Categories: Homesteader // Homemaker
There’s a misconception that homesteading begins with land. I’d say that homesteading begins with the posture of your heart and a little curiosity. In my case it first fleshed itself out with a loaf of bread.
In this beautiful community, we have a handful of mamas who share their skills and knowledge through online courses and insider clubs! In the spirit of the holiday, we have compiled a list of these online courses and clubs that are available to you now, or will be in the near future! This year, give yourself a gift that keeps on giving (and will greatly benefit your family as well!) from our very own Homestead Mamas!
Tis the Season for gifting those crazy homesteaders who seem to want to do all the things! There are so many options out there, that we decided to…
If you’re like my family, stretching meals out is something we strive for, especially our seasonal pastured meats. I often have to explain the value of buying a whole rabbit for $9.99/lb or why we should be requesting our bones and offals back from the butcher. For example, if I roast a whole carcass, we eat it for that meal, the following day meat is pulled off the bone for sandwiches, pot pies or dumplings and gravy, and after that, the bones are used to make soup or broth. That’s a lot of value, when you compare costs of feeding a family 2-6 meals, on one animal.
Raising Turkeys on the homestead can seem daunting when compared to chickens and ducks, but I promise you it is worth it! I have raised Broad Breasted White and Bronze Broad Breasted Orlopp turkeys in the brooder from day old poults to harvest, and also now my dad and I have had a pretty successful year with a breeding trio of barnyard heritage breed turkeys on his homestead.
As a way of channeling my anxiety and worry into something positive, I did what many of us did and jumped on the sourdough train! For me, it was something small that I could control. A distraction from all the uncertainty.
If last November, you’d told me my family would move to 3 acres of land, live in a cedar cabin, own 15 animals, be building a garden bigger than my old backyard, all while homeschooling all three of my kids, I’d have told you you’re crazy. But here we are.
I can’t be the only one out there who bakes according to season. Certain foods seem to fit certain temperatures better. A summer breakfast in my mind includes fresh fruit, maybe waffles, fluffy eggs. But there is something about the cooler fall weather that makes me crave warm, home-baked goods to pair with my coffee, and what’s better than warm, gooey, bready, cinnamon rolls?
This dinner reaffirmed our “why” by allowing us to connect with our local community – it reminded us that in a time like this, community matters. And, because community matters, looking for ways to bring positive change within our community through producing food with integrity is deeply motivating to us.
Let’s talk nutrient dense food and all that love, care, sunshine, and hard work that goes into this. It’s what gets us raising our families in the lifestyle we have or want to, no? My first babe was a water home birth on top of a northern NM mesa where we called home at the time. My second babe was an unplanned emergency surgery at 25 weeks. Which then became three LONG frightening months of touch and go at the NICU in Asheville, NC.
Let’s talk gardens. And gardening while pregnant. Number one. The next baby I’m going to have will not be when a pandemic is happening. Not that that can be planned but that would be my preference. And number two, maybe not being so pregnant during gardening season. I dubbed this year as the weedy Garden of Eden. We do the Back to Eden Gardening Method which worked fantastic for us last year.
Jam is my love language. We honestly don’t eat much jam at home (maybe we will as Rose gets older and asks for fruit in the winter), but I make a ton of it anyway because I love giving it as a gift to friends and to loved ones for the holidays.
When they are young and excited about everything you are doing…. include them. This is the actual challenge. Because it’s way easier and more efficient to milk animals alone, to make dinner alone, to plant 400 onion plants alone. But really the only way to get through this time is to learn how to include them.
Here’s a quick run through of how we set up for and run our on farm processing of chickens and turkeys! I will honestly probably be referring back to this every time we process on farm! Hope y’all can get some tips from it as well!
Raising your own meat can seem very intimidating. There are major learning curves, and you are dealing with living, breathing things that have to be taken care of every single day. But let me tell you… It is beyond worth the fears, and you won’t regret it one bit! I would always tell anyone who wants to raise their own meat to start with smaller animals – pastured poultry is a great place to start!
There will be times when you cannot have a family milk cow, or plant that last succession of lettuce. There will be times when the plants go to seed, and you don’t reap the harvest you planned. I think the goal with anything you love should be, as cliche as it sounds: never stop dreaming, never stop learning, and never stop growing.
My introduction into farming has been more of a crash course. After 13 years in the military, our family decided to go into farming full time. My husband served in USASOC – special operations. If you’ve ever seen a military themed movie, these are the guys who go on super secret missions, jump out of planes, bust down doors, taking down names and the bad guys. You know, the cool job. Well for him… But not so cool for our family.
Homesteading can be lonely. You can feel like the only people in the world who want to know where your food comes from. You want friends and it would be even better if those friends have kids because then your kids can not feel lonely either. It was easier when the kids were younger because they didn’t know what they were missing out on.
Do you have a favorite animal on the farm? It’s honestly hard for me to decide, but I do know that I never want to not have pigs. Our pigs are Kune Kunes, a smaller breed of lard pig, which means they offer both high quality meat as well as high quality fat to be rendered into lard.
Being a mom and a homesteader means you have to have a lot patience and forgiveness. I’ve learned that just a little bit of guidance makes all the difference. Children are so willing and eager to help and learn. Giving them a simple task to accomplish will allow them to have fun, feel included and build their confidence.
So we decided to scratch that and go back to our roots and the first cattle we ever owned: Angus. And thus, we can now introduce the latest addition to our homestead: a 10 week Angus/Charlais cross steer.
Neither of us grew up on a farm or in a food growing or animal raising family. I got the homestead bug and became obsessed right after college and my poor husband has been dragged along into this crazy, amazing lifestyle.
Have you found your nichè? One of the most important steps to making your homestead profitable is finding something that sells itself and pays for your farming or homesteading expenses. For us, that was hand rolled, hand dipped small batch artisan goats milk caramels.
For as long as I can remember, I have been in love with Soay sheep. They are a primitive breed of Scottish sheep, never having been improved for meat or wool. They are beautiful creatures who’s wool is roo’d, pulled off by hand, and have a taste unlike any other lamb or mutton.
St. John’s Wort blossoms create a lovely dusty reddish pink dye all by themselves. But, two years ago, the day before Fiadh was born, I discovered the real magic hiding in the dye.
On Wyndelin farm, the morning meal is an important one. Not only is it the first opportunity of the day to nourish our bodies, it gives us a chance to connect as a family at the start of each day.
We began our farm 5 years ago with a couple goats and some chickens. We have increased in animals by a whole lot since then.
