What Is Homesteading?
January 5, 2023
Homesteading is a way of living where people grow their own food, preserve their own food, and make their own clothes and handmade items to sell. It is sometimes also called sustainable gardening. This practice is a way of life characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and small-scale manufacturing. The pursuit of homesteading is often divided from rural villages or communities living by isolation in both social and physical terms.
A homestead is a dwelling, land, and building that a person occupies as a home and is protected by a homestead law from seizure or sale to pay off debt. A family that grows and sustains food to feed its members is also known as a homestead.
The degree of independence in homesteading is often maximized by eschewing social and governmental support systems in favor of self-reliance and relative deprivation. In order to maximise independence and self-determination, many homesteaders abandon social and governmental support systems as well as food production and craftsmanship in favour of high-end niche markets. Other homesteaders come to the lifestyle after gaining financial support for their land, housing, taxes, and specialised equipment like solar panels, farm equipment, and electric generators from successful careers.
How to Start Homesteading
There are quite a few things to consider when you want to begin a homestead. Food safety codes, building codes, zoning regulations, minimum wages, and social security for casual labourers can all increase the marginal cost of home production of food in areas affected by these restrictions. In starting a homestead, planning everything carefully is crucial to economic success.
The interest and trend in homesteading have risen in recent years. With the rising popularity of this practice, many people have begun to realize the issues of the world today relating to food supply security, health and happiness, and the global economy. Most especially for the younger folks or millennials, people nowadays tend to start homesteading and creating more self-sufficient choices with their food and consumption. In short, people are becoming more aware of the growing need for self-sufficiency - that’s where homesteading comes in.
When thinking about starting a homestead, the key phrase to keep in mind and heart is "live autonomously and sustainably.". These people live off the land, and they tend to be self-sufficient and sustainable - homesteading combined with survival. Because of this, they grow their own meat and sustain themselves. When the surplus is sold, the family (or family clans) can provide for their basic needs. In other words, they can support their homesteads financially.
Homesteading Today
Like the phrases living off the grid and self-reliance, homesteading might mean different things to different people. It really depends precisely on what you want to include in your lifestyle.
The typical definition refers to living independently and sustainably. A family living on a farm or other property is usually involved. They may raise livestock and provide their own meals for their food and survival. It’s a combination of homesteading and survival.
Sometimes, homesteading families turn their extra produce into items they need. They may, for example, produce all the food for their family or even fund their homesteads with these activities by selling any excess produce. In simple terms, homesteading is simply "living on a homestead, owned by homesteads and is protected from creditors by the homestead law.
Today homesteading is now a bonding and productive moment for some families all over the world. It’s now more popularly known as urban homesteading and in modern times has become more common and self-sufficient given all the advancements available.
It is popular not only in rural areas but also in urban homes. Folks in these two areas are getting to know more about growing their own food even if space is limited. For folks in urban areas, vertical gardens have become a trend to grow food. While in rural areas, families live on small farms that produce food enough for their needs. Just go homesteading where you are, whether in the country or city.
Benefits of Homesteading
Just like the many health benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables, homesteading or sustainable gardening also has its perks. And the catch here is, those benefits aren’t exclusive only to you and your family. These benefits are also for the community and the environment.
Time in Your Hands
We all know how important time and energy is nowadays given the hustle and bustle of life. With homesteading, you hold your time in your hands. Your homestead doesn’t have to be huge or have everything you need. You can start your own homestead simply by growing hears by the windowsill or tomato plants in pots.
Other things you can start for your homestead is composting which you can practice in a large bin. Over time, you’ll learn how to adopt more practices into your space, or perhaps you’ll love the idea of self-sufficiency so much, you might trade in your urban pad for a farmhouse and land.
Self sufficient for your family and your community
Homestead is best known as being autonomous and self-sufficient. Needless to say, when you produce your own food, you provide for yourself and your family one of the most basic things to survive. And what could be the best part about this? Any excess produce you may have, you can share with your community!
Save Waste and Money
Saving money and reducing waste is one great benefit of homesteading. We all know that one of the big problems in the economy today is a rise in food wastage, preserved food with less nutritional value, and the production of more plastic which stores grocery-bought items.
With homesteading, you provide a small solution to this growing problem - with your little practice, you grow your own food and reduce your waste consumption in the world. Yes, it may be just a small difference but if you sow the seed of good practice, hopefully, many others will follow.
Common Homesteading Activities
Talking about homesteading, it doesn’t just involve growing plants. There are alot of activities that homesteads include such as raising livestock (chickens, cows, horses, ducks, pigs, sheep) and the usual growing and planning a vegetable garden and cultivating herbs indoors.
Other practices that homesteads do is creating storage spaces and practices to prolong the shelf life of the fresh produce. Some folks create a root cellar or pantry in their homes to store fresh fruits and vegetables. Others practice basic secondary processing such as pickling, canning, smoking, and dehydrating meats and fresh harvests.
And what’s the coolest part about homesteading? When you grow your own plants, you can produce your own furniture from trees or sew your own clothes from the produce these trees have. How cool is that, right?
Summary
Is homesteading possible in today's world? The answer is yes, but homesteading today has changed considerably from pioneer times. You may still live self-sufficiently on a small parcel of land, but many of the tools and techniques for creating your dream homestead are readily available.
It is not just the technical skills of gardening, plumbing, animal husbandry, carpentry, equipment repair, marketing, and business planning that you need; you also need emotional resilience and entrepreneurial spirit to deal with difficulties as learning experiences. Even though you will carve your own route, the satisfaction you gain from doing so is entirely unknown to employees of cubicle farms everywhere.
