Starting a Homestead…with or without Land

This past year, more and more people are toying with the idea of starting a homestead.

How could we live a more self-sustaining lifestyle?

How could we live without having to rely so heavily on major corporations and industries (and GROCERY STORES!)?

How could we simplify hectic modern life and truly enjoy the moments of what life is really all about?

“Homesteading” these days is considered to be “Modern Homesteading” and looks very much different than the Settlers back in the day. It doesn’t mean that you have to live “off-the-grid”.

 “Modern Homesteading” is simply striving to live the most self-sufficient lifestyle that you can.

It’s…

Growing,Forging,Raising, and Preserving as much of your food as you are able.

Being Frugal and Mindful, knowing the value of belongings, time, energy, and money.

Making Things vs Buying them at the store when you can.

Learning & Building Upon A Wide Range Of Skills to be able to rely on yourself for your family’s needs, as much as possible.  

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How to get started homesteading?

The Simple Answer- Start where you are at.

Everyone is on different paths and mile markers with this journey. ANYONE could live a homesteading lifestyle, but it will look a bit different for EVERYONE depending on where you live, financial parameters, capabilities, number of children, etc…

I’m going to give a bunch of ideas however do NOT expect to do them all at once, or even the same season or year. Don’t get overwhelmed. Remember that this is a journey. Take it slow and steady and you will gain so much reward in the end.

So, where are YOU at? Let’s begin there…….and with food.

Growing, Forging, Raising, and Preserving as much of your food as you are able.

Growing Food

Do you have land? Do you already have a garden?

Start your garden! Even if it’s the dead of winter with a foot of snow on the ground, start planning it out now.

Check out Starting A Vegetable Garden and Backyard Vegetable Garden Layout for more info, if you are starting a garden from scratch.

Could I Start Homesteading Even without land?

ABSOLUTELY!

How about a Window? A Counter?

Are you living in an apartment or house without any land? There are still things that you could do to begin your homesteading journey.

Do you have a porch, steps, or railing that gets decent amount of sun, where you could set a planter? Do you have a spot to put a hook and hanging plant outside? Could you have window boxes outside? Do you have a window sill inside? 

We have a decent size yard in CT. We could plant lettuce anywhere, however I prefer it in a very mobile medium sized planter on my porch railing. Why? Because I could move it to the shade during the hot summer and prolong its harvest season!

So limited in space, figure out if there is ANYWHERE that you could find a sunny spot to plant. Then, prioritize what veggies you normally buy, that you could plant, and ultimately replace for a season with home grown.

If you have a tiny porch, you could have a hanging basket of tomatoes (paid link)on a hook, grow cucumbers in a pot on a step, and lettuce in a container on the railing. BOOM! You have a full homegrown salad!

Herbs do great on a windowsill. You could even plant bush beans in a window box outside! Get creative and grow SOMETHING.

Did you know that Sprouts could be grown in just a Mason Jar on your counter? Honestly soil is not at all required and even sun for them is only optional! Check our Growing Sprouts In A Jar post for more info. Kids LOVE this activity!

Even if it’s just one thing…..START..No excuses!

We will never get to where we want to be if we don’t start where we are at.

Forging

Forging is looking for food and/or herbal remedies in nature and could be SO fun!!

Last year, I ordered an awesome book “Edible Wild Plants” (paid link)! 

The book is broken up into seasons, lists regions of North America they could be found in, pictures, as well as the different methods of using each plant.

It is packed with great info! 

The kids and I quickly became hooked on plant identification, and went searching at every chance.

There are also free (as well as paid apps) for the phone that allows you to take pictures of a plant and it will identify it for you.

This was SUPER fun, however I caution that the apps aren’t 100% accurate. I would encourage you to confirm by looking up more info on the plant it claims to be online or in an identification book. 

I was amazed at how many plants we had that are edible on our property!

It’s all around us! Do we just take it for granted? 

No! We just weren’t taught about them. 

By now, most of us know that dandelion greens could be plucked from our front yard, rinsed, and tossed into a salad. BUT…Did you know that you could make a flour replacement out of cattails?!?! 

SO many cool ideas are in that book!

Much more will come on this topic especially after the snow melts and we could go on our forging adventures again.

However, in the meantime check out Stacey’s Herbal Series at Vintagepathways.com . She is coming out with a new herb each Monday to teach about.

I “met” Stacey on Instagram and we instantly connected. You’ll find that alot in the homesteading community as everyone is wonderful with sharing knowledge and learning from eachother!  I patiently (yet eagerly) await her next post! Check it out!

Raising

Always check with your town zoning of what is allowed BEFORE purchasing any livestock.

It’s always good to start small and gradually grow.

Chickens are usually the first “go to” but many overlook rabbits and quail as well.

Ducks, turkeys, goats, and pigs would be the next step up.

Then the ultimate would be Dairy Cow and Beef Cattle.

How could I raise livestock without land??

Preserving Food

Even if purchased at a farmers market or store vs it being grown at home…Preserve it!

We are going to dive into each of these methods in future posts but for now start where you are at. 

We are building our pages daily. Subscribe to our Newsletter (using sidebar or bottom of this page)  for monthly post recaps so you don’t miss anything good! Especially if you are interested in starting a homestead!

If you have been doing some of these methods already then consider trying a new one!

A part of homesteading is preparedness. It’s wise to diversify how we preserve and store food especially in preparing for the unexpected.

Broken freezer, flooded basement, shelf full of canned goods crashing down are things that could and DO happen to the best of us.

While any of these things would be horrible, they won’t be “truly devastating” if they aren’t your sole way of preservation.

If you are just starting out, I would strongly suggest starting with Consciously Freezing.

We all know how to throw something in the freezer, so what do I mean by Consciously Freezing?

This is something that I have really started to deliberately make myself be mindful of the past several months. I can’t believe how much money and time I have been saving each month by doing this!

Whenever you clean out your fridge what do you find yourself throwing away or composting routinely?

For us, it’s meal leftovers as well as a lot of partial produce.

When using a half of an onion, (bell pepper, a couple stalks from the celery bundle, ect..) instead of wrapping up the other half and sticking it in the fridge where I KNOW it will be forgotten about and ultimately rot, I deliberately chop it up and freeze it right away. 

By doing this I very quickly built up a month’s worth of onions in my freezer. Onions that I 100% know would have ended up in compost. And onions that I now could cross off my shopping list.

When wrapping up leftovers, I now right away only put in the fridge what I absolutely know WILL be eaten. The rest gets separated into serving /meal sizes and frozen.

If in two days, the portions in the fridge don’t get used then they get put in the freezer.

 I started getting realistic with myself. Even though there is a pot worth of soup left, we are NOT going to eat it every single day until it’s all gone. That is a frugal living pipe dream in my home.

Same goes for a tray of lasagna, or a casserole.  Pretty much almost everything.

Consciously Freezing also means consciously using what we freeze and not just freezing and forgetting.

I’m going to be posting more on this in the near future. I formed our own little method of Consciously Freezing & Eating in our house. I can’t believe how much food, money, and energy we had been wasting over the years by NOT doing it so deliberately!

Ok so we covered food…

Look at that! You are on your way! Homesteading and Self Sufficient Living here we come!! 

Next up! 

Learning & Building Upon A Wide Range Of Skills to be able to rely on yourself for your family’s needs, as much as possible. Check out our Homesteading Skills To Learn post!

Pages Coming Very Soon on this specific topic will cover:

Being Frugal and Mindful, knowing the value of belongings, time, energy, and money.

Making Things vs Buying them at the store when you can.

Be Sure to Subscribe Below And Stay Connected To Get Started In Homesteading

& Self Sufficient Living!