to do something about that. We slowly started making improvements to our wagon, adding a roof and shelving. We replaced the wooden pay box that someone had taken a crowbar to and emptied, with steel one. And I painted the wagon, my signature color – mint green – so that you couldn’t miss it or confuse it with another patch. It took a few years to get it to where we are, and I have a million more ideas for next year, but it’s truly becoming a representation of us. I created an Instagram account in the fall of 2017 as a platform to build a community around my farm and my family and to put a face behind The Little Green Wagon. To share what we do, how we do it, and the heart behind it. 

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Do you know what….it worked. These last two years we have had the most amazing pumpkin seasons – it has been so rewarding and so much fun! I’m blown away by the support we’ve received from our community – the sharing and word of mouth and traveling distances to come see us. But beyond pumpkin season, I’m in awe of the power of building a community – and beyond thankful to each and every one of you, near and far, for helping me to put the heart back into my farm. 

I realized that on my little Instagram account I was able to reach so many more people than I thought possible, and received questions almost daily on chicken keeping, pumpkin varieties, and gardening. There is so much interest in growing your own food, and hobby farming, but it’s not always easy to know where to start. I’m thrilled to be a resource to help bridge that gap, and to show you that hobby farming is an incredible, and attainable way of life.

So what started as a way to build my pumpkin wagon, has turned into a way to harness the pulse of our little hobby farm. And I am beyond excited about the doors that are starting to open for us. Thank you for following along. Thank you for reading my posts and engaging. And thank you for taking interest in our little world. We couldn’t do this without you.