Homesteading and Sustainability: Are you In?

Homesteading and sustainability have become popular words these days. Learn basic principles and steps you can take this month to start homesteading and living in a more self-sufficient way in the home, the kitchen, the garden, and more! We challenge you to set five specific sustainable development goals for any homestead at the end of the article. (This article was originally published in 2016; it has been updated for your use.)

I know both terms, especially sustainability, have political and cultural connotations, but I challenge you to put a pin in those for the following discussion. These principles embody a way of life that apply to everyone, no matter where they live or what their skills are.

If you’ve been a reader for awhile, you’ll know that we talk raw homesteading around here. We hope to help build up the homesteading community until it’s strong and thriving all over the world, starting in our own neighborhoods.

Today, we’re sharing tangible ways to bring these self-sufficiency principles into our homes and apply on our homesteads this month. Nothing too complicated, I promise!

So, grab your homestead journal and let’s get going!

More Resources for Later

After you’ve tackled this article, the following might be helpful:

How to Make a Successful Homestead

Plan a Permaculture Homestead Layout

Stacking Functions on the Homestead

Natural Solutions for Homestead Problems

Homesteading and Sustainability

Homesteading and sustainability? What do those two words mean to you? They may conjure up pictures of barefoot hippies living in communes so far removed from your sense of “normal” that they don’t feel relevant to you.

Would you be surprised to learn that along with our barefoot, hippy friends in the modern homestead movement there are:

• moms and dads
• paid professionals and homemakers
• children and students
• grandmas and aunts
• bosses and blue collar workers

All of them longing and working towards a lifestyle based around self sustaining cycles of security and provision!

People, just like you, who are using basic principles homesteading and sustainability to create a net of safety and abundance, wherever they live and in whatever ways are meaningful for them.

So, let’s see what all this  looks like. First, a few definitions…

Homesteading

Modern homesteading, simply put, is provident living. As Deborah Neimann writes in her book, Homegrown and Handmade: A Practical Guide to More Self-Reliant Living:

“Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small-scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for the household use. Homesteading is not defined by where someone lives, such as the city or the country, but by the lifestyle choices they make.”

Did you notice words like:

• self-sufficiency
• agriculture
• preservation
• production
• lifestyle

Producing some or all of the necessities of life oneself, is the goal of every homesteader.

Are you thinking that you’re property isn’t big enough for:

• a large garden
• small farm livestock
• a clothesline
• a beehive?

Please pay special attention to Deborah’s provision that homesteading is irrespective of where someone lives. Deliberate living is what sets the homesteader apart from the person who doesn’t consider his home a homestead.

• If you live in a small space and would like some inspiration for your homesteading efforts, please visit Tenth Acre Farm and The 104 Homestead, both of whom are homesteading in very small spaces and in municipalities, as well.

For a longer list of homesteading blogs and books (several pages worth!), please see the resources section of our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead. Don’t have your own copy? We’re saving one just for you right here!

Sustainability

In it’s most basic sense, a sustainable system has the ability to support and maintain it’s own activity over time. Here’s a basic definition from the online Merriam Webster Dictionary:

Of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.

When thinking of your own home or homestead, sustainability might include these ideas:

• living without significant input from the outside
• living without consuming more than you produce
• achieving self-sufficiency in a way that works in harmony with your land and resources
• living off the land in a way that doesn’t extort it for selfish purposes
• enjoying abundance through the hard work of you and your family

Sustainable Politics and the Everyday

The term “sustainable” has a socio-political connotation in our modern culture that may or may not have value to you, but is different from our discussion today.

For us, when thinking of homesteading and sustainability, we’re concentrating on creating self-sustaining cycles of abundance for our family in ways that work with nature and with what we’ve already been provided.

Here are some ideas on how to incorporate everyday sustainable principles into your lifestyle this month:

Here are our best tips on line drying from us here at Homestead Lady.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that make the most difference – try planting more trees with Small Footprint Family.

Here are some methods of off grid cooking from our family to yours.

Upcycle your pill bottles into 22 new things with 104 Homestead.

Small Footprint Family can show you 37 ways to reduce trash in your home.

Swoodson Says can teach you the fine art of furoshiki, which is the Japanese practice of wrapping gifts in material instead of paper. Stephanie does it with t-shirts!

Consider how you can live with less or no plastic with Creative Vegetable Gardener.

The topics of homesteading and sustainability are so important to us here at Homestead Lady that we wrote a whole book on the subject! The Do It Yourself Homestead will empower you to begin this year, even today, to build your self-sufficient lifestyle on level at a time. For the newbie and seasoned homesteader alike, this book can help you set clear goals, persuade your family and help you enjoy the sweet feeling of success. For a free sample of any chapter mentioned here (limit one per family), simply email me at Tessa@homesteadlady.com. To learn more about the book in general, click on the picture below:

Sustainable Homestead Skills

• So, what does a sustainable homesteader know how to do?
• What does this homestead lifestyle look like when self sufficiency is our goal?

I can’t really answer that for your because the journey to provident living is so personal. You will prayerfully or meditatively (whichever you prefer) find that answer for your family yourself.

However, I can highlight a few ideas I feel are important that may point you in a direction that will have value for you.

Sustainability in the Garden

Permaculture is a philosophy and practice of gardening that has great value for the self sufficient, sustainability seeking homesteader. You may not have heard the term permaculture before but perhaps you have heard of:

• Back to Eden
• Lasagna Gardening
• Square Foot Gardening

In brief, permaculture gardening methods seek to mimic the systems of nature to produce food in copious amounts, even in small spaces. 

Here are a few more “green” gardening ideas:

• Learn how to construct a swale even in your urban garden with Tenth Acre Farm.
• Lovely Greens can teach you to start seeds with recycled materials here.
• Here are some upcycled canning lids turned into garden markers for a little fun from Homespun Seasonal Living.

The Homestead Garden chapter of our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead will give you the information and confidence you need to start growing your own food wherever you live. From container gardens for small spaces, to herb gardens to the basics of permaculture, let us help you grow food this year! 

Sustainability in the Kitchen

Food production is a big part of a homesteaders life and we try to see that nothing goes to waste. We learn, not only to grow as much of our own food as possible, but we also learn how to preserve it in any way we can.

1. Canning
2. Dehydrating
3. Freezing
4. Smoking
5. Fermenting

Why Go to All the Trouble?

These are all  methods a sustainable homesteader employs when it comes to making provision in our pantry for our family throughout the year.

We worry less about market prices and shipping strikes because we’re so busy providing food for ourselves that those problems are farther removed from our lives.

In short, we create family security by learning each of these skills. After all, ya gotta eat, right?

The Homestead Kitchen is given it’s own chapter in our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead. Learn to perfect zero waste cooking, the art of fermentation and basic cheeses, preserving foods in a variety of ways and even making your own food stuffs like flour and candy sprinkles. For a sample from the kitchen chapter, just shoot me an email as mentioned above.

Sustainability in the Home

The modern homesteader is very concerned with living as frugally as possible. Not only do we like to save money, but we also want to ensure that we are not consuming more than we produce.

This practice is part philosophy, part skill. To learn the homemaking skills that our grandmothers knew requires some work on our part because these things simply aren’t a part of our culture anymore.

Industry, upcycling, sewing, economy and more are all abilities that you and I can acquire – we just need to put in the effort.

To learn those granny skills, please visit Joybilee Farm and Melissa K Norris.

Save Energy – Including Your Own!

Our homes are the place where we practice resource management and that can include learning NOT to consume something. Or, to consume less of it.

Capital savings and energy savings, even energy production through technology like solar power, certainly has a place in the modern sustainable homestead.

Wrapping our heads around the idea of conserving, recycling, re-purposing and making do with what we already have takes practice. That’s all.

We just commit to begin to day to do more, use less. Sometimes that can mean something as simple as de-cluttering your house.

• Ever thought of tidying up as a sustainable, homestead skill? 

We include an entire section on energy saving and even off-grid living in our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead. If you’re interested in either of those sections, just email me and I’ll hook you up!

5 Sustainability Goals

Apart from grabbing you copy of whichever homesteading book looks engaging to you (it doesn’t have to be our, of course!), here are five goals to work through this month.

#1 Keep a Journal

Begin to keep a homesteading journal. I can’t stress enough how much our success and growth in homesteading is dependent on our commitment to keep good records. They don’t even have to be fancy or organized records – we just need to be thorough and pay attention.

This journal keeping endeavor will help us self-examine and will provide feedback for future improvements. Don’t skimp on this goal!

#2 Draw a Map of Your Homestead

Walk around your homestead and look at what you already have. Again, no need to get complicated; get a piece of scratch paper and a pencil, if that’s what you have.

Start drawing what you see, including buildings, trees, fences – anything permanent and unmovable. Try to observe details.

• Is there a path from the house to the compost bin? Be sure to add that to your drawing.
• Do you not have a compost bin in the yard yet? Pencil in where you think it should go. (Hint: it should be close enough to the house so you’ll use it, but far enough away that you won’t be bothered by it.)
• Try to draw all the pathways that people are already using on the homestead. Don’t forget where animals and livestock roam, where children play, and where the laundry gets hung.

These drawings will help you look honestly at your homestead and value what you already have. They will also help you make future plans.

To learn to draw, or map, your homestead in three different ways, please visit the following article:

3 Easy Ways to Draw a Homestead Base Map

Stacking Functions for Sustainability

As you plan, or design, your future homestead, you can consider carefully how to use each homestead element to the fullest. Often, one element will serve multiple purposes.

For example, an apple tree can provide fruit for your family for many year. It can also:

• attract pollinators
• hold water in the soil in its roots
• provide shelter for wildlife
• shade a warm side of your house in summer
• supply trellis branches for sweet pea vines
• drop leaves in the fall that can be turned into compost or mulch

We could probably brainstorm several more actions that this one tree performs. This asset of homestead elements performing multiple actions in one space is called stacking functions.

It’s like multitasking on the homestead and is an attribute that goes a long way towards establishing sustainability (or systems that perpetuate themselves without much input from the homesteader).

#3 Count & Sub Your Plastic

Resolve to count how much plastic you throw away this month. Plastic is a bugger in the landfill and it’s good to reduce it’s single use and disposal.

However, this exercise will also clue you into how many things you’re purchasing that require wrapping. If any of those items are food related, do the following:

• Set a goal to replace one store-bought, plastic-wrapped item with a homemade item this month. Even if it’s only something small, the exercise will be worth your time.

My first experience with this years ago was yogurt. I learned to make my own yogurt and suddenly I felt like I’d invented fire. It was so easy and I never knew until I tried!

• You could try any number of dairy products, including homemade butter.
• Or what about homemade bread? Cookies? Pickles?

Pick anything and simply try to make a homemade version!

#4 Pick a Garden Project

Only work on this goal if you feel you’re doing well with the other ones. No need to go any faster than you have strength!

If you’re ready, go wander out into the garden – or the area where the garden will be. Pick one area of the garden space you’d like to create or improve.

1. Do you need to start a new garden bed?
2. Do you need to begin from scratch and learn about how to grow your own food?
3. Would you like to stop buying plant food and start making your own compost tea?

Pick one thing and write it down in your homestead journal. You don’t need to complete this project this month, but beginning to articulate it will help you make a solid plan for when you’re ready.

There’s nothing like growing some or all of your own food to make you feel secure and empowered. And, yes, sustainable! 

Typically, we end up with enough bounty from the garden once we’ve learned how to grow food successfully that we can share our abundance with friends and neighbors. This enables them to enjoy food security, too!

We also usually have enough to preserve, which means we are assured of a food source even in the times when our garden isn’t active.

# 5 Don’t Skip This One!

The last goal is to go over the notes you’ve jotted down in your homestead journal while you

• Sip switchel if it’s hot. 

Or 

• Sip hot chocolate if it’s cold.

This goal is just as important as the others. You need time to ponder and rest before you jump back into improving your self sufficiency!

However you choose to up your homestead goals this year, I wish you the best of success! If there’s something you’ve learned, succeeded or failed at that you’d like to share, please do so in the comments below.

You just never know how your words might inspire and assist others’ on their sustainable homesteading journey – you could be the homestead mentor or inspiration that someone needs!

If you’d like to explore these ideas further, I invite you to join our newsletter family and get your FREE copy of the short workbook, Successful Homestead Workbook, which has even more goal setting, brainstorming, and planning pages.

 

Hands-On Homestead Training

 The best training you’ll ever be involved with is that of your own hands. To help you with that, we’ve written The Do It Yourself Homestead!

The Do It Yourself Homestead covers eight topics, with each one given its own chapter:

1. The Homestead Kitchen
2. The Homestead Garden
3. Greening the Homestead
4. Livestock Wherever You Are
5. Homestead Finances
6. Family Times
7. The Homestead Community
8. The Prepared Homestead

4 Homesteady Levels

There are four levels of homesteadyness (a totally made up word) in The Do It Yourself Homestead, ensuring that it truly has something for everyone.

1. Are you a HOMESTARTER, the curious and courageous novice?
2. Or do you belong at the HOMESTEADISH level, with a bit of experience under your belt?
3. Perhaps you’re a HOMESTEADAHOLIC, eagerly pursing homesteading wherever you live?
4. Are you the sage HOMESTEADED type who fully identifies with the homesteading lifestyle?

What’s Inside Each Chapter

With each level comes its own:

• education
• challenges
• goals
• and projects

Extensive resources are recommended in every section to provide further reading and study for the serious homestead student.

Challenges are issued to help you expand outside of your comfort zone and build up your homesteading community – especially the community that is your home and family.

Also included are countless quotes and interviews with real life homesteaders, all on varying lot sizes. Each one has a different family make up, a different vision and a different voice but each are inspiring homesteaders.

Provided, too, are abundant bonus materials including a DIY Homestead Journal, homeschooling addendum to the book and free downloads.

Four hundred pages of quality, DIY homesteading information and encouragement! Please visit our shop or click below for  more information.

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