Learning to Homestead – Take Baby Steps

Learning to homestead can seem like a daunting task. When I was first dipping my feet in, I was quick to get discouraged as I scrolled through my Instagram feed.

It seemed that I had too much to learn. Too far to go. It felt like I would never figure it all out.

Learning to Homestead: One Baby Step at a Time

I soon realized that learning to homestead just meant taking baby steps. Instead of jumping in the deep end {and drowning}, I could just try one thing at a time…at my own pace.

And the lie I had first bought into was I had to figure it ALL out. But in reality, I learned that I don’t have to try anything I don’t want to try.

So, I thought that taking a moment to share what I’ve learned so far in my homesteading journey…with much more to learn!

1. Pray about it.

I find it’s always good to start with asking God what He desires for your life. What will bring Him the most glory? Ask Him to reveal your motives {I don’t recommend prepping or homesteading out of fear} and to show you what your next steps should be.

2. Start with what you like.

God created you with desires and a bent. Like homeschooling, your homestead will not look like everyone else. That’s something to celebrate!

Don’t start with what someone else starts with just because they do it. I recommend starting with something that can benefit your family and what you’re interested in.

3. Take baby steps.

You do not need to start with a 10-acre garden, 100 chickens, and canning thousands of quarts of tomatoes. Baby steps are highly recommended.

For me, I wanted to learn how to grow tomatoes. I started “gardening” with two potted tomato plants and one basil plant. This eventually grew over the next year or two into 8+ beds, and now we have a small, backyard greenhouse hopefully in the works for fall of 2024.

After I had my feet wet with gardening, we bought a HarvestRight Freeze Dryer, and I worked on honing in my skills with freeze drying.

As my garden harvest starting coming in, I was intrigued by canning. I asked a good friend, who knew how to can, to come over to teach me how. She stayed for several hours and we worked on canning cucumbers from my garden as well as some beef broth.

Once I felt like I had a good grasp on canning, I knew I wanted to start making my own soap. I asked a family member to come over and show me her tips. Now, I make all our bar soap using a melt and pour base. Find my super easy melt and pour soap recipe here.

This year, 2023, I was determined to ditch the store-bought bread {to get as much seed oil out of our lives as possible} and learn how to make bread at home. I had already been using my bread maker and following a very simple recipe, but my family of six could eat that loaf in ten minutes flat. I wanted to learn how to make a larger loaf from scratch.

What I really wanted to explore was making sourdough bread, but I was extremely intimidated to start. It seemed every place I looked online had a different method. I bought several cookbooks and got even more confused. So, I found a friend at church, who was a “pro” at sourdough, to come over and show me her method. It clicked.

You can always take baby steps to add more to what you’re doing.

4. Tweak it as you go.

One of the things I tried in my “baby steps” was kefir milk. A good friend convinced me to buy quality kefir grains and away I went.

And that lasted about for about two months; then I had to give it up. For one, my family wasn’t using all the kefir milk I was making. The grocery store where I had to buy the milk to pour over the kefir was out of my way. Another downer was I just didn’t enjoy the flavor.

I decided kefir milk wasn’t for me. Maybe one day I’ll pick it back up again and tweak my procedure, but it just became too much.

As you homestead, you can drop things that don’t work for you or your family…and that’s ok. No guilt needed!

5. You will always be learning.

You can always be doing more. That can be overwhelming at times, I’ll admit. But learning new tricks and honing skills is also a part of the fun.

Enjoy homesteading!
~Becky

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