How I came into Homesteading (2024)

After our little was born, my casual interest in gardening became a full blown commitment to homesteading. Being a new parent during a pandemic really struck a nerve for me. The strangeness of stockpiling toilet paper, the delays in shipping, the confusion amongst all childcare systems… I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of all the inconveniences that year brought, it was weird and stressful and especially traumatizing for some of us in more sensitive positions.

Bringing a human into the world was something I had long debated and contemplated. Doing so, during a time of such turmoil, woke up every “mama bear” instinct within me and led me to deeply evaluate our priorities and methods of living. There was so much fear. There was so much misinformation. All I wanted to do was protect my child, keep him healthy and provide the best life possible for him. People all around were questioning authority, as well as the requirements and regulations put upon us by government, culture and society. In my previous post I explore some of the difficulties I had with traditional parenting methods.

Without as many things to distract us, quarantine allowed my husband and I the bandwidth to delve deep on the topics that peaked our interest. It didn’t take us long to determine that what mattered to us most is our health & wellness.

Health is the first wealth. Without health, all else becomes secondary. Through experience, we have come to believe that food is either medicine or it is poison. It’s not about a checklist, or a fad documentary. Trends come and go. It’s understanding that everything we put into our bodies matters. It all must go somewhere, it all must be processed and dealt with. If we want to feel well, we must eat well, we must consume well. It’s the unseen details that matter. It’s how the food was grown and sourced, how it’s handled and prepared. Food selection and food sanctity moved to the top of our list of concerns.

I grew up on the worst of worst of diets. Sugar cereal for breakfast with OJ, a lunchable with Cheetos, Chips Ahoy and Capri Sun, a Kid Cuisine with soda for dinner, followed by a giant bowl of ice cream. When we ate as a family, we ate McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King and Wendy’s. When we were being fancy we ate Chili’s, Boston Market or maybe even Outback. There was was no regulation of food in my house, there were no limits, other than the fact that I wasn’t allowed to touch my parent’s preferred snacks. For mom, it was the Haagen Daz Dulce de Leche and Milanos, for dad it was Doritos, Lemonheads and Reeses. No one cooked regularly and produce was usually only purchased on the rare occasion we had guests. High school led me to be weight conscious, so, I did what a lot of high school girls do, I limited my calories. To keep costs down and energy levels up, I sustained myself on Dr. Pepper and the fresh baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, 3 for $1, from the cafeteria. This behaviour continued into college, my meal of choice being a venti toffee nut latte and either a slice of lemon pound cake or ginger molasses cookie from Starbucks.

During these years I suffered from recurring sinus infections and urinary tract infections. The only access I had to medical care was urgent care or the school nurse. I was prescribed antibiotic after antibiotic. As a result of being so ill and having to maintain a full time job while being a full time student, I often slept during class. However, there was one class I loved and always stayed awake for. The professor was a very health minded, loving woman and when I fell asleep in her class, she inquired what was wrong. She may have been an english teacher, but she was the first person to take it upon herself to teach me about nutrition, the harm of antibiotics and the need for probiotics. The next semester I signed up for a nutrition class.

Coincidentally, I moved into a house of very health minded individuals and my roommates encouraged me to go on a school hosted backpacking trip with them over fall break. The experience changed my life, I immediately added Outdoor Leadership as a minor and got a job working at an outdoor store so I could get discounts on the gear I needed. While working there I met someone that taught me how to cook vegetables and eat real food. One of my coworkers invited me to run a half marathon, and based on a number of reasons I won’t get into here, I went for it. In the process of training, I learned what it meant to drink water. For the first time in my life the UTIs went away. My life was improving so I remained committed to this path of health.

I continued to struggle with sinus issues until I moved to the beach. Upon arriving here, I had the chance to employ my Outdoor Leadership Minor, and became a kayak guide. The long hours in the hot sun forced me to look for better ways to support my body. Turns out peanut butter and fluff sandwiches on white bread aren’t the best fuel for 12+ hour days of paddling in the August heat.

I got a part time job at an organic market where I learned that gluten was inflaming my body and dairy was causing me to have mucus issues. I eliminated those things, and the infections stopped. My dependency on over-the-counter medicine went away. My seasonal allergies were still debilitating, so I went to a functional medicine doctor. Much to my surprise, she informed me that sinus issues are linked to anger. With the help of a therapist we addressed the repressed anger I harbored towards my parents, and, ta-da my allergies improved.

With my physical health rapidly improving, I decided it was time to continue focusing more on my mental and emotional health. TV fell away, as I discuss in a previous entry. I turned to yoga. Meditation and mantra filled my life. I became so committed to this path that I spent several years sharing what I was learning with those around me. Putting myself in the spotlight created a sense of accountability to practice what I was preaching and follow all of the guidelines.

I learned about prana, the life force present in all things. We began selecting living food and spent hours each night freshly preparing our meals. We noticed that when we froze and reheated meals like soup, we experienced gastro issues. We remained plant based until I was pregnant, and then began eating meat that was humanely slaughtered, always preferring animals killed in the wild without stress coursing through its body at the time of death.

One of my least favorite phrases is “cheat” days. There’s no such thing. Our body has to deal with everything we put into it no matter what day of the week it is. The notion that if you only do it “every now and then” or “once in a while” is permissive and misleading. If I made a list of the “harmful” foods that I enjoy oreos, eggnog, cheesecake, m&ms, brownies, apple pie, ice cream, etc. there would be far more than 365 of them, It is possible to eat something once a year and it still be damaging and disruptive to our systems.

What we put into our bodies includes more than just food. It’s packaging. It’s the shampoo we use, the cleaning products, the candles we burn. It’s the media we consume. It’s the people we surround ourselves by. It’s the environments we place ourselves in. It’s intention.

We want our food to be as connected to the earth as possible. It tastes better and makes us feel better. Shockingly, we’ve found, that by switching to organic we actually save money. There are less options, and we fill up on what’s in season. The price of strawberries in the winter is shocking, so we didn’t just replace them, we decided to forego them, waiting for them to be in season. To grow and to can would allow us to enjoy them year round, the homesteading lifestyle continued to draw me in and I ordered my first canning kit.

Since organic items are more expensive, we turned up our efforts to shop smarter, reducing packaging costs and buying in bulk was better for us and the environment. Less trips to the store saves me time. Less wandering the aisles reduces temptation and impulse buys. When we eat organic, we crave less, we need less, we are more deeply satisfied and we are more joyful and resilient. When we put good things into our bodies, good things come out.

In trying to conceive our second child I was forced to reckon with my hormone levels. Given how many changes and improvements I’d made throughout the years, this came as a blow. All the years of naivety and disregard meant there were some deep imbalances that needed to be healed. After reading several books and trying things on my own, I decided to find help. I found a specialist that urged me to improve my gut microbiome using an herbal protocol from the book Super Gut. Upon hearing about my troubles, a friend suggested the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. We grew cognizant of what bacteria and fungi were present in our bodies and I detoxed. I had barely finished the protocol when we conceived our second child. I learned about the benefits of raw milk, butter, fermented foods, beef liver and cod oil. Eager to continue supporting my body, and the growth of my unborn child, I took another leap into the world of homesteading and began making sourdough, bone broth and kimchi.

Having access is to nourishing food is something we can easily take for granted in the age of Amazon Prime. The pandemic stirred up genuine concerns within our household, trucking reliability, distribution issues and even bridge closures. My husband and I both have very active imaginations and he loves a good conspiracy theory. The only way to ensure continued access to real food is to grow it. To grow it requires learning how to manage and prepare it. Building a greenhouse and changing the footprint of our land to accomodate more growth is one of our most active priorities.

The best time to plant a tree is 5 years ago. This past spring we put our money where our mouth is and for Mother’s Day we invested in 7 fruit trees. Our local nursery carried quality varieties fit for our growing zone. The deer enjoyed the first of our apples and pears, but hopefully next year we’ll all be able to enjoy figs, persimmons, and apricots alongside the apples and pears.

In my essay on parenting I discuss a bit about how my son led me towards a very attached style of parenting. Reshaping the way I viewed my time and the worth of my time wasn’t an easy transition. Redefining what we value and then aligning those values in word and action took a lot of discussion and effort. Ultimately, we vote with our dollar, as well as with our time. We can’t always buy the solutions we crave, sometimes we have to create them. We decided to invest the time towards building the future we desire for ourselves and for our children. A question that came up often in my yoga training was: “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?”

It’s delightful to see how much a 2 year old is capable of doing in the garden when shown and empowered. My son helps me start seeds, transfer transplants and is better at harvesting than I am. He is mindful, respectful and reverent. He has less distraction in his world, making watering, weeding, and gathering what’s most important to him. He loves helping and only pitches a tantrum when we get too busy doing the adult tasks and we forget to assign him a safe and appropriate task. The weather is never a factor for him, sun, rain, wind, darkness, he knows what clothes to wear and what tools he needs to be comfortable and he gets mad if I won’t go out with him.

Declaring myself a homesteading enthusiast brought me into new social circles where fellow enthusiasts eagerly and lovingly support me and introduce me to new practices. It’s a welcoming place. It can feel overwhelming at first. It’s vast and expansive. But, there’s no better time to begin than today, and there’s no better place to start other than right where you are with exactly what you have.

I never would’ve dreamt in a million years that I’d be trading my lattes for homegrown herbal teas, but for the sake of myself, my mind, my wellness, my future, the future of my family, and my children, it’s all worth it. It’s worth investing the time. It’s worth sacrificing the growth of my art business to grow my garden.

Food sanctity is sovereign to us, and the only way to ensure clean food is to grow it ourselves. We feel that to teach our children these practices is one of the greatest gifts of self reliance that we can offer them. In order for this major shift in lifestyle to be sustainable, support and solutions from outside the mainstream are necessary, and thank goodness, despite our weariness regarding screen time, the internet makes the knowledge and resources readily available.