Farmers, Respect Yourself by Dressing the Part
Joel Salatin, farmer extraordinaire, asks that when we appear in public to sell our goods, give a speech or interact as a homesteader or farmer that we do so well dressed to help break the stereotypical vision of what others think of farmers. When we farmers and homesteaders respect ourselves this will help others to respect us more. Dressing as a hick farmer will do nothing to gain respect for the farmer or the homesteader. This is not something we always thought about. In fact we have dressed as the old farmers with the pitchfork on purpose to share that we were farmers. We were proud of it. But, apparently one of the hardest tasks we as homesteaders have is to convince others, including family and friends that we are not county hicks. One of the ways we can do this is respect ourselves enough to take the time to dress up when we are representing our homesteads and farms. When we are selling our food at the farmer’s market, respect yourself enough to have a clean fresh well dressed appearance so people will be happy to buy from you. This will also portray a clean farm that the food came from.
Why Farmers are Respectable People
Farmers are educated, talented people with a desire to eat right and live outside the rat race. Carla Emery who wrote, “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” was educated at Columbia university. Joel Salatin, the most renown farmer, graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in journalism. As homesteaders, we work hard to grow our own food, raise our own animals and live a sustainable life. We are ingenious in ways to make money so we can stay out of the rat race and live on the land. We are great environmentalists, taking care of our land and involved in the politics of organic foods, raw milk, cottage enterprises and the ability to grow and raise food. We delight in regenerating the land and are troubled when we see overgrazed land and pesticides used or animals raised in an inhumane way. Homesteaders will befriend and assist anyone and share our knowledge and goods with others at will just to help them get started.
Being Respectable = A Better Legacy
When you as a homesteader respect yourself and use your other life experiences to go hand in hand with what you do on the land your profession is as respectable as anyone sitting behind a desk in a tall building. We have a love for animals and understand the need to give the right feed, build the right infrastructures, rotate the pastures, enrich the soil and regenerate continually. That is very respectable. Homesteaders don’t really want to be know as weird or backward or hicks. We enjoy talking to like-minded people because so often our friends and family roll their eyes at our life choices. Homesteaders desire to find some family member who will love the land and real food as much as we do so they can take it over later or better yet, assist us now. Homesteaders have no age limit, young or old. We joy in what we do. We are not country hicks but we love the country and the people in that country. May we all continue to thrive in what we are doing and help others to understand the importance of it.