A reflection from Kristin Marsh Song, founder of Delve Experiences 🌾
Most days, I live on screens. I write on them, plan on them, build on them. My work travels through pixels and servers, reaching people I’ve never met in person. And yet, the more time I spend in that digital world, the more I see what’s missing: a true sense of place.
We use technology to find each other — to map, to message, to learn, to share — but what we’re really searching for is a sense of where we are in all of it.
That tension runs through everything I do with Delve. This company lives online: it’s a website, a booking platform, a blog, a newsletter. But the heartbeat of it all is offline — in the soil, in the air, in the voices of people telling their stories beside rows of crops or under a stretch of Texas sky. Every click, every post, every email I send is meant to lead someone back into that world.
🌿 The Hunger for Real Places
Technology connects us to everything, but it can leave us connected to nothing in particular. We scroll through landscapes we’ll never touch, listen to people we’ll never meet, and start to lose our sense of where we stand.
“Place” is what gives us edges again — boundaries that make us notice. It’s the smell of compost after rain, the crunch of gravel under your shoes, the way wind bends a field of grass. It’s how you know where you are, and who you’re there with.
In a time when we can beam ourselves anywhere, the act of staying somewhere has become a kind of quiet rebellion.
I think that’s why people come to farms. They’re looking for a pause — a space where time slows down enough to notice something small and alive.
🧭 Using Tech to Find What Tech Took Away
The irony isn’t lost on me: Delve is a digital bridge that exists to pull people offline. I’ve spent countless hours in code, spreadsheets, and chat threads, all to help someone step away from a screen and into a pasture.
But that’s the balance I believe in — using technology with intention.
When we build a booking system that’s seamless, or automate reminders so a farmer doesn’t have to, we’re not serving the screen. We’re serving the experience. The tools make space for the real work: connection, learning, and care.
The screen can be a doorway — as long as we remember to walk through it.
🌻 What Happens When We Do
I see it every time people visit a farm. Families, teachers, travelers — kids and adults alike — step out of cars, put phones in pockets, and just stand for a moment. There’s usually a little silence, the kind that happens when you realize you’re hearing something again that you didn’t know you’d missed.
Then, inevitably, curiosity takes over. Someone points out a plant they’ve never seen before. Someone else asks a question. People start talking, laughing, touching, learning.
You can see the change happen — shoulders drop, voices soften, and suddenly the digital noise in their minds gets replaced by the hum of bees, or the splash of irrigation water, or the sound of boots in dirt.
That’s place doing its work.
🌾 The Bridge Between Two Worlds
I think often about how strange it is that I spend so much of my time building technology to help people return to the tangible. But maybe that’s exactly what our modern world needs — not fewer tools, but better ones, aimed at something real.
Delve isn’t about escaping the digital age. It’s about balance. It’s about remembering that the point of connection isn’t the notification — it’s the moment when two people stand in the same patch of sunlight and share what they see.
If I can use the digital world to lead people back into the real one, then I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.
About the Author
Kristin Marsh Song is the founder of Delve Experiences, a Texas-based agritourism platform connecting people with local farms and hands-on learning. She’s a mom, a lifelong explorer, and a firm believer that curiosity builds community — one farm visit at a time.
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