Tag Archives: homesteading

Two bins made out of free wood pallets. One bin for ready to be used compost and the other for composting.

Mom and baby watching Dad make the bins.

Francis getting more leaves to add to the pile.

Homesteading came out organically from making our first batch of noncommercial (amateur) Zinfandel wine in 2008. If we could pick, crush, and ferment grapes where we lived, then we could do that with anything. That first year we tried arugula, pumpkins, tomatoes, baby lettuces, eggplant, tomatoes (different kinds), corn, okra, grean beans, and one large carrot (the only one the gophers didn’t eat). No pesticides, grown in both the dirt and in pots because of our darned gophers. For 2012 we’re more serious about the quality of our soil and prolonging our growing season almost year round rather than just over the summer. I experimented with canning in 2011 and will continue it for 2012 – and this time I won’t be 8 months pregnant trying to move 20lbs of fruit!!! We also have some chickens for eggs. Doing this is all new. We’ll see how it goes. We’re flexible with it- we know we’re not perfect. We also do what we can with everything else that life gives us.

My parents have been growing food on their 1/4 acre lot for the last 30 years. It was just called gardening back then and it fed us the whole summer into the fall. Today it’s called homesteading and is about sane based living. It’s a movement that motivates people to get back to the land, be present with each other and other living creatures.  If you live in a city apartment or even in the suburbs, there are blogs and support groups to help you homestead on whatever space you have. So google it and start growing your own food!!! The difference is truly black and white. Hands down, nothing beats a home grown tomato or whatever it is you end up growing. It’s also nice to just be connected to something living that isn’t a person and isn’t through electronics. AND you don’t have to do it with EVERYTHING. You can pick and choose and do what you can, even if that means tomatoes, herbs and arugula on the window sills. THANK YOU to dad for building the two compost bins and mom watching the baby while I helped him. We had a compost hole- but now we’re more serious about turning the compost and really using it effectively.