Living on Your Own – Homesteading Today, is it Possible?
What is homesteading? By definition it is: an act or instance of establishing a homestead. My translation would be, developing your home to become as self sufficient as possible, without relying on others for your basic needs.
There is nothing healthier than eating your own homegrown food, from vegetables to meat. Pretty much anyone can have a garden, even if you are on limited space by having a “container” garden, which is perfect for small areas. If you have the room and the acreage, the sky is your limit on what size garden you’ll want to have! You can grow plenty of vegetables, and even grow enough to last your through the cold winter months. If you are in a colder area, you might have to do a “bumper crop” to help you achieve that.
You can have you own meat as well, chickens are popular not only for the meat and affordability but for egg production as well. Please, please, please though if you are not sure of what you are doing, don’t attempt to slaughter any animals on your own, it can and will cause great suffering to the animal and we don’t want that. You might be better off continuing to purchase your meat from the grocery store, or if you’re looking for a more natural route, find a slaughterhouse to purchase from. Do some researching, slaughterhouses that do kill humanely is the only way to go- if you can get some grass-fed animals, generally the meat is a better quality, and the animals are happy. It’s a tough subject for an animal lover to write about! The meat will be a little higher in cost, but it is worth the difference. The quality is fabulous and in reality you will get more meat because less fat will drain out as you’re cooking.
Chickens are easy to raise, and can provide your family with eggs. The average chicken will lay anywhere from 4-6 eggs per week, less through the winter months. Commercial pellets can be bought for food, but if you want to follow a more natural route, you can feed greens out of your garden, clover, sunflower and the list goes on. Chickens will eat basically anything – the one thing you do want your chickens to have is protein, which leads to egg production. Peas are higher in protein, and I’ve heard that some will feed road kill to their chickens to get that protein in, but I have to honestly tell you that I haven’t tried that, nor do I intend to! Chickens will drink a lot, so make sure they always have fresh, clean water available.
Milk is another function of traditional homesteading, but not always realistic unless you have several acres of land and know how to process milk. I won’t get into this, because I don’t know anything about it! I’m sure a google search online, or talking to a dairy farmer would be the best way to go if you’re considering this.
All in all, our family’s ultimate goal is to only purchase meat, milk and Coca-Cola (our downfall) Our vegetables will be all homegrown, our bread will be homemade and even enjoy homemade yogurt and brownies. Not only is eating this way healthier, especially for lack of preservatives, but it’s incredibly cheap as well. It is not for everyone however, baking your own bread and taking care of your gardens can be time consuming, so take that into consideration if you plan on doing any kind of homesteading!
