How to be a Homesteader When You’re Not–30 Simple Ways

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Homesteading is popular right now and it should be! Homesteading is so much fun. It’s a lot of work too, but the rewards are phenomenal: lower anxiety and depression, deep satisfaction, meaningful work, memories made with family. You don’t have to wait for a homestead to start acting like one. Here are 30 simple ways you can be and feel like a homesteader right now!

When I bought my first house at age 21 with a 6 month old baby, I really wanted to homestead. But my husband was in medical school in Dallas so we bought a small 2 bedroom house in the suburbs. Without waiting for acreage, I started pretending I was homesteading. We had a tiny garden, probably 6′ x 10′ and grew our first tomatoes. I sewed our curtains and a few clothes. I hung clothes on the line, I bought peaches on sale and made jam, I ground wheat and made bread in the bread maker. Doing these simple tasks gave me a taste of the homesteading lifestyle. It helped me be excited for the day when I truly got my homestead. It also gave me skills and confidence so that when we moved here I wasn’t so overwhelmed suddenly having to do them all. I already knew how to do a lot of them! (All but milking a cow. :))

Here are 30 simple ways you can be a homesteader when you’re not:

1. Buy onions in bulk, chop them up and store in freezer. Or chop and dry them in your oven or dehydrator. Store in jars or ziplock bags for dried diced onion. Or blend for onion powder.
2. Do the same as above with garlic or any type of peppers. I once had an older couple give us bags of chile peppers from their garden every year so I would slice, dry in oven, then blend into chili powder and use all winter.
3. Buy and drink raw milk.
4. Make yogurt.
5. Make butter.
6. Pick cherries, berries, peaches, apricots, apples, etc at a local PYO place or a friend who has fruit trees. Slice and freeze in ziplock bags. Or make jam, pies, cobblers, pancakes, muffins, etc. One year a friend invited us to pick her apricots and every year after I remembered the date and invited myself 🙂 She was happy to have her surplus fruit go to a good home and we found many uses for it.
7. Grind peanuts to make peanut butter.
8. Make applesauce (even with store bought apples.)
9. Visit a farmers market. Feel the homestead vibe, smell all the delicious produce. Be inspired of something you want to try to do.
10. Grind your own wheat.
11. Make bread.
12. Make pasta.
13. Grow herbs in your window sill or patio. Dry them.
14. Go to a pumpkin patch. Cook a pumpkin in your oven and then scoop it out for pureed pumpkin.
15. Visit farms and the countryside as much as possible.
16. Make your own candles.
17. Make soap.
18. Use cloth diapers.
19. Cook dry beans in the crock pot.
20. Build shelves.
21. Hang your clothes on the line.
22. Sew valances and curtains, or anything else.
23. Walk places instead of drive.
24. Get chickens or buy eggs from a nearby farm.
25. Carve something with your pocketknife.
26. Visit an apiary and buy fresh honey.
27. Order half a beef cow or pig from a farm and stock your freezer.
28. Go deer hunting.
29. Go fishing.
30. Braid a rag rug or just buy one. Or any farmhouse decoration.

Your first challenge for how to be a homesteader when you’re not:

• Find a canned ingredient or food that you usually buy like green chiles, salsa, applesauce, or pasta sauce. Make it yourself instead!

Second challenge for how to feel like a homesteader:

• Replace a mix you usually buy like pancake mix or boxed macaroni and cheese and make it from scratch instead. Try to use as much real food as you can!

Third challenge for how to feel like a homesteader:

• Find a frozen dinner you typically have like pizza or lasagna and make it completely from scratch. Try to use your own sauce too and even raw cheese if you can find it. Savor the flavor of true home made goodness! I’m sure you’ll notice the distinct difference without all the artificial stuff.

Why should you try to be a homesteader right now?

Because it’s fun! Being a producer of your own food and products is deeply fulfilling and brings greater joy and happiness than merely being a consumer. It also helps you practice the skills you want to have when you get to your homestead. You aren’t going to magically aquire them when you get there. You need to start learning how now!

The best reason is because doing these things and imagining your future homestead life will help it come to pass. The more you practice your homestead skills the sooner that day will come! Keep mastering these skills and many others including saving for that homestead and it’ll soon be yours!