After a recent first-time visit to the Ploughshare campus and Homestead Heritage community, Bryan Welch wrote the insightful article:
Homestead Heritage: Self-Sufficient Living in Action
which was published in the June/July 2013 issue of Mother Earth News. Bryan is the Publisher and Editorial Director of Mother Earth News.
In the article, Bryan describes the desire he had as a child to be Amish. He was inspired by their farming with draft animals, their growing of their own food and their modest, cooperative lifestyle. He describes the Homestead Heritage community and gives a picture of what you will experience on a visit: “industrious activity, friendly faces and a pervading sense of happy people doing work they enjoy.” Bryan recognizes the beauty and importance of a traditional lifestyle that emphasizes simplicity, modesty and working in close relationship with the land and in harmony with one another. From his perspective, Homestead Heritage is a “genuine example of a self-sufficient group of people providing sustenance to each other.”