It is interesting when we have people out to our farm for the first time. Most of my peers buy their food from Walmart or Whole Foods, and it is rare for them to have stepped foot onto a farm, unless you count places like petting zoos or pumpkin patches…
I forgot my cheeses in the presses again, jar lids are strewn from one end of the house to the other, my kitchen twine pulled out of a low drawer, and stretched around chair legs, dishes piled high in the sink, a load of diapers waiting to go into the wash; its just another typical day. A showcasing of my life as a mother to 3 young children, a homesteader, rancher and homestead cheesemaker.
Do you like to know what you eat? Do you highly value a short food supply chain ? That means you know how important to grow your own veggies and fruits. Vegetables sold in supermarkets are usually produced on big-scale, gigantic farms. Ever wondered why supermarkets sell tropical melons in wintertime?
Hello! My name is Melody and I am the mama and homesteader at our little home that we like to call Woodhaven Way. I have four girls and a boy ranging in ages from 10 to 2 years old. We live in the Minnesota big woods, across the river from where Laura Ingalls grew up in the little town of Pepin, Wisconsin. Life on our side of the big woods (across the Mississippi) is fairly similar to what you may have read about in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book: we have cold winters and hot summers, we make maple syrup, hunt deer, and grow as many crops as our short growing season allows. We forage through the woods for foods we use to make jams and we enjoy a good square dance and pie making contest with the best of them.
We moved into a house on a hill in rural Nova Scotia in 2017, we had two dogs, two children
and two small acres of land. I bought myself a chicken coop and four chickens that summer and
planted some vegetable seeds in hopes to be a bit more self sustainable. I romanticized having
a dairy cow in my backyard but dismissed the dream as simply that and onward we went. Fast
forward three and a half years and we are full on farming, it is hard and fulfilling and a lifestyle I
know will be ours for the rest of our lives. I have my dairy cow in the backyard, and make
everything from butter to yogurt to cheese with her daily bounty – I am exhausted and deeply
content, and a life I once romanticized, I am now living.
Initially, following being contact to takeover Homestead Mamas, my thoughts were “This is an awesome opportunity” and “I grow food in my backyard, is that a homestead?” In pure me fashion (big ball of anxiety hehehe) with sweaty palms and an overly active heart beat the thought crossed my mind to message the representative of to explain that I’d love to do the takeover but tmy little plot really wasn’t a homestead. Clearly I fought that moment of anxiety because here I am! I’m here and super exited to have this opportunity to share the next 3 days with you all! Thank you Homestead Mamas!
I’m not like most Homestead Mamas, and honestly I’m okay with that.
I’ve always kinda swam up stream, been the brunt of a lot of eye rolls, and been happy to be “different.”
But when it comes to homesteading? I’m an Accidental Homesteader, plain and simple.
