There’s Never Been a Better Time to Homestead

There is one thing in this life that is for certain. We need to eat. The way I see it, you can either work for money to pay for your food, or you can work for your food. Some call it going back to “living off the land”, some call it going “off the grid”. I think what we and many others are really doing is a modern form of homesteading where even though we are still “part of society” we prioritize, above all else, our quality of food, the home, and family.

Purely just “living off the land” would be no easy task. No electricity, no running water, no stores to run to when you’ve run out of something. Sure would be tough to raise chicken or beef without any reliable source of grain or hay. Canning all your food would be very difficult without a resource of vinegar, salt, and new lids for jars. Are you going to hunt for all your food, make your own bow and arrows, or spend loads of money procuring all the tools you would need before you disappear into the woods? It sounds lovely, trust me, I GET IT. I have felt similar desires of living a life that focuses on what truly matters. An escape from all the crazy noise of the media and man made bologna like taxes and insurance. It sounds peaceful. But I have also spent long hours actually visualizing what it would take to live a life like that. It would take a whole heck of a lot, even just to find and eat the calories I would need every day! Who knows if I would even survive, let alone be happy doing so.

Fortunately, I think we live in the greatest moment of time where we can take everything so lovely about the “living off the land” ideals and apply it to modern homesteading. Homesteading today is a choice, a privilege, I would say. Not so long ago families HAD to homestead to just survive. That’s how food was grown because grocery stores weren't loaded with the conveniences like they are today (these same convenience foods are destroying our health but that’s a topic for a different article). I often hear from older generations how tough it was having a farm. Some reminisce about simpler times while others shake their heads saying it was “too much work”. We tend to look at this life style through rose colored glasses and romanticize how great it must have been to live simply. But man that must have been a hard, stressful life where each season severely dictated the next. If your grain stores ran out or rodents got into it -you were in trouble. No running to the nearest Stop and Shop for flour. That is why I feel that we are so PRIVILEGED in this moment in time to actually CHOOSE homesteading. CHOOSE inconvenience because it is the thing that will actually provide a rewarding life. And we get to do it with the huge safety net of the grocery store still being there (for now). It is not a “necessity” in today’s world to grow your own food -and some may think you are even crazy for wanting to do so. They say “it’s cheaper to buy food at the store” or “too much work” -there are those pesky three words again! To which I respond, the cheap food at the store is destroying our health and the work on the farm shows you that you are much stronger then you think you are. A farm builds you as you build it. Besides, the way inflation is going it WILL be cheaper to grow your own food. In fact, I believe that the money we are saving by growing our own food is one of the pillars holding us up as we step down from our full time jobs and build our own business. And it is entirely doable to balance a job and homestead. We’ve done it and are doing it. Now, the more you are able to be at your homestead, the more you will reap from it for sure. But the great thing about homesteading today is that we live in the age of automatic opening chicken coop doors, plethora of irrigation tools, light weight portable electric fences, grocery stores minutes away with everything we need to can and preserve, and nut crackers that can go through pounds of hazelnuts with just several twists of its lever. There are so many tools at our disposal that make this lifestyle more convenient and easier then ever.

This brings me to the next topic on my mind, the abundance of homesteading resources! They are everywhere! Whatever your preferred medium you will find fantastic answers to all your questions. Books, Youtube, Reddit, Facebook groups, your local farmers or university extension programs. There is so much quality free information available. Don’t be discouraged by the naysayers, weed them out and find the people who inspire you. You CAN do it. There is also a seemingly endless supply of exciting heirloom and hybrid plants with outstanding quality traits from disease resistance to unbeatable flavor. We are living in a time of true tailored plant diversity from all over the world. We can NATURALLY breed the best qualities of all our favorite plant allies together to form a resilient system. For us and wildlife. We can grow hardy kiwis from Asia, seaberries from Russia, and strawberries from Norway. These noted resilient plants excite me for eating purposes, but also for breeding resiliency into our ecosystems in this ever changing climate. We can leave space in our gardens for the native flowers and plants, and make room for medicines. All the plants that can truly help us thrive in a glorious ecosystem where every living participant flourishes.

Food security. We need it right now. The food system in America is broken and the push for lab created soy based products is alarming. Other countries ban the use of chemicals and genetic modifications that MUCH of our agriculture relies on. Modern conventional agriculture destroys soil health, produces inferior foods laden with pesticides, and has a catastrophic effect on the environment. The future of conventional farming is bleak. With its reliance on chemical fertilizers (which pollute the soil, water, and air), stronger pesticides (because of developed resistance to the overuse of pesticides), fossil fuels (a non-renewable resource which pollutes the soil, water and air) and water (accounting for 80% of America’s fresh water use in a time of more severe and frequent droughts) it simply cannot last forever. With ongoing wars, inflation, bird-flus, food contamination, increasing weather extremes, and health concerns, America is not in a good place. It is a fragile system and it is wise to have food security. It’s time to choose quality food.

More then ever we need diversity in our landscapes and human intervention. Dig up those grass yards and put in a garden. Turn community parks into orchards. Work together with our neighbors to build community-sufficiency. You grow nuts, I’ll grow potatoes, and let’s leave the government out of it. Put in fruit and nut trees that will be able to feed generations of people and animals. Heck, just stop mowing a section of your yard and see how much more life happens there. It is easy to get down about all the destruction we humans cause to the environment, but I think its even easier to get excited about all the abundance we can cause to the environment. It’s a little too late to “leave no trace” in my opinion. I think that is inherently impossible, even if we tried we could not. We ARE nature. In fact, I believe the only way to navigate the future of environmental concerns is to connect with our relationship to the earth and set intention in our stewardship towards her. We have the amazing ability to understand the connections between organisms and be the keystone species that has the observational prowess to design ecosystems that allow every living being to flourish.

We all just have this one life to live. Every day is a blessing. The fact that you are alive and breathing is a blessing. The sunrise on the homestead is a daily humbling reminder. You see that glowing provider of life peaking over the horizon and something deep within you smiles. Those warm rays hug you and like deep meditation you feel empowered to take on the day. The rat race of modern society is not for me. I want to crawl through this life as everyone else runs past. I want to choose what I do with my time wisely because it’s all we have. I want to spend more time with my love and my family and less time with co-workers and car bumpers. I want to always freely move my body and run around like kids until I’m 80. I want to do more with this life then just pay bills and die. The homestead does all this for me and more -and it can do it for you too. People are struggling right now but people are seeing. Do what you can where you are, it is time to start and it’s time to dive deeper.