Meredith Bernard is This Farm Wife. She is wife, mother, farmer, photographer, writer, and YouTuber living and working on a beef cattle farm with her husband and two children in Milton. Meredith is able to supplement the family income on the farm by sharing their ‘farm story’. She is truly passionate about story telling and helping others see the importance of sharing their stories in life. Over the past few years, she’s grown that passion into "This Farm Wife” brand, which has become a retail and social media business for her and her family.
You may have recognized that ‘story telling’ is a trending topic in the world today. Whether it is a big corporation telling a story of why they exist in their commercials or on social media; a small nonprofit letting the community know their story on a website, or an individual that is sharing their story in a book, blog or in other ways; hearing the stories of others helps us all to ‘walk in their shoes’. Appreciating others’ background and identifying common ground helps us all to connect and we in rural communities can certainly relate to that. Story telling is rooted as far back as the scriptures where in the Bible stories presented as parables are often used to help people and communities understand each other better. Stories can bring us all together.
Tuesday of last week, the Caswell County Chamber of Commerce featured This Farm Wife on the virtual Connecting Caswell Leadership Networking session. At the meeting Meredith shared her family’s farm story and attendees learned how her story relates to us all. Meredith acknowledged that there are those negative comments that pop up in the feedback of the video stories she tells. But out of hundreds of positive comments, she stressed that you cannot let a few negative comments ruin the day. What a great lesson for us all too.
There are many lessons to learn from life on the farm, as many of you in this community know. Maintaining the resilience and perseverance of a farmer, the bond that a working family and community builds, all provide a foundation to embrace our neighbors as comrades and work together to help everyone thrive. Focused on the abundance of opportunity that is in the world right here in Caswell County should we choose to see it, can be a win for sure. And Meredith sees it. Even without strong internet capabilities, she makes this online business work.
We urge you to take a look at the work of This Farm Wife. Learn more about her story. You may find yours is similar or maybe not. But sparking ideas for ways to use social media to build a business here and to also see things in a positive way is a refreshing approach today. Meredith and her family are making that a reality. Making speeches across the nation (and even Canada), highlighting the positives of Caswell farm life daily for thousands of viewers, the work of one farm family is a great example of what can be done if you believe in possibility.
Learn more about Meredith at ThisFarmWife.com
Edited version published in The Caswell Messenger July 29, 2020