Inflation is creeping and many are pointing to the looming food shortages. I thought this might be a good time for us to check in with each other.
It was food that brought me to farming, but it was the instability of “the system” that drove us to shore up resilience in all sorts of areas in our lives. As many of you know, we’re moving from around 85% fed from our farm to 100% after this fall’s harvest. But resiliency is bigger than food. It’s energy and community and heck, it’s one’s spirit and perspective more than anything. Who cares if I have twenty years of freeze dried porridge stored away if my motivations are fear based? To us, sovereignty is a great joy. It’s hard work, yes, but it’s real, tangible, fruitful work for us as best we know how.
I was talking to a family member the other day about how they’re securing things for their family. I was surprised by the answer. In fact, I’ve since spoken to more friends and family and I’d guess that about half of the people in our circle are preparing for food shortages in different ways. The other quarter live in blissful ignorance, fed by the mainstream media. And the final bit are struggling to figure out what to do, often feeling paralyzed by not being able to do it ALL.
I thought this might be a good place to share different ways we’re all growing security and resilience in our lives. That may look different for everyone. Our circumstances are all unique, but I’m hoping we might learn from each other and share some things we’re doing, no matter how small.
I’m also hoping that we might come to see that building autonomy also develops deep, authentic confidence. I can trust myself today because ‘yesterday me’ took care of ‘future me’ that gets to be here, feeling well and taken care of, today.
So, what say you? Where you at? What are you doing? Let’s chat.
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Hey there everyone, I’m Lindsay, a 23 yr old manager of a regenerative livestock farm in New England. With just getting my feet under me and little money i’ve struggled in wanting to be more prepared then i have the means to do, but this past year I have made a few small steps. I bought an old, yellow rusty freezer for 100 bucks and have been filling it with extra goodies i get for free being steeped in the local food system (berries galore these days!) I have also been buying a few bulk items from costco here and there just to have a bit of a store of food, mostly things like rice and peanut butter.
My Main focus has been trying to hunker down and pay off debts quicker, as that feels like a large vulnerability that leaves me tied to this very weird and wild modern world we are apart of.
Thank you for opening up this thread tara, you have been an incredibly powerful matriarchal figure in my young adult life, giving me hope and inspiration everyday for what I am working towards. That being a farm to provide my family a high quality animal based diet, the ability to harvest livestock on farm, and sharing that with others. Ever heard of any of that before? :) Thank you for all that you do, it is truly incredibly important work.
Love this, Lindsay and thank you for your kind words. I think you're on the right path. Freedom from debt before all else. I'm excited for you and where you are at such a young age. You're going places! :)
In the last 3 years we have lost 2 FULL deep freezers. I didn’t know they made thermometer/alarms for them. I’m going to google this right now. Thanks so much for the tip!
Wow Lindsay, kudos too you for being where you are at such a young age! At 23 I was partying and traveling the world and the farthest thing f from my mind was good security… but also times have changed. I’m 47 now and I feel like my eyes have been opened to a new reality the last couple of years… in terms of just how deep the corruption of the system goes and where we are headed. I’ve always been a free spirit, and for me it’s a struggle to maintain that truth of me while simultaneously desiring to buy land and homestead! I’m so impressed when I see younger folks going that route …
I think on either side there is ‘fear’ of ‘what do we do’?
But don’t we know by now that everything they throw at us next is to always throw us off our game ? That this has always been a spiritual warfare.
That we need not fear at all but wholeheartedly TRUST. Trust that we were all so lovingly created, and that this earth abundantly provides for all.
And that what we need to do is only what we individually feel called to do right now in our lives, and that looks different for everyone.
That what we are called to create, can service someone else and so on and so forth.
I guess what I’m saying is , it can definitely get hard when you’re stuck in the thick of it , the fear, that you don’t see a way out , because they’re trying to corner you in.
But in order to receive what we truly need , we need to sit still , be open and listen.
We’ve experienced this personally as a family . While we dream of one day homesteading ( and Tara you are truly and inspiration) , that is not our situation right now , instead we have found ourselves with our rental being put up over an extra $200 pw ( Aus) husband lost a job , and me choosing to be home with the kids and not bringing in an income , it can definitely bring you down. But I said enough, UNIVERSE PROVIDE, because I’m sick of living with scarcity mindset, that we’ve all been programmed to have.
Just like that , my husband got offered a job that can sustain us for the time being , two weeks out form having absolutely no income. Yes we live week to week atm , but omgoodness I am so grateful.
Food wise here we have great little organic fruit n veg companies that deliver , and same with butchers that work with local farmers .
I truly believe we will ALL be ok.
We still need to travel through the thick of it , but go forth with faith. Really let go.
This is wonderful, Elodie. It was that faith and deep knowing that we live in abundance, not scarcity, that saw us through many years when our kids were small. I think in our present day world, people mistaken that for big homes and cars, but real abundance looks, and is experienced, much more profoundly.
For me, a big part of it has been focusing on the "why" I'm doing something. If it is out if fear, I will stack too much on myself and burn out quickly. I've had to learn to admit that with a freshly minted toddler, there is only so much I can do right now.
So I been focusing a lot on developing skills and building daily habits - always with the question am I doing this just because <insert current reason to be terrified here> or does this bring us closer to our goal of a sustainable lifestyle?
I'm grateful to have found several women willing to share their knowledge: Tara, of course 💙, Jessica of Three Rivers Homestead, Ruth Ann Zimmerman and Kate of Venison for Dinner make the top of the list. I'm currently participating in Jessica's everybitcounts challenge, with a goal of preserving something every day in the month of August.
What I love is the stress that the goal is building a mindset; it is taking what you have and rendering it storable in a form you will actually use within the next year while learning that even though long days in the kitchen still have their place, if you intentionally build in putting away 1 thing everyday, even if just a little, those little bits add up. Yesterday, for example, was turning my meager tomato harvest into sauce - not enough to can, but plenty to freeze for a meal or two down the road - and loading up the dehydrator with peppers.
This is wonderful, Danae. You know, during canning season, when I make my vinegar brine, I always make more than I need. It's not uncommon for me to have a pot of that vinegar mixture sitting on the stove for a week or so. Whenever I do morning chores, I end with a trip into the garden where I pick all the tiny, tiny summer squash, baby carrots and cukes. Then it's just a quick wash, sterilizing a jar or two while the vinegar heats up and voila, I've canned another couple cans of whatever. I love the idea of little bits every day. Habit building is life building.
It's so exciting to read so many young folks that are already living the life of thinking ahead and preparing for whatever happens. As a senior, I am so blessed to have been in this rural lifestyle since 1999. Although it was calamity that brought us into it, we KNOW God's hand was guiding and we want to live out our lives on our 56 acres in Texas.
A saying I heard from my long deceased grandparents is still apropos today- maybe you can make use of it:
Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without.
Keep it up folks, you are paving the way for the future and will be leading the way forward. God bless each of you.
I think we'll all be getting familiar with that saying, Nancy. I am so enjoying reading so many of these comments that are woven with hope and faith instead of the doom and desperation that our present day system generates. :)
Tara, one of the fighting founders of this country said, (paraphrase) "Not every generation is given the honor to fight for something worth dieing(sp) for". and we believe God has granted those of us alive today the honor LIVE in such a way to encourage others to do the same. It happens to be a fight right now, but He never asks what He's not able to perform through us.
Hello! Wife and mama to 3. We have been actively preparing for over 3 years. We have a small farm on 1.8 acres with a small herd of dairy goats for milk and meat, Kunekune pigs for breeding and our meat, chickens for meat and eggs, rabbits for meat and manure, 10 bee hives, recycled window greenhouse 12x25 and huge gardens and landscaping full of medicinal herbs, flowers, and food. I have researched tirelessly over the years everything we grow to how to better raise our livestock. We are working on a years worth of food stored up, both homegrown and store bought. We follow the Prepper's Pantry Book for how much and to that I add 10# of salt per person with extra for preservation. It is wise to store up everything we use in a year to last us a year if we couldn't get to the stores. We are working on aquiring books with all the knowledgeable things we look up online. Gardening, herbalism, animal husbandry, home repairs and maintenance, homeschool supplies and curriculum, history books, fun reading for kids, canning and preservation, butchering, first aid how to. We have livestock guardian dogs as well. This year we plan to continue putting away as much food as possible, growing a fall garden for our livestock filled with turnips, beets, kale, oats, peas, in case of supply chain issues or fuel shortages. Restocking our apothecary with herbs to help the most common ailments our family deals and each family will be different so just think about the past few years. Increasing our security of our property being a big one. Security wise we will be installing solar motion lights around our buildings and property, no trespassing signs, driveway motion sensors that will alert us in the house, to name a few things. Each paycheck we get a little more of the things we need. It is wise to pay off all debts as well. So if I had to sell things to do that or downsize I would. Saving 6 months of living expenses as well is wise. Start by saving $1000 emergency fund, then 1 month living expenses, then 3 months, then 6 months little by little. We are doing our best and praying about the rest. We do not prepare out of fear we prepare for joblessness, inflation, death or just hard times.
Wonderful! Thank you for sharing this, Chelsey. It goes to show that with dedication and tenacity, much can be accomplished on even a smaller piece of land.
We try our best to steward our little piece of land as best as we can and to be grateful for it. It sure has given us alot, taught us and continues to give.
Hi Chelsey, I'm curious as to how you do all that on only 1.8 acres of land. Do you have an IG account, or something, where you post about your farm? Thanks!
I am a mother of three little people under 5 years old living in Midwest America.
My goals are different maybe than some I’m reading here. We live in the suburbs so a smaller yard and no livestock. My focus has been on building relationships with those who grow the food we eat. For several years now we purchase half a cow and many butchered chickens from a local Amish farmer - meat stored in our freezer. I’m learning how to cook more traditional - less “American standard” foods. We participate in a local CSA for most of our summer produce and will purchase winter produce as needed. We purchase eggs weekly from a third farm. Raw milk is not legal to sell in our state so I’m still working on making friends and finding a way to purchase.
What feels like sustainable growth for me personally is to learn and try something new each year but it’s smaller steps. The first year we purchased half a cow we got the meat cuts, this year I knew better and made sure to get all the bits - organs tongue fat and bones.
I’ve got a small garden and teaching my children about where food comes from. I hope to learn how to can but I know my time is limited with three small children so I’m just picking one thing to try this fall - we will purchase apples in bulk from a friends farm and make and can as much apple sauce as we are able. That will give me a chance to learn a new skill with out getting too overwhelmed.
I don’t know that we will ever own a farm but right now in this moment it feels important and timely to get to know the close farms our food is coming from and keep building a sense of community in this small corner of the world we find ourselves in.
I don’t want to live with a sense of dread - I don’t want that atmosphere for my children. So I work hard at my own attitude and outlook. Working on feeling thankful for this amazing nutrient rich food we have to eat and being vocal about the things I am thankful for so my children see that.
I am thankful for you all and the sense of community I feel here in this small corner of the Internet.
Hi Saralyn! What a beautiful post. I’m also from your state- I wonder if we are close. I’ve been dealing with the same elements as you, food wise. The Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader in your specific area could be a big help as well!
Love this, Saralyn. I don't think your goals are different, hopefully, we are all coming to this place where relationship and community building are paramount again. It's so wonderful to hear from people in all circumstances. Thank you for sharing this.
Hello everyone. Tara, I'm newer to Slowdown Farmstead, this lovely resource you've created. Just a quick thank you. What lured me in was your writing (good writing works every time on me :) and what keeps me here, opening *everything* you send by email, is your approach to this life. It is a big, beautiful drink of fresh water to experience what one feels within in others. You are brave and more importantly, your desire is to experience the realness and the beauty in this life we are gifted. And you have discovered that it has nothing to do with what the mad world swirling above our natural world tells us. I feel this is what bonds us all together, when we drop down from the blackening cloud we were swirling around in: however we fell from it and found our feet on solid earth, we are here, and when we look around, we eventually find others. It is medicine, in all ways. We teach each other, learn from each other, comfort each other and encourage each other to return to the nature within us and around us and forget the maniacal clammer of the crowd.
My name is Grace, I'm 33 years old. I'm 9 months pregnant, due sometime quite soon. My first. Having my baby in my apartment in a slightly more woodsy area of Philadelphia, near where I was born (I was a city kid, moved out to river country when I was 12). I'm not with a partner, and spent the last 6 months serving full-time at a restaurant to try and store away "acorns" for this next step in my journey. I came back from three seasons in Alaska fishing for salmon on a small, "sustainable" fishing boat, and crash landed here in the city because it's the only place i could afford and it's near my family. I felt i had no time to dally...it's true, pregnancy is a tried and true clock and if all goes to plan, it will keep dutifully ticking toward the day :)
Pregnancy has been strong medicine for me. It has woken me up and made the real things in my life ALL the realer, and has begun the work of shedding the unnecessary, the clatter, the burdensome with deft skill. I am a much fiercer and much softer version of myself, for which I am very grateful and eager for more. I've seen what i know within for a long time, but the visceral desire for action has never been stronger.
That said...I have always been drawn to the land. I am deeply in love with foraging and wildcrafting, though not as practiced as i would like. Still, after the plant kingdom opened its doors to me years ago, I have found that i have a strong instinct with plants and their relationships with us. This is something I feel is a very necessary power to have and to hone. I've spent a few seasons working on organic, small farms and i use that knowledge and my own to continue becoming a better gardener. I made a little fallen lumber raised bed this spring on my front lawn. It makes me happy but I'm also keenly aware that it would not support any kind of food shortage needs. Still, it's sharpening the skill.
A few months ago I started my library of resource books. Everything I can think of - from tree medicine to preserving food without cold storage to wildcrafting medicine and food to yurt building. I want to continue expanding my library while I'm "sitting duck" in the city. I already have a good practice with fermenting foods and making tinctures, but three years away on a salmon boat has made me a bit rusty at my homesteadiness :)
I do have a Berkey water filter and have been stocking up on filters whenever there are sales. That to me is more portable and useful than a bunch of water saved up.
I've been daydreaming of my options. I have less than 12k to my name that I've saved before the baby gets here. I have no current plan to make easy money so that I don't dip into that savings while I'm not working. I'm thinking maybe some online transcribing job or something. but the truth is, I don't want to go back to work in the city. i want to be savvier and use this little chunk of savings to either help me raise a yurt that i can place on someone else whom i trust's land....or get a little piece of land myself. Putting myself into debt over a property scares me, I'll admit. But the thought of working to rent and afford groceries is far scarier.
What I picture? A little abode, be it a yurt or a cabin, and land enough for me to work with, collaborate with, in wild and cultivated capacities. Making medicines and tinctures I can sell in crafty ways, maybe getting brave enough to try my hand at writing for supplementary income (writing what i want to write). Not feeling beholden or a burden to anyone. Immersing myself and my baby completely in self sovereignty, as best we can find it in this world.
I'd love advice. It is hard to find advice about these desires, because these desires are terrifying to most people who have become very confident in their lives of luxury and convenience (not seeing what they are asked to trade for it).
I want to act soon. Opinions are welcome! I am not driven by fear to do this work...which i think is a big indicator of the work's merit. This excites me, makes my heart leap up, makes my creativity ignite all cylinders. Makes me alive :) Fear is what would motivate me to not leap into my own self sovereignty and out of the leaking system. I do agree, Tara, that this must be motivated by genuine desire, or it will burn a person out quick.
Here's to all you brave and peaceful souls doing the work in your own ways. May we continue to learn from and encourage one another.
Congratulations, Grace! Your clarity and motivations are impressive. I wish I could offer advice on what will bring you to where you want to be, but I'm not sure that's the way life works. For me, knowing that my soul was aligned with a life next to nature, on a farm with beasts of all shapes and sizes and trees and rocks and life all around me was where I would be home was something I fed myself every day. I knew I would one day be there, but in the meantime, I had to taste crumbs of that feast to align myself with the tangibility of that world, especially when it felt so far away.
I used to walk through little forests, even just a few metres long in the city. I would go for walks on dirt trails and take off my shoes, sit or lie on the earth - letting her get to know me, sharing my secrets and desires, asking for collaboration. And then, looking back now, I see that a door opened and I went through. It didn't look like the door that I wanted to open at the time, but it was interesting and hopeful and I was curious. So I moved in that direction trusting. Then another. Then another.
What a loopy ride.
The first farm we bought had a house that should have been knocked down but we couldn't afford to do that. It was horrible, but the land was gorgeous and that's what I was there for. I would never be here, in my modest dream home if not for all that came before. I can see that your vision is clear and your heart full. I'm awed. xo
I have two kids, 7 and 10 and a step daughter as well, so I’ve done the baby thing and had a partner at the time. I was a single mom for a bit, with no child support and nothing to my name except a school bus that I converted. I lived in it on my parents (rented) property. I met my husband in this time, and it worked out fabulously, but I was fully expecting to go it alone.
I think that would be my advice: buy a portable home so you and your baby have some security. School buses are cool, but you may not want an engine to worry about, so maybe an airstream or tiny home (paying to have it towed is not a huge deal as long as it’s not too far). Finding land to park it on depends on lots of things, and I don’t know what it’s like there where you are. Best case scenario, you could buy raw land down the road and have something to live in on it, or you could find a farm to live on with like minded folks.
My aunt raised my cousin as a single mom from the beginning, and she stayed in the community she wanted in this way, with her cool blue school bus :)
Here where I live in southern coastal BC, there is a housing crisis and MANY people are turning to rvs and such in order to stay in the communities they love or grew up in. Land ownership here is far out of reach for many, but lots of people who do own land (ourselves included) are putting in rv pads so more people can live on our property and we can make a small steady income to increase our security in this weird and seemingly collapsing system.
Don’t underestimate the value of family support when you have a kid, and the benefit of grandparents in a kids life. I didn’t have extended family close growing up, and my kids have it now, and it’s the best. I don’t know how I would have done it without my parents help, and I did have a partner most of the time.
I hope to hear about the baby when it comes :) You are clearly a strong, capable and thoughtful woman and I wish you all the best ♥️
Philadelphia, PA?? Grace, you live so close to me? I have much admiration for the way you’ve prepared, and the clear intentionality in the way you gather your thoughts around your life. Pregnancy (also my first, also without a partner) was also a portal to potent clarity for me, in a way that I could not have anticipated, and now as I raise my babe I am so grateful to past me for all those little gathered nuggets even though they STILL seem so small in light of the whole. I’m just happy to be a part of it all, and to learn from so many (like Tara) who have walked a wiser path before me. Sending the warmest of wishes to you and your wee human. May this birth passage be exactly to you what it needs to be. ❤️
We source locally and preserve and grow because we know that the fewer folk between us and our food the better. As my farmer friend Liz and I say to each other when processing meat birds, a steer or a pig together, "No stranger touched our food" this has been a way of life for us for 10 years living in or next to a rural ecovillage in Western NC, US. We do it out of love not fear. And for wanting to be more connected to each other, the land and all the intricate web of life that supports us. Whether it's the foraged wild mushrooms or the fat from s spent laying hen that nourishes us, we are connected to our sustenance. I rarely visit supermarkets these days. Few things that come in shiny packaging appeal to me. I can hardly stomach the idea of good like substances produced by corporate machines nurturing our precious bodies and lives. We live in one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet and while doing any of these tasks to grow, process, butcher, preserve takes great time and effort the rural lives we heartily enjoy support us in our endeavors. Pondering upon it some more, I realize how incredibly wealthy we are through the food we steward from farm to fork.
We are a family of 6 living on my husbands small income, truly hovering the poverty line. We live on a small plot of land only big enough for a small garden.
Some of the things we’ve been doing:
Paying down any debts we have. Something about having debt going into the next few years scares me more than I care to admit.
Restarting my home business that I sidelined when we had our children. We need the extra income, no matter how small. It is nearly impossible to live on one income (less than $50k). We do it, but it’s very hard and we are barely making it.
Buying out the store when anything is on sale. For example when Kerry gold butter is even $0.50 off, I buy whatever they have. It adds up to a few free lbs of butter if I buy enough. Also scouring the grocery store clearance sections for organic produce and grass fed/free range meat. We can’t afford farm local raised/pastured meat, so when an organic chicken is $8 instead of $16 on clearance, I Grab them all. I know it’s not the best meat but it’s what we can do.
We are in the process of trying to get rid of things and streamline some processes to save money. I’m going to try and potty train my youngest two early to get rid of the diaper expense. I regret not cloth diapering with my first but I didn’t know we would have four children, lol.
We are trying to figure out how to get a wood stove installed cheaply because we have a free wood source that we want to utilize.
And lastly, just all around eating less. Because that actually save a ton of money!
Sorry so long! I’m looking forward to reading what everyone is doing!
Thank you for sharing this with us. Getting rid of debt is a huge, monumental, delicious, freeing goal. I think it's where we all need to start. I remember being in similar circumstances to you and one of the things I found hard to start, but easy to continue, was to set aside a bit of money every month so that we could buy bulk meat and fowl from farmers in the fall when the harvest brought us the healthiest critters at the most reasonable prices. At first, it was tough to set aside money because we were barely able to meet the costs of our groceries as it was, but once we had full freezers (we bought two old rusty ones for $50/each), it freed up some dollars that we tucked into envelopes. Yes, we used the cash in the envelope system and it saved us.
This summer we invited a group of people to our home once a month to talk, eat, network and learn about homesteading. It's been really good watching people exchange information about the best place to get chicken feed and how to make kombucha and stories about grape vines that didn't have arbors for five years but do now, and aren't they beautiful? We learn from each other, but we also make friends. And that feels really important.
We have a freezer full of meat, and just bought another one to fill with veggies and more meat (from some of our pigs. We got too many this spring).
We are market gardeners, so we grow basically all our veggies, but we barter for fruit and mushrooms with our fellow vendors at market. But I do want to start some shitake logs this fall. And we got our first peach this summer!
I want to dry a lot of burdock leaves in case we have to deal with large scale burns. I also need to take inventory of the medicinal herbs I have dried and replenish what needs to be replenished..
Hopefully the winter squash, sweet potatoes and potatoes do well and we will have starches for the winter. But I also would like to buy a 50 pound bag of organic black beans and one of white rice to freeze and then store, just in case.
I plan to get a 22 rifle by squirrel season, so we don't have to keep asking our homesteading neighbors to come help us butcher. Although, it's been really amazing having them come and help!
I also want to take a self defense class this winter.
I'd like to get a hand pump for our well, a European style scythe, a corn sheller and a bike powered grain mill but those all seem pretty far off. In the back of my mind I think I am actually planning on a power outage, too.
This is such a hopeful and positive comment, thank you Laverne and Julie. I am so buoyed by how many people are taking on these things with resolve and goodwill. Exactly what is needed at this time - coming together.
It's been interesting for us to see how less hungry we are when we add less starch into our diets. I actually moderate starch and limit to high energy use days to control glucose/blood sugar which controls ghrelin/leptin. It's been my understanding of this physiology that makes us less concerned about the starch aspect and more concerned with the protein/fat. That said, we have potatoes and winter squash growing too. I see it as survival food more than nutrition although the variety is nice. But I do think that a lot of the types of foods people put away (not you, but the commercial type survival foods) are altogether an awful idea for not only nutrition, but satiety because of their heavy reliance on starch. I would be a basket case eating that way.
I am from Eastern Europe, Lithuania, and at the moment the potential Russia invasion threatens us more than food shortages. Personal security matters….
No food shortages at the moment, but prices are rising exponentially.
I feel confident with our family goal (for last 10 years) to increase our own grown&foraged plant food supply. And our own already makes app 90% in volume. Little nice things aside, we can survive on our grown& foraged- dried, frozen, fermented, canned and storaged in root cellar plant foods.
Still, the animal foods are more important and make even higher volume in our plates.
The animal food we buying from our neighbours ( whole animals, slaughteted on site, egs, milk). We preparing to raise our own animals in coming 5 years.
Frankly speaking I do not see any food shortage threat, if you live in the country. You can grow or barter. Still the biggest problem as long as I renember is the real, organic food shortage around…because of the people not understanding, or greed, or choosing the easier way to grow or raise.
This year is particularly bad for most vegetables, due to the rains. They spoil potatoes, tomatoes and probably the grains. But the grazing animals thrive!
I'd say it's similar here, Modesta. We aren't really seeing the food shortages yet. The grocery shelves are not as overflowing as they once were, but by and large, most are seeing the increasing costs more than the scarcity. It's what's happening behind the facade that I hope people are paying attention to. Sounds like you have a beautiful set up, that's wonderful :)
We are in the planning more than the doing stages, and I am concerned that we are not doing enough soon enough. We do have long shelf life survival food, but that’s not a long term solution (we live in a hurricane prone area so emergency food here is common). We are starting to buy shelf stable foods like beans and some canned goods, but I see that as last resort foods for basic survival and not for thriving. Our plan is raised bed gardening starting this fall when Florida’s vegetable growing season starts, but the preservation process we will use needs work. I do believe chickens are in our future. So, we have a lot to do in a short period of time. I am also getting my .22 vintage rifles read for hunting should that be required.
Hey there, if you are into learning from YouTube, there’s an amazing Florida urban farmer to look into named Joe Kovaleski. He grows all “winter” but also grows sweet potatoes in the summer, unattended. 💚
Preservation long term? We have to refrigerate these sweet potatoes because we don’t have root cellars in Florida, nor basements. If left out more than a few weeks they dry out or rot. Delicate things these Hawaiian purple sweet potatoes.
I’m a 29 year old mother of 5 living in the Midwest region of America. My husband and I bought a fixer upper farm 6 years ago and have been steadily working on it to make it our homestead. We have a large garden that supplies a lot of vegetables, and 35 layer chickens. We have room for ruminant animals... but we aren’t there yet. Hopefully next year. My goal (which I am living) is to completely buy our food outside of the conventional grocery system. We raised our meat chickens this year and last year, but took them in to a processor instead of doing it ourselves. Next year we will process them ourselves. I buy bulk fruit from a local Mennonite store and can/freeze it. I can and freeze our vegetables from our garden. We buy bulk ingredients from Azure. We buy a 1/2 cow from a local farmer, who also makes his own chicken feed - no reliance on tractor supply here! My new-to-farming parents raise a few pigs each year and we get one of those each fall. I’m happy with where we are right now, but the ultimate goal is to be mostly independent of buying food, and producing it ourselves. It’s good to have a years worth of food in the freezer and on the shelves, but where does that put you come next year when prices are that much higher and you have to buy it all again?
This is certainly at the top of my mind. I've started with a small vegetable garden in the backyard, cooking from scratch, eating real food and buying meat and produce from local farms in northern Ontario. I also like to read and learn. That's where I'm at.
We are a family with 2 small children, we live far from our families with little to no support. We talk a lot about wanting to grow our own food in kinda the same way one would talk about it being nice to win the lottery.
I tell myself I don't know where to start or what the next step is. I tell myself I'm too exhausted to think and try.
Anyone out there have a long list of must read books on this topic? I want to dive in and learn and make this a reality.
You might enjoy "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" if you want tons of info. If you are more into inspiration and some practical ideas, what about "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. The Square Foot Garden book is great for starting small and making the most of what you have. "Gaia's Garden" and" Root Cellaring" are good too. And if you want to start foraging, Samuel Thayers has some really great books. The Forager's Garden, is a good place to start. And for home health, I like, "Be Your own Doctor," by Rachel Weaver.
You know I am guessing that there are other times in your life when you were overwhelmed and exhausted but you figured out how to keep learning and growing and functioning anyway. Remind yourself of those times regularly. If you don't remember other times like that, then make memories and then remind yourself of them over and over. Do one little thing and then do one more thing. You are in a hard stage, but you can do little things to keep your sanity and keep your family healthy. You can do this!
I'm fortunate to have our small rural library request mostly any book Id like to read. This has been my sanity.
I'm also realizing that I have things to celebrate and that I haven't been a friend to myself in a long time. I'm working on some self compassion which I think helps me to feel unstuck and move forward in providing and loving for my future self and family. I also have my resourceful-ness to celebrate. Thanks, I needed a reminder of that!
Laverne and Julie gave you some wonderful suggestions so I will leave it all at that. What I will say is a comment to you saying "I tell myself..." Sometimes, when I "tell myself" something long enough, I start to believe it. There is no antidote to spending too much time in your brain like getting out and doing something physical as remedy. I knew nothing about gardening so I found someone that did and spent a few hours a week helping her which was the best type of learning I could do. If we imagine where we want to end up and measure that distance from our beginning point, it can be overwhelming. That's not how anything happens, but it is how we keep ourselves stuck. Paralysis by analysis. Let go of the result and just plug into the little bits you can start. It's also wonderful to read (I read every book I could get my hands on), but your body and spirit need to be in the tangible world DOING as well. Important stuff :)
Here is Australia I've invested in a second freezer and already filled it. I'm considering a third but want to organise a back up power option before I do so. I've expanded my gardens and can now grow double the veges and herbs and gotten a couple of chickens that are already gifting us with eggs. The end goal is to end up on a small farm but in the meantime I'm making this work for us and leaning plenty along the way ❤️
I've also met a lovely group of women on this journey and we are looking at things that we can collectively do together.
Hello everyone! My husband and I along with our 2 young children moved onto our first farm in 2020! In 2021 I had a home birth at the farm and now we have 3 little munchkins running wild and free amongst the animals! We did not come from a background of raising animals, or knowing how to preserve our food. Taking the moments abundance and looking to care for the needs of our future selves, as you spoke about Tara, was not gifted to me and I have found myself lamenting that loss of wisdom in my life. I have looked to people like Tara, books, and any human with a skill I desire to grasp as my guiding light as I have slowly, because 3 small children, chipped away at learning and fine tuning my skills in the kitchen as well as discovering what skills are required to properly raise the animals that will one day gift us nourishment as evidence of a life that was well lived. In this journey the past two years I found that my overwhelm in needing to know everything at once was present in everyone around me who wanted to make changes, but simply froze due to the desire to arrive before beginning. My journey in preparing for the future has begun with respecting time. I used to listen to Tara speak about the multitude of projects and bubbling concoctions, savory chutneys and delectable dishes she prepared and it often left me feeling so far behind. I very recently realized that my envy of her skill was disrespecting the years of time and effort and hours she has logged learning. My gift to myself is starting, then persevering, and then passing the wisdom I cultivate to my children. The gift to my children is each time I teach them along with me so that their road will be a little less steep when it is their turn to provide for themselves and the ones they treasure.
This is such a beautiful, self aware post, Lexi. And thank you for the bit about realizing that I was just a gal that started at zero, too. I try to emphasize that with people as much as I can. I just learned bit by bit and I'm in my fifties now. I was as impatient as the next person with all I had to learn, now I'm old enough to know that I will never, ever learn all I want to so I just appreciate what I have learned and keep on plugging along, staying curious, and picking up a new thing here and there as I go. Peace comes with that. You are in such a good spot - possibility reigns down :)
I am struggling with my urge to increase my food security and lack of funds to make it happen! I want to buy a quarter of beef and/or some quality lamb or pork, and expand my poultry and garden areas, but I’m quite literally unable to afford to do any of it now....and I wonder if it will be too late by the time I can. It’s a worry. I am poor, but debt-free, and not sure if racking up credit card debt to pay for the things I need is the direction I want to go. In the meantime, I’m preserving chicken and duck eggs for winter and trying to buy an extra dozen canning jars when I can....
Don’t go in debt. Do what you can and if things really do go bad, you will likely find help from someone or somewhere that you didn’t expect. You are on the right track Krista.
Just start by getting an extra package of ground beef or chicken or can of tuna every time you shop. It will add up little by little. Every time that I cook something that is freezeable, I try to stretch it out for an extra meal to freeze. I freeze fruit that is about to spoil (although, tbh, a lot of it goes to my pigs to make bacon 🥓).
Do you have a skill or talent that you can use as a bartering tool? Can u volunteer on a property to earn some produce or meat? Can u watch extra kids and take meat as payment? Sometimes we have to think differently about getting what we need. Not just cash and stores. 😊 you will do great!
Love these ideas, Amanda. I used to volunteer on local farms in exchange for eggs and some produce when our kids were small. I picked up some skills and got some goods. Krista, you're on the right track, but don't go in debt. Your debt free life is your sovereignty and your freedom.
Grow and preserve. Aim for as much shelf stability as possible, so use Fowlers (I’m in Australia) to bottle all our homegrown fruit and tomatoes. We only eat meat we hunt (rabbit, deer, roo) our dams are stocked with perch and cod to fish and eat. Make our own ciders and wines and vinegars. Teaching our children to forage for Saffron milk caps, slippery Jacks, Turkey tails. Dry and dehydrate food in the sun or in the wood oven. Breed chooks for meat and eggs. Seed save. Eat seasonally. Be in community - join a community garden. Eat and grow everything you can
And homeschool if you can, teach them life skills, our 4,5 and 7 yr olds are learning to whittle, carve, sew, hunt, forage, tend animals, garden, cook, preserve. Start them from day one. Live simply. Enjoy it. Not fear but freedom based!
We are working to all of the above as well here in Australia. I don't use fowlers but use weck as I like the glass lids 😊 Homeschooling has been the best thing I've ever done! So much more peace and enjoyment of life.
Hi! We aren’t talking actively about food shortages or economic collapse - I’ve been thinking about why a lot lately and I think it might be that we are too busy - I’ve decided that I am not going to have fear at the dinner table or in our daily life...and I think a huge part of why we don’t have that is that we are in the midst of being prepared. Here’s what we’ve done/are doing
1) bartering. We have a milk cow. Our neighbors have eggs, meat, maple syrup, hay, skills. One neighbor was just over for yogurt and ended up helping my husband shore up a window...we traded yogurt for his skills. One of our hay contacts gave us a reduced rate on hay in exchange for milk.
2) generator - we have a generator to keep our three freezers, our water pump, (and I don’t know what else he has hooked up to it) just in case
3) stashing cash. We keep all of our cash payments for milk (we can sell off the farm if people come to us and take out of the bulk tank). We use this to buy feed (yes we feed some grain because we milk through the winter for bartering
3) preserving - right now I probably have 20lbs if cheese aging - it’s a goal to stop using the dairy aisle
4) shopping in bulk for major staples from Azure standard - which I just started doing
5) canning and veg processing. We have an entire garden set aside just for squashes - also growing root veggies to ferment, tomatoes to can.
6) continue making meaningful connections so we can share the bounty of our cow with others. Paying it forward if you will
7) about 2 years worth of oak split and seasoning for winter heating (includes lots of milk tips for the loggers in our area)
8) my most maybe paranoid plan - a plan to get the kids from other parts of the state (several live in the city) if necessary.
9) which leads to plenty of bedding and a place for everyone to sleep
10) almost forgot! We hunt Turkey, grouse, and deer as well.
Gorgeous, Esther! And thank you for detailing what each of those different ventures look like for you. I know these things are so helpful for people just starting down this path. Do you have a root cellar/aging chamber for your cheese? I started making aged cheeses a few years ago but had issues with the "aging fridge" and swore I wouldn't screw around again until I got the right set up. I will have that with our root cellar, but I love hearing about how others are doing it.
So Tara. I’m jealous of your root cellar. I don’t see that in the cards for a long time here. I do have a wine fridge that I use to keep cheese at a certain temp, but frankly I’ve found the only way right now that I can get cheese to turn out is to wax it. When I have beeswax I mix that with lard and dip the cheese in that. But mostly I’m using cheese wax that I buy in bulk. I have some hesitation about wax - it’s a compromise because I’m not diligent enough to turn daily, or brine wash weekly. I have a few types that seem to work well with our climate and I just go with it.
We’ve also wrapped in cheesecloth and lard and that also works in the fridge.
Southern Wisconsin here. There have been a few things I have personally seen empty on the shelves. I went to print a picture at the local pharmacy last week & noticed empty shelves of baby formula. Another random glance down a grocery store aisle made me realize there was hardly any pasta on the shelf. A friend told me she hasn't been able to buy chicken at local grocery stores for a few months. I feel blessed mostly not to notice the shortages simply because I don't shop that way. Feeling it in different ways.....my local pastured chicken that I order once a year is up a dollar a pound. So ordered less and bred another round of meat rabbits instead. Working on more housing options for the rabbits so we can do with out the meat chicken order and eat the few roosters instead when we want chicken. So far my local source for wheat for my beloved sourdough is steady, but carefully looking at what can just be food we live without if the need arises. Couple pigs nearing processing weight, have a half beef coming in October. Veggies galore hitting the freezer and canning pantry. Would like to figure out how to have back up freezer power, though soon enough that will be the great outdoors! All in all feeling good. There is more to do and learn, but we are in love with simple food and there is an abundance of hunting and foraging to be had, I need to skill up in foraging as well as other areas, but I am so grateful for this life!
Beautiful, Anna. I think you hit on something profound there - you are "in love with simple food". I think a lot of the angst people feel, or will feel, is that they don't even know how to cook a simple dish, never mind enjoy and appreciate the flavours of such hence the pasta aisles being empty.
Hello! I'm Stéfanie, 38yr old maman of 4 boys in Chelsea QC. Haven't made it to my farm yet thpugh that is the end goal. I've been making sure I have access to good meat, dairy and produce. I have our half beef ordered and coming in September, a pig too though I'm looking forward to next spring as a friend is growing hers out on organic grain mix and milk which I'm on her list for. Stocking up on salt, grains. Biggest thing would be working on skills. I tend to gather hobbies and like the fact that this could be used to trade in situations. Sew/ knit/ cook etc. Last year I started canning, tanned rabbit pelts, got my hunting licence. This year I'm learning about fermenting and brewing, found some flip tops I'll be sterilizing. Bought some meat rabbits, laying chickens. (I'm in town so no rooster for me unfortunately) I have some chickens growing out at a friends that I will be helping to butcher in August. The biggest difficilty is finding community near me as I've removed myself from FB honestly. lol
Hi Stéfanie! We’re neighbours! I’m over in Aylmer. 34yr old mama of 2 boys. Owning a small farm is the dream, but for now I’m doing what I can with my garden. This will be my third season of canning and fermenting. I don’t hunt, but I’ve been learning how to forage and wildcraft my own herbal remedies. We should connect!
Love this conversation! For my husband and I, we have always strive to live this lifestyle. It is never been fear-based but more of a desire/instinct. We work hard to walk gently on the earth, growing as much of our own food as possible. What we are unable to grow we strive to source locally, to know the farmer directly. We recently moved to 7 acres in Maine, right before the pandemic. We are so grateful for the timing. We are convinced it was divine intervention. Immediately we found farmers we could source food from while we set up our homestead. We make sure we pay them cash so we are the first on the list to call when it’s time for their animals to go to slaughter. Part of our move strategy was to be debt-free. We are 52 years old and own our homestead out right. There has been a ton of physical and mental work that went into this property to make it our dream. We had to buy a disaster in order to be debt-free. We also purchased the property with a small cottage on the land which our 27 year old daughter and her boyfriend are redoing. It feels good to have extended family around us and it feels like a throwback to the old days. We Are working to provide the majority of our heat from Wood, which has been a challenge in an old drafty house. We are fortunate to have a well and we are working on restoring a pond on the property. This year we added five sheep, We chose a dual purpose breed in case we want to milk and make cheese. We planted lots of fruit trees and perennial berry bushes asparagus etc. we expanded our garden with lots of potatoes and carrots and beets and onions and garlic. We have converted our basement into a good old fashion root cellar with three freezers for the meat. Our goal is to have animals on the property that we don’t need to ship lots of grain in for because that will definitely be detrimental if prices get too high. We do however have layers and still raise meat birds as the prices were fair this year. We are fermenting most things we can and will be canning. the tomatoes and some Chutneys. Our biggest weakness Is our reliance to the grid. What we are working towards mostly these last few weeks is staying mentally strong and connected to Spirit. Restoring our nervous system is our number one goal. When I look out my window I see sheep grazing, bountiful gardens and my family and I know all is well. May we all move from a place of peace during these times.
Hi Kim, I loved reading this. And I so appreciate and respect getting a place you could move into debt free and use your power to bring to a place you want it to be. I wonder how your reliance on the grid is a weakness? How so? For us, we're happy to be on the grid while it's here and when it's gone, we'll be fine, too. We wouldn't invest any money in so-called "green" solutions. Instead, we have manual power backups and systems for the day it's gone. Much cheaper and longer lasting. And how wonderful that your daughter and her boyfriend are there redoing the cabin! That's incredible!
We too "love" the grid. Our only back up system is a generator and a few 5 gallon cans of gasoline. I do not see a short term outage being a problem. Obviously, getting gas at the pump will be impossible to refill the cans if the outage goes on more than a month. Ideally, we would have a diesel generator and a 100 gallon tank stocked with fuel. Future goal perhaps. Also, a hand pump on our well would serve us well. Would love to hear what back up solutions / tools you have in case of a power loss. We strive to not have a fear based mentality, but be wise enough to be prepared, just in case. (Just remembering you have a cook stove too! Nice!)
Hey there, Tara and the wider global community! Tara, I love your words, deeds, and actions. Thank you for what you do!
I come from a Mormon background. Mormons are known for their "prepping" habits, so food and other essential preparation has been ingrained in me from a very early age. I currently live in a smaller urban area, and do not have the luxury of a garden or livestock. Nonetheless, my prepping habits have prepared me well for the potential hardships to come.
For famine level food storage, I've stored bulk grains in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers in 5 gallon buckets. I purchase my goods from ethically minded companies like Azure Standard and my local farmers. Costco is my alternative shop when I need that which the others cannot provide. My chest freezers are stocked with well-loved and well-cared for animals from my local farmers. I purchase my raw milk products and eggs from a local producer. I've been able to stock up on freeze-dried and canned meat for some time. I've learned how to make pemmican as well.
There is a shelved wall dedicated to jugs of water with iodine (for sanitizing) and powdered electrolytes for proper body chemistry. There are larger containers of water for cleansing.
Dried herbal medicinals are also an essential section in my larder. There is a healthy supply of soaps, salves, and wound supplies. As a nurse, I have a sufficient medical bag which includes items such as sutures and splinting supplies. I highly recommend everyone read "Where There Is No Doctor" by David Werner to help those in your community understand the first principles of health in the most deplorable situations. While scenarios in this book are not likely to be applicable in the US and other developed nations, being wholly prepared for such situations is a balm to the psyche.
Being a life-long prepper, I've also been stocked up on everyday essentials like household products, vinegar, soaps, toilet paper, socks, underwear, and even books. Purchasing these items in bulk before inflation has been a godsend!
Debt is an active pursuit in which I aim to be absolved of. Additionally, I practice turning off my electricity on regular occasions in order to learn to be more comfortable without it, especially in the evenings. I've also made sure to have items that I can cook my food with should the power-grid ever be shut down for an extended period of time. I train myself to get comfortable with cold showers, and even no showers. "Bird baths" are wonderful in the event of no access to running water.
Lastly, I make sure to have regular discussions with my family and friends for mental-preparedness. We discuss how life might look in the event of a global war, famines, or other major catastrophe. Discussing worst-case scenarios helps to ease the psychological fears by regularly practicing thought experiments as a group. Fear can either be debilitating or the fulcrum for the ultimate girding of one's mind and spirit.
This is fantastic, Liz. It's an interesting psychological exercise to have these discussion with people and observe their response. Some people are motivated and others feel overwhelmed. Most, I think, just avoid thinking about it.
I appreciate your approach to building the mental muscle needed to be comfortable without the luxuries of modern life. Troy and I often find ourselves explaining why we are not getting solar and wind energy to people. We are setting ourselves up to return to pre-electrical times, not to continue the charade of it, once the grid goes down. If it goes down. If it becomes so monumentally expensive as to make it too costly for a mere mortal. To that end, shutting down the house, using candles, using wood to heat is not only a way to reduce costs, but is a lovely, soothing energy we get to live in at times. Also a great clarifier of what's really necessary.
Hi! Im learning my antique pressure canner, and every time i set a jar on the shelf i swell with pride. I have started ordering bulk feed from a local miller for my critters. Im really concerned about my family who fully trusts the TV and dose as they are told. How can i support them if i need to? Im trying to hold everyting in so i dont bother anyone with my "crazy" ideas. Im such a panicky person and i feel alone. I wish i had that community ive been searching for. I love coming to your letters, they are such a comfort! Hope you are all well 💕 Please give grandbaby updates!!!
It's such a great feeling, isn't it? You should swell with pride! I will give grandbaby updates, but so far, he's still bubbling away in his beautiful little womb, growing and dreaming of his future grandma ;-) I don't think there's a single thing you can do about your family or anyone that believes what they believe. I know, it's hard, but I've learned that unless someone asks me, I don't offer. And while there's people here that seem to think I have something useful to offer, my extended family don't ask me a thing. Do you have a local Weston A Price chapter near you? Sometimes the local groups have gatherings and potlucks and it can be so nice to meet some people of like mind.
Hi! Yes a local chapter is within 20 miles, I will reach out to them! Great suggestion. I'm learning the whole don't offer if not asked. My sweet momma friend is about to have baby #3 and a few of us get together and chat about labor and delivery and I'm learning to just show up full of love and not say a thing unless she asks me. I just want to thank you again because reading your words and following along with you on IG has really changed my perspective. You radiate love and it is apparent in everything you do; I am so grateful for you!!!
Lately, I find myself daydreaming of my childhood. I used to spend all day running barefoot on the smooth lava rocks in Hawaii, a truly wild and free child I was. My friends and I would make dolls out of tree branches on the beach, and catch geckos to make as our daily pets. I especially appreciate how we could pick papaya and banana off of trees, and smash coconuts against sharp rocks to peel the outer layer off when we were hungry for a snack. There was food everywhere, and we didn't have to go home to get it. Fast forward 30 years and I'm a single mom with a desk job in California, raising a son who has a very different childhood from my own. I have a small yard but have 3 chickens, and I raise quail for meat and eggs. I buy most of my beef and lamb from a local farm and stock up my standalone freezer when I can. I have dried beans and rice, and a few canned goods. I have a garden but produce very little. I'm trying to get better at gardening but it seems the only thing I can grow successfully is basil. I'm paying off my debts as quickly as I can. I have very little space in my rented home and would like to move to a place with more land to have self sustaining farm. I don't know how that will be possible, but I believe it will happen.
I’m a fellow Hawaii transplant to the mainland, it’s not been easy! I miss papaya so much, among many other things. Amazing that you are raising your own fowl!
Hi Cheyenne! It was a crazy transition moving to California when I was 9. I still remember other children asking me to say things because I suppose I spoke a bit differently with my island slang. Also, I distinctly remember driving by a large cow farm and the awful smell shocked me. The trees and landscape were definitely very different and I remember feeling like such a foreigner in California. I remember the taste of papaya and mango, and haven't tasted anything like it since.
Quail are very easy and great for small spaces like mine; The eggs are wonderful, albeit small!
Those are gorgeous memories, Gigi. Thank you for sharing them. I know you aren't where you want to end up, but you are doing a lot more than most. That you even have a garden is the first step to get better at gardening :) I didn't know what the heck I was doing with my garden, I just put things in the ground and hoped for the best. Water - more water if nothing is growing. Maybe get a couple meat rabbits and use their poop in your soil - fowl manure can be too hot, but better if composted. Things are happening!
Hi friends! Chiming in from New Hampshire. I’m completely new to homesteading as a practice, but have been admiring it in theory for years. I currently don’t have a property with land, so I’m learning what I can in the space I have. I’ve been making my own herbal medicine for years and try my best to eat seasonally and locally by shopping almost exclusively at my farmers market. I’ve been deeply inspired by Tara’s words over the past year and feel strongly drawn to building community with likeminded folks in person and online. Love reading everyone’s posts, thanks Tara for opening up the discussion!
P.s.
Can anyone recommend a good food dehydrator? I think that will be my next step forward :)
I live just outside of Chicago and I have a small garden so I am growing a lot more shelf stable items like squashes. Usually, I am canning and fermenting lots of items at this time but my husband and I are currently looking to move away from the city, we are looking for the right state and home with land while trying to stay light to prepare for moving. We have redirected almost all of our money away from grocery stores and buy direct from farmers, this has been a regular practice for veg and fruit but now we do it with meat too. I am with the majority of people here, that I am more concerned about clearing debt as quickly as possible to allow more space for higher prices from our farmers. Food is our main healthcare system so we prioritize that over every other aspect of our lives.
Also, like a lot of people here, I refuse to live in fear. I will be observant of what’s happening and make necessary shifts but I won’t be sent down the “hoard all the toilet paper” route.
Ha! The diversion of the toilet paper was a good one :)
Where do you guys plan on moving? What kind of variables are weighing into your decision of where to plant yourselves? I like hearing about what makes people choose a spot when it's outside of work/business.
Luckily my husband and I work from home and have the ability to move anywhere. We were originally headed to Colorado to be closer to my husbands family plus CO has protected lots of 35+ acres but just as we were about to move my husband and I realized we would be moving into the same situation as IL, a mainly red state being overloaded by extreme left cities. We are narrowing areas down currently between Nebraska, Maine, North Carolina, Florida (to be close to my family), and Alabama. Each area has its pros and cons but my end goal is to have acreage so that I can raise my own animals. I love the season changes in the Midwest but the growing season is short. I miss living by the ocean but I would miss the snow and the visual reminder to rest deeply and tend to my roots. My grandpa had a cattle farm with an orchard and I want my future kids to grow up getting kisses from cows, being protected by the bull (I love bulls like you), and hanging out under fruit trees. I’m looking for a place that offers school choice but I would be fine with homeschool, lower property taxes (currently pay $10,000 a year for 6,000 sqft of space) lower income tax, buying land that someone else doesn’t own the mineral or water rights to, and more freedom to live overall.
For anyone that reads this, if you are moving somewhere please make sure to look into local and state regulations especially for farm land. Most places have regulations on how much water you can use, how many sqft of house you can have, animal limits, homesteading credits that can greatly reduce your property tax, etc. Most of the documentation I have acquired while looking is between 100-200 pages for each place.
One other thing. For all the women who are trying to convince their partners to move out of cities just know it can take a while and you may need to do it in steps. I wanted to move from IL 6 years ago but my husband wanted to stay. 3 years after planting the seed he agreed to move to the suburbs and within a month I found a house and we moved in the following month. I started living the life I want to live by growing food, we feed ourselves and 4 other families off of our 128 sqft garden boxes. Now after 3 years of living here my husband sees how much abundance we create, how rewarding it is, how much more capable he is than he thought, how being connected to nature brings forth clarity and calmness, the impact our actions for ourselves have changed others around us. As women, we often have to facilitate the “seeing is believing” aspect of life even though we don’t need it the same way.
This time of waiting isn’t wasted though. Begin by preparing your body for the life you want to live by getting stronger, walking everywhere, carrying weight as often as you can, farm life is rewarding but it requires your body to be in working order. Up your cooking skills, learn to can, rummage all thrift stores for cooking equipment. Time can be a gift you didn’t know you needed.
I live in a small home. I love to keep stocked on food and other important items. However, I have to balance feeling cluttered and overwhelmed in day to day life. There is a trade off and cost to keeping lots of extra on hand. I am trying to stay balanced. I have not figured it out yet.
So I work full time and I feel helpless by the fact that I don’t have time to do what needs to be done. I want to somehow incentivize farming so that it makes more sense for people to do it and we can build local resiliency so when the huge farms out west finally deplete their soils with how they treat them, we will have food strength locally. But do most of us have time for that? No! I want the time I just can’t afford to work part time
Start small? I can easily get overwhelmed too. But then I realized it takes 10 minutes to get mint drying. And maybe 30 or less to chop and dry apples. Canning a small batch of relish is easily done in a hour on a Saturday etc. Little bits still add up. And you can hopefully gain joy from doing them that will off set the extra effort after full time work.
I thought I was starting small but apparently my garden is huge for someone who works full time, found out the hard way, alas! Even still, I know I still need to rely on farmers despite all the time I put in. I honestly mostly just want to homestead
I totally understand. I work full time too & always feel like I am trying to beat the clock & get things done. Like just trying to live life properly is a full time job in & of itself. But I do what I can when I can & feel good about it because doing even one thing daily is better than nothing
My name is Juanita, and we(my husband, 5children and I) moved to the US a little over three years ago from Brasil. After about 2 years we were finally able to buy one acre of land with a farm house on it. I came across Tara's instagram account this year and have TOTALLY LOVED every bit of it! We have slowly been growing our bunch of chickens, our flock is over 50chickens now and we have 4 ducks. We are planning on harvesting our first few chickens this fall and putting them in the freezer. Since hearing of possible food shortages we bought an old freezer and are slowly filling it up with extra meet, butter and things I bought at our local farmers market. Ive also been able to freeze some blueberries from our tree and squash from our garden. These are just a few things that we've been able to do so far.
I'm looking forward to learning more from Tara and you ladies about canning, preserving, making ferments, etc...
Thank you all for adding your wisdom from things you've learned over the years.
You're well on your way! It's always amazing to see just how much food can be raised and grown on even just a small plot of land. No need for hundreds of acres! Good to 'meet' you Juanita :)
I feel anxious as hell and extremely unprepared. I’m 29 and single, and in a very transitory, confusing phase of my life. I’m between jobs (my soul will not let me go back to software/tech, but I haven’t figured out yet what I *really* want to do!), I keep moving cities because I can’t seem to figure out where I want to settle, and I don’t own a home/land to grow food. I feel like I’m in the worst possible position for this, and my survival terror is activated. I don’t want to move out of fear, but I don’t know what inspired next steps are for me. I fear falling through the cracks. I want to act out of a belief that I live in a world of abundance, one that takes care of me and nourishes me and where it’s okay to not have everything figured out … but I question if that’s really true. I feel a little like a five year old thrust out into a harsh world she’s not ready to navigate (emotional flashback here, much?) 💔
Is there much that isn't "transitory and confusing" in your twenties? It's such a challenging decade! It's like you're an adult, but you're just figuring out how to do that as you go. Do you have some people around you of like mind? You could maybe volunteer on some local farms every now and then and/or join some local food buying clubs etc.. to meet some people in similar circumstance? I really like Molly's suggestions, too.
Sophia, I feel what you are saying in my soul because I was literally where you are just a few years ago: single, living in a van, working a job that demanded a crazy amount of hours/travel, and nowhere to permanently call home. I spent those years reading and learning about as much as I could. I visited farmer's markets in new towns, read books through libraries and Hoopla, watched a lot of YouTube videos, tried identifying edible wild plants and herbs in new regions...I definitely don't have everything figured out, and the more I learn the more I realize I don't know. But learning what you can at your own pace builds layers of confidence. Knowledge truly is power - and little by little it becomes something to fall back on when things don't go right.
Hi Sophia! Are you familiar with WWOOFing? It might be a great option for this season of life if you are between jobs and not sure where you want to land. You can travel, have community, nourishing food and a place to live, all while acquiring ton of new skills. Sharing in case it sounds like a good fit.. https://wwoof.net/
My thoughts on this may be a bit "micro" at the moment, but I am wondering if other gardeners have been plagued by bugs this year? Granted, I don't dust or spray on pesticides. But this year, our orchard and garden is getting devoured by Japanese beetles*, despite our best efforts to manually (daily, and sometimes for hours) eliminate them. Sorry to be a Debbie downer, but it's been very discouraging, since I thought this was going to finally be my big harvest year, a year when it seems more important than ever. (*also squash-eating bugs and an overabundance of grasshoppers)
I've thought about getting ducks or quail, and/or putting up bird houses, to add natural predators, but that would be a next year endeavor.
I've noticed that the JBs haven't bothered the native mulberry trees and it makes me wonder if the plants and trees I've purchased over the years from nurseries are hybrids more attractive and less resistant to insects.
Any suggestions or thoughts from others would be appreciated.
My mulberry which usually fruits all season long is struggling this year, dropping fruit before being ripe. The chickens don't even seem interested which is odd... Any squash/ zucchini/ cucumber I've planted have not given me anything I'm suspecting boarers... And I've just discovered that my apples have a worm that tunnels to the core and rots it from the inside. Not an issue I had last year. Discouraging to know this beautiful tree FULL of apples will be unusable and I need to make sure I rid all the litter and treat for next year.
I feel your pain! And I've experienced the same on squash and cucumbers the last few years. Even tried planting some squash later this year, to avoid the bug peak, but the boarers still showed up. Curious to know what you use to treat your apples?
Thanks for sharing. I wonder if that's what most orchards use? I'm hoping to find a solution that doesn't require use of a product I have to buy, but also realizing that most fruit and vegetable growers (including organic) must be using something.
Have you tried the bag traps? That is what we use during years JB get bad. As for squash bugs, we've been facing them here too (NE GA) and I make it a habit to take a container of water out with me to the garden every morning. Any I see go for a swim and then get fed to the chickens.
I haven't tried the traps as I've read the trouble is they attract even more JBs. I have wondered if someone nearby put them up and that's why we have so many. haha Their arrival does seem to always coincide with when the surrounding farmers spray their fields. So I suppose they take refuge at our place.
Oh that stinks! We only have a "bad" year with them every 5 or so. Those are the years I use the bags, since they are already swarming. If I only see a few, they get the same treatment as squash bugs...if I care about what they're snacking on. This year I didn't. 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah in previous years I took the position that there was enough stuff for them and us to eat, so I wasn't too worried. This is an exceptional year, so it's good to know it doesn't necessarily mean it will occur every year. Thanks for sharing your experience!
We had a horrendous year with tent caterpillars last year. Our ancient apple trees even got hit, everything did. They start with their favourite plant (apples) but quickly work their way to even the less preferred ones. As a result, it's not going to be an apple year this year. We don't have much of an issue with Japanese beetles, but it seems like every area has their cursed creatures.
Yeah I was reluctant to say "Japanese beetle" because it seems odd to me that names of nations get assigned to insects or plants. We also have what's called "Canadian thistle," which makes me wonder if it's called such in Canada? Do you all have pests named after the US?
Japanese beetles are the worst! With the only solution,as far as I can tell, to pick them off. Who can stand there all day and pick off hundreds of those things.
Exactly. I've tried and they just keep showing up or moving on to their next victim. They have moved from the fruit trees to my okra, currently. I fear my picking them off is selecting for the more crafty ones, though.
I am in Virginia and live in a somewhat urban/suburban setting. Planted a garden which won’t yield much by way of storing but has been a great learning experience. I have tried canning and preserving. We have stocked up on dried goods that don’t require refrigeration. We have purchased some medical supplies and antibiotics. We are looking into water filtration as we live close to a river. Basically we have been looking at what might fall out in our area if things get really bad. I think food is only one aspect of the chaos that could easily erupt. Most importantly we are trying to build a community. Get to know our neighbors and build relationships. Mostly I am concerned for my daughters. One is married with four young children. The other lives out of state.
Hi! I live in BC, Canada. And this year, I am trying to preserve as much as I can to save on buying food in the winter and also to have food that doesn’t come in plastic and to ensure it is organic. My garden can only grow so much, so I am trying to forage for as much as I can from saskatoons (everywhere this year) to dehydrating amaranth and other weeds in the sun. I will use these for stews in the winter. I read that during famines in history people have reverted back to foraging and it turns out most of the weeds in my garden are edible. I am also saving beet tops and stem by fermenting them. I am drying a lot for teas, and just trying to do as much as I can.
I did also order wheat berries from a BC granary. It was a lot of work to get, but it will save us a lot of money in the long run. I heard that since prices go up every day, anything you can get today helps. I have ordered salt in bulk and I will get more sugar and beans in bulk too. I order them in to our local health food store. We have a half a cow in the freezer and will get another in the fall. I am worried for people out there who don’t think there will be food shortages, but I agree that living in the country will give us an advantage. I will also save seeds this year by letting a couple plants go to seed from each variety.
Such great and doable suggestions, Shelagh. There are so many things we can add to our diets just by getting to know the wild plants in our areas. I find it one of the most satisfying and connecting of all my food tasks. And, I'm wildly jealous of your saskatoons. They say you can grow them in Ontario, but I have as of yet to meet a person that has anything like what we used to feast on in Saskatchewan. I say they don't like it here at all. Certainly not my farm anyway. :)
Hi y'all! I'm Hannah from SC (USA). I'm a college student who still lives with my parents on our "inactive" farm. We don't keep much here anymore but I still have a few ducks and a small garden. Between me and mom we've frozen a few gallons of raw milk and dozens of pounds of local beef, and almost as much tomatoes/corn/other veggies in the freezer too. I'm learning more about what food on my land, and building connections with people in my area. On the list is to start canning more, getting a good dehydrator, and bringing in my own source of meat, hopefully quail. At the same time I'm sharing what I already know and helping others step out into this as much as I can!
I am grateful to live on a large woodland homestead, that has three dwellings: I am in one with my husband and 3 boys (8, 5, and 1), my mom is in another, and my brother in one. We are doing our best to relearn multigenerational living and working, tending land and animal. We have gravity spring water.
We breed kune kunes, have a large flock of Jacobs sheep for meat and wool, goats for brushing and easy milk if need be, and we just bred 2 dexter heifers and will be anxiously awaiting their babies next summer. My son has a rabbit project going on, and we are working on replacing all their pellets with forage, and we have chickens. I am constantly learning and exploring new ways of food preservation. We have corn, squash, beans, tomatoes, and lots of other veggies for preservation and storage.
I am an herbalist and have been adding herbs that I feel are critical for my home apothecary, paying special attention to what I can grow bioregionally. Consciously not purchasing herbs that I cant grow here.
All of this is important, and we also place great importance on our community. We have long time friends and neighbors that we participate in decades long barter exchanges with. A true local economy. We are in California, and have tossed about the idea of leaving, but honestly, where would we go that would have the support and love of so many people right away? In a true "apocalyptic" scenario, community will be SO important, and we are grateful for what we got!
So we have all that in place, and we do it out of love and devotion to our place and animals, out of hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, and because what else is it to be human but to do real work with our hands to provide for those we love? In beauty and in gratitude. and it aint always glamorous, and sure as hell isnt easy all the time, but what greater magic is there?
Beautifully said, Sydney. We've wondered, too, if we will be able to stay here, especially in the direction our country is going in, but where would we go and what guarantee is there of anything anywhere staying as we find it? I also agree with the herbs. Working with plants in our local regions is such a beautiful way to deepen our understanding and to have resonance with such wonderful healing allies.
Love all these comments! My hubby and I essentially eat a carnivore diet. We have two full supplemental freezers. I have begun canning meat and I’m looking at getting a freeze dryer. We do not have any animals but we have farmers that grow meat according to our standards. We have been buying food, essentially meat at current prices so that we can can and freeze dry it, assuming the price may skyrocket and it will be more difficult to get. I find it so sad for so many people that are not making any preparation‘s and if things go along as they seem like they might, they will be left in a very difficult place.
I’ve also grown things this year that we don’t normally eat for vegetables just thinking I can can them and if need be can have them to eat. I’ve also begun fermenting and pickling things after hearing so much about how Tara does the same thing. Did my first pickled daylily buds and they are delicious. Making my own homemade vinegars with wild ferment from things outside. Going to start making my own soap. Already make lots of tinctures for medicine.
Trying desperately to cure my Hashimoto’s with diet and other things like sunshine, sauna, cold plunges etc.The thought of not having thyroid medication that I need makes me very nervous. Or, having to comply with some governmental regulations just to get it. Keep up all the great work, peeps and thanks for starting this thread, Tara!
This is so great, Pam. I'm glad you gave the day lilies a try and enjoyed them :). We sucked it up and finally bought a freeze dryer. I will report back on how it goes.
What a great conversation and wonderful resources. I see so many on IG preserving and canning and stocking up and I have no idea where to start with that. Outside of making my one kombucha, I am not familiar with food preservation/canning/pickling etc. If anyone has books, videos, resources on recipe basics to get started on that, would be appreciated.
Highly recommend just going to the library. They will have a whole section on food preservation including books for beginners. It's like a whole new world. :0)
Hi! There are five in our house. And while we normally have a little prepped and ready, this is a move year for us (US military) so I am headed to my new home in Ohio completely empty of all my normal resources.
It’s a little stressful. But, my plan is to get salt ordered as soon as I have an address.
Buy another freezer- work on finding local farmers to fill it
Buy a generator
Get azure standard to can what I can get all fall.
Thankfully, I have my herbal remedies ready.
Hoping to get some fall garlic planted
Any other ideas for getting sorted super fast would be helpful.
This was a military move year for my family too, so two months ago we were in the same place! My freezer and canning jars were all empty for the move, which was a little nervewracking. But as soon as we got here I did the following:
-found a local butcher and put in an order for 1/4 cow
-got a Costco membership to help save on fuel and food while waiting for the cow share (I actually kind of hate Costco, but they do have a lot of organic products at decent prices for the area and their fuel is .60-80 cents cheaper here in Alaska)
-found a CSA farm (they were out of shares for this year but said I was welcome to come out and volunteer which I will definitely take advantage of)
-started identifying local/wild plants nearby and harvesting what I could
-organized the gardening area next to the house (we are fortunate that the last people had raised beds, but they have been severely neglected)
-found a group of foragers thru the farmers market
-made an Azure Standard order and made contact with the lady who runs the local drop/co-op
-started attending a local church
-got my canner serviced and ready to start canning ASAP
-serviced our heaters (we've never used heating oil before, and it's been a learning curve)
-made an appointment with an electrician to wire our house to a generator for the inevitable power outages that can go on for days around here
We are in the process of building a garage and rebuilding the well house before winter, which may be here sooner than we hoped. But it's better to start and have to take a break due to weather than not start at all.
These are all such great tips, Molly. Before a posting, I used to contact the local Weston A Price chapter leader around where we were being transferred to. That was almost always very helpful. I also went to the farmer's market the very first weekend we were... wherever and talked to the farmers to see if they had the kind of stuff I was looking for, but if not, if they could give me some leads. There were no CSAs at that time because I'm an old fart. :).
That is one thing I haven't done yet - find the local Weston A Price chapter leader! I finally got a copy of his book on nutritional degeneration. I knew some of the info from a documentary but it's still mind-blowing stuff. I'm grateful for the old fart advice too 😂
For me and my family, preparing for further inflation and supply chain issues is more basic and outward-focused right now. Think $$ and community. This year my focus changed drastically to increasing income to pay off the last of our debt and to grow savings. I’m working 3 jobs right now and encouraging my teen kids to be more independent and experimental in the kitchen. We are getting to know our new neighbors and trying to honor and give back to our friends and family who have been there for us through the years. We are also loving each other HARD. We recently lost a freezer full of food in a power outage. We have a generator but it’s not very big…I have decided against electric-dependent food storage for now. In a crisis I think cash is going to continue to be king. All year I have made it a point to buy canned meat every time I go to a store that sells it. I have a good collection going and would love if any of you have recommendations for any farmers who can and ship good meat. I sure do love to follow and read of y’all’s wonderful homesteading endeavors. I’ve had a hobby farm before and have gardening, preserving and animal raising skills but it’s just not where we are now. Life has had its ups and downs which has taught me to be flexible. It’s also taught me that community and being friends with your neighbors and people from all walks of life is an incredibly important aspect of survival and thrival. At 41 years old I am now making more than double the income I’ve ever made before and along with our family bond and community connections, I feel like I’m doing the best I can with our current circumstances to be ready to tackle the next couple years of whatever May come.
Hi! I’m Françoise. My family and I live in Manitoba where our growing season is short and our winters are long and cold. I love how each season has its own beauty, purpose and work.
I am so very lucky to have grown up on a small self-sustainable farm, where my father read so much and put so much intention into everything we did. I sure went and did my own thing in my teens and twenties but all I want to do now is milk a cow like Mattie, the one I milked as a young girl.
We currently live on 5 acres and are working our way to self-sustenance. I grow a large garden and try to freeze and can as much as possible. We have laying hens and raise our own pigs to butcher. My husband having grown up on a grain farm takes so much pleasure on giving pork chops and hams to friends and family. My father raises beef for us but is passing that along to my sister and brother-in-law to take it over. We also, hunt deer and after hunting season, we make deer/pork sausage and tourtières (I use the beautiful leaf lard from our piggies to make the pastry and ground pork for the filling), and pâté de foie and cretons. My grandfather owned an abattoir and you should see the skills my father and uncles have! We are trying to pick up every little tidbit of knowledge from them. I’ve also tried my hand at make tallow balm which has been a lot of fun. I’m also working on sourdough but it failed and I will wait until the fall for when I have more time to learn and practise.
We recently (one week ago!) were given two sweet little goats and I’ve been enjoying milking them. So far it’s been enough milk for my husband’s coffee and to make some fresh fruit ice cream treats for the kids. I will try my hand at making some simple cheese and see if there is enough fat to make a little butter. The daily milking chores have only increased my want for a sweet milking cow.
We get honey and fruit from our lovely neighbours. This past winter we did tap one of our Manitoba Maple trees and made a little maple syrup. Not quite the same as the stuff from out East but good enough for us! And we heat our house with a woodstove.
We are always looking to add more, learn more, do more but my husband works full time and we have a baby and three other kids. It is easy to get overwhelmed and see how far we have to go to be completely self-sufficient but at the same time it is easy to look back and see how far we’ve come in just a few short years. And so little by little we plug away with a whole lot of love and whole lot of faith.
This is beautiful, Françoise. I loved reading all that you are doing. Did you know I'm from Manitoba? You are blessed to have a dad and uncles who are skilled with animal butchery! I'm so glad you're soaking up their knowledge.
This is timely and welcome, thanks. In writing of my trust we will all come out of this period of painful Revolution I too return to the understanding of what secures the happiness and freedom of we the people. Of course these lofty and realistic ideas were nobly expressed by our Revolutionary ancestors but they are based on things we may not immediately recognise. They pertained to an understanding of where these rights originated from. Of course these unalienable rights spring from our birthright as human beings, endowed by a creator. They are local, spring from the land and planet on which we have evolved, and have always depended on the love and attention of our fathers, mothers, grandparents, and our collective Common Sense.
Forgetting that these rights are indeed bestowed by our birth into our humanity seems to be the biggest concern for the reactions of what's unfolding. People are too happy to trade freedoms and responsibility for being kept "safe" (as if that's a thing). Totally agree!
I’m a former special education teacher turned homeschool housewife and homesteader. My husband and I bought 19 acres and put a small herd of Dexter cattle on it (4 cows and 4 calves) and now have 13 head after a year. We are using rotational grazing and regenerative practices. We have planted fruit trees and bushes. This property is about 10 min from our home so we hope to one day build a small house on site and have sheep, pigs and a milking cow.
At our home in town, it’s on one acre and we’ve husked and dried our black walnut tree, gardened and canned/fermented. We also keep laying chickens in town and raise our own broilers. We have been on this journey for about 5 years. More recently I’ve decided to buy the reduced produce at my grocery store to chop and freeze or can also. I know we have a lot more to learn but that’s what makes it less stressful for me. Knowing there are so many skills for us to subsist without the system.
Love this conversation. I am doing my best to approach food shortages through the lens of mind, body and soul. This means I ask how am I growing, nourishing and tending all aspects of Self. I am working hard to stay feeling sustained within so that I am walking from a place of inner abundance. This means I am equally working my butt off to learn and slowing down to simply swim and enjoy the seasons.
My biggest efforts are in building community. It is my belief that if I have solid relationships within 30 minutes of home that in an emergency we will have eachother's back. This could be a storm, a fire, or birth or death of a loved one. The relationships are key.
I am homeschooling. The system doesn't work for me, I don't believe in it and so I am defying the odds as a single mom, entreprenuer and ensuring I commit to quality connection with my son. I work hard to give back what I take in the community by organizing events and gatherings. I put in time and money to be with women who light me and my son up so we can grow and thrive together.
I am building buying power with like minded women when it comes to food. I can't grow everything on my little property but in using my organizational skills I can contribute and participate in collective buying. This supports my local farmers, ensures I have surplus to can, freeze, and enjoy.
I am learning new skills. The kitchen is still foreign to me in many ways but every week I learn a new skill, try a new way to love and live with food and bring my son along for the ride. I am working hard to diversify storage methods so that if power goes out long term I am not only at mercy of a generator for a freezer. I have a long term goal of root cellar.
I am making medicine. I can't grow a lot where I live but I can grow medicines. I love plants this nourishes my soul, offers a teaching opportunity for those wanting to do it themselves and means I have something to barter or give to my community in crisis.
I am heavily focused on what I am co-creating. I wish to create new ways of being, not just run or fight systems that are outdated. I am always thinking ancestrally and with reciprocity in mind. I am focusing on the micro, I trust the ripples are holding space for the macro. I am committed to being fully alive. Its hard work somedays. really hard, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Hi, I live in Montana with my husband and two daughters, 4 & 6 mos. We live in town, but wish we lived outside of town, but unfortunately due to the pandemic migration patterns our real estate market has been flooded with out of state folks driving up land and home prices. So, we've been doubling down on our lot and investing in more garden beds, a green house, seed trays, and hopefully next spring a coop and chickens. I wish we could have a goat in town, but its not allowed. This summer we really invested in learning how to better preserve our garden too; dehydrate, can, freeze, ferment, etc. Outside of our hopestead, we've been meeting more farmers in our community, buying direct for meat when we can, meeting dairy farmers who sell their (raw) milk, unwashed eggs, etc. Its been fun. And every time we go to the store we buy one or two things "extra" that we tend to use a lot of and squirrel away.
Great discussion Tara! So I am just a suburban gardener still trying to hone my gardening skills. So I grow some of our veggies & try to increase that every year. My husband is a prepper. So we always have emergency food. He also hunts & fishes so my chest freezer is full of venison, salmon & trout. We ordered a 1/4 cow from a local farm that we should be getting at the end of the month. I rely on a farm in a neighboring state for my raw dairy products & pastured eggs. My daughter is a new chicken mama so hopefully we will soon be getting eggs from her flock. I also have a local farm in town that I get veggies from. Preservation is probably the next thing on my list to tackle. Short of freezing, I need to start learning how to ferment & can. I admit these things are looming over me like a dark cloud & I know the time to get into it is now. I am an herbalist also so my apothecary is pretty well stocked, but will be focusing on first aid too.
Izzy, if I remember correctly, there's a popular canning book that gets people canning a jar or two at a time. Might be a good way to start things out. Sometimes, when these things seem more complicated when we have no familiarity with them, but I promise that they are so simple it's silly. The Shockey's fermenting books are they place to go to get started. :)
Hi, I'm Mae. I live in Los Angeles with my husband and 3 small children. One day I dream of having more of a garden in my backyard, but for now all I have the energy for is a couple pots of tomatoes and basil. I have it on my to do list to look into a farm we can buy some beef from. I am also starting to learn how to make my own food rather than buy it from the grocery store-things like saurkraut or sourdough bread, etc...saves a lot of money because that store bought saurkraut is spendy!
We raise our own pigs and chickens. Two freezers available but I’m not sure I want to depend on electricity down the road. So I can some of the meat and most of the vegetables from our garden. And maybe we will try to purchase a generator soon. My husband and grown kids are good at making, building and fixing anything. Currently I have stocked up on a few essentials that we can use for bartering if necessary. I bake and sew and help with all the butchering chores. I am in awe of all you do!!
We have chickens for eggs and in the past have raised meat chickens. Our laying flock can hatch out their own chicks so there is meat there as well. Grain is already very expensive and seems a bit unstable so I don’t want to rely too heavily on chickens or pigs. We have some goats, hope to add rabbits.
I added three large beds to our garden this year so I could grow enough to preserve.
I love to can! Our shelves are depleted now, but I’m going to start up again soon. I’m addition to pickles, fruit and jams, I can meat, stew, broth etc.
I do a lot of fermenting as well. My summer cabbages didn’t do well unfortunately so I will be supplementing with cabbage from local farms for my sauerkraut this year. We had a very cold and late spring.
We have good surface water on our property, and excellent deep well water. We heat with wood and my husband is always a few years ahead in that department.
We plan to add a large, wired in generator.
My husband has guns and hunting licence.
We are adding rv/tiny home pads to our property so that we can have steady rental income and always be able to pay the mortgage in case of an economic situation that would affect my husband’s business.
I’d always like to be doing more, but homeschooling three kids takes a lot of my time. When I look back though, I always feel better. It may seem like we make no progress, but over the course of a year we can accomplish so much.
I adore Slowdown and Tara and keep my most treasured substacks in my inbox to read any updated comments. Thus far the marriage discussion and this one have been most wonderful. My families experience seems similar, yet far from most here. My mama has been a prepper my whole life - greenhouses, stocked basement, Amish midwife - the whole 9 yards. Of course, all I wanted to do was get to the big city when I was 16 and could. And I did. Fast forward 25 years and my husband and I are raising our three boys in the smallest city we have ever lived in (150k pop). Since having children a decade ago, we have prioritized real, local food. We spend more money making that happen than all other costs. We have truly failed (and I say that with good sport) at our sweet city garden and chickens. Three gals that give us one egg a day and a garden full of tomatoes ravaged by the rats that we have failed time and again to abolish. Our freezer kicked the bucket last year so we transfered the last of our grass fed 1/2 cow to the house freezer. We at the last meat a week ago. I told my husband how bare and vulnerable I feel having nothing in the freezer, or the garden (not nothing, but the garden couldn't feed us all.) We have a Tupperware bin full of rice and beans and have a twice a year csa. I find some security there. I buy the twice a week meat we eat at the whole foods and trader joes (and lord knows i should go to the farmers market and the expense IS worth it. But i dont). Truth be told, we don't want to be farmers (please don't be mad at me!) However, the last couple years, and a change in neighbors through gentrification, has us itching to get out of the city. This year my boys and I were picking blueberries from a bush planted in a Community garden a decade ago when the new owners asked us to only pick from the sidewalk. My 9 year old went back the next day to pick for his father's day breakfast and was told to leave. I am not on FB, but my husband caught wind and to keep peace asked me to abandon our tradition. Just last week a neighbor shared that we had been blasted for picking on social media and the entire neighborhood piled on to day how rude we were. I went by our bush to see perfect blueberries dripping off the bush, littering the sidewalk and totally wasted. I cried. We sold a property and have a nice chunk to buy a couple acres. We will keep our city home and airbnb investment (a primary income producer, and our main investments and blood sweat and tears over the last decade) and rent them out at exorbitant prices to people who share the values of let the fruit rot, degrade a child for picking for his dad, and roundup ready love for whole foods so they can feel "crunchy". That leaves us with WTF do we do now! We are entrepreneurs and have spent our adult lives in hospitality and biz management. Our goal is to buy3+ acres and build a home*garden*stay business. I primarily want fruit orchard and large potager type garden. I know how serious ill need to be to keep the wild animals away - those city rats are fierce though!) Chickens too. More than likely no other animals. Its not in my heart. We will host airbnb tents/cabins on the property, special events, etc. We've looked at dozens of properties both far and close to home. We're staring down a Dec 1 self imposed deadline. I have the good butterflies in anticipation, and I'm simultaneously nearly frozen by fear of hating being rural, like I did growing up. But lord do I LOVE real food, despise chemicals in the food system (I manage the biz of a neurodevelopmental pediatrician and yall, what is happening to most children -- primarily poor - should scare us all to high heaven), and have a drive to be self sufficient. Praying five days searching and away from my boys helped narrow down our choices in the southeast (with the caveat of salt water close by). Right now I'm leading with faith, love, and hope. Also, my kids love the city and convenience. And honestly (again, I'm sorry to not be my mama- I'm just trying to be real) they hate that we are doing this. And like me, I'm sure they will rebel against it all -- just like I did. I'm hoping by only going half in and not full farmer they wont🤣 thanks for reading - that was a lot of going on! Xo
I'm so glad you contributed this, Pholiday. And I'm glad everyone doesn't want to be farmers, where would we be then? I think we all fit together, can come together, with a variety of skills and ways to contribute to build our local food systems together. You don't want to farm, but you want good and nourishing food for your children (and a blueberry bush they can pick from for heavens sake). These are the things I think we can all come together for and build for all of our security. Good luck in your new venture!
Hey there everyone, I’m Lindsay, a 23 yr old manager of a regenerative livestock farm in New England. With just getting my feet under me and little money i’ve struggled in wanting to be more prepared then i have the means to do, but this past year I have made a few small steps. I bought an old, yellow rusty freezer for 100 bucks and have been filling it with extra goodies i get for free being steeped in the local food system (berries galore these days!) I have also been buying a few bulk items from costco here and there just to have a bit of a store of food, mostly things like rice and peanut butter.
My Main focus has been trying to hunker down and pay off debts quicker, as that feels like a large vulnerability that leaves me tied to this very weird and wild modern world we are apart of.
Thank you for opening up this thread tara, you have been an incredibly powerful matriarchal figure in my young adult life, giving me hope and inspiration everyday for what I am working towards. That being a farm to provide my family a high quality animal based diet, the ability to harvest livestock on farm, and sharing that with others. Ever heard of any of that before? :) Thank you for all that you do, it is truly incredibly important work.
Love this, Lindsay and thank you for your kind words. I think you're on the right path. Freedom from debt before all else. I'm excited for you and where you are at such a young age. You're going places! :)
Hi Lindsay,
I'm with you on paying off debts. Same!
Make sure you also buy a thermometer/alarm - I'm speaking from experience, losing half a beef to a decrepit old freezer. It was tragic.
In the last 3 years we have lost 2 FULL deep freezers. I didn’t know they made thermometer/alarms for them. I’m going to google this right now. Thanks so much for the tip!
Hi from NH!
Pay off debts quicker. So important. Good for you.
Wow Lindsay, kudos too you for being where you are at such a young age! At 23 I was partying and traveling the world and the farthest thing f from my mind was good security… but also times have changed. I’m 47 now and I feel like my eyes have been opened to a new reality the last couple of years… in terms of just how deep the corruption of the system goes and where we are headed. I’ve always been a free spirit, and for me it’s a struggle to maintain that truth of me while simultaneously desiring to buy land and homestead! I’m so impressed when I see younger folks going that route …
Hi Lindsay! We are also in NE and always looking for farm managers. We'd love to stay connected with you. We live near Freeport, ME.
Love this discussion.
I think on either side there is ‘fear’ of ‘what do we do’?
But don’t we know by now that everything they throw at us next is to always throw us off our game ? That this has always been a spiritual warfare.
That we need not fear at all but wholeheartedly TRUST. Trust that we were all so lovingly created, and that this earth abundantly provides for all.
And that what we need to do is only what we individually feel called to do right now in our lives, and that looks different for everyone.
That what we are called to create, can service someone else and so on and so forth.
I guess what I’m saying is , it can definitely get hard when you’re stuck in the thick of it , the fear, that you don’t see a way out , because they’re trying to corner you in.
But in order to receive what we truly need , we need to sit still , be open and listen.
We’ve experienced this personally as a family . While we dream of one day homesteading ( and Tara you are truly and inspiration) , that is not our situation right now , instead we have found ourselves with our rental being put up over an extra $200 pw ( Aus) husband lost a job , and me choosing to be home with the kids and not bringing in an income , it can definitely bring you down. But I said enough, UNIVERSE PROVIDE, because I’m sick of living with scarcity mindset, that we’ve all been programmed to have.
Just like that , my husband got offered a job that can sustain us for the time being , two weeks out form having absolutely no income. Yes we live week to week atm , but omgoodness I am so grateful.
Food wise here we have great little organic fruit n veg companies that deliver , and same with butchers that work with local farmers .
I truly believe we will ALL be ok.
We still need to travel through the thick of it , but go forth with faith. Really let go.
This is wonderful, Elodie. It was that faith and deep knowing that we live in abundance, not scarcity, that saw us through many years when our kids were small. I think in our present day world, people mistaken that for big homes and cars, but real abundance looks, and is experienced, much more profoundly.
For me, a big part of it has been focusing on the "why" I'm doing something. If it is out if fear, I will stack too much on myself and burn out quickly. I've had to learn to admit that with a freshly minted toddler, there is only so much I can do right now.
So I been focusing a lot on developing skills and building daily habits - always with the question am I doing this just because <insert current reason to be terrified here> or does this bring us closer to our goal of a sustainable lifestyle?
I'm grateful to have found several women willing to share their knowledge: Tara, of course 💙, Jessica of Three Rivers Homestead, Ruth Ann Zimmerman and Kate of Venison for Dinner make the top of the list. I'm currently participating in Jessica's everybitcounts challenge, with a goal of preserving something every day in the month of August.
What I love is the stress that the goal is building a mindset; it is taking what you have and rendering it storable in a form you will actually use within the next year while learning that even though long days in the kitchen still have their place, if you intentionally build in putting away 1 thing everyday, even if just a little, those little bits add up. Yesterday, for example, was turning my meager tomato harvest into sauce - not enough to can, but plenty to freeze for a meal or two down the road - and loading up the dehydrator with peppers.
This is wonderful, Danae. You know, during canning season, when I make my vinegar brine, I always make more than I need. It's not uncommon for me to have a pot of that vinegar mixture sitting on the stove for a week or so. Whenever I do morning chores, I end with a trip into the garden where I pick all the tiny, tiny summer squash, baby carrots and cukes. Then it's just a quick wash, sterilizing a jar or two while the vinegar heats up and voila, I've canned another couple cans of whatever. I love the idea of little bits every day. Habit building is life building.
Oh I'm going to have to save that tip! Thank you!
Yes. Not living in fear but skill building! Love it.
It's so exciting to read so many young folks that are already living the life of thinking ahead and preparing for whatever happens. As a senior, I am so blessed to have been in this rural lifestyle since 1999. Although it was calamity that brought us into it, we KNOW God's hand was guiding and we want to live out our lives on our 56 acres in Texas.
A saying I heard from my long deceased grandparents is still apropos today- maybe you can make use of it:
Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without.
Keep it up folks, you are paving the way for the future and will be leading the way forward. God bless each of you.
I think we'll all be getting familiar with that saying, Nancy. I am so enjoying reading so many of these comments that are woven with hope and faith instead of the doom and desperation that our present day system generates. :)
Tara, one of the fighting founders of this country said, (paraphrase) "Not every generation is given the honor to fight for something worth dieing(sp) for". and we believe God has granted those of us alive today the honor LIVE in such a way to encourage others to do the same. It happens to be a fight right now, but He never asks what He's not able to perform through us.
Hello! Wife and mama to 3. We have been actively preparing for over 3 years. We have a small farm on 1.8 acres with a small herd of dairy goats for milk and meat, Kunekune pigs for breeding and our meat, chickens for meat and eggs, rabbits for meat and manure, 10 bee hives, recycled window greenhouse 12x25 and huge gardens and landscaping full of medicinal herbs, flowers, and food. I have researched tirelessly over the years everything we grow to how to better raise our livestock. We are working on a years worth of food stored up, both homegrown and store bought. We follow the Prepper's Pantry Book for how much and to that I add 10# of salt per person with extra for preservation. It is wise to store up everything we use in a year to last us a year if we couldn't get to the stores. We are working on aquiring books with all the knowledgeable things we look up online. Gardening, herbalism, animal husbandry, home repairs and maintenance, homeschool supplies and curriculum, history books, fun reading for kids, canning and preservation, butchering, first aid how to. We have livestock guardian dogs as well. This year we plan to continue putting away as much food as possible, growing a fall garden for our livestock filled with turnips, beets, kale, oats, peas, in case of supply chain issues or fuel shortages. Restocking our apothecary with herbs to help the most common ailments our family deals and each family will be different so just think about the past few years. Increasing our security of our property being a big one. Security wise we will be installing solar motion lights around our buildings and property, no trespassing signs, driveway motion sensors that will alert us in the house, to name a few things. Each paycheck we get a little more of the things we need. It is wise to pay off all debts as well. So if I had to sell things to do that or downsize I would. Saving 6 months of living expenses as well is wise. Start by saving $1000 emergency fund, then 1 month living expenses, then 3 months, then 6 months little by little. We are doing our best and praying about the rest. We do not prepare out of fear we prepare for joblessness, inflation, death or just hard times.
Wonderful! Thank you for sharing this, Chelsey. It goes to show that with dedication and tenacity, much can be accomplished on even a smaller piece of land.
We try our best to steward our little piece of land as best as we can and to be grateful for it. It sure has given us alot, taught us and continues to give.
Hi Chelsey, I'm curious as to how you do all that on only 1.8 acres of land. Do you have an IG account, or something, where you post about your farm? Thanks!
Is there somewhere we can follow along with your journey?
Hi there
I am a mother of three little people under 5 years old living in Midwest America.
My goals are different maybe than some I’m reading here. We live in the suburbs so a smaller yard and no livestock. My focus has been on building relationships with those who grow the food we eat. For several years now we purchase half a cow and many butchered chickens from a local Amish farmer - meat stored in our freezer. I’m learning how to cook more traditional - less “American standard” foods. We participate in a local CSA for most of our summer produce and will purchase winter produce as needed. We purchase eggs weekly from a third farm. Raw milk is not legal to sell in our state so I’m still working on making friends and finding a way to purchase.
What feels like sustainable growth for me personally is to learn and try something new each year but it’s smaller steps. The first year we purchased half a cow we got the meat cuts, this year I knew better and made sure to get all the bits - organs tongue fat and bones.
I’ve got a small garden and teaching my children about where food comes from. I hope to learn how to can but I know my time is limited with three small children so I’m just picking one thing to try this fall - we will purchase apples in bulk from a friends farm and make and can as much apple sauce as we are able. That will give me a chance to learn a new skill with out getting too overwhelmed.
I don’t know that we will ever own a farm but right now in this moment it feels important and timely to get to know the close farms our food is coming from and keep building a sense of community in this small corner of the world we find ourselves in.
I don’t want to live with a sense of dread - I don’t want that atmosphere for my children. So I work hard at my own attitude and outlook. Working on feeling thankful for this amazing nutrient rich food we have to eat and being vocal about the things I am thankful for so my children see that.
I am thankful for you all and the sense of community I feel here in this small corner of the Internet.
Raw milk is usually labeled as "Pet Milk" in states that don't allow for sale for human consumption; that's how we have to get it here in Indiana
thank you Andrea!
Realmilk.com is a great resource from the Weston Price Foundation for finding raw milk near you
thank you Christie!
Hi Saralyn! What a beautiful post. I’m also from your state- I wonder if we are close. I’ve been dealing with the same elements as you, food wise. The Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader in your specific area could be a big help as well!
Love this, Saralyn. I don't think your goals are different, hopefully, we are all coming to this place where relationship and community building are paramount again. It's so wonderful to hear from people in all circumstances. Thank you for sharing this.
Hello everyone. Tara, I'm newer to Slowdown Farmstead, this lovely resource you've created. Just a quick thank you. What lured me in was your writing (good writing works every time on me :) and what keeps me here, opening *everything* you send by email, is your approach to this life. It is a big, beautiful drink of fresh water to experience what one feels within in others. You are brave and more importantly, your desire is to experience the realness and the beauty in this life we are gifted. And you have discovered that it has nothing to do with what the mad world swirling above our natural world tells us. I feel this is what bonds us all together, when we drop down from the blackening cloud we were swirling around in: however we fell from it and found our feet on solid earth, we are here, and when we look around, we eventually find others. It is medicine, in all ways. We teach each other, learn from each other, comfort each other and encourage each other to return to the nature within us and around us and forget the maniacal clammer of the crowd.
My name is Grace, I'm 33 years old. I'm 9 months pregnant, due sometime quite soon. My first. Having my baby in my apartment in a slightly more woodsy area of Philadelphia, near where I was born (I was a city kid, moved out to river country when I was 12). I'm not with a partner, and spent the last 6 months serving full-time at a restaurant to try and store away "acorns" for this next step in my journey. I came back from three seasons in Alaska fishing for salmon on a small, "sustainable" fishing boat, and crash landed here in the city because it's the only place i could afford and it's near my family. I felt i had no time to dally...it's true, pregnancy is a tried and true clock and if all goes to plan, it will keep dutifully ticking toward the day :)
Pregnancy has been strong medicine for me. It has woken me up and made the real things in my life ALL the realer, and has begun the work of shedding the unnecessary, the clatter, the burdensome with deft skill. I am a much fiercer and much softer version of myself, for which I am very grateful and eager for more. I've seen what i know within for a long time, but the visceral desire for action has never been stronger.
That said...I have always been drawn to the land. I am deeply in love with foraging and wildcrafting, though not as practiced as i would like. Still, after the plant kingdom opened its doors to me years ago, I have found that i have a strong instinct with plants and their relationships with us. This is something I feel is a very necessary power to have and to hone. I've spent a few seasons working on organic, small farms and i use that knowledge and my own to continue becoming a better gardener. I made a little fallen lumber raised bed this spring on my front lawn. It makes me happy but I'm also keenly aware that it would not support any kind of food shortage needs. Still, it's sharpening the skill.
A few months ago I started my library of resource books. Everything I can think of - from tree medicine to preserving food without cold storage to wildcrafting medicine and food to yurt building. I want to continue expanding my library while I'm "sitting duck" in the city. I already have a good practice with fermenting foods and making tinctures, but three years away on a salmon boat has made me a bit rusty at my homesteadiness :)
I do have a Berkey water filter and have been stocking up on filters whenever there are sales. That to me is more portable and useful than a bunch of water saved up.
I've been daydreaming of my options. I have less than 12k to my name that I've saved before the baby gets here. I have no current plan to make easy money so that I don't dip into that savings while I'm not working. I'm thinking maybe some online transcribing job or something. but the truth is, I don't want to go back to work in the city. i want to be savvier and use this little chunk of savings to either help me raise a yurt that i can place on someone else whom i trust's land....or get a little piece of land myself. Putting myself into debt over a property scares me, I'll admit. But the thought of working to rent and afford groceries is far scarier.
What I picture? A little abode, be it a yurt or a cabin, and land enough for me to work with, collaborate with, in wild and cultivated capacities. Making medicines and tinctures I can sell in crafty ways, maybe getting brave enough to try my hand at writing for supplementary income (writing what i want to write). Not feeling beholden or a burden to anyone. Immersing myself and my baby completely in self sovereignty, as best we can find it in this world.
I'd love advice. It is hard to find advice about these desires, because these desires are terrifying to most people who have become very confident in their lives of luxury and convenience (not seeing what they are asked to trade for it).
I want to act soon. Opinions are welcome! I am not driven by fear to do this work...which i think is a big indicator of the work's merit. This excites me, makes my heart leap up, makes my creativity ignite all cylinders. Makes me alive :) Fear is what would motivate me to not leap into my own self sovereignty and out of the leaking system. I do agree, Tara, that this must be motivated by genuine desire, or it will burn a person out quick.
Here's to all you brave and peaceful souls doing the work in your own ways. May we continue to learn from and encourage one another.
Congratulations, Grace! Your clarity and motivations are impressive. I wish I could offer advice on what will bring you to where you want to be, but I'm not sure that's the way life works. For me, knowing that my soul was aligned with a life next to nature, on a farm with beasts of all shapes and sizes and trees and rocks and life all around me was where I would be home was something I fed myself every day. I knew I would one day be there, but in the meantime, I had to taste crumbs of that feast to align myself with the tangibility of that world, especially when it felt so far away.
I used to walk through little forests, even just a few metres long in the city. I would go for walks on dirt trails and take off my shoes, sit or lie on the earth - letting her get to know me, sharing my secrets and desires, asking for collaboration. And then, looking back now, I see that a door opened and I went through. It didn't look like the door that I wanted to open at the time, but it was interesting and hopeful and I was curious. So I moved in that direction trusting. Then another. Then another.
What a loopy ride.
The first farm we bought had a house that should have been knocked down but we couldn't afford to do that. It was horrible, but the land was gorgeous and that's what I was there for. I would never be here, in my modest dream home if not for all that came before. I can see that your vision is clear and your heart full. I'm awed. xo
Hi Grace, I’m Karla, also 33 :)
I have two kids, 7 and 10 and a step daughter as well, so I’ve done the baby thing and had a partner at the time. I was a single mom for a bit, with no child support and nothing to my name except a school bus that I converted. I lived in it on my parents (rented) property. I met my husband in this time, and it worked out fabulously, but I was fully expecting to go it alone.
I think that would be my advice: buy a portable home so you and your baby have some security. School buses are cool, but you may not want an engine to worry about, so maybe an airstream or tiny home (paying to have it towed is not a huge deal as long as it’s not too far). Finding land to park it on depends on lots of things, and I don’t know what it’s like there where you are. Best case scenario, you could buy raw land down the road and have something to live in on it, or you could find a farm to live on with like minded folks.
My aunt raised my cousin as a single mom from the beginning, and she stayed in the community she wanted in this way, with her cool blue school bus :)
Here where I live in southern coastal BC, there is a housing crisis and MANY people are turning to rvs and such in order to stay in the communities they love or grew up in. Land ownership here is far out of reach for many, but lots of people who do own land (ourselves included) are putting in rv pads so more people can live on our property and we can make a small steady income to increase our security in this weird and seemingly collapsing system.
Don’t underestimate the value of family support when you have a kid, and the benefit of grandparents in a kids life. I didn’t have extended family close growing up, and my kids have it now, and it’s the best. I don’t know how I would have done it without my parents help, and I did have a partner most of the time.
I hope to hear about the baby when it comes :) You are clearly a strong, capable and thoughtful woman and I wish you all the best ♥️
Philadelphia, PA?? Grace, you live so close to me? I have much admiration for the way you’ve prepared, and the clear intentionality in the way you gather your thoughts around your life. Pregnancy (also my first, also without a partner) was also a portal to potent clarity for me, in a way that I could not have anticipated, and now as I raise my babe I am so grateful to past me for all those little gathered nuggets even though they STILL seem so small in light of the whole. I’m just happy to be a part of it all, and to learn from so many (like Tara) who have walked a wiser path before me. Sending the warmest of wishes to you and your wee human. May this birth passage be exactly to you what it needs to be. ❤️
We source locally and preserve and grow because we know that the fewer folk between us and our food the better. As my farmer friend Liz and I say to each other when processing meat birds, a steer or a pig together, "No stranger touched our food" this has been a way of life for us for 10 years living in or next to a rural ecovillage in Western NC, US. We do it out of love not fear. And for wanting to be more connected to each other, the land and all the intricate web of life that supports us. Whether it's the foraged wild mushrooms or the fat from s spent laying hen that nourishes us, we are connected to our sustenance. I rarely visit supermarkets these days. Few things that come in shiny packaging appeal to me. I can hardly stomach the idea of good like substances produced by corporate machines nurturing our precious bodies and lives. We live in one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet and while doing any of these tasks to grow, process, butcher, preserve takes great time and effort the rural lives we heartily enjoy support us in our endeavors. Pondering upon it some more, I realize how incredibly wealthy we are through the food we steward from farm to fork.
Our worlds will be localized again. That's the great phoenix emerging from the ashes of the crumbling "system". Love this, Patricia. :)
Where is this eco village? We live in Upstate SC and I am so looking for a community like that to be a part of.
earthaven.org
Thank you for opening this up Tara.
We are a family of 6 living on my husbands small income, truly hovering the poverty line. We live on a small plot of land only big enough for a small garden.
Some of the things we’ve been doing:
Paying down any debts we have. Something about having debt going into the next few years scares me more than I care to admit.
Restarting my home business that I sidelined when we had our children. We need the extra income, no matter how small. It is nearly impossible to live on one income (less than $50k). We do it, but it’s very hard and we are barely making it.
Buying out the store when anything is on sale. For example when Kerry gold butter is even $0.50 off, I buy whatever they have. It adds up to a few free lbs of butter if I buy enough. Also scouring the grocery store clearance sections for organic produce and grass fed/free range meat. We can’t afford farm local raised/pastured meat, so when an organic chicken is $8 instead of $16 on clearance, I Grab them all. I know it’s not the best meat but it’s what we can do.
We are in the process of trying to get rid of things and streamline some processes to save money. I’m going to try and potty train my youngest two early to get rid of the diaper expense. I regret not cloth diapering with my first but I didn’t know we would have four children, lol.
We are trying to figure out how to get a wood stove installed cheaply because we have a free wood source that we want to utilize.
And lastly, just all around eating less. Because that actually save a ton of money!
Sorry so long! I’m looking forward to reading what everyone is doing!
Thank you for sharing this with us. Getting rid of debt is a huge, monumental, delicious, freeing goal. I think it's where we all need to start. I remember being in similar circumstances to you and one of the things I found hard to start, but easy to continue, was to set aside a bit of money every month so that we could buy bulk meat and fowl from farmers in the fall when the harvest brought us the healthiest critters at the most reasonable prices. At first, it was tough to set aside money because we were barely able to meet the costs of our groceries as it was, but once we had full freezers (we bought two old rusty ones for $50/each), it freed up some dollars that we tucked into envelopes. Yes, we used the cash in the envelope system and it saved us.
are you on instagram? if so, what is your username?
This summer we invited a group of people to our home once a month to talk, eat, network and learn about homesteading. It's been really good watching people exchange information about the best place to get chicken feed and how to make kombucha and stories about grape vines that didn't have arbors for five years but do now, and aren't they beautiful? We learn from each other, but we also make friends. And that feels really important.
We have a freezer full of meat, and just bought another one to fill with veggies and more meat (from some of our pigs. We got too many this spring).
We are market gardeners, so we grow basically all our veggies, but we barter for fruit and mushrooms with our fellow vendors at market. But I do want to start some shitake logs this fall. And we got our first peach this summer!
I want to dry a lot of burdock leaves in case we have to deal with large scale burns. I also need to take inventory of the medicinal herbs I have dried and replenish what needs to be replenished..
Hopefully the winter squash, sweet potatoes and potatoes do well and we will have starches for the winter. But I also would like to buy a 50 pound bag of organic black beans and one of white rice to freeze and then store, just in case.
I plan to get a 22 rifle by squirrel season, so we don't have to keep asking our homesteading neighbors to come help us butcher. Although, it's been really amazing having them come and help!
I also want to take a self defense class this winter.
I'd like to get a hand pump for our well, a European style scythe, a corn sheller and a bike powered grain mill but those all seem pretty far off. In the back of my mind I think I am actually planning on a power outage, too.
This is such a hopeful and positive comment, thank you Laverne and Julie. I am so buoyed by how many people are taking on these things with resolve and goodwill. Exactly what is needed at this time - coming together.
It's been interesting for us to see how less hungry we are when we add less starch into our diets. I actually moderate starch and limit to high energy use days to control glucose/blood sugar which controls ghrelin/leptin. It's been my understanding of this physiology that makes us less concerned about the starch aspect and more concerned with the protein/fat. That said, we have potatoes and winter squash growing too. I see it as survival food more than nutrition although the variety is nice. But I do think that a lot of the types of foods people put away (not you, but the commercial type survival foods) are altogether an awful idea for not only nutrition, but satiety because of their heavy reliance on starch. I would be a basket case eating that way.
I think planning for a power outage is wise!
I am from Eastern Europe, Lithuania, and at the moment the potential Russia invasion threatens us more than food shortages. Personal security matters….
No food shortages at the moment, but prices are rising exponentially.
I feel confident with our family goal (for last 10 years) to increase our own grown&foraged plant food supply. And our own already makes app 90% in volume. Little nice things aside, we can survive on our grown& foraged- dried, frozen, fermented, canned and storaged in root cellar plant foods.
Still, the animal foods are more important and make even higher volume in our plates.
The animal food we buying from our neighbours ( whole animals, slaughteted on site, egs, milk). We preparing to raise our own animals in coming 5 years.
Frankly speaking I do not see any food shortage threat, if you live in the country. You can grow or barter. Still the biggest problem as long as I renember is the real, organic food shortage around…because of the people not understanding, or greed, or choosing the easier way to grow or raise.
This year is particularly bad for most vegetables, due to the rains. They spoil potatoes, tomatoes and probably the grains. But the grazing animals thrive!
interesting to read others opinions.
I'd say it's similar here, Modesta. We aren't really seeing the food shortages yet. The grocery shelves are not as overflowing as they once were, but by and large, most are seeing the increasing costs more than the scarcity. It's what's happening behind the facade that I hope people are paying attention to. Sounds like you have a beautiful set up, that's wonderful :)
We are in the planning more than the doing stages, and I am concerned that we are not doing enough soon enough. We do have long shelf life survival food, but that’s not a long term solution (we live in a hurricane prone area so emergency food here is common). We are starting to buy shelf stable foods like beans and some canned goods, but I see that as last resort foods for basic survival and not for thriving. Our plan is raised bed gardening starting this fall when Florida’s vegetable growing season starts, but the preservation process we will use needs work. I do believe chickens are in our future. So, we have a lot to do in a short period of time. I am also getting my .22 vintage rifles read for hunting should that be required.
Hey there, if you are into learning from YouTube, there’s an amazing Florida urban farmer to look into named Joe Kovaleski. He grows all “winter” but also grows sweet potatoes in the summer, unattended. 💚
Thanks. I will check him out. I have had some success with Hawaiian Purple Sweet Potatoes here, and yes, they did well during the summer
Those sounds delicious! My best sweet potatoes in Texas were just organic ones from the grocery store that I forgot in the pantry too long 😂
When you bake these potatoes in the oven your kitchen will smell like you are baking a cake. Very lovely
What's the preservation process that needs work, Guy?
Preservation long term? We have to refrigerate these sweet potatoes because we don’t have root cellars in Florida, nor basements. If left out more than a few weeks they dry out or rot. Delicate things these Hawaiian purple sweet potatoes.
Oh, got it.
I’m a 29 year old mother of 5 living in the Midwest region of America. My husband and I bought a fixer upper farm 6 years ago and have been steadily working on it to make it our homestead. We have a large garden that supplies a lot of vegetables, and 35 layer chickens. We have room for ruminant animals... but we aren’t there yet. Hopefully next year. My goal (which I am living) is to completely buy our food outside of the conventional grocery system. We raised our meat chickens this year and last year, but took them in to a processor instead of doing it ourselves. Next year we will process them ourselves. I buy bulk fruit from a local Mennonite store and can/freeze it. I can and freeze our vegetables from our garden. We buy bulk ingredients from Azure. We buy a 1/2 cow from a local farmer, who also makes his own chicken feed - no reliance on tractor supply here! My new-to-farming parents raise a few pigs each year and we get one of those each fall. I’m happy with where we are right now, but the ultimate goal is to be mostly independent of buying food, and producing it ourselves. It’s good to have a years worth of food in the freezer and on the shelves, but where does that put you come next year when prices are that much higher and you have to buy it all again?
Yes, exactly. We need to be building in longer term solutions. All goes back to local economies and robust communities.
This is certainly at the top of my mind. I've started with a small vegetable garden in the backyard, cooking from scratch, eating real food and buying meat and produce from local farms in northern Ontario. I also like to read and learn. That's where I'm at.
We are a family with 2 small children, we live far from our families with little to no support. We talk a lot about wanting to grow our own food in kinda the same way one would talk about it being nice to win the lottery.
I tell myself I don't know where to start or what the next step is. I tell myself I'm too exhausted to think and try.
Anyone out there have a long list of must read books on this topic? I want to dive in and learn and make this a reality.
You might enjoy "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" if you want tons of info. If you are more into inspiration and some practical ideas, what about "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. The Square Foot Garden book is great for starting small and making the most of what you have. "Gaia's Garden" and" Root Cellaring" are good too. And if you want to start foraging, Samuel Thayers has some really great books. The Forager's Garden, is a good place to start. And for home health, I like, "Be Your own Doctor," by Rachel Weaver.
You know I am guessing that there are other times in your life when you were overwhelmed and exhausted but you figured out how to keep learning and growing and functioning anyway. Remind yourself of those times regularly. If you don't remember other times like that, then make memories and then remind yourself of them over and over. Do one little thing and then do one more thing. You are in a hard stage, but you can do little things to keep your sanity and keep your family healthy. You can do this!
Amazing, THANK YOU.
I'm fortunate to have our small rural library request mostly any book Id like to read. This has been my sanity.
I'm also realizing that I have things to celebrate and that I haven't been a friend to myself in a long time. I'm working on some self compassion which I think helps me to feel unstuck and move forward in providing and loving for my future self and family. I also have my resourceful-ness to celebrate. Thanks, I needed a reminder of that!
Looking forward to the reads!
Laverne and Julie gave you some wonderful suggestions so I will leave it all at that. What I will say is a comment to you saying "I tell myself..." Sometimes, when I "tell myself" something long enough, I start to believe it. There is no antidote to spending too much time in your brain like getting out and doing something physical as remedy. I knew nothing about gardening so I found someone that did and spent a few hours a week helping her which was the best type of learning I could do. If we imagine where we want to end up and measure that distance from our beginning point, it can be overwhelming. That's not how anything happens, but it is how we keep ourselves stuck. Paralysis by analysis. Let go of the result and just plug into the little bits you can start. It's also wonderful to read (I read every book I could get my hands on), but your body and spirit need to be in the tangible world DOING as well. Important stuff :)
Here is Australia I've invested in a second freezer and already filled it. I'm considering a third but want to organise a back up power option before I do so. I've expanded my gardens and can now grow double the veges and herbs and gotten a couple of chickens that are already gifting us with eggs. The end goal is to end up on a small farm but in the meantime I'm making this work for us and leaning plenty along the way ❤️
I've also met a lovely group of women on this journey and we are looking at things that we can collectively do together.
Wonderful and so hopeful, Emma!
Hello everyone! My husband and I along with our 2 young children moved onto our first farm in 2020! In 2021 I had a home birth at the farm and now we have 3 little munchkins running wild and free amongst the animals! We did not come from a background of raising animals, or knowing how to preserve our food. Taking the moments abundance and looking to care for the needs of our future selves, as you spoke about Tara, was not gifted to me and I have found myself lamenting that loss of wisdom in my life. I have looked to people like Tara, books, and any human with a skill I desire to grasp as my guiding light as I have slowly, because 3 small children, chipped away at learning and fine tuning my skills in the kitchen as well as discovering what skills are required to properly raise the animals that will one day gift us nourishment as evidence of a life that was well lived. In this journey the past two years I found that my overwhelm in needing to know everything at once was present in everyone around me who wanted to make changes, but simply froze due to the desire to arrive before beginning. My journey in preparing for the future has begun with respecting time. I used to listen to Tara speak about the multitude of projects and bubbling concoctions, savory chutneys and delectable dishes she prepared and it often left me feeling so far behind. I very recently realized that my envy of her skill was disrespecting the years of time and effort and hours she has logged learning. My gift to myself is starting, then persevering, and then passing the wisdom I cultivate to my children. The gift to my children is each time I teach them along with me so that their road will be a little less steep when it is their turn to provide for themselves and the ones they treasure.
This is such a beautiful, self aware post, Lexi. And thank you for the bit about realizing that I was just a gal that started at zero, too. I try to emphasize that with people as much as I can. I just learned bit by bit and I'm in my fifties now. I was as impatient as the next person with all I had to learn, now I'm old enough to know that I will never, ever learn all I want to so I just appreciate what I have learned and keep on plugging along, staying curious, and picking up a new thing here and there as I go. Peace comes with that. You are in such a good spot - possibility reigns down :)
I am struggling with my urge to increase my food security and lack of funds to make it happen! I want to buy a quarter of beef and/or some quality lamb or pork, and expand my poultry and garden areas, but I’m quite literally unable to afford to do any of it now....and I wonder if it will be too late by the time I can. It’s a worry. I am poor, but debt-free, and not sure if racking up credit card debt to pay for the things I need is the direction I want to go. In the meantime, I’m preserving chicken and duck eggs for winter and trying to buy an extra dozen canning jars when I can....
Don’t go in debt. Do what you can and if things really do go bad, you will likely find help from someone or somewhere that you didn’t expect. You are on the right track Krista.
Just start by getting an extra package of ground beef or chicken or can of tuna every time you shop. It will add up little by little. Every time that I cook something that is freezeable, I try to stretch it out for an extra meal to freeze. I freeze fruit that is about to spoil (although, tbh, a lot of it goes to my pigs to make bacon 🥓).
Do you have a skill or talent that you can use as a bartering tool? Can u volunteer on a property to earn some produce or meat? Can u watch extra kids and take meat as payment? Sometimes we have to think differently about getting what we need. Not just cash and stores. 😊 you will do great!
Love these ideas, Amanda. I used to volunteer on local farms in exchange for eggs and some produce when our kids were small. I picked up some skills and got some goods. Krista, you're on the right track, but don't go in debt. Your debt free life is your sovereignty and your freedom.
Great ideas!!
Grow and preserve. Aim for as much shelf stability as possible, so use Fowlers (I’m in Australia) to bottle all our homegrown fruit and tomatoes. We only eat meat we hunt (rabbit, deer, roo) our dams are stocked with perch and cod to fish and eat. Make our own ciders and wines and vinegars. Teaching our children to forage for Saffron milk caps, slippery Jacks, Turkey tails. Dry and dehydrate food in the sun or in the wood oven. Breed chooks for meat and eggs. Seed save. Eat seasonally. Be in community - join a community garden. Eat and grow everything you can
And homeschool if you can, teach them life skills, our 4,5 and 7 yr olds are learning to whittle, carve, sew, hunt, forage, tend animals, garden, cook, preserve. Start them from day one. Live simply. Enjoy it. Not fear but freedom based!
We are working to all of the above as well here in Australia. I don't use fowlers but use weck as I like the glass lids 😊 Homeschooling has been the best thing I've ever done! So much more peace and enjoyment of life.
Love it. We have begun basketry this year with the kids too, so great and relaxing to weave at night!
hear! hear!
Hi! We aren’t talking actively about food shortages or economic collapse - I’ve been thinking about why a lot lately and I think it might be that we are too busy - I’ve decided that I am not going to have fear at the dinner table or in our daily life...and I think a huge part of why we don’t have that is that we are in the midst of being prepared. Here’s what we’ve done/are doing
1) bartering. We have a milk cow. Our neighbors have eggs, meat, maple syrup, hay, skills. One neighbor was just over for yogurt and ended up helping my husband shore up a window...we traded yogurt for his skills. One of our hay contacts gave us a reduced rate on hay in exchange for milk.
2) generator - we have a generator to keep our three freezers, our water pump, (and I don’t know what else he has hooked up to it) just in case
3) stashing cash. We keep all of our cash payments for milk (we can sell off the farm if people come to us and take out of the bulk tank). We use this to buy feed (yes we feed some grain because we milk through the winter for bartering
3) preserving - right now I probably have 20lbs if cheese aging - it’s a goal to stop using the dairy aisle
4) shopping in bulk for major staples from Azure standard - which I just started doing
5) canning and veg processing. We have an entire garden set aside just for squashes - also growing root veggies to ferment, tomatoes to can.
6) continue making meaningful connections so we can share the bounty of our cow with others. Paying it forward if you will
7) about 2 years worth of oak split and seasoning for winter heating (includes lots of milk tips for the loggers in our area)
8) my most maybe paranoid plan - a plan to get the kids from other parts of the state (several live in the city) if necessary.
9) which leads to plenty of bedding and a place for everyone to sleep
10) almost forgot! We hunt Turkey, grouse, and deer as well.
Gorgeous, Esther! And thank you for detailing what each of those different ventures look like for you. I know these things are so helpful for people just starting down this path. Do you have a root cellar/aging chamber for your cheese? I started making aged cheeses a few years ago but had issues with the "aging fridge" and swore I wouldn't screw around again until I got the right set up. I will have that with our root cellar, but I love hearing about how others are doing it.
So Tara. I’m jealous of your root cellar. I don’t see that in the cards for a long time here. I do have a wine fridge that I use to keep cheese at a certain temp, but frankly I’ve found the only way right now that I can get cheese to turn out is to wax it. When I have beeswax I mix that with lard and dip the cheese in that. But mostly I’m using cheese wax that I buy in bulk. I have some hesitation about wax - it’s a compromise because I’m not diligent enough to turn daily, or brine wash weekly. I have a few types that seem to work well with our climate and I just go with it.
We’ve also wrapped in cheesecloth and lard and that also works in the fridge.
Southern Wisconsin here. There have been a few things I have personally seen empty on the shelves. I went to print a picture at the local pharmacy last week & noticed empty shelves of baby formula. Another random glance down a grocery store aisle made me realize there was hardly any pasta on the shelf. A friend told me she hasn't been able to buy chicken at local grocery stores for a few months. I feel blessed mostly not to notice the shortages simply because I don't shop that way. Feeling it in different ways.....my local pastured chicken that I order once a year is up a dollar a pound. So ordered less and bred another round of meat rabbits instead. Working on more housing options for the rabbits so we can do with out the meat chicken order and eat the few roosters instead when we want chicken. So far my local source for wheat for my beloved sourdough is steady, but carefully looking at what can just be food we live without if the need arises. Couple pigs nearing processing weight, have a half beef coming in October. Veggies galore hitting the freezer and canning pantry. Would like to figure out how to have back up freezer power, though soon enough that will be the great outdoors! All in all feeling good. There is more to do and learn, but we are in love with simple food and there is an abundance of hunting and foraging to be had, I need to skill up in foraging as well as other areas, but I am so grateful for this life!
Beautiful, Anna. I think you hit on something profound there - you are "in love with simple food". I think a lot of the angst people feel, or will feel, is that they don't even know how to cook a simple dish, never mind enjoy and appreciate the flavours of such hence the pasta aisles being empty.
Hello! I'm Stéfanie, 38yr old maman of 4 boys in Chelsea QC. Haven't made it to my farm yet thpugh that is the end goal. I've been making sure I have access to good meat, dairy and produce. I have our half beef ordered and coming in September, a pig too though I'm looking forward to next spring as a friend is growing hers out on organic grain mix and milk which I'm on her list for. Stocking up on salt, grains. Biggest thing would be working on skills. I tend to gather hobbies and like the fact that this could be used to trade in situations. Sew/ knit/ cook etc. Last year I started canning, tanned rabbit pelts, got my hunting licence. This year I'm learning about fermenting and brewing, found some flip tops I'll be sterilizing. Bought some meat rabbits, laying chickens. (I'm in town so no rooster for me unfortunately) I have some chickens growing out at a friends that I will be helping to butcher in August. The biggest difficilty is finding community near me as I've removed myself from FB honestly. lol
This is so great, Stéfanie. I'm a hobby gatherer, too :)
Today I decided to try my hand at curing a pork belly.
I'm due since my son mentioned last summer that he expected to see meat hanging off the cellar ceiling... 🤣🤣🤣
if you're looking for community go to www.freedomcells.org - that's what they're all about!
Hi Stéfanie! We’re neighbours! I’m over in Aylmer. 34yr old mama of 2 boys. Owning a small farm is the dream, but for now I’m doing what I can with my garden. This will be my third season of canning and fermenting. I don’t hunt, but I’ve been learning how to forage and wildcraft my own herbal remedies. We should connect!
Absolutely!
Here's my email :-)
stefaniebeauds1484@gmail.com
Love this conversation! For my husband and I, we have always strive to live this lifestyle. It is never been fear-based but more of a desire/instinct. We work hard to walk gently on the earth, growing as much of our own food as possible. What we are unable to grow we strive to source locally, to know the farmer directly. We recently moved to 7 acres in Maine, right before the pandemic. We are so grateful for the timing. We are convinced it was divine intervention. Immediately we found farmers we could source food from while we set up our homestead. We make sure we pay them cash so we are the first on the list to call when it’s time for their animals to go to slaughter. Part of our move strategy was to be debt-free. We are 52 years old and own our homestead out right. There has been a ton of physical and mental work that went into this property to make it our dream. We had to buy a disaster in order to be debt-free. We also purchased the property with a small cottage on the land which our 27 year old daughter and her boyfriend are redoing. It feels good to have extended family around us and it feels like a throwback to the old days. We Are working to provide the majority of our heat from Wood, which has been a challenge in an old drafty house. We are fortunate to have a well and we are working on restoring a pond on the property. This year we added five sheep, We chose a dual purpose breed in case we want to milk and make cheese. We planted lots of fruit trees and perennial berry bushes asparagus etc. we expanded our garden with lots of potatoes and carrots and beets and onions and garlic. We have converted our basement into a good old fashion root cellar with three freezers for the meat. Our goal is to have animals on the property that we don’t need to ship lots of grain in for because that will definitely be detrimental if prices get too high. We do however have layers and still raise meat birds as the prices were fair this year. We are fermenting most things we can and will be canning. the tomatoes and some Chutneys. Our biggest weakness Is our reliance to the grid. What we are working towards mostly these last few weeks is staying mentally strong and connected to Spirit. Restoring our nervous system is our number one goal. When I look out my window I see sheep grazing, bountiful gardens and my family and I know all is well. May we all move from a place of peace during these times.
Hi Kim, I loved reading this. And I so appreciate and respect getting a place you could move into debt free and use your power to bring to a place you want it to be. I wonder how your reliance on the grid is a weakness? How so? For us, we're happy to be on the grid while it's here and when it's gone, we'll be fine, too. We wouldn't invest any money in so-called "green" solutions. Instead, we have manual power backups and systems for the day it's gone. Much cheaper and longer lasting. And how wonderful that your daughter and her boyfriend are there redoing the cabin! That's incredible!
We too "love" the grid. Our only back up system is a generator and a few 5 gallon cans of gasoline. I do not see a short term outage being a problem. Obviously, getting gas at the pump will be impossible to refill the cans if the outage goes on more than a month. Ideally, we would have a diesel generator and a 100 gallon tank stocked with fuel. Future goal perhaps. Also, a hand pump on our well would serve us well. Would love to hear what back up solutions / tools you have in case of a power loss. We strive to not have a fear based mentality, but be wise enough to be prepared, just in case. (Just remembering you have a cook stove too! Nice!)
Hey there, Tara and the wider global community! Tara, I love your words, deeds, and actions. Thank you for what you do!
I come from a Mormon background. Mormons are known for their "prepping" habits, so food and other essential preparation has been ingrained in me from a very early age. I currently live in a smaller urban area, and do not have the luxury of a garden or livestock. Nonetheless, my prepping habits have prepared me well for the potential hardships to come.
For famine level food storage, I've stored bulk grains in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers in 5 gallon buckets. I purchase my goods from ethically minded companies like Azure Standard and my local farmers. Costco is my alternative shop when I need that which the others cannot provide. My chest freezers are stocked with well-loved and well-cared for animals from my local farmers. I purchase my raw milk products and eggs from a local producer. I've been able to stock up on freeze-dried and canned meat for some time. I've learned how to make pemmican as well.
There is a shelved wall dedicated to jugs of water with iodine (for sanitizing) and powdered electrolytes for proper body chemistry. There are larger containers of water for cleansing.
Dried herbal medicinals are also an essential section in my larder. There is a healthy supply of soaps, salves, and wound supplies. As a nurse, I have a sufficient medical bag which includes items such as sutures and splinting supplies. I highly recommend everyone read "Where There Is No Doctor" by David Werner to help those in your community understand the first principles of health in the most deplorable situations. While scenarios in this book are not likely to be applicable in the US and other developed nations, being wholly prepared for such situations is a balm to the psyche.
Being a life-long prepper, I've also been stocked up on everyday essentials like household products, vinegar, soaps, toilet paper, socks, underwear, and even books. Purchasing these items in bulk before inflation has been a godsend!
Debt is an active pursuit in which I aim to be absolved of. Additionally, I practice turning off my electricity on regular occasions in order to learn to be more comfortable without it, especially in the evenings. I've also made sure to have items that I can cook my food with should the power-grid ever be shut down for an extended period of time. I train myself to get comfortable with cold showers, and even no showers. "Bird baths" are wonderful in the event of no access to running water.
Lastly, I make sure to have regular discussions with my family and friends for mental-preparedness. We discuss how life might look in the event of a global war, famines, or other major catastrophe. Discussing worst-case scenarios helps to ease the psychological fears by regularly practicing thought experiments as a group. Fear can either be debilitating or the fulcrum for the ultimate girding of one's mind and spirit.
This is fantastic, Liz. It's an interesting psychological exercise to have these discussion with people and observe their response. Some people are motivated and others feel overwhelmed. Most, I think, just avoid thinking about it.
I appreciate your approach to building the mental muscle needed to be comfortable without the luxuries of modern life. Troy and I often find ourselves explaining why we are not getting solar and wind energy to people. We are setting ourselves up to return to pre-electrical times, not to continue the charade of it, once the grid goes down. If it goes down. If it becomes so monumentally expensive as to make it too costly for a mere mortal. To that end, shutting down the house, using candles, using wood to heat is not only a way to reduce costs, but is a lovely, soothing energy we get to live in at times. Also a great clarifier of what's really necessary.
Hi! Im learning my antique pressure canner, and every time i set a jar on the shelf i swell with pride. I have started ordering bulk feed from a local miller for my critters. Im really concerned about my family who fully trusts the TV and dose as they are told. How can i support them if i need to? Im trying to hold everyting in so i dont bother anyone with my "crazy" ideas. Im such a panicky person and i feel alone. I wish i had that community ive been searching for. I love coming to your letters, they are such a comfort! Hope you are all well 💕 Please give grandbaby updates!!!
It's such a great feeling, isn't it? You should swell with pride! I will give grandbaby updates, but so far, he's still bubbling away in his beautiful little womb, growing and dreaming of his future grandma ;-) I don't think there's a single thing you can do about your family or anyone that believes what they believe. I know, it's hard, but I've learned that unless someone asks me, I don't offer. And while there's people here that seem to think I have something useful to offer, my extended family don't ask me a thing. Do you have a local Weston A Price chapter near you? Sometimes the local groups have gatherings and potlucks and it can be so nice to meet some people of like mind.
Hi! Yes a local chapter is within 20 miles, I will reach out to them! Great suggestion. I'm learning the whole don't offer if not asked. My sweet momma friend is about to have baby #3 and a few of us get together and chat about labor and delivery and I'm learning to just show up full of love and not say a thing unless she asks me. I just want to thank you again because reading your words and following along with you on IG has really changed my perspective. You radiate love and it is apparent in everything you do; I am so grateful for you!!!
Thank you, Abbey. What a beautiful compliment to receive. xo
Lately, I find myself daydreaming of my childhood. I used to spend all day running barefoot on the smooth lava rocks in Hawaii, a truly wild and free child I was. My friends and I would make dolls out of tree branches on the beach, and catch geckos to make as our daily pets. I especially appreciate how we could pick papaya and banana off of trees, and smash coconuts against sharp rocks to peel the outer layer off when we were hungry for a snack. There was food everywhere, and we didn't have to go home to get it. Fast forward 30 years and I'm a single mom with a desk job in California, raising a son who has a very different childhood from my own. I have a small yard but have 3 chickens, and I raise quail for meat and eggs. I buy most of my beef and lamb from a local farm and stock up my standalone freezer when I can. I have dried beans and rice, and a few canned goods. I have a garden but produce very little. I'm trying to get better at gardening but it seems the only thing I can grow successfully is basil. I'm paying off my debts as quickly as I can. I have very little space in my rented home and would like to move to a place with more land to have self sustaining farm. I don't know how that will be possible, but I believe it will happen.
I’m a fellow Hawaii transplant to the mainland, it’s not been easy! I miss papaya so much, among many other things. Amazing that you are raising your own fowl!
Hi Cheyenne! It was a crazy transition moving to California when I was 9. I still remember other children asking me to say things because I suppose I spoke a bit differently with my island slang. Also, I distinctly remember driving by a large cow farm and the awful smell shocked me. The trees and landscape were definitely very different and I remember feeling like such a foreigner in California. I remember the taste of papaya and mango, and haven't tasted anything like it since.
Quail are very easy and great for small spaces like mine; The eggs are wonderful, albeit small!
Those are gorgeous memories, Gigi. Thank you for sharing them. I know you aren't where you want to end up, but you are doing a lot more than most. That you even have a garden is the first step to get better at gardening :) I didn't know what the heck I was doing with my garden, I just put things in the ground and hoped for the best. Water - more water if nothing is growing. Maybe get a couple meat rabbits and use their poop in your soil - fowl manure can be too hot, but better if composted. Things are happening!
Hi friends! Chiming in from New Hampshire. I’m completely new to homesteading as a practice, but have been admiring it in theory for years. I currently don’t have a property with land, so I’m learning what I can in the space I have. I’ve been making my own herbal medicine for years and try my best to eat seasonally and locally by shopping almost exclusively at my farmers market. I’ve been deeply inspired by Tara’s words over the past year and feel strongly drawn to building community with likeminded folks in person and online. Love reading everyone’s posts, thanks Tara for opening up the discussion!
P.s.
Can anyone recommend a good food dehydrator? I think that will be my next step forward :)
I have an Excalibur 9 tray and love it!
I have an Excalibur 5 tray stainless steel trays. It's really great.
I live just outside of Chicago and I have a small garden so I am growing a lot more shelf stable items like squashes. Usually, I am canning and fermenting lots of items at this time but my husband and I are currently looking to move away from the city, we are looking for the right state and home with land while trying to stay light to prepare for moving. We have redirected almost all of our money away from grocery stores and buy direct from farmers, this has been a regular practice for veg and fruit but now we do it with meat too. I am with the majority of people here, that I am more concerned about clearing debt as quickly as possible to allow more space for higher prices from our farmers. Food is our main healthcare system so we prioritize that over every other aspect of our lives.
Also, like a lot of people here, I refuse to live in fear. I will be observant of what’s happening and make necessary shifts but I won’t be sent down the “hoard all the toilet paper” route.
Ha! The diversion of the toilet paper was a good one :)
Where do you guys plan on moving? What kind of variables are weighing into your decision of where to plant yourselves? I like hearing about what makes people choose a spot when it's outside of work/business.
Luckily my husband and I work from home and have the ability to move anywhere. We were originally headed to Colorado to be closer to my husbands family plus CO has protected lots of 35+ acres but just as we were about to move my husband and I realized we would be moving into the same situation as IL, a mainly red state being overloaded by extreme left cities. We are narrowing areas down currently between Nebraska, Maine, North Carolina, Florida (to be close to my family), and Alabama. Each area has its pros and cons but my end goal is to have acreage so that I can raise my own animals. I love the season changes in the Midwest but the growing season is short. I miss living by the ocean but I would miss the snow and the visual reminder to rest deeply and tend to my roots. My grandpa had a cattle farm with an orchard and I want my future kids to grow up getting kisses from cows, being protected by the bull (I love bulls like you), and hanging out under fruit trees. I’m looking for a place that offers school choice but I would be fine with homeschool, lower property taxes (currently pay $10,000 a year for 6,000 sqft of space) lower income tax, buying land that someone else doesn’t own the mineral or water rights to, and more freedom to live overall.
For anyone that reads this, if you are moving somewhere please make sure to look into local and state regulations especially for farm land. Most places have regulations on how much water you can use, how many sqft of house you can have, animal limits, homesteading credits that can greatly reduce your property tax, etc. Most of the documentation I have acquired while looking is between 100-200 pages for each place.
One other thing. For all the women who are trying to convince their partners to move out of cities just know it can take a while and you may need to do it in steps. I wanted to move from IL 6 years ago but my husband wanted to stay. 3 years after planting the seed he agreed to move to the suburbs and within a month I found a house and we moved in the following month. I started living the life I want to live by growing food, we feed ourselves and 4 other families off of our 128 sqft garden boxes. Now after 3 years of living here my husband sees how much abundance we create, how rewarding it is, how much more capable he is than he thought, how being connected to nature brings forth clarity and calmness, the impact our actions for ourselves have changed others around us. As women, we often have to facilitate the “seeing is believing” aspect of life even though we don’t need it the same way.
This time of waiting isn’t wasted though. Begin by preparing your body for the life you want to live by getting stronger, walking everywhere, carrying weight as often as you can, farm life is rewarding but it requires your body to be in working order. Up your cooking skills, learn to can, rummage all thrift stores for cooking equipment. Time can be a gift you didn’t know you needed.
I live in a small home. I love to keep stocked on food and other important items. However, I have to balance feeling cluttered and overwhelmed in day to day life. There is a trade off and cost to keeping lots of extra on hand. I am trying to stay balanced. I have not figured it out yet.
So I work full time and I feel helpless by the fact that I don’t have time to do what needs to be done. I want to somehow incentivize farming so that it makes more sense for people to do it and we can build local resiliency so when the huge farms out west finally deplete their soils with how they treat them, we will have food strength locally. But do most of us have time for that? No! I want the time I just can’t afford to work part time
Start small? I can easily get overwhelmed too. But then I realized it takes 10 minutes to get mint drying. And maybe 30 or less to chop and dry apples. Canning a small batch of relish is easily done in a hour on a Saturday etc. Little bits still add up. And you can hopefully gain joy from doing them that will off set the extra effort after full time work.
I thought I was starting small but apparently my garden is huge for someone who works full time, found out the hard way, alas! Even still, I know I still need to rely on farmers despite all the time I put in. I honestly mostly just want to homestead
I totally understand. I work full time too & always feel like I am trying to beat the clock & get things done. Like just trying to live life properly is a full time job in & of itself. But I do what I can when I can & feel good about it because doing even one thing daily is better than nothing
Hello Everyone,
My name is Juanita, and we(my husband, 5children and I) moved to the US a little over three years ago from Brasil. After about 2 years we were finally able to buy one acre of land with a farm house on it. I came across Tara's instagram account this year and have TOTALLY LOVED every bit of it! We have slowly been growing our bunch of chickens, our flock is over 50chickens now and we have 4 ducks. We are planning on harvesting our first few chickens this fall and putting them in the freezer. Since hearing of possible food shortages we bought an old freezer and are slowly filling it up with extra meet, butter and things I bought at our local farmers market. Ive also been able to freeze some blueberries from our tree and squash from our garden. These are just a few things that we've been able to do so far.
I'm looking forward to learning more from Tara and you ladies about canning, preserving, making ferments, etc...
Thank you all for adding your wisdom from things you've learned over the years.
You're well on your way! It's always amazing to see just how much food can be raised and grown on even just a small plot of land. No need for hundreds of acres! Good to 'meet' you Juanita :)
I feel anxious as hell and extremely unprepared. I’m 29 and single, and in a very transitory, confusing phase of my life. I’m between jobs (my soul will not let me go back to software/tech, but I haven’t figured out yet what I *really* want to do!), I keep moving cities because I can’t seem to figure out where I want to settle, and I don’t own a home/land to grow food. I feel like I’m in the worst possible position for this, and my survival terror is activated. I don’t want to move out of fear, but I don’t know what inspired next steps are for me. I fear falling through the cracks. I want to act out of a belief that I live in a world of abundance, one that takes care of me and nourishes me and where it’s okay to not have everything figured out … but I question if that’s really true. I feel a little like a five year old thrust out into a harsh world she’s not ready to navigate (emotional flashback here, much?) 💔
Is there much that isn't "transitory and confusing" in your twenties? It's such a challenging decade! It's like you're an adult, but you're just figuring out how to do that as you go. Do you have some people around you of like mind? You could maybe volunteer on some local farms every now and then and/or join some local food buying clubs etc.. to meet some people in similar circumstance? I really like Molly's suggestions, too.
Sophia, I feel what you are saying in my soul because I was literally where you are just a few years ago: single, living in a van, working a job that demanded a crazy amount of hours/travel, and nowhere to permanently call home. I spent those years reading and learning about as much as I could. I visited farmer's markets in new towns, read books through libraries and Hoopla, watched a lot of YouTube videos, tried identifying edible wild plants and herbs in new regions...I definitely don't have everything figured out, and the more I learn the more I realize I don't know. But learning what you can at your own pace builds layers of confidence. Knowledge truly is power - and little by little it becomes something to fall back on when things don't go right.
Hi Sophia! Are you familiar with WWOOFing? It might be a great option for this season of life if you are between jobs and not sure where you want to land. You can travel, have community, nourishing food and a place to live, all while acquiring ton of new skills. Sharing in case it sounds like a good fit.. https://wwoof.net/
There are farms that let you live and eat in exchange for working there.... I wish I could do that myself :-).
My thoughts on this may be a bit "micro" at the moment, but I am wondering if other gardeners have been plagued by bugs this year? Granted, I don't dust or spray on pesticides. But this year, our orchard and garden is getting devoured by Japanese beetles*, despite our best efforts to manually (daily, and sometimes for hours) eliminate them. Sorry to be a Debbie downer, but it's been very discouraging, since I thought this was going to finally be my big harvest year, a year when it seems more important than ever. (*also squash-eating bugs and an overabundance of grasshoppers)
I've thought about getting ducks or quail, and/or putting up bird houses, to add natural predators, but that would be a next year endeavor.
I've noticed that the JBs haven't bothered the native mulberry trees and it makes me wonder if the plants and trees I've purchased over the years from nurseries are hybrids more attractive and less resistant to insects.
Any suggestions or thoughts from others would be appreciated.
My mulberry which usually fruits all season long is struggling this year, dropping fruit before being ripe. The chickens don't even seem interested which is odd... Any squash/ zucchini/ cucumber I've planted have not given me anything I'm suspecting boarers... And I've just discovered that my apples have a worm that tunnels to the core and rots it from the inside. Not an issue I had last year. Discouraging to know this beautiful tree FULL of apples will be unusable and I need to make sure I rid all the litter and treat for next year.
I feel your pain! And I've experienced the same on squash and cucumbers the last few years. Even tried planting some squash later this year, to avoid the bug peak, but the boarers still showed up. Curious to know what you use to treat your apples?
I didn't treat with anything as last uear went great! :-/
Ok that's great! I was referring to your last line "rid all the litter and treat for next year," wondering what that means?
My dad has had luck spraying his fruit trees with neem oil.
Thanks for sharing. I wonder if that's what most orchards use? I'm hoping to find a solution that doesn't require use of a product I have to buy, but also realizing that most fruit and vegetable growers (including organic) must be using something.
Have you tried the bag traps? That is what we use during years JB get bad. As for squash bugs, we've been facing them here too (NE GA) and I make it a habit to take a container of water out with me to the garden every morning. Any I see go for a swim and then get fed to the chickens.
I haven't tried the traps as I've read the trouble is they attract even more JBs. I have wondered if someone nearby put them up and that's why we have so many. haha Their arrival does seem to always coincide with when the surrounding farmers spray their fields. So I suppose they take refuge at our place.
Oh that stinks! We only have a "bad" year with them every 5 or so. Those are the years I use the bags, since they are already swarming. If I only see a few, they get the same treatment as squash bugs...if I care about what they're snacking on. This year I didn't. 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah in previous years I took the position that there was enough stuff for them and us to eat, so I wasn't too worried. This is an exceptional year, so it's good to know it doesn't necessarily mean it will occur every year. Thanks for sharing your experience!
We had a horrendous year with tent caterpillars last year. Our ancient apple trees even got hit, everything did. They start with their favourite plant (apples) but quickly work their way to even the less preferred ones. As a result, it's not going to be an apple year this year. We don't have much of an issue with Japanese beetles, but it seems like every area has their cursed creatures.
Yeah I was reluctant to say "Japanese beetle" because it seems odd to me that names of nations get assigned to insects or plants. We also have what's called "Canadian thistle," which makes me wonder if it's called such in Canada? Do you all have pests named after the US?
Japanese beetles are the worst! With the only solution,as far as I can tell, to pick them off. Who can stand there all day and pick off hundreds of those things.
Exactly. I've tried and they just keep showing up or moving on to their next victim. They have moved from the fruit trees to my okra, currently. I fear my picking them off is selecting for the more crafty ones, though.
🤮
I am in Virginia and live in a somewhat urban/suburban setting. Planted a garden which won’t yield much by way of storing but has been a great learning experience. I have tried canning and preserving. We have stocked up on dried goods that don’t require refrigeration. We have purchased some medical supplies and antibiotics. We are looking into water filtration as we live close to a river. Basically we have been looking at what might fall out in our area if things get really bad. I think food is only one aspect of the chaos that could easily erupt. Most importantly we are trying to build a community. Get to know our neighbors and build relationships. Mostly I am concerned for my daughters. One is married with four young children. The other lives out of state.
Hi! I live in BC, Canada. And this year, I am trying to preserve as much as I can to save on buying food in the winter and also to have food that doesn’t come in plastic and to ensure it is organic. My garden can only grow so much, so I am trying to forage for as much as I can from saskatoons (everywhere this year) to dehydrating amaranth and other weeds in the sun. I will use these for stews in the winter. I read that during famines in history people have reverted back to foraging and it turns out most of the weeds in my garden are edible. I am also saving beet tops and stem by fermenting them. I am drying a lot for teas, and just trying to do as much as I can.
I did also order wheat berries from a BC granary. It was a lot of work to get, but it will save us a lot of money in the long run. I heard that since prices go up every day, anything you can get today helps. I have ordered salt in bulk and I will get more sugar and beans in bulk too. I order them in to our local health food store. We have a half a cow in the freezer and will get another in the fall. I am worried for people out there who don’t think there will be food shortages, but I agree that living in the country will give us an advantage. I will also save seeds this year by letting a couple plants go to seed from each variety.
Such great and doable suggestions, Shelagh. There are so many things we can add to our diets just by getting to know the wild plants in our areas. I find it one of the most satisfying and connecting of all my food tasks. And, I'm wildly jealous of your saskatoons. They say you can grow them in Ontario, but I have as of yet to meet a person that has anything like what we used to feast on in Saskatchewan. I say they don't like it here at all. Certainly not my farm anyway. :)
Hi y'all! I'm Hannah from SC (USA). I'm a college student who still lives with my parents on our "inactive" farm. We don't keep much here anymore but I still have a few ducks and a small garden. Between me and mom we've frozen a few gallons of raw milk and dozens of pounds of local beef, and almost as much tomatoes/corn/other veggies in the freezer too. I'm learning more about what food on my land, and building connections with people in my area. On the list is to start canning more, getting a good dehydrator, and bringing in my own source of meat, hopefully quail. At the same time I'm sharing what I already know and helping others step out into this as much as I can!
This is wonderful, Hannah!
I am grateful to live on a large woodland homestead, that has three dwellings: I am in one with my husband and 3 boys (8, 5, and 1), my mom is in another, and my brother in one. We are doing our best to relearn multigenerational living and working, tending land and animal. We have gravity spring water.
We breed kune kunes, have a large flock of Jacobs sheep for meat and wool, goats for brushing and easy milk if need be, and we just bred 2 dexter heifers and will be anxiously awaiting their babies next summer. My son has a rabbit project going on, and we are working on replacing all their pellets with forage, and we have chickens. I am constantly learning and exploring new ways of food preservation. We have corn, squash, beans, tomatoes, and lots of other veggies for preservation and storage.
I am an herbalist and have been adding herbs that I feel are critical for my home apothecary, paying special attention to what I can grow bioregionally. Consciously not purchasing herbs that I cant grow here.
All of this is important, and we also place great importance on our community. We have long time friends and neighbors that we participate in decades long barter exchanges with. A true local economy. We are in California, and have tossed about the idea of leaving, but honestly, where would we go that would have the support and love of so many people right away? In a true "apocalyptic" scenario, community will be SO important, and we are grateful for what we got!
So we have all that in place, and we do it out of love and devotion to our place and animals, out of hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, and because what else is it to be human but to do real work with our hands to provide for those we love? In beauty and in gratitude. and it aint always glamorous, and sure as hell isnt easy all the time, but what greater magic is there?
Beautifully said, Sydney. We've wondered, too, if we will be able to stay here, especially in the direction our country is going in, but where would we go and what guarantee is there of anything anywhere staying as we find it? I also agree with the herbs. Working with plants in our local regions is such a beautiful way to deepen our understanding and to have resonance with such wonderful healing allies.
Love all these comments! My hubby and I essentially eat a carnivore diet. We have two full supplemental freezers. I have begun canning meat and I’m looking at getting a freeze dryer. We do not have any animals but we have farmers that grow meat according to our standards. We have been buying food, essentially meat at current prices so that we can can and freeze dry it, assuming the price may skyrocket and it will be more difficult to get. I find it so sad for so many people that are not making any preparation‘s and if things go along as they seem like they might, they will be left in a very difficult place.
I’ve also grown things this year that we don’t normally eat for vegetables just thinking I can can them and if need be can have them to eat. I’ve also begun fermenting and pickling things after hearing so much about how Tara does the same thing. Did my first pickled daylily buds and they are delicious. Making my own homemade vinegars with wild ferment from things outside. Going to start making my own soap. Already make lots of tinctures for medicine.
Trying desperately to cure my Hashimoto’s with diet and other things like sunshine, sauna, cold plunges etc.The thought of not having thyroid medication that I need makes me very nervous. Or, having to comply with some governmental regulations just to get it. Keep up all the great work, peeps and thanks for starting this thread, Tara!
This is so great, Pam. I'm glad you gave the day lilies a try and enjoyed them :). We sucked it up and finally bought a freeze dryer. I will report back on how it goes.
Hi everyone.
What a great conversation and wonderful resources. I see so many on IG preserving and canning and stocking up and I have no idea where to start with that. Outside of making my one kombucha, I am not familiar with food preservation/canning/pickling etc. If anyone has books, videos, resources on recipe basics to get started on that, would be appreciated.
Highly recommend just going to the library. They will have a whole section on food preservation including books for beginners. It's like a whole new world. :0)
Hi! There are five in our house. And while we normally have a little prepped and ready, this is a move year for us (US military) so I am headed to my new home in Ohio completely empty of all my normal resources.
It’s a little stressful. But, my plan is to get salt ordered as soon as I have an address.
Buy another freezer- work on finding local farmers to fill it
Buy a generator
Get azure standard to can what I can get all fall.
Thankfully, I have my herbal remedies ready.
Hoping to get some fall garlic planted
Any other ideas for getting sorted super fast would be helpful.
This was a military move year for my family too, so two months ago we were in the same place! My freezer and canning jars were all empty for the move, which was a little nervewracking. But as soon as we got here I did the following:
-found a local butcher and put in an order for 1/4 cow
-got a Costco membership to help save on fuel and food while waiting for the cow share (I actually kind of hate Costco, but they do have a lot of organic products at decent prices for the area and their fuel is .60-80 cents cheaper here in Alaska)
-found a CSA farm (they were out of shares for this year but said I was welcome to come out and volunteer which I will definitely take advantage of)
-started identifying local/wild plants nearby and harvesting what I could
-organized the gardening area next to the house (we are fortunate that the last people had raised beds, but they have been severely neglected)
-found a group of foragers thru the farmers market
-made an Azure Standard order and made contact with the lady who runs the local drop/co-op
-started attending a local church
-got my canner serviced and ready to start canning ASAP
-serviced our heaters (we've never used heating oil before, and it's been a learning curve)
-made an appointment with an electrician to wire our house to a generator for the inevitable power outages that can go on for days around here
We are in the process of building a garage and rebuilding the well house before winter, which may be here sooner than we hoped. But it's better to start and have to take a break due to weather than not start at all.
These are all such great tips, Molly. Before a posting, I used to contact the local Weston A Price chapter leader around where we were being transferred to. That was almost always very helpful. I also went to the farmer's market the very first weekend we were... wherever and talked to the farmers to see if they had the kind of stuff I was looking for, but if not, if they could give me some leads. There were no CSAs at that time because I'm an old fart. :).
That is one thing I haven't done yet - find the local Weston A Price chapter leader! I finally got a copy of his book on nutritional degeneration. I knew some of the info from a documentary but it's still mind-blowing stuff. I'm grateful for the old fart advice too 😂
For me and my family, preparing for further inflation and supply chain issues is more basic and outward-focused right now. Think $$ and community. This year my focus changed drastically to increasing income to pay off the last of our debt and to grow savings. I’m working 3 jobs right now and encouraging my teen kids to be more independent and experimental in the kitchen. We are getting to know our new neighbors and trying to honor and give back to our friends and family who have been there for us through the years. We are also loving each other HARD. We recently lost a freezer full of food in a power outage. We have a generator but it’s not very big…I have decided against electric-dependent food storage for now. In a crisis I think cash is going to continue to be king. All year I have made it a point to buy canned meat every time I go to a store that sells it. I have a good collection going and would love if any of you have recommendations for any farmers who can and ship good meat. I sure do love to follow and read of y’all’s wonderful homesteading endeavors. I’ve had a hobby farm before and have gardening, preserving and animal raising skills but it’s just not where we are now. Life has had its ups and downs which has taught me to be flexible. It’s also taught me that community and being friends with your neighbors and people from all walks of life is an incredibly important aspect of survival and thrival. At 41 years old I am now making more than double the income I’ve ever made before and along with our family bond and community connections, I feel like I’m doing the best I can with our current circumstances to be ready to tackle the next couple years of whatever May come.
Congratulations! That must feel so satisfying! Debt is crushing, spiritually and energetically. So much possibility opens up when we're free of it.
Hi! I’m Françoise. My family and I live in Manitoba where our growing season is short and our winters are long and cold. I love how each season has its own beauty, purpose and work.
I am so very lucky to have grown up on a small self-sustainable farm, where my father read so much and put so much intention into everything we did. I sure went and did my own thing in my teens and twenties but all I want to do now is milk a cow like Mattie, the one I milked as a young girl.
We currently live on 5 acres and are working our way to self-sustenance. I grow a large garden and try to freeze and can as much as possible. We have laying hens and raise our own pigs to butcher. My husband having grown up on a grain farm takes so much pleasure on giving pork chops and hams to friends and family. My father raises beef for us but is passing that along to my sister and brother-in-law to take it over. We also, hunt deer and after hunting season, we make deer/pork sausage and tourtières (I use the beautiful leaf lard from our piggies to make the pastry and ground pork for the filling), and pâté de foie and cretons. My grandfather owned an abattoir and you should see the skills my father and uncles have! We are trying to pick up every little tidbit of knowledge from them. I’ve also tried my hand at make tallow balm which has been a lot of fun. I’m also working on sourdough but it failed and I will wait until the fall for when I have more time to learn and practise.
We recently (one week ago!) were given two sweet little goats and I’ve been enjoying milking them. So far it’s been enough milk for my husband’s coffee and to make some fresh fruit ice cream treats for the kids. I will try my hand at making some simple cheese and see if there is enough fat to make a little butter. The daily milking chores have only increased my want for a sweet milking cow.
We get honey and fruit from our lovely neighbours. This past winter we did tap one of our Manitoba Maple trees and made a little maple syrup. Not quite the same as the stuff from out East but good enough for us! And we heat our house with a woodstove.
We are always looking to add more, learn more, do more but my husband works full time and we have a baby and three other kids. It is easy to get overwhelmed and see how far we have to go to be completely self-sufficient but at the same time it is easy to look back and see how far we’ve come in just a few short years. And so little by little we plug away with a whole lot of love and whole lot of faith.
This is beautiful, Françoise. I loved reading all that you are doing. Did you know I'm from Manitoba? You are blessed to have a dad and uncles who are skilled with animal butchery! I'm so glad you're soaking up their knowledge.
I do remember reading in one of your posts! :) Very cool! I am so very blessed, grateful and humbled to have such great resources around me.
I’v never thought to tap a Manitoba Maple!!! You’ve got me thinking now haha
This is timely and welcome, thanks. In writing of my trust we will all come out of this period of painful Revolution I too return to the understanding of what secures the happiness and freedom of we the people. Of course these lofty and realistic ideas were nobly expressed by our Revolutionary ancestors but they are based on things we may not immediately recognise. They pertained to an understanding of where these rights originated from. Of course these unalienable rights spring from our birthright as human beings, endowed by a creator. They are local, spring from the land and planet on which we have evolved, and have always depended on the love and attention of our fathers, mothers, grandparents, and our collective Common Sense.
Forgetting that these rights are indeed bestowed by our birth into our humanity seems to be the biggest concern for the reactions of what's unfolding. People are too happy to trade freedoms and responsibility for being kept "safe" (as if that's a thing). Totally agree!
I’m a former special education teacher turned homeschool housewife and homesteader. My husband and I bought 19 acres and put a small herd of Dexter cattle on it (4 cows and 4 calves) and now have 13 head after a year. We are using rotational grazing and regenerative practices. We have planted fruit trees and bushes. This property is about 10 min from our home so we hope to one day build a small house on site and have sheep, pigs and a milking cow.
At our home in town, it’s on one acre and we’ve husked and dried our black walnut tree, gardened and canned/fermented. We also keep laying chickens in town and raise our own broilers. We have been on this journey for about 5 years. More recently I’ve decided to buy the reduced produce at my grocery store to chop and freeze or can also. I know we have a lot more to learn but that’s what makes it less stressful for me. Knowing there are so many skills for us to subsist without the system.
Thanks for all you share.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Lisa. I like how you guys thought outside the box and bought a separate little chunk of land to get beef on. Smart!
Love this conversation. I am doing my best to approach food shortages through the lens of mind, body and soul. This means I ask how am I growing, nourishing and tending all aspects of Self. I am working hard to stay feeling sustained within so that I am walking from a place of inner abundance. This means I am equally working my butt off to learn and slowing down to simply swim and enjoy the seasons.
My biggest efforts are in building community. It is my belief that if I have solid relationships within 30 minutes of home that in an emergency we will have eachother's back. This could be a storm, a fire, or birth or death of a loved one. The relationships are key.
I am homeschooling. The system doesn't work for me, I don't believe in it and so I am defying the odds as a single mom, entreprenuer and ensuring I commit to quality connection with my son. I work hard to give back what I take in the community by organizing events and gatherings. I put in time and money to be with women who light me and my son up so we can grow and thrive together.
I am building buying power with like minded women when it comes to food. I can't grow everything on my little property but in using my organizational skills I can contribute and participate in collective buying. This supports my local farmers, ensures I have surplus to can, freeze, and enjoy.
I am learning new skills. The kitchen is still foreign to me in many ways but every week I learn a new skill, try a new way to love and live with food and bring my son along for the ride. I am working hard to diversify storage methods so that if power goes out long term I am not only at mercy of a generator for a freezer. I have a long term goal of root cellar.
I am making medicine. I can't grow a lot where I live but I can grow medicines. I love plants this nourishes my soul, offers a teaching opportunity for those wanting to do it themselves and means I have something to barter or give to my community in crisis.
I am heavily focused on what I am co-creating. I wish to create new ways of being, not just run or fight systems that are outdated. I am always thinking ancestrally and with reciprocity in mind. I am focusing on the micro, I trust the ripples are holding space for the macro. I am committed to being fully alive. Its hard work somedays. really hard, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
This is beautiful, Tawny. Profound and powerful.
Hi, I live in Montana with my husband and two daughters, 4 & 6 mos. We live in town, but wish we lived outside of town, but unfortunately due to the pandemic migration patterns our real estate market has been flooded with out of state folks driving up land and home prices. So, we've been doubling down on our lot and investing in more garden beds, a green house, seed trays, and hopefully next spring a coop and chickens. I wish we could have a goat in town, but its not allowed. This summer we really invested in learning how to better preserve our garden too; dehydrate, can, freeze, ferment, etc. Outside of our hopestead, we've been meeting more farmers in our community, buying direct for meat when we can, meeting dairy farmers who sell their (raw) milk, unwashed eggs, etc. Its been fun. And every time we go to the store we buy one or two things "extra" that we tend to use a lot of and squirrel away.
What about meat rabbits, Patricia? I think they're the perfect source of food for small land owners.
Great discussion Tara! So I am just a suburban gardener still trying to hone my gardening skills. So I grow some of our veggies & try to increase that every year. My husband is a prepper. So we always have emergency food. He also hunts & fishes so my chest freezer is full of venison, salmon & trout. We ordered a 1/4 cow from a local farm that we should be getting at the end of the month. I rely on a farm in a neighboring state for my raw dairy products & pastured eggs. My daughter is a new chicken mama so hopefully we will soon be getting eggs from her flock. I also have a local farm in town that I get veggies from. Preservation is probably the next thing on my list to tackle. Short of freezing, I need to start learning how to ferment & can. I admit these things are looming over me like a dark cloud & I know the time to get into it is now. I am an herbalist also so my apothecary is pretty well stocked, but will be focusing on first aid too.
Izzy, if I remember correctly, there's a popular canning book that gets people canning a jar or two at a time. Might be a good way to start things out. Sometimes, when these things seem more complicated when we have no familiarity with them, but I promise that they are so simple it's silly. The Shockey's fermenting books are they place to go to get started. :)
Ok thank you I’ll check those books out
Hi, I'm Mae. I live in Los Angeles with my husband and 3 small children. One day I dream of having more of a garden in my backyard, but for now all I have the energy for is a couple pots of tomatoes and basil. I have it on my to do list to look into a farm we can buy some beef from. I am also starting to learn how to make my own food rather than buy it from the grocery store-things like saurkraut or sourdough bread, etc...saves a lot of money because that store bought saurkraut is spendy!
We raise our own pigs and chickens. Two freezers available but I’m not sure I want to depend on electricity down the road. So I can some of the meat and most of the vegetables from our garden. And maybe we will try to purchase a generator soon. My husband and grown kids are good at making, building and fixing anything. Currently I have stocked up on a few essentials that we can use for bartering if necessary. I bake and sew and help with all the butchering chores. I am in awe of all you do!!
We have chickens for eggs and in the past have raised meat chickens. Our laying flock can hatch out their own chicks so there is meat there as well. Grain is already very expensive and seems a bit unstable so I don’t want to rely too heavily on chickens or pigs. We have some goats, hope to add rabbits.
I added three large beds to our garden this year so I could grow enough to preserve.
I love to can! Our shelves are depleted now, but I’m going to start up again soon. I’m addition to pickles, fruit and jams, I can meat, stew, broth etc.
I do a lot of fermenting as well. My summer cabbages didn’t do well unfortunately so I will be supplementing with cabbage from local farms for my sauerkraut this year. We had a very cold and late spring.
We have good surface water on our property, and excellent deep well water. We heat with wood and my husband is always a few years ahead in that department.
We plan to add a large, wired in generator.
My husband has guns and hunting licence.
We are adding rv/tiny home pads to our property so that we can have steady rental income and always be able to pay the mortgage in case of an economic situation that would affect my husband’s business.
I’d always like to be doing more, but homeschooling three kids takes a lot of my time. When I look back though, I always feel better. It may seem like we make no progress, but over the course of a year we can accomplish so much.
These are all such wonderful, positive steps, Karla. I'm with you on reducing the grain eating critters. I foresee some big issues coming from that.
I adore Slowdown and Tara and keep my most treasured substacks in my inbox to read any updated comments. Thus far the marriage discussion and this one have been most wonderful. My families experience seems similar, yet far from most here. My mama has been a prepper my whole life - greenhouses, stocked basement, Amish midwife - the whole 9 yards. Of course, all I wanted to do was get to the big city when I was 16 and could. And I did. Fast forward 25 years and my husband and I are raising our three boys in the smallest city we have ever lived in (150k pop). Since having children a decade ago, we have prioritized real, local food. We spend more money making that happen than all other costs. We have truly failed (and I say that with good sport) at our sweet city garden and chickens. Three gals that give us one egg a day and a garden full of tomatoes ravaged by the rats that we have failed time and again to abolish. Our freezer kicked the bucket last year so we transfered the last of our grass fed 1/2 cow to the house freezer. We at the last meat a week ago. I told my husband how bare and vulnerable I feel having nothing in the freezer, or the garden (not nothing, but the garden couldn't feed us all.) We have a Tupperware bin full of rice and beans and have a twice a year csa. I find some security there. I buy the twice a week meat we eat at the whole foods and trader joes (and lord knows i should go to the farmers market and the expense IS worth it. But i dont). Truth be told, we don't want to be farmers (please don't be mad at me!) However, the last couple years, and a change in neighbors through gentrification, has us itching to get out of the city. This year my boys and I were picking blueberries from a bush planted in a Community garden a decade ago when the new owners asked us to only pick from the sidewalk. My 9 year old went back the next day to pick for his father's day breakfast and was told to leave. I am not on FB, but my husband caught wind and to keep peace asked me to abandon our tradition. Just last week a neighbor shared that we had been blasted for picking on social media and the entire neighborhood piled on to day how rude we were. I went by our bush to see perfect blueberries dripping off the bush, littering the sidewalk and totally wasted. I cried. We sold a property and have a nice chunk to buy a couple acres. We will keep our city home and airbnb investment (a primary income producer, and our main investments and blood sweat and tears over the last decade) and rent them out at exorbitant prices to people who share the values of let the fruit rot, degrade a child for picking for his dad, and roundup ready love for whole foods so they can feel "crunchy". That leaves us with WTF do we do now! We are entrepreneurs and have spent our adult lives in hospitality and biz management. Our goal is to buy3+ acres and build a home*garden*stay business. I primarily want fruit orchard and large potager type garden. I know how serious ill need to be to keep the wild animals away - those city rats are fierce though!) Chickens too. More than likely no other animals. Its not in my heart. We will host airbnb tents/cabins on the property, special events, etc. We've looked at dozens of properties both far and close to home. We're staring down a Dec 1 self imposed deadline. I have the good butterflies in anticipation, and I'm simultaneously nearly frozen by fear of hating being rural, like I did growing up. But lord do I LOVE real food, despise chemicals in the food system (I manage the biz of a neurodevelopmental pediatrician and yall, what is happening to most children -- primarily poor - should scare us all to high heaven), and have a drive to be self sufficient. Praying five days searching and away from my boys helped narrow down our choices in the southeast (with the caveat of salt water close by). Right now I'm leading with faith, love, and hope. Also, my kids love the city and convenience. And honestly (again, I'm sorry to not be my mama- I'm just trying to be real) they hate that we are doing this. And like me, I'm sure they will rebel against it all -- just like I did. I'm hoping by only going half in and not full farmer they wont🤣 thanks for reading - that was a lot of going on! Xo
I'm so glad you contributed this, Pholiday. And I'm glad everyone doesn't want to be farmers, where would we be then? I think we all fit together, can come together, with a variety of skills and ways to contribute to build our local food systems together. You don't want to farm, but you want good and nourishing food for your children (and a blueberry bush they can pick from for heavens sake). These are the things I think we can all come together for and build for all of our security. Good luck in your new venture!