The term “homesteading” has become increasingly popular in recent years, but what exactly does it mean? I recently polled a group of moms, and some of the answers I received were:
“Living off the land”
“Making/growing as much as you can vs buying”
“Self-sustainable, back to the roots of food and values”
To me, homesteading is about building self-sufficiency skills in order to provide higher quality nourishment for your family. It’s also about building up your community and supporting local farmers and producers over big box stores when you can. This, in turn, reduces your reliance on the grocery store and brings you closer to where your food is coming from. The best part? You don’t need land to homestead! Here are five ways you can start your journey to homestead in Birmingham, right from your very own kitchen or backyard.
1. Bake Bread
I’ve heard it said that sourdough is the gateway to homesteading, and that’s exactly where my own homesteading journey began. I didn’t have any fancy tools and I didn’t know any of the lingo (Discard? Boule? Open or closed crumb?), but I knew I wanted to give it a try.
I started baking with sourdough last summer after a friend of mine gave me some sourdough starter. Since then, I’ve met so many moms in the Birmingham area who bake with sourdough, so there’s no shortage of starter to go around! While you can definitely make your own starter from scratch (I have friends who have done that as well), the easiest way to jump into baking sourdough is to get some from someone else.
If you are new to sourdough, it’s important to know that sourdough is not simply a flavor. Rather, it is a way to leaven baked goods through the fermentation of wild yeast. If you search around, you’ll find sourdough recipes for just about anything, not just bread. You’ll see sourdough cookies, pancakes, pizza crusts, etc. (And don’t worry, they don’t turn out sour!)
Baking your own bread at home is such a satisfying and fun skill to learn. The most basic sourdough bread recipe only has three ingredients: flour, water, and salt. Compare that to ingredient lists on store bought bread! Homemade sourdough bread is free from additives and preservatives, making it a more nourishing choice. The fermentation process also makes it easier to digest. Plus, if you use fresh milled flour, you lock in so many essential nutrients that are lost as flour sits on the shelf. It’s a win all around!
Food Preservation
Learning to preserve food and building up food storage is essential if you are working towards self-sufficiency. While this can be a bit more work up front, you’ll end up saving time and money in the long run.
One of the best tactics for saving money is to buy produce in bulk when it is in season (and usually on sale!), and find ways to preserve it. During the peak of strawberry season, I bought five gallons of overripe strawberries at half price from a local U-pick farm and turned them into enough jam to last my family through the rest of the year! Last fall, I stocked up on apples from Azure Standard (there’s a Birmingham drop that meets at Inverness Corners once a month!) and made a year’s worth of homemade applesauce and apple scrap vinegar. It was work up front, but now I can just grab a jar whenever we need one.
To make my jam and applesauce shelf-stable, I canned them in a water bath. Depending on the type of food you are preserving, you’ll either use a water bath or pressure canner (the recipe you use should specify). It may seem intimidating at first, but if you can boil water, you can also can. Some additional preservation methods include freezing, freeze drying, dehydrating, and fermenting.
Fermentation
One of my favorite homesteading activities I’ve learned is fermentation. Fermentation can extend the life of different foods and is so beneficial for gut health. Unlike traditional pickling, when you ferment foods using a salt water brine, you create an environment for good bacteria to thrive. Sneaking in a little fermented food with each meal will add probiotic goodness to your family’s diet.
My favorite vegetables to ferment are cabbage for sauerkraut and cucumbers for pickles. I also make fermented salsa by the half gallon because it’s just that good! Try visiting your local farmers market for fresh produce to experiment with. Then, it’s as easy as pouring your salt water brine over your veggies in a glass jar and letting it sit at room temp for a few days. If you aren’t using a fermentation lid, be sure to “burp” your jar every day to allow excess gas to escape.
In addition to fermented foods, fermented drinks like homemade kombucha and homemade milk kefir have become staples in our household. I’ve definitely saved money making these at home versus buying them in the store, especially since we go through about a gallon of each per week!
Grow Food
You don’t need a lot of space to start growing food, and you can absolutely start out small! One of the easiest things to begin with is growing sprouts in a glass jar. Just take some sprouting seeds, soak them for 4-6 hours, drain, then rinse and drain again twice a day. In 3-5 days, you’ll have the freshest sprouts to put on top of salads, sandwiches, pizza, etc. It’s a great way to get your greens in and the flavor will be so much better than what you can buy at the grocery store.
If you want to try out gardening, there are many options to choose from to accommodate the space you have. We built two raised beds for our backyard and ended up putting them right next to our boys’ play-set (since that’s the area that gets the best sunlight). If you don’t have room for raised beds, you can also plant in containers or in vertical planters. Or maybe you have a good area for an in-ground garden. Whichever method you choose, gardening is a wonderful means of providing nutrient dense fruits and vegetables for your family.
Compost
Composting is especially important if you have a garden because you can take food scraps and, over time, turn them into fertilizer. You don’t need fancy equipment or a lot of space.
Our boys helped us build a compost “bin” out of old pallets that I got for free. In our kitchen, I use an old protein powder canister to hold food scraps until I’m ready to take them to the compost pile. I turn the pile with a shovel whenever I add to it and I make sure it has a good amount of “brown” matter (usually fallen leaves) to balance out my “green” matter (food scraps).
Vermicomposting is especially beneficial for your garden and uses worms to break down the composted material. You can DIY your own compost bin out of barrels, storage containers, or even old trash cans.
Bonus: Barter
Once you’ve learned a skill, bartering with others is one way to develop community among fellow homesteaders. I’ve traded kombucha for fresh eggs and sourdough for fresh milk. When we combine our unique skill sets and capitalize on each other’s strengths, then, collectively, we cover so many bases when it comes to nourishing our families well.
Homesteading isn’t just a new trend to follow, and it’s not merely an aesthetic. It doesn’t mean you can’t ever go to the grocery store or get packages from Amazon. Homesteading means prioritizing your family’s health, producing what you can, and looking to local sources for what you can’t. None of us can do it all. But, as a community, we sure can come close.
I hope this inspires you to try out a new skill and I’d love to know your favorite ways to homestead in Birmingham in the comments below!
