What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘homestead’? Is it a farm on a lot of acreage? A pretty Instagram feed? Maybe it’s homeschooling your children. Is it living and making an income off of your land? Or maybe it is none of those things.
Today I am going to share what it actually means to homestead and how you can grow your very own homestead with or without land.
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Homesteader Life
In the last year or so I have really shifted my focus on our way of living and really embraced this homesteading life.
At first I felt super self conscious of saying I homestead because we live within village limits, and only have half an acre of land to our name. However, since I have embraced this mindset I have felt more at home than I ever have. I feel like I have finally found and am living my true calling. Not to mention it feels like a lot of things have started to fall into place.
With all that said, I wanted to share today how you can grow your very own homestead with or without land. After all, homesteading isn’t where you live, it’s how you live.
From The Start
We first started our homesteading journey back in our apartment about 9 years ago. My husband, then boyfriend, read about the idea of having a garden in small spaces. At the time all we had was a small concrete patio and there was enough room for a small grill and outdoor table and chairs.
Somehow we were able to squeeze in a tiny plastic kiddie pool and planted a garden in it.
If you must know, that garden was a massive flop! I was out there every single day looking for anything we planted to pop up. Unfortunately, I think the only thing that we were able to grow were a few spinach leaves.
It goes without saying that we didn’t try that again. However, knowing what I know now – more drainage and a bit more sunlight we could have had a beautiful little harvest.
I share this story because…
I want you to know that you don’t need a ton of land, a barn full of animals, or heck you don’t even need to know what you are doing to be a homesteader.
Homesteading isn’t an income, location, house or lot size. Homesteading is a mindset and a way of living that you can do anywhere!
To be honest, if you really wanted to, you could homestead in the middle of New York City. Would it be ideal? Probably not. But the point is is that homesteading is taking a step back from the hustle and bustle of this modern world and slowing it down to a simple life. It’s taking in your surroundings and being grateful for them.
For me, It’s growing my own food, raising my children against social norms, and creating a slow and simple life for us.
Essentially I see it as creating a simple life that you love so that the problems of this world wouldn’t shake you if things were to go South. This can be done anywhere and can be called whatever you want it to be.
It doesn’t have to be a gorgeous chicken coop or grand garden you see on Instagram. Of course those are dreamy but those are just extras that people enjoy having. When it comes down to it, it’s using the home you are in on the land that it sits on and making do with it.
What Can You Do To Homestead Anywhere?
Fast forward from that kiddie pool garden where we are still learning more and more every year how to garden and grow our own food. We don’t have too much more land than we did in that little apartment, but what we do have is knowledge.
In homesteading, knowledge is power.
Learn how to garden, to sew, make candles, preserve your food, raise chickens, cook and bake from scratch. The sky is the limit when it comes to homesteading. Again, it is a way of life and mindset not a location.
So, here is what we do here in our home on our little half acre of land to homestead.
Growing A Homestead On Half An Acre
- Raised Bed Gardening
- Preserve our harvests by freezing – and soon canning
- Bake & Cook from scratch
- Make our own cleaning products
- Shop at salvage stores
- Shop at thrift stores
- Raise Chickens
- Purchase our beef, pork, and chicken locally
- Start our own seeds
- Constantly learning via books/blogs/youtube
You can also learn:
- Soap making
- Candle making
- Sewing/Knitting/Quilting
- Raise your own beef/pork/chicken
- Heat your home with firewood
- Sell handmade goods
- Stock up your pantry with non perishable goods
- Learn Learn Learn!!
These are just some ideas and ways that we are growing our homestead. There is no right or wrong way to start or do. For us, we started our journey by growing a garden and cooking meals from scratch.
You also don’t have to have or learn everything all at once. I just recently learned how to bake bread and sourdough from scratch.
Always keep in mind that everyone has to start somewhere and learns at their own pace.
Where to Start?
Now that you have my background and some ideas to grow your own homestead, you’re probably asking “where should you start”? And that answer is simple – in the kitchen!
Start with learning how to cook from scratch using real ingredients. From there you can start a garden. Don’t have room for a garden? Grab some flower pots and plant tomato and pepper plants, fresh herbs are great to have on hand.
You don’t have to do it all or know everything. Learn little by little and grow your knowledge. The more you learn, the more you can do.
I hope this post gives you a different perspective on homesteading and opens you up to new ideas. It is so simple to homestead when you clear your mind of the doubt and just start learning!
Do you already homestead? If so, what ideas can you add to this list to help new homesteaders?
And as always, you can head over to Instagram and follow me @themustardseedway for daily content.
Until next time,
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