The Urban Exodus Podcast
We are in the midst of a Great Awakening. In this uncertain world, people are changing course and getting back to their roots. This movement is happening all over the world. This is the Urban Exodus.
Urban Exodus shares honest and inspiring stories of life transitions and transformations. It offers wisdom and practical advice for country dreamers, rural folk, and urban-dwellers alike, who want to feel more connected to the natural world and the purpose and choices in their lives.
The Urban Exodus Podcast
E5: Cancer's wake-up call inspired a path to homesteading | Jason & Lorraine Contreras of Sow the Land in rural NC
How far would you go to take control of your health? A battle with cancer was the catalyst that propelled Jason and Lorraine Contreras to overhaul their lives and hone in on what would truly make them happy and healthy. They quickly recognized that long commutes, little access to fresh food, and their inability to spend more time together as a family were standing in the way of living a better life.
So, instead of getting discouraged - they got proactive. They downsized their expenses, left their careers, sold most of their things - and moved from suburbs outside of Los Angeles to a 1.5 acres of land in rural North Carolina.
A few years after moving, they launched Sow the Land - A homestead business comprised of Jason’s woodworking art, Lorraine’s apothecary products, a podcast and a popular youtube channel with instructional homesteading videos to inspire and teach those looking to learn traditional skills and get a taste of daily life on a homestead. They have built a loyal audience online, which has allotted them more freedom over their time and finances.
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Way back before the pandemic began, I had a question. What does it take for a city person to go country in 2015, I set out to explore through photography, writing. And now this podcast in February, I recorded most of the interviews for the first season. I plan to launch in April of 2020, the five year anniversary of the project, but then everything turned upside down. And it just didn't feel like the right time to launch because so much had changed overnight. As the initial shock of the pandemic wore off, it became clear that many people with the means to do so we're leaving cities in droves. Recent data has shown that nearly 16 million people have relocated in the US this year, making the concept of an urban Exodus even more relevant. So while some of the interviews in the season were conducted before the pandemic, the topics they discuss the questions they raise, and the answers they provide are more urgent than ever. I'm Alissa Hessler, welcome to the urban Exodus How far would you go to take control of your health? A battle with cancer was the catalyst that propelled Jason and Lorraine Contreras to overhaul their lives and hone in on what would truly make them happy and healthy. They downsize their expenses, left their careers, sold most of their belongings and moved from the suburbs outside of Los Angeles to an acre of land in rural North Carolina. Although quitting their jobs and moving across the country, away from their family and friends, wasn't an easy decision. They couldn't imagine returning to the lives that they lead before. They have found their bliss, living simply and enjoying the hard work and daily rhythms of country life.
Jason Contreras:As I walk out first thing in the morning, chickens greet me ready to be fed. It's a crisp fall morning, slight breeze, and I see the sun peeking over in that first sunlight is about ready to hit the chicken coop open up the greenhouse and get it watered for the day. How we ended up here was about 10. Well, actually, it's almost 11 years ago now. In California, you know, we're from the Los Angeles area. So about 11 years ago now. I was diagnosed with cancer. And we started thinking differently ever since then, like kind of really kind of taking our own health in our own hands kind of and just figuring out, okay, what do we need to change? You know, do we need to start eating healthier? And so you know, I did six months of chemo, and that kind of started us on this journey. And I remember one of the last times I went to my oncologist, I asked her, you know, she said I was in remission, I'm done. And no more chemo asked her like, Hey, so what do I need to be doing now? Is there any some kind of protocol, or any kind of nutrition plan that I need to be following? And she had told me just No, you know, just go back doing what you were doing. Just go back live in your life, you know, almost like nothing happened. And I just felt we kind of felt like that just wasn't a good answer for us. Because you're just this didn't make sense. Like, how can we go back living how we normally lived by because it was just such a, an emotional time for us of that whole process. And so that's when we just started thinking about nutrition and health. And that kind of got us to like, hey, let's figure out what things we need to be cutting out of our diet, and what things we need to be eating. And then we started slowly, like maybe we should grow our own food. And then then from there, we kind of like started talking about, Hey, would it be cool if we could find a little bit more land, maybe raise pastured poultry, maybe raise your own chickens, maybe have a cow? I don't know. It was kind of like, almost like a joke that we would tell ourselves and like, well, one day we're gonna go find some land someday. And it kind of just, it was weird, because we kept on talking about it. At first it was kind of a joke. But the more we talked about it, the more we started to really want it. And slowly we had a four bedroom house. And we started to get rid of stuff, like try to like pare down and just you know, after going through cancer, just things didn't matter anymore. But we felt like you know, we were big collectors of things and we loved our things. I mean, Lorraine, you know, she was in the fashion industry,
Lorraine Contreras:and I had lots of boxes of clothing put away for seasons in the future.
Jason Contreras:So we started slowly getting rid of things. And just in also saying like, well, if we're going to go buy land somewhere and become farmers, you know, we're not going to need, you know, these collectible movie posters. You know, we're not going to need all this fancy clothes.
Alissa Hessler:How long would you say that process of removing decluttering starting to grow food in your backyard? How many years? Did you do that before you really it became not a joke, and you started searching for land
Lorraine Contreras:moves on little baby steps. So I mean, that happened over a couple years of time. Was it? Three, maybe three years? Yeah, three or four years. And it was just all baby steps. One one little step here. And then yeah, you talked about it. We really enjoyed getting rid of our things.
Jason Contreras:Yeah. It's almost it's you know, people say like, they enjoy buying things. Like it's kind of like a rush. But but there's also the other way to like when you start getting rid of stuff. Like there's like, oh, man, that was, you know, that was
Lorraine Contreras:great. I feel weightless now. Yeah, there was all this feeling of like, we don't have this burden of things on our back anymore. Like, we just feel so free and weightless. Like we could go anywhere. Like maybe we could move to North Carolina.
Alissa Hessler:And eventually, that's exactly what they did. Lorraine and Jason packed up their lives in California, and moved with their daughter Penelope to a small plot of land close to Asheville. They decided to homeschool right from the start. And I was curious about their experience and advice on the topic, especially these days when many parents, myself included, are fumbling their way through teaching their kids at home. I know when I was there, we discussed a little bit the socializing challenges associated with homeschooling. Can you talk a bit about how you've had to be intentional about scheduling times for her to play with other kids her age and have you been able to find some good homeschooling communities locally that have helped mitigate any potential feelings of isolation for the three of you,
Lorraine Contreras:finding a good homeschooling community was important to us. So when we chose North Carolina, we saw that there was a great homeschooling community out here and there's multiple of them. So if one didn't work out, we could, you know, choose from, we also belong to many other different types of communities out here, whether it's like homesteading, homeschooling, our church, the artists, communities, so we have all of these pockets of communities that we belong to, and everybody has children. So we are intentional about getting together. But that just comes naturally, I think, like you want to be hospitable and open up your home and, and she has these really great friendships that have developed out of all of these little pockets of different communities. And she's totally aware of that, you know, maybe these kids, they go to school. And we see them during this time. Or maybe these other kids over here are homeschooled, and we gather during this time, and we do a lot of things together. And that's what's great about the homeschooling community is you can always just say Hey, want to get together at noon, or at 10 o'clock in the morning, and everyone's available. So it's great. There's a lot of sociability in there.
Alissa Hessler:I know that Penelope was four when you moved. What changes have you seen in her since you've made the move from Southern California to North Carolina?
Lorraine Contreras:Well, one really funny one is when we lived in California, she was really into Disney princesses. And well, when I first found out I was having a girl, I was like, she's not going to be in she's not going to have any Barbie. She's not going to be into Disney princesses. But all of our family had a lot of influence on that. And I couldn't help it. She was around family and they would be like, Oh, look, we bought you this Disney Barbie, you know? And I was like, Oh no, that's not what I had planned for her. So she was and then they would buy her the Disney Princess ball gowns. And so with the little glass slippers, and so she had tons of those little dress up ball gowns and then when we moved here we be outside in the garden and chasing the chickens and she her little dresses would snag and she just kind of I think on her own realized that these dresses were not practical. So she could she just who's not really into that anymore. She's into like gardening, raising chickens and like she's into like running a
Jason Contreras:business. Yes, she has like her cowboy boots on. Yeah, getting dirty.
Lorraine Contreras:Oh, yeah. She has a typewriter that she's really into right now. She's writing novels and newsletters.
Alissa Hessler:That's amazing. She is such a cool kid. I mean, just one of like a real gem. I still vividly remember her from our visit. Can you talk a little bit about the changes you two have noticed in yourselves health and happiness wise since shifting to a rural life and a more minimalist life as well,
Jason Contreras:in California, I had an office job and I would be there, it was seven, about 17 years, I had this office job and you know, just just being in office and sitting down in front of a computer for that long doing the same exact thing. That's one of the reasons that, like, what drove was kind of, to this lifestyle was I wanted to be out of that office and wanting to move around and doing stuff. So since moving here, I have not been an office back to the office since. And I feel a lot more healthier as far as like, I mean, when I was working in the office, I fell in love with like running, like I was a trail runner, and I was any chance I get out after work, I would just go running. And since moving here, I haven't really kept that up, but I still feel like 10 times healthier. I feel like I'm more even physically like, yeah, may not be able to run 20 miles, you know, 10 Miles even, but I feel like an overall physical health, I feel a whole lot better. Because I feel like I'm just I'm always moving around. I'm not sitting down so much. And I'm just I'm making things with my hands and I'm moving things and I'm you know, standing up sitting down, you know, like just all overall workout almost. So I feel definitely I feel even not only like in physically, I feel better, but like even mentally, I just feel happier. I think just because I maybe I'm doing all these things, and I'm doing what I love doing.
Lorraine Contreras:And I have to agree to is the same on every other level too. For like family wise, like we are working together as a family towards this ultimate goal of sustainability, growing our own food, having this business and being together as a family. And I feel like we're all working together. So there's like this purpose, you know, that we have. And so I it, it does bring happiness, and it does bring an overall sense of more, more healthier way of living.
Alissa Hessler:You found a purpose in life, which I think everybody is searching for in some degree or another. Both of your extended families still live in Southern California was a challenging to make the decision to move so far away. And Were they supportive of your decision initially,
Lorraine Contreras:it was very challenging. It was so hard like we struggled with that for like years while we were making that decision. Like we tried to find a homestead in Southern California or even Northern California or even like a nearby state
Jason Contreras:just didn't even like a day's drive.
Lorraine Contreras:Because yeah, I mean, it's important having family nearby is so important.
Jason Contreras:But yeah, it was it was a struggle because like all like pretty much all of our family live within an hour from each other. In California, like everybody, like within 30 minutes. Yeah, it just so we saw each other often. Yeah, I mean, it's so common that grandma would just stop by on the weekend, just pop in, say hi, or mom, you know, like, we had barbecues family, like every weekend. And when we decided to move, everyone was shocked. I think everyone was just like what,
Alissa Hessler:eventually their family came to accept their decision, especially seeing how much the change in their lifestyle had caused such a positive shift. For Jason and Lorraine, another big part of setting up their homestead was documenting the journey itself, the trials, tribulations and triumphs of setting up a whole new lifestyle in an unfamiliar part of the country. They decided to share these helpful videos on their soda land YouTube channel, what positives have come out of sharing your journey? And have there been any negatives that you've faced.
Lorraine Contreras:The positives is that I'm hoping that we can say we have in Corona we have we have encouraged so many people to start growing their own food. And people who were on the fence about homesteading or maybe leaving their family to go homestead. Maybe we've encouraged them to make that leap. And, you know, there's been families who have reached out to us and showed us pictures that because of you I started a garden or because of you we're canning beans
Jason Contreras:right now, I would hope so like are the videos that we post to be like, Hey, we're just regular people, you know, like, we didn't know how to do this stuff when we moved here didn't do any of this stuff. If we could do it. Anybody could do this. You know, I just I would hope that that's how we would portray ourselves like, you know, because we're just nobody special and just, hey, we're just regular folks like you guys just trying to make it work. So this is hopefully what we're showing you can help you do what you want to do. But so yeah, I mean, I definitely think there's a lot more positives. And then the negatives. I mean, there's a little bit of negativity. Yeah,
Lorraine Contreras:we're in the public eye. So I think everybody has an opinion. We haven't had Too much negatives?
Jason Contreras:No, I mean, really? Everything that we post? Yes. Except like, yeah, 10 times positive, but you know, every now
Lorraine Contreras:and then you'll get wrinkled in there and get one grumpy
Jason Contreras:person. It's just people, you know, judging us for some things that we're doing. But we can't let that little negativity stop us from doing things.
Alissa Hessler:Was there a big learning curve required to create the content that you create now? And what are some of your favorite tools you found along the way to help you assist in the production and documentation and distribution of what you're creating on the farm?
Jason Contreras:Yeah, I think it's definitely a learning curve. Well, especially for YouTube. I mean, we've always been on Instagram. And that's where you first started sharing kind of our story. And our journey was three Instagram, and then we started doing videos on YouTube. And I totally understand, you know, people don't like being in front of the camera. And so
Lorraine Contreras:I feel like that was a learning curve for me is like, seeing myself on camera, hearing my voice on camera. And when we very first did it, started the YouTube channel, I did not I mean, I still to this day, kind of like shrink back from the camera, but, but in the beginning of seeing myself, it's really hard. You think you look a certain way. And then when you watch the playback, you're like, oh, I don't look like that at all. And I don't sound like that. And wow, I didn't want my hair to look like that. Or I broke out. Or maybe I gained a little bit of weight this week. You know, so it's, it's very humbling. It's very humbling to put yourself out there. And then I feel like over time, yeah, we've just kind of learned okay, this is what I look like, this is what I sound like, people just gonna have to love me. I really,
Jason Contreras:yeah. That's all it is. Really. Yeah. And just being you know, we were over, over 520 some videos that we've have, altogether, if you do that many videos, you should improve. Yeah,
Lorraine Contreras:and get more comfortable in front of being in front of the camera,
Jason Contreras:right? And so like, if you look at it are like very first, early videos, it's like a totally different channel than what it is now I feel it that's just us being more comfortable. Even also, the editing,
Unknown:I think is different. So So yeah,
Jason Contreras:there's definitely a learning curve there just being in front of the camera. And but like over time, you just kind of learn to just say, hey, yeah, this is who we are. In. This is us. This is Our Story.
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Alissa Hessler:Do you think that there is you know, a small movement underway of a lot of people who are considering making a major lifestyle change. And maybe that's part of the success of your channel and your sharing of your story?
Lorraine Contreras:I think for sure, there's a lot of people trying to find a more healthier way to live. They want to grow their own food and they want to have a part in that, like they want to be able to have control.
Jason Contreras:I do think people are searching for just change. Whatever it is, I think I think another big aspect of it is the community aspect.
Lorraine Contreras:Oh yeah. Of for sure.
Jason Contreras:People are searching for community.
Lorraine Contreras:There's a lot of people searching for community right now. When they see that online is when you have a community they kind of want to be a part of that this greater movement and you know, everyone growing their own food or eating healthy and knowing what's in your food and this like change to stop the standard American diet and they want to feel part of that.
Alissa Hessler:Do you have advice for rural businesses and farms wanting to leverage social media to expand their customer base and build community?
Jason Contreras:I think it's all about just sharing your story. Because I think there's a lot of people that don't think they have anything to talk about. So you know, I don't know what I'm gonna post on Instagram. I don't know what I'm going to post on social media. But like man, like so many people have an incredible story. Everybody has it like especially if you're in this farming, homesteading space. Everybody that we've met have incredible story to tell on how they became doing what they're doing. And I think we have to remember that in in or they might optimum You might think like, Well, I'm not doing anything special. Yeah, I'm farming. But, you know, maybe I'm not doing anything that the other guy's doing, you know, but But I also think it's, well, it's your perspective, there's, there's a lot of other people sharing what they're doing on their homestead just like us. But we're coming at it at a different perspective than anybody else. And so as the next person, they, they have their own perspective, everyone has their own perspective in. So I think when we share that, and think of that, and then really believe in your heart in that what you're saying is truthful. And you believe it, and you're passionate about it. I mean, people will respond to those things.
Alissa Hessler:You have this whole side business that you created with the success of your YouTube channel. Let's talk a little bit about the products that you create. Have you seen sales increase from creating this community online,
Lorraine Contreras:when people get to know us on YouTube, or they feel that they know us, whether it be YouTube or Instagram, and we're caught, our presence is strong there. And they, they feel like they know us. And I feel like that creates a whole nother level of marketing is people want a piece of you, they want to one they want to support you because they know you maybe they've fallen in love with you and your story and they want to support your family. But to they feel like they know you and they almost want to take a piece of you home. And so that's I feel like that's been very helpful for our business,
Alissa Hessler:a common theme and country life is letting go of traditional full time employment and instead building a steady income stream from multiple sources. What are the creative ways you've been able to make this non traditional multifaceted work model sustainable for your family?
Jason Contreras:Yeah, that that has been a difficult learning experience. I think, too, coming from an office job where, you know, you get paid every Friday. That's that's the draw from it, like, Oh, but I get paid every Friday, you know, so I think the first month we were here was when it really affected me because I was like, Man, I haven't got paid in a month. You know, like, because when we moved here, I didn't have a job. Like, there was no job waiting for us. There was nothing we just moved in. So that first month was just like, Man, this is weird. Like, it was so scary. You know, I haven't got paid month, like maybe the next month. Oh, I only got paid once this month. You know, it just just, just again, I think it's just a mind mindset thing where I had to trust the process, and really just trying to be more creative and like it also I think it's important to listen to the people that who's following you. Because we started selling Bernie's T shirts. And Bernice is are one of our egg laying chickens. Yeah, every morning and well in our YouTube channel. Like I'll say good morning. Bernie's, you know, and that was just unexpected, I guess is how I talked to Bernie's right. And I started, I started putting it in our videos. No, not on purpose. Just kind of like that's what I said that day. And people really started responding to that, like, oh my gosh, I love how you say good morning to Bernice. And they're like Bernice needs her own t shirt. And I would think
Lorraine Contreras:at first we were like, No way. She's going to buy a Berniece t shirt.
Jason Contreras:Yeah. But then I was like, Okay, I'm gonna try it. So then I we made up a logo, kind of Bernice. And it says, Hey, Bernie's t shirt. And I was like, All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna respond to these people. These people say they're gonna buy a nice t shirt. I'm gonna make a nice t shirt. So I did it end up being like one of our best selling T shirts. It still is in index, just, you know, just paying attention, I guess, to the people that are following you. Like, what do they want? You know,
Alissa Hessler:I've been wondering about this, because it's a question that I frequently get. And I know it differs from state to state. But what about health care? I know that obviously, you battled cancer. And there are a lot of checkups involved to make sure you stay in remission to do do a lot of research before you moved and was a healthcare system that would work if you're self employed, part of what you were thinking about when you were looking for places to live?
Jason Contreras:Yeah, we do definitely get that question a lot, too. Yeah, I didn't want the health care issue to be the reason why we don't do this thing, you know, that we don't move here that we don't quit our jobs. Like, you know, I just didn't want that to be a REIT. And I think for a lot of folks that that is a reason. Oh, there's I don't know about health care, you know, and so we didn't want that to affect us. And so we just made the move. And we did a little bit of research, I think. But I think when we first moved here, we had free health care, because we weren't making anything which was great. I mean was not ideal. It's not where we wanted to be but like it helped and that is an option.
Lorraine Contreras:And then most of our homestead type friends, they just pay out of pocket. They're just pay as you go. And then eventually, we decided to join a sharing group. It's a help community sharing group.
Jason Contreras:I know things happen, but like, you know, it just we just didn't want to let that stop us from doing what we want to do, you know, like, we never would have left
Alissa Hessler:Do you have people that you trade with locally do sell any of the produce, or chickens that you raise on your land, or have a trade system in place for things that you don't raise?
Jason Contreras:Slowly, we've been selling some of the pasture poultry that we raise here. In every year, it seems like we're selling more and more. And that was kind of like our goal, when we first moved here was to sell pasture poultry, and raise chickens for meat. And we do some trading. Like we've traded people for like, like I've done, there's these, like, our wallhangings that I do, like we've traded friends for like, they really like this wall hanging, they're like, Hey, we have, you know, an abundance of grass fed lamb or something like that. So I was like, I'll trade you an art piece for some lamb. And, you know, it's it's cool, like, like, it's nice to do that. Sometimes we'll trade some greens, maybe like our greens didn't do well, one year and you know, our friends did it. But then we have like, all this, pastured poultry in our freezer, you know, and we'll trade you this for that. I mean, that's what's great when you have a community around you, you know, you don't necessarily have to do all the things you know, we could trade, you know, milk. If we wanted to, you know, we don't have to have a milk cow.
Alissa Hessler:This episode is brought to you by Hessler creative workshops, a creative duo. Spoiler alert, it's my husband and I offering both visual and destination photography workshops. Join us in our creative connection course running January 8 through ninth creative connection meets once a week for group critiques paired with lectures and assignments designed to inspire, experiment and expand your artists. I learn more and see our full list of virtual and destination workshops at Hessler creative.com. What advice would you give to people who want to build a healthier life for themselves, but maybe they don't have any savings or they're living paycheck to paycheck? What are some small things they can do to start on this path,
Jason Contreras:I think probably gaining trying to gain as much knowledge as you possibly can. Whether that be listening to podcasts, or watching YouTube videos,
Lorraine Contreras:and there's always community gardens that you can find and get connected with. And, you know, just volunteer your time with that and start where you're at. I think you've mentioned that plenty of times in our podcast is, is start where you're at do what you're, you know, you can grow food anywhere on a back porch and a kitchen window seal.
Jason Contreras:And I think I think sometimes I get this question from people that they're like, I don't have community like I don't I don't know anybody around me that is growing food or, or is into like a more healthy lifestyle or, you know, my family is not into it. How do I find community? And I think what's important is like, maybe you need to create that community, you know, instead of trying to search for it, maybe you're the one to create it. Maybe you just, I don't know, print out a piece of paper, put it at the local library in or the post office or local post office or something and say, hey, you know, we're gonna have a potluck is great potluck. Thing, everything out here. I mean, that's how we knew like, that's how we met a lot of our friends that we have now is through a potluck.
Lorraine Contreras:Yeah, we got invited to so many. And we always said yes to every potluck. We got invited.
Jason Contreras:Yeah. And in maybe, yeah, maybe we need to have a potluck and just say, hey, I want to have a potluck, and just invite your neighbors over your friends. And next thing you know, or maybe you're, you're starting to little garden, and maybe you want to have another maybe invite other people to see what you're doing in there. Maybe that other person is feeling inspired by that. Maybe that one tomato plant that you're growing, and maybe that's creating your own community.
Alissa Hessler:I love that you just start where you're at that makes complete sense. What are some of the most commonly asked questions that you get on social media that you can respond to here?
Jason Contreras:We get a lot of how can I move to Asheville question? Yeah,
Lorraine Contreras:like? Yeah, like realtor type questions,
Jason Contreras:or type questions like like, how much is land? Yeah. And can I put a house anywhere and how much is a septic system? And we I don't know if we can answer those. I know I don't know these questions. I don't know these answers at all. Like you have to talk to a realtor a lot of times I referred to like whoa, I don't know realtor, but you can contact a realtor because I I really don't know like I don't know if they assume like because we live here we know these things, but like I don't keep track of how much these things cost.
Lorraine Contreras:Yeah, that's probably one of the Most questions we get are like finding moving questions. I think
Jason Contreras:a lot of people, they do contact us saying, what do we do? Like, how are we able to live this life? And, you know, I, these are the same questions, though that we would have for we're living this life, you know, we'd have these questions.
Lorraine Contreras:And they're real, honest questions, because I remember you and I like talking about that we had, we knew a couple people who homestead. And we were like, what do they do for like, how do they get an income? I think the idea of not receiving a paycheck every single week, like that was just too far. We were so far removed from that, if they don't have this company that's going to hand them a paycheck every Friday, where are they going to get their money?
Jason Contreras:We couldn't wrap our minds around that, I think. And then it wasn't until we moved here. And then we started meeting other people who just kind of said yes to everything. Yeah, we're doing this lifestyle, where we realize that it's just hard work. Like it really is say yes to everything, living season by season, you know, I've met people that they work at a coffee shop one season and the next season, they're cutting down trees.
Alissa Hessler:If you could be transported back to the beginning of your journey before you moved, is there anything that you wish you would have had set up in advance?
Jason Contreras:I think for sure, I would have told us to start YouTube now. Yeah, much. Because we didn't, are even just creating content on Instagram. We weren't really doing that prior, we had just started the Instagram right before we left. Yeah, I would just said you need to create more content, I would
Lorraine Contreras:have loved to see us have documented our move the whole process of us talking about selling our house, getting rid of our things, and showed what that look like. But now we thought we thought we can only talk about it and show it maybe show a few pictures. But like, I think for you, too, people are so visual, I think that a lot of people would have liked to see that. And hopefully would have been cheering us on
Jason Contreras:as we didn't start YouTube till almost a year after we moved here. So I think I would have told myself that you need to start creating this content. Now in sharing this journey, because, honestly, we're scared when we moved here. You know, like, we've really didn't know if we can even make it like, like I was afraid of the failure. Honestly, like, I didn't want to be afraid of that. But I was afraid of that I was afraid of just what if we fail, and then in talking about it on Instagram or online, and people are going to know that I'm failing have these feelings of like, of being afraid of being embarrassed in? What if we don't make it but then at a certain point, I started, I think I started realized, like, we need to be not afraid of these things of the failure. This journey that we're on is just our story. Is this our journey? This is just This is what we're doing. It's
Alissa Hessler:real. Do you think that where you are now is your forever home? Or do you have plans to relocate ever in the future? Or what are some of your goals and plans that you're envisioning for the next couple of years,
Jason Contreras:this where we're at now, it was never intended for us to be our forever home, it was always just kind of like our starter home homestead. Or it's just going to get us out here in work just to get a starting and to get us going and get us dirty and learning stuff. And to see if we could actually make it. Yeah, to see we actually even like it, you know. And so that's where how we always treated this this area that we're in now. And so yeah, definitely our goal is to eventually find more and more land something a little bit bigger, we definitely like the area will probably I would, I would hope that we could stay in the area. But I also would hope we could find something where we could grow. I think just now we're pretty much maxed out on almost maxed out on using the entire piece of land we have here. And I think in order for us to grow as like, just as people in just as for our business, we need to find something a little bit bigger. So that is our goal eventually.
Alissa Hessler:I initially spoke with Jason and Lorraine back in February of 2020. Since the pandemic they have seen a lot of growth in their online community. As more and more people have become interested in becoming more self sufficient. They sent me this brief audio postcard to tell us what they've been up to since we last talked.
Jason Contreras:This summer has been one of our busiest summers since we've been it's been four and a half years now over four and a half years that we've been in North Carolina, and it's been our busiest summer as far as growth we doubled what we normally grow. So we raised over 120 pasture raised poultry chickens and two pigs. And just figuring that out on our one and a half acres I never thought about Growing that much meat was possible on one and a half acres, this year was supposed to be a year that we travel. I mean, we're booked to speak at different affairs and stuff, you know, with everything going on and all got canceled. And so that kind of forced us home. A plus side to us being home, is that we were able to grow more food. And we are also able to focus more on our business and create more YouTube content, people that I never that I kind of knew like, and I remain friends like even from high school, like we never contacted me and people I didn't know that even followed us. And they were like, Hey, I'm building a raised garden bed. How do you do this? Or how do you do that? It was busy in that aspect. I would hope that we can continue to learn in try to figure this stuff out of how to grow more food, or at least know where your food comes from. And in Know Your Farmer or buy from a local farm. And for us I see our future is definitely hopefully we could do more hands on workshops, because I think people really benefit from that. And that brings a lot of value to somebody when they want to take it to the next level. But I do wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year, as we all continue to move forward.
Alissa Hessler:That was Jason Contreras at their so the land homestead in North Carolina. I hope you enjoyed listening to my conversation with Jason and Lorraine, and feel inspired by their story of minimizing their life to maximize their health and happiness. To read Jason and Lorraine's urban Exodus feature from 2018 and see photos of their beautifully updated mobile home and Farmstead, visit urban exodus.com You can follow their journey on Instagram or YouTube at so the land and see their woodworking and apothecary products on their website. So the land.com you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at the Urban Exodus. To read more in depth features on folks who ditch the city and when country visit our website, urban exodus.com. Stay tuned next week for my conversation with Richard Blonko. Richard is a world renowned poet and writer. He was selected to write and read his poem one today at President Obama's 2013 inauguration. Richard credits has moved to rural Maine, with providing him the inspiration and solace to write his inspiring poem that moved the nation. In our conversation we talk about the pursuit of home, his writing process, and what he has learned about himself after moving to the country. Urban Exodus is a tremendous labor of love. If you like the content we create, please consider supporting our efforts on Patreon. And if you're a small business and would like to sponsor an episode, please visit our podcast page on our website to learn more. An enormous thank you to my incredible team that have helped make this podcast possible production by Simone Leon editing and writing by Ari Snyder and music by Benjamin the theorem. I'm Alissa Hessler, and this is an urban Exodus, stay joyful, stay kind, stay resilient.