Finding our perfect homestead is not easy, and a lot of people give up their dreams without every finding it. Instead, what if we took Small Steps to finding our homestead right at home?
Remember, even the most experienced homesteaders are adding new skills every day. They didn’t wake up one day to a fully realized homestead dream.
Homesteading Right at Home
We all have our own version of a dream homestead in our mind, and it is probably different for each one of us. However, ideally, what it means is turning our home into a place where we produce most of our own food. Homesteading right at home can include cooking from scratch, being more frugal, raising animals, and building community.
Another way we can look at is using the word self-sufficient which is often synonymous with homesteading. No matter where we live, we can learn to become more self-sufficient. In fact, with the current situations, everyone should focus on being more self-sufficient. The less we are affected by the shortages at the grocery store, the more self-sufficient we are.
Finding Our Homestead Kitchen
One of the easiest ways of finding our homestead right at home is in our kitchens. If you look in your refrigerator, freezer, and cupboards what do you see? If most of it is processed pre-packaged foods, then that is a great place to start.
Just so we are clear, I have three kids and we are no where near perfect. It isn’t about being perfect. Also, there is a place for certain canned foods especially in today’s world. Having a stocked pantry even with store bought canned foods is a step to self-sufficiency. I will be doing a post in the coming weeks about my pantry system. Yes, even in a small home you can have a pantry.
Here are some homestead kitchen skills to consider. Does your family love bread? Learn to bake. Find your families favorite take out food recipe on Pinterest and re-create it at home. My daughter is 11 and I call her the Pinterest Queen. She loves to find recipes that we can make at home.
Are you gardening? Then consider learning to can, freeze or dehydrate the harvest. Not gardening yet, buy a bunch of tomatoes from your local farmers market and make a batch of spaghetti sauce.
I could go on and on about homestead kitchens and probably write a whole blog just on that topic. However, the basic idea is finding ways to do more for yourself in the kitchen. Doing so allows you to control your ingredients more and not have things in it that you can’t even pronounce.
Our Homestead Pocket Book
We can’t talk about a homestead kitchen without also looking at where we choose to spend our money. As a homesteader, I think it is important that we spend money on supporting other homesteaders and small businesses. We are also saving money when we don’t buy convenience foods. For every step someone else does for us, the more it costs.
Most homesteaders prefer to eat organically. In our home, we use as many organic items as we can. However, shopping organic can be expensive and sometimes you can’t find organic in your area. I can tell you we are not 100% organic. I would like to say we are about 80% organic but that may not be always accurate.
Here are a few things we do to shop organically on a budget. First, we prioritize what we need to grow or purchase organically. The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Lists are a good place to start to know what produce you will want to be organic. On the other side of this question we still choose to buy some things non-organically like my kids favorite Nutella and a specific kind of bean that my husband likes.
Secondly, we try not shop at big box stores. We try to buy locally from farmers markets, farms that offer home delivery or drop points, and other local businesses. There are also options like Azure standard for bulk purchases. However, if you don’t have access to local produce, dairy, and milk, Aldi and even Walmart now have good selections of organics.
Lastly, we try to save money in other areas, which allows us to have more money for our food budget. Doing things like making our own laundry soap and eliminating paper napkins go a long way to saving money. We also made the decision to cut back on other bills such as cable TV.
Finding Space to Garden
Gardening is one place that wanna be homesteaders can start. However, one thing I often hear from people wanting to garden is that they don’t have the space. Whether if you have an apartment or a house you can find space to garden.
If you live in an apartment, some things to consider are herbs in a kitchen window, tomatoes in pots on a balcony, hanging baskets or window boxes on the railing filled with lettuce. I have done all of those when I lived in an apartment. If I lived in an apartment with a balcony today, I would probably consider a greenstalk. I haven’t personally used them but I have seen others use them with great success.
If you live in a house with even a small backyard, you should be able to find some space to garden. You can also use the suggestions above for apartment gardening. We have plants in garden beds, raised beds, pots, and window boxes to name a few. In addition, try growing vertically using a trellis. In our backyard we have a steep hillside with steps to our upper yard. It was impossible to mow that area, so we terraced it and turned it into our garden. On a side note, those steps/terrace played a part in the name of our blog.
If you don’t have room or have HOA regulations that stop you from having a garden, consider the following suggestions. Start a garden at community garden. When we lived in Los Angeles, there were several in our area. You would pay a certain amount a season for a plot of land. Another idea is finding someone you know would love help with creating a garden in their yard.
What About Animals on the Homestead
We currently don’t have any animals except our dog Buddy. My daughter is convinced he will make a great farm dog one day. So how can I say we have a homestead if we don’t even have chickens? I’m going to admit this is a hard one for me.
In my heart, I want animals. I am currently part of a group trying to get our Township to change the ordinance against backyard chickens. They are open to it, and they will vote on it in the coming month or two. If you can have animals, I would investigate adding chickens, rabbits, and possibly even goats if there are now rules against it.
When we lived in Los Angeles, one of our next-door neighbors had goats. At the time, I wasn’t into homesteading, and I thought it was the silliest thing. I finally came around after we moved to our next house, but we never added goats. Maybe if we have success with chickens in our township, I can talk them into goats.
In the meantime, if you are like us and can’t have animals, there are other options. In my last post, I talked about my uncle raising cows on his property with the help of my other uncles. That is a great option to help raise animals. For example, one of my husband’s co-workers raises pigs. We can either purchase meat from him or even pay for him to raise a specific pig for us. Either way, we are helping his homestead dreams and he is helping us with ours.
Finding Homestead Community
Which brings me to me last point about Finding Our Homestead Right at Home. Community is especially important for homesteaders. Look at the Amish and all they can accomplish because of community. In todays world it doesn’t even have to be people living in your own neighborhood. Join communities on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and learn to homestead.
However, wouldn’t it be great to find like minded people in your own neighborhood or town. Seek people out. Is there another gardener on your street? Talk to them and learn from each other or swap seeds. If space is limited maybe you work together to each grow different crops that you can share.
Do you have neighbors who grew up in the depression? Become friends with them. They could probably use the companionship and you can learn how they did things in their day.
Finally, don’t forget to come back here again as we learn together. It is my greatest wish to develop a community right here at Small Steps Homestead of people willing to take that first step to Finding Our Homestead Right at Home.