From pasture to pantry: Justin Rhodes' homestead journey

On a small family farm tucked in the hills of North Carolina, Justin Rhodes begins his mornings before 7 a.m., moving chickens, feeding cows and prepping his camera. For more than 1 million subscribers, Rhodes is not just a farmer. He is a guide, teacher and storyteller who has turned homesteading into a thriving online enterprise.

"If I'm in an elevator and someone asks what I do, I'd say I teach and inspire others to grow their own food," Rhodes said. "That's the short answer."

The long answer is more complex. Rhodes is a self-made entrepreneur who vlogs daily about his life raising animals, cultivating vegetables, homeschooling his children and tending to the land that has been in his family for generations. His YouTube channel, The Justin Rhodes Show, has garnered a loyal following of viewers hungry for practical know-how and a taste for a different way of living.

But make no mistake. "This isn't just fresh eggs and smiling children," he said. "It's calloused hands, lost tools and chasing barefoot kids who've lost their shoes again. Homesteading is hard. That's what makes it beautiful." That honesty, paired with hands-on instruction, has become his signature, both on YouTube and on his blog, abundantpermaculture.com, where he posts tips, how-to guides and reflections on farm life. His subscription platform, Abundance+, extends that mission by offering in-depth tutorials, behind-the-scenes videos and a community space for aspiring homesteaders.

With his wife, Rebekah, and their 5 children, he raises chickens, sheep, cows, ducks and pigs while growing vegetables, herbs and fruit. Even the front yard is part of the system, with chickens enriching the soil beside the family garden.

Rebekah says their life was never built for the camera. "We would 100 percent be doing this whether we had the YouTube channel or not," she said. She remembers starting small with a first garden in 2005, then slowly adding livestock and building the systems they use today. "You just have to start doing it and learning," she said. "Once you get infrastructure built in, it makes it so much easier... it just becomes what you do and it becomes second nature."

The idea for filming their life came unexpectedly, when a FedEx driver who saw Justin moving cattle suggested he should make a show about it. Rhodes recalled, "At first, I brushed it off. But it planted a seed."

He soon noticed that while instructional farming videos existed, few showed the real life behind them, including the mess-ups, the mishaps and the small victories. "We're like a farming reality show," Rhodes said. "People want to know: What does the expert do when it all goes wrong?"

His videos are honest and sometimes raw, with moments of joy tempered by the realities of livestock deaths, crop failures and natural disasters. "Even my videos on YouTube... with nice music, it can almost be glamorized. But that's why I always try to capture the struggle," he said.

For Rhodes, homesteading is not just about food. It is about family, health and legacy. "We want to be strong so we can care for our children," he said. "We want to raise citizens who give more than they take."

He defines a homestead not by size, but by intent. "You can homestead your window sill," he said. "If you're growing something that sustains you, that's a homestead."

Looking ahead, Rhodes says his goal is to pass on the land, skills and values to the next generation, just as his grandfather and father did. "I want to make the world better for those who come after me," he said.