Much of the content I observed during my week-long immersion of insta-farming was of the animals themselves. There were videos, pictures, animal facts.
Over Easter Vauxhall held a #VirtualRabbitWorld where their instagram was flooded with pictures and videos of the local rabbits. Not only did this create a fun activity to mark a special time (arguably very much needed during the monotony of lock down) but it also raised awareness of the funding the farm is in need of.
Other animal content included Stepney hosting weekly instagram lives called Farmer's Corner, where Tom the farmer would be hanging out with the animals, feeding, filming, and answering questins about the animals live. This same farm also posted live videos without commentary of the sheep grazing. This particular post stood out to me because it mirrored my own in-person farm experiences the closest. Just watching the animals as the walked around, ate, lazed in the sun, with nothing but the farm's ambient sound. It was a very immersive experience and one that brought up the same emotions as seeing these fellow creatures in front of me would. This experience helped inspire the virtual farm tour, that focuses on visuals and sounds, that I have created.
Kentish Town, possibly the more education-focused of the farms I observed, also posted instagram tv videos with their local farmer. The one posted during my field time involved Chris the farmer standing by the local pigs Wilma and Betty and explaining how pigs live and sharing facts about them.
In addition, non-farm animals also featured on the accounts. For example, Surrey Docks posted a picture of a Wheatear that had visited the farm and, in the caption, asked people if they had spotted the bird in their area. Community engagement is present, as at least 2 people responded in the comments with the bird spotting.
The inclusion of posts such as this are important because they highlight that the farms are just one part of the environment, one aspect of their community. There were posts call attention to the help received from funding, of donations made, of ways people in the neighbourhood were still part of the farm during this time
Posts go beyond animals as well. Many of these farms emulate some of their community programs over instagram as well.
Spitafields continues their Farm2Fork program virtually. This involves posting full cooking lessons on the social media accounts twice a week. During my time these videos varied between 19 and over 40 minutes. Their mostly uncut (gems) quality and length gave a sense of intimacy and togetherness, of being accompanied during this cooking time. Surrey Docks, Vauxhall promote eating local as they provide ways for people to buy produce from their farm during lockdown. Kentish Town also provides alternatives to their programs over instagram. The farm posts a weekly schedule of programs and times offered. These include: storytime on Fridays, crafting, learning about animals with farmer Chris , and more. For Under 5s Garden Explorers I watched a lovely instagram tv video where one of the Kentish Town staff members, Trisha, showed how to make a bird feeder. This video followed themes of caring for the environment (using reclycled materials), education, DYI culture, as well as keeping connections to the environment.Very aware of lockdown, one of the things Trisha remarked was that this feeder would "bring the outside as close as possible to the inside," which, in the end, seems what all these city farms are trying to do during this time. As mentioned in the “Observations” section, this very much coincides with repeated themes in Google reviews of the farms, where time and time again people mention the ability to interact with a ‘natural’ space as an important function of the farm. Even the social media coordinator at Vauxhall mentioned something like this: people from offices around the farm often visit the place to have a break from the city.
“A lovely little antidote to being in central london.”
[sic] -Vauxhall“Go along if you're missing seeing an
animal in London that isn't a pigeon”
-Vauxhall“Most importantly a little piece of countryside in the middle of one of the poorest parts of London.”
-StepneyI am left with some questions: what of the programs that cannot be reiterated in their online, such a volunteering and riding? What of programs made for a specific demographic? Can programs that are about a community getting together have a virtual equivalent while maintaining the intimacy and connection in-person gathering provides?