On this week’s episode of The Rural Woman Podcast you will meet Natalie Green, a passionate homesteader with a one-acre farm in Richmond, VA. 

When Natalie and her husband moved to their home 3 years ago Natalie knew she  wanted a big garden and a few chickens for eggs. She was also excited to produce her own food in hopes that it would help some issues she faces due to an autoimmune disorder. Natalie had the picture perfect white farmhouse in her mind that we all dream of, little did she know that she was about to get down and dirty with homestead life. Natalie never imagined that she’d be running a farmstand on the weekends and empowering others with the skills she learned along the way.

Natalie started her social media account to promote the eggs that she was selling from her front porch. She had been furloughed due to the pandemic and was just looking for a way to keep the feed bins full. Natalie put the eggs in a box and people would have to fight off her cat, Bubs at every pick up. Eventually she added a few seedlings that she started in red solo cups and she said that for whatever reason people found it in their hearts to buy those too. Natalie started to try to build a small little stand to leave at the bottom of her driveway but it wasn’t exactly what she had envisioned. Her husband felt bad and helped her pick up a free farm trailer from Craigslist. Within a few days, the farmstand was born. One day, she nervously parked it down by the road, made a few posts on the internet advertising seedlings and to her surprise strangers started rolling in to buy eggs and plants. She began sharing her homesteading journey each week as she announced weekly farmstand hours and almost 2 years later Natalie can’t believe where homesteading has led her.

It’s important to Natalie that people see someone that looks like her learning, making mistakes, and using the space she has to grow literally and figuratively as a black female homesteader. As she began to share a lot of amazing triumphs, she also shared some really hard moments. Natalie also tried not to shy away from the biggest challenge that her husband and her had taken on which was growing and harvesting as much of our own meat as they could in 2021. Sharing that part of her story led her to one of the most surprising outcomes which has been teaching others that very same skill. All too often Natale hears people say things like “One day” or “when I have more space” I’ll do this or that. She wants people to know that homesteading will look different for everyone. She hopes that one day she will hear the words “thanks for helping me live my dream” instead of people telling her that she’s “living their dream”. Natalie feels that she has truly found her purpose growing food for her community, sharing handmade products from her homestead, and teaching people that they truly can homestead where they are.