Homestead Dreams

Sharing my thoughts on my homestead dreams and why I’m yearning to simplify, pursue more handmade and from scratch living, and get back to basics.

Lately I have been so inspired and filled with homestead dreams! I have always been enchanted by more old-fashioned, slower paced living. Fresh baked bread, homemade kraut and kombucha, sourdough starter on the counter, fresh eggs form the hens out back, vegetable garden brimming with fresh produce, root cellar in the basement, hand sewn linens, barefoot kids running around, meals made from scratch each day. And while I’ve always been charmed by this way of life, I have never been motivated to make it my reality. Until now.

All of the skills necessary to run a home from scratch: cooking, baking, canning, sewing, gardening, fermenting, and more…these skills were ingrained in our ancestors – it was just a part of learning how to live and provide. I have memories of being at my grandparents house in summer, running around in their backyard while my Pop Pop tended to his vegetable garden. And they lived in a very typical neighborhood – not on a farm – but having a backyard garden was totally within the norm.

But the “made from scratch” lifestyle seems to be now more of a lost art. Over the years, life got faster, schedules more demanding, convenience became necessary..and all of these ‘homemaking’ skills kind of fizzled out of existence for the most part. But I want to bring them back! At least to my little corner of the world anyway.

As I said, I’ve always been really intrigued by this way of living, but never took any steps toward actually living this way. But as the pandemic we are now experiencing quickly took hold here, my perspective changed drastically. It’s funny..right before all of this went down and we were under the “stay at home” order, we picked up our first ever baby chicks, which will soon become our backyard chickens who will provide fresh eggs for us. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and was going to be a way for us to ‘dip our toes in’ to this kind of lifestyle.

But with everything happening, it hit me just how reliant I am on the world around me for everything I need, especially when it comes to food. So instead, I decided to dive full-on head first into this world of homesteading, which honestly suits my personality way more lol. And honestly, as an RD who is very passionate about eating real food, I have always wanted to get more in touch with where my food comes from and play a much bigger role in that. I also love the idea of Hayden (and future babies) growing up this way – having a deeper understanding of where our food comes from and more of an appreciation.

So, homesteading. What is it? In a nutshell, it’s living off the land in order to provide sustenance to your family. Now of course there are different versions of this..and most modern homesteaders (from what I gather) are typically not entirely self-sufficient. For example, a homesteader may grow majority or all of their own fruits and vegetables, have chickens for eggs, and raise their own animals for meat, but they may not have a dairy cow or goats on the property and therefore they would purchase their dairy products from a local farmer or grocery store. Also from what I gather, homesteading is a process for sure; slowly overtime you introduce more animals, plants, etc to your land in order to provide more and more for yourself and your family. For example, we now have chickens (not laying yet, but will be in a few months) and I hope to provide a good amount of the produce we would have purchased this summer from our own garden instead. Next year, I would love to ramp the garden up even more and provide food for more than just the summer season – which means I will need to learn a lot about canning and preserving! So it’s basically a continual process of learning and growing (literally and figuratively)..which honestly makes me so excited! I really do love being a student.

I am so excited to bring you guys along on this journey with me, because I think it will be so fun to share what I’m learning, but also it’s something I’ve quickly become so passionate about and I kinda don’t want to stop talking about it! I plan to share as I go, especially on my Youtube channel, as I plan to make videos on my chickens, my first attempt at a vegetable garden, and so on. I will definitely be sharing our day-to-day and my adventures with transitioning to this lifestyle on my instagram as well, so make sure to follow along on there.

Speaking of instagram, when I first started seriously thinking about making this change, I asked you guys if you could share some favorite homesteading accounts with me and I was absolutely delighted to find out there are tons!! There are so many talented homesteaders who are already living and breathing this lifestyle that share about it on social media, and I am forever grateful for them because I have already learned so much. I shared all the accounts on my stories, but I’m going to include them here as well so this epic list can live here on my blog forever! I hope you guys find as much inspiration from these people as I do.

// INSTAGRAM

// YOUTUBE

// PODCASTS

I’m just diving into these and finding a bunch in this genre, but here are my favorites so far:

• Homemaker Chic
• Old Fashioned on Purpose
• Pioneering Today
• Simple Farmhouse Life
• The Beginner’s Garden

// BOOKS

There are tons of books on homesteading, but I wanted to mention two that I grabbed the moment I decided I wanted to make this way of living a reality. The first, called is Handmade, an awesome guide to homemade living and is full of classic, traditional recipes. It’s so handy and is very approachable. The second book, The Backyard Homestead, is an ultimate guide to homesteading (whether you live on a sprawling farm or in the middle of a suburban neighborhood) and providing for all of your own food. It is a bit more overwhelming but I have a feeling this is a guide I will keep going back to year after year – it is very thorough and offers so much information.

I hope you guys love diving into these as much as I have!! I have been learning at lightning speed (there is SO much to learn) and I am still a total newbie, but I’m really excited to share with you guys everything along the way! Cheers to a new beginning and beautiful homestead dreams!!

To try some of my tried and true from scratch recipes, check them out here!