Building Community

It’s easy in winter to feel isolated and alone. The car won’t start. There’s that snowbank to shovel. Days are short. Roads are slippery. Many people have left for warmer climates and won’t be back until spring.

Traditional means for gathering even in wintertime have been culturally neglected—barn dances, quilting bees, even the country tradition of “visiting.” The vortex of the television takes hold and hunkering down while waiting for spring becomes the norm.

But here on the farm, that sense of holding out for spring doesn’t set well. Because of all the animals that still require tending every day, we can’t all buzz off to Florida or Arizona for a couple of months. We’re here for the duration, with open eyes and hearts that come from choosing not to numb out with TV or virtual games.

What rises to the surface most in the gaps created by winter is community need. There’s loneliness, there’s hunger, there’s depression, there’s hard financial times, and more. Summer can cover these symptoms of need up from view, while everyone is busy out on the lake, entertaining company, or the local population becomes the great minority as tourists fill the streets and lakes and businesses.

On first and third Thursdays of the month, when we hold our farmer market stand in the waiting room of Hayward’s NorthLakes Community Clinic, I see the need and the suffering and the loneliness on faces of people coming and going. They long for a sense of feeling healthy and whole and heard. And they long for meaningful engagement with others in a positive way.

Winter is an important time on the farm for bringing clarity to our ethos—those pillars of meaning that guide our direction and decisions. One of those pillars has always been building community. But what does that mean? How do you actually build community when you’re just one small farm in the Northwoods?

We identify building community as: creating an environment and building engagement points for meaningful community. With this perspective, noticing the gaps and the needs comes first.

For example, noticing the lack of local food availability in Sawyer County (as opposed to regions closer to the Twin Cities, Madison, or Lake Superior, for example) has led to initiatives over the years like founding the Hayward Area Farmer’s Market in 2003 and building Farmstead Creamery as a local foods hub in 2012.

With Farmstead as a vessel for “making it happen,” the lens can move towards other areas of need—including issues of isolation in the winter season. Community doesn’t happen in one-ses and two-ses; it takes groups of people coming together over a shared purpose. Food, music, and creativity are wonderful gathering points for creating community hygge (hoo-ga).

This last weekend saw a combination of all three of these aspects. I hosted a Swedish rosepath-style rag rug weaving class to a handful of joyous, dedicated students. We wrapped up the class by joining one of our twice-monthly Community Dinners with musical jam session. Soon, all of Farmstead Creamery was filled with a variety of locals and visitors, enjoying Chef Kara’s lamb barley soup with homemade cheddar black pepper biscuits, fresh salad, and chocolate pecan shortbread cookies. It was the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns, and Scottish music infused not only the Saturday’s event but also the Celtic Music Session Sunday afternoon (held each 4th Sunday of the month).

The ingredients for these gatherings are straightforward: creative making with friends, a simple meal prepared well, a gathering of musicians and listeners. You’re certainly welcome to join us at Farmstead for our many upcoming events, or there may be something you can do yet this winter to build community right where you are. Maybe it’s a gathering at your own home for tea, muffins, and storytelling. Maybe it’s time to get your knitting friends together, chatting while you work instead each being home alone. Maybe it’s time to join that fun class that’s being offered that you’ve wanted to go to but haven’t because of the cold and the snow.

Whatever piques your interest, I encourage you to reach out and resist the tendency towards isolation in the winter. You can probably think of at least three neighbors who would love a time for visiting—at their home, at the coffee shop, at a bookstore. You can probably think of three friends who would love a scheduled outing invitation—a snowshoe hike, lunch at a favorite spot, or a trip to a concert or gallery.

And you can probably think of three people in your neighborhood who don’t get invitations or visits or many ways to connect with others during this time of year. Show up with some homemade bread and jam or offer to help them with something around the house. Sit and visit. Really listen. It will mean a great deal to them.

If we all can make an effort towards building community in these disparate and lonely times, just think of what might happen? No, don’t just think about it, try it! See you down on the farm sometime.