Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.
My inbox has been full this month - many thanks to all of you who took time to
respond to last month's article about having hope in hard times. I appreciated
your words. Thank you, too, to the 80 of you who sent notes in response to my
search for some homesteaders to talk to for this month's newsletter.
Homesteading seemed like a good topic for two reasons. First, because it is
deeply interesting and even more hopeful to me that so many people all over the
country are taking up some of the old skills. Raising a flock for eggs or meat,
keeping a hive for honey, putting in a big garden and preserving the excess
harvest, heating with wood, brewing, knitting, spinning, and on and on. In my
family we call it "having a home-based life," and though we don't consider
ourselves homesteaders we are intentional about keeping our focus on producing
rather than consuming. Like many of you, we find a lot of meaning and
satisfaction in the process of raising, creating, and making things.
The first thing I learned in reading your letters is that many people
wonder if their efforts are sufficient to qualify them as
homesteaders. This was especially true of the many people who live in
urban areas and are drawn to the homesteading lifestyle. A few people
even sent official definitions to help determine their membership.
Given all the ambiguity about what makes a homesteader, I had to laugh
when I opened an email from Sam in Northeast Tennessee. It read, in
full, "I think I'm a homesteader, therefore, I am." Enough said.
If our members are typical, there are as many paths to becoming homesteaders as
there are definitions of the lifestyle. Kelly from The Never Done Farm in
Fromberg, MT told me that for her husband and her, the motivation was a desire
to eat more healthfully to help address their daughter's health issues. For
Brenda and Chris from Thunder Garden Ranch in Ione, WA, it sounded like the
best financial option for retirement, but has ended up offering so many
surprising blessings. In June, 2010 they moved from the city to a homestead
with 50 acres, in a town of 500 people. "What we didn't expect was that the
social life is so much fun! We really know all of our neighbors and see them
all the time. We love that. We wish we would have moved here years and years
ago."
Of the work involved, one homesteader talked about cooking on her wood cook
stove, raising most of their own food and all the rest, and said simply, "It's
what we like." Another person said that honestly, the workload was more than
anticipated, but that it was good exercise and that it kept them striving to
work as smartly as possible, finding labor-saving tricks wherever they can.
Many talked about how their families or customers often don't understand why
they choose "to do everything the hard way." But for the homesteaders I talked
with, having their own eggs was worth setting up a chicken coop and learning to
tend a flock, because taking the long view they saw that raising chickens was
not a labor intensive proposition. For homesteaders - like small farmers -
'labor' isn't a dirty word. They like being active. They like problem solving.
Another theme among the people who responded to my call for homesteaders was
the desire to share experiences and stories. While we can't all get together in
a big old barn somewhere - but wouldn't that be fun? - we did change our
feedback section to allow people to comment on each other's stories. It's a
small- change, but one that we hope will encourage conversation about this and
future topics on LocalHarvest.
Have a homesteading story of your own you want to share? Tell us here!
Whether you're living in a city, a trailer park, the suburbs, a
mountain top, or out in the sticks somewhere, we'd love to read about
what you do, why you do it, and how it's gone for you. And if these
long nights have you wanting to curl up with a good book and a
'virtual' homesteading experience from the comfort of your armchair
sounds good to you, I would recommend Up Tunket Road: the education
of a modern homesteader, by Philip Ackerman-Leist. It is a detailed
but accessible memoir, full of the kinds of good stories you might
expect from people diving into a homesteading adventure.
As this year's shortest day and longest night approach, we hope that you will
eat well and take good care,
Erin
Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest
view basket
