how did you start your homestead?

[forestdale]

As you all know I'm new to this homesteading life. I'm trying to organise myself a bit more so I'm currently listing everything I pay money for - including all food bought from the supermarket or any other place. When I'm finished my list I will go through it and cross off anything that I can replace with a home-produced item. If I do not have the means to produce it here I'll make a plan to grow whatever it is I need. For instance, we eat a lot of baked beans. DH loves them for breakfast with eggs and being a vegetarian, I eat them as a source of protein for breakfast and sometimes lunch. I could easily make my own baked beans (they cost $1 per tin here) and will have to find the right beans to plant, work out how much I'll need for six months or a year, find out how to dry the surplus and cook up batches throughout the year. We don't have enough room for a daily cow, and I'm not sure how practical it would be for us to have one anyway, but I buy fresh milk from the local dairy and maybe I could learn to make my own cheese from that milk. I'd love to do practical chores like that, I love being challenged with new things and the benefits would be well worth the effort.

I'd be interested in knowing how you ladies here got started on the practical aspects of homesteading. How did you work out your priorities? DH thinks it will be too much work, but I'm keen to do more physical work! I want to go to bed every day exhausted, knowing how much I've accomplished. I want my life to be genuine and fulfilling and I want to learn how to provide most of what we need in our home.

[guest2]

Bethany,
We live in town, but try to grow as much of our own food as possible. I have a small kitchen garden and will be adding a bigger one this year now that the dog is gone and I can have my backyard back. We have 1 apple and 2 cherry trees (one sweet and one sour). I dehydrate the apples and some of the cherries, using the cherry juice to make homemade syrup. I also freeze some of the cherries and my kids have recently taken to selling bags of sweet cherries and excess lettuce from our garden to people here in town. They used the money they made last year for a fun family trip to an amusement park. My garden produces strawberries (will expand the patch this year), rhubbarb, green and yellow beans, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, onions, brocolli and squash. I also have a huge oregano patch, chives and lemon thyme along with 3 kinds of mint. We dry the herbs and use some fresh. In the past I have had garlic, but the our neighbor accidently poisoned them last year. We either drink powdered milk or we get our milk from a local farmer and make butter with the cream. Lots of the products we use like whole wheat flour, unbleached flour, oatmeal (both quick and rolled), cornmeal, yeast, spices, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, etc. we buy in bulk. My kids all work at an apple orchard here in town in the Fall and bring me home bags of apples for free. We do grow sunflowers, but have left those out over the winter for the birds.

[forestdale]

Hi Deb, thanks for letting me know all that. When you make your butter, do you use non-homogenised milk - the one where the cream rises to the top? And how do you make butter - do you use a butter churn or is there an easier way?

[CatherineID]

Butter - you can get whipping cream and beat it with a hand or stand mixer until it becomes butter. You'll have skim milk also.

I have a theory called "step-down to simplicity"

In the case of the beans, if you're using store-bought baked beans now, try stepping down to making your own baked beans with canned plain beans. Next step is to make those same recipes with store-bought dried beans. By then you'll have a little gardening experience under your belt. You can try one bean crop to see how it works out. You can try drying those beans to see how they store. You don't have to go directly from store-bought baked beans to growing your own. Take little steps.

[forestdale]

Hi Catherine, thanks for the information. I agree that small steps make better sense but I'm an experienced gardener, I live in Australia and if I chose to, I could garden all year. I'm keen to take advantage of that. I'm also a good cook so I don't think I have to experiment with too many recipes.
Do you know how long butter made this way lasts? Is it the same as store bought butter?

[Guest1]

Bethany - it's been ages since I've made my own butter - but from what I remember, it's quite comparable as far as uses, although better tasting! Butter is one of those items that doesn't seem to stick around long enough to "go bad" in our house! It's gone even faster when it's homemade!!

[guest2]

Butter~I use non homogenized milk and take the cream off the top to make butter with. To make the butter I use my kitchenaid mixer with the whips attachment. Just whip like you would whipping cream but let it keep going beyond that point. Soon the butter globs will start forming. Pour off the skim milk and whip a bit until it all starts sticking together. Rinse your butter really well and work out any remaining skim milk. Put the butter back in the mixer and add about a teaspoon (or less) of salt to it (do this to taste). Mix it in. This helps to keep the butter fresher and preserve it. I got light on the salt. Squish all the water out of the butter and put in a mold of some sort. I use a small tupperware sandwich container and blot the excess moisture off the top of the butter. Refrigerate. I will usually pop it out of the container about an hour after it has been sitting in the fridge and divide it into sticks. I keep one out for immediate use and freeze the rest wrapping them in waxed paper and then popping those into a freezer ziplock style bag.

[forestdale]

Hi Deb, since my original post and your response I made my own butter and was amazed at how simple it was to make. It tasted delicious too.

I'm pretty much homesteading the same way you are. I'm growing a lot of my own fruit and vegies and buying produce in bulk. Whenever I don't have to go to the supermarket for something I feel like I've won a small victory.

[Guest1]

hmmm.....Debbie - I never added salt & it never occured to me to freeze it! DUH.....

Now I'm pretty anxious to try again but in a bigger batch!!

[bamamomto4]

Debbie~When you say rinse....what does that mean? Rinsing under running tap? Excuse my stupity

Do you ladies mean I can go to the store and buy whipping cream and just whip it and have butter..??? I'm trying to get away from margarine and butter is more expensive. I've been buying the store brand but still if it's cheaper to make my own.....

[Missy]

Tammy, i was wondering the same thing about rinsing, If i do this with cream...what kind of cream do i get? half and half? whipping cream??

[CatherineID]

Heavy cream. You want the most butter fat you can get.

[forestdale]

ladies, I photographed my butter making session and it's over at homesteadgarden if you care to look. It's in the home diary section and the post is called "madam, your butter is ready".