Summer is winding down. School supplies are on store shelves, apples are ripening on the trees, evenings are shorter, and my food prep/canning is in full swing.
Last year made us aware of vulnerability of our food supply chain and how fast grocery stores can run out of food and other items. Entire departments in stores were shut off from customers, including clothing areas. (I am still puzzled about the dangers of buying underpants and socks.)
Prices are also going up. Just today over 295,000 pounds of ground beef was recalled. That will impact prices throughout the country as inventory is shifted around to cover recalled stock. And it seems that once prices go up, they don’t come back down.
On a positive note, more homes have small chicken coops in the side yard. 6 – 10 chickens can provide all the eggs a family might need. When I was a kid the only people with chickens was a farmer down the road.
A neighbor’s daughter has a small vegetable stand at the end of the driveway. She puts out fresh vegetables each evening, free for the taking. There is a small donation box on the front.
How cute is this?
Vegetable gardens, especially raised beds, are popping up, too. Some folks have been creative, using second hand wood and containers to create the beds. Others have installed pre-fabricated beds of wood, metal, and plastic.
I love the creativity of these wooden beds while the metal one is neat and tidy.
Maybe those 4 plants aren’t going give you enough tomatoes for 25 quarts of pasta sauce, but it’s a start.
And everyone starts somewhere.
The act of Homesteading and becoming more self-sufficient shouldn’t be looked at as if you will one day arrive at Homestead Harbor. “When I have chickens and dairy animals, I’ll be a homesteader.” “I should be raising all of my food myself.” “A REAL homesteader butchers her own chickens.” “Either I do all these things (usually a massive list of skills) or I am not really homesteading.”
Instead, think about your homesteading experience as being on a sliding scale.
To the left side of the scale is Cordialia Clueless. She is completely reliant upon outside support for everything. She purchases premade, frozen meals, has meal-boxes delivered to her door, or eats in restaurants. She may not own a stove, just a microwave. Clothes are dry-cleaned. Her residence is a rental. She doesn’t have a car and is dependent upon public or private transportation (Uber).
On the right side of the scale is Irene Independent, living off-grid raising/hunting/foraging for all her food. Clothing is made at home. She uses solar or wind power. She has a pre-paid cell phone plan. She is a lone wolf.
Somewhere in the middle are 99.9% of homesteaders.
YOU
<------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Completely Completely
Dependent Off-grid
You may not think of yourself as a homesteader but each time you do something for yourself or your family, you move a little to the right. You become more like Irene.
Here are some examples:
Use a product like Dryel to ‘dry clean’ your suit at home – move to the right.
Sew on a button – move to the right.
Shop at a second-hand store – move to the right.
Sew your own clothes – move further to the right.
YOU
<------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Completely Completely
Dependent Off-grid
Pack an apple to snack on at work or while shopping – move to the right.
Bring home a peck of apples to slice and dehydrate – move a little more to the right.
Plant an apple tree, pick the apples, and dehydrate – move further to the right.
YOU
<------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Completely Completely
Dependent Off-grid
Buy eggs and Bisquick at the grocery store instead of an Egg McMuffin at the drive-thru – move to the right.
Make the biscuit from scratch for your homemade McMuffin – move to the right.
Buy eggs from your neighbor – move to the right.
Get chickens to have your own eggs – move to the right.
Hatch and raise chickens yourself for eggs and meat – giant step to the right.
Butcher the roosters for meat – two monster steps to the right.
Hated butchering and paid to have it done – shift to the left, but not too far, you are raising and eating your own meat. And you have acquired a skill.
YOU
<------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Completely Completely
Dependent Off-grid
That’s the movement back and forth between two extremes. Every homesteader finds their comfort zone.
For example, we have apple trees with small apples but because I want to can a LOT of applesauce and don’t want to spend days doing it, I buy 2 bushels of mixed apples. They are usually ‘seconds’, so there may be some slight damage or they are irregularly shaped. This is my compromise on the homesteading scale. When I was working full-time, I would buy a couple cases of applesauce for my pantry/food storage. I moved further to the left because I had to consider my most precious resource – time.
(We eat apples from our trees and use the rest for apple cider.)
Wherever you are on your homesteading journey be grateful for each act of independence. All the little things add up, moving you further and further to the freedom you desire.
Last week’s partial list of homesteading work:
Milked cow, filtered and chilled milk, cleaned equipment 3 times/week – we share duties with our daughter (Bob and Polly)
Picked banana peppers (Bob)
Sliced and prepared peppers for freezing (Polly)
Picked green beans (B)
Snapped, blanched, froze beans (P)
Picked broccoli (B)
Soaked, then blanched, froze broccoli (P)
Made homemade bread for dinner (P)
Chopped fresh grass for cattle daily (B)
Cared for chickens and collected eggs daily (B)
Moved chicken house to fresh grass (B)
Mowed grass (B)
Took daily security rides on property (B/P)
Made meals using garden produce (P)
Used recently canned beef for dinner – we wanted to check tenderness (P)
Helped son buck and cut logs for portable saw mill – a tornado hit our small town and brought many trees down (B)
Moved cows to new pasture (B/P)
Took four head of cattle to auction barn (B)
Made homemade ice cream using peaches from our trees, milk/cream from our cow. (P)
There were many other things we do that are just part of our everyday:
I use glass plates instead of paper for all meals.
We have reusable silicone ‘baggies’ in pint, quart, and gallon size
Dinners were made with our storage and freezers.
I use a tightly woven cotton towelling to strain the milk and microfiber cleaning cloths for the udder instead of disposibles.
We have an aerosolized essential oil blend to spray the cow for flies at milking times instead of insecticides.
I grocery shop with my pantry in mind, not my menu plan.
We relax on our own lake or around a campfire instead of seeking entertainment off-farm.
Each act positions us a little further down the road to Homestead Harbor.
Vegetable Soup – a homestead meal
Bob loves vegetable soup, especially after he has been working outside in the Fall and Winter. I try to have some canned for him to heat up as it makes a good supper if I am not home at dinner time.
This is nearly free food because I make the soup from leftovers and unused bits of vegetables and beef. I store a container in my freezer and when there are 2 tablespoons of peas, green beans or corn and liquid in a pan that no one wanted, into the container it goes. Leftover vegetables (not brassicas), juice or gravy from a roast, small pieces of roast or steak, slices of onion that weren’t used in a recipe, and the shriveled (not moldy) grape tomatoes too sad for a salad are put into the container, layer after layer. Even the ½ cup of liquid used to reconstitute dried mushrooms ended up in the container.
Leftover vegetables, meat, gravy and broth are stored in the freezer. You can see the layers.
When the container is full, I start a second one. (I reuse well-washed plastic shortening containers for this.)
I usually use a vegetable broth starter for my base liquid but today, I was also making pasta sauce with our Roma tomatoes and pulled off the excess liquid. It gave me nearly a gallon of thin tomato juice. I strained the seeds out as I dipped.
Doing this really thickened my pasta sauce, too.
I strained the thin tomato juice to remove seeds and used that as my vegetable soup base. You can see how thick my pasta sauce became, no need to cook it down.
I ran the containers under hot water to loosen up the frozen mass and slipped the food into the pot of juice. From there I brought everything to a boil.
I added a can of whole corn and 3 sliced carrots to the soup. We haven’t been eating corn or carrots very often, so there wasn’t any in the frozen containers.
The broth/gravy and juice from the beef added a lovely color and lots of flavor.
I got exactly 6 quarts of robust beef vegetable soup. They are in the pressure canner now.
Bob gives the soup 2 thumbs up!
Six meals cost me $0.50 for the corn and $0.20 for the carrots. Everything else was either leftovers or unwanted food. That comes out to 12 cents a quart. I was already in the kitchen doing tomatoes, and my time was minimal. I did use my stove to boil and can the soup, so there is the cost of fuel. My jars and rings have been used before and the lids were purchased in bulk. (Just a note about canning lids – the lids manufactured today are thinner and buckle under heat and any kind of pressure. Don’t boil the lids - wash them in soapy water, rinse, and keep them warm in a pot of very warm water. This softens the rubber of the seal. Also, put the ring on and only tighten it until it is on securely. Don’t over-tighten it! This will cause the lid to buckle.)
Homesteading is stewardship. Caring for our land, our families, our animals, ourselves for the glory of God. We have nothing without Him. The gifts we may have - creativity, steadfastness, generosity, kindness, truthfulness, etc. – come from Him.
1 Peter 4:10-11
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
There was a meme on Facebook which really spoke to me. It said, “When God put a calling on my life, He already factored in my stupidity.” Phew – that takes the pressure off.
I love providing for the safety and security of my family through homesteading. God has put this desire in my heart. He knows I’ll do stupid things, say dumb stuff, be my imperfect and messy self, but I’m responsible to use these gifts for His glory. No excuses.
Bob is writing a great article about building a raised bed garden. Now is the time to start thinking about placement and structure. (His gift is teaching – go figure!)
Stay Safe,
Polly
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