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Many people start homesteading at first because they realize the food they have access to is not exactly healthy. Striving to grow your own food, preserve it, and eat it is a lot of work. Learning how to garden when you “have a brown thumb” is a job in itself, but take it from me it’s possible and worth it!

Tackling the idea of how to start homesteading begins with where to start. The best place to start is by slowly introducing your family to small tidbits of it at a time. If you’re not already, cooking from scratch a couple of days a week. Find recipes that your family will love.

Start Homesteading – Where to start?

1. Homecooking

I cook for three boys and a husband. I have a lot of “family favorites.” 

Start preserving your own food. Simply by saving vegetable scraps, you can make your own vegetable broth, and bone broth.

You could also do something as simple as freezing techniques like making marinara, and freezing it for later.

Another way to preserve food, and possibly my favorite overall is fermenting.

Homemade Recipes

You can find some recipes on our blog. Most of these are quick, easy, and frugal recipes! Perfect for busy homesteading mommies (or daddies!)

Preservation Recipes:

DIY Spice Mixes

2. Discuss it With Your Family

Talk about it. Talk about homesteading topics to your family such as raising chickens. One of the first things I had to tackle when I first started dreaming that I wanted to start homesteading, was getting my family on board with the idea. 

I used to bring up random facts about fresh chicken eggs vs. the kind you buy. This tactic is especially helpful when you are trying to talk a spouse into homesteading along with you.

After a while of talking about them, my husband brought the chickens home himself. He was against having them at first, but now he loves them!

3. Speak It Out Loud

Speak it out loud! Call yourself a homesteader too. It will remind you that you are working towards many goals.
I wanted my family to eat healthier, and BE healthier. That was my main goal. Eventually, I added chickens, because it fit into my eating healthier plan.

4. Make DIY or Homemade Items

Start making your own homemade items. I learned to make my own chap balm because I was allergic to the store-bought stuff. Did you know it’s cheaper to make your own? Yep, depending on the ingredients, it can be. Most of the ingredients I use are organic too. I also make my own laundry detergent, Shea butter Moisturizer, and antibiotic ointment.

Homemade Items you can make right now!

5. Gardening

Having a large garden can provide you with all the vegetables, herbs, and fruits you desire.

It’s best to start out small though. This lets you learn a lot and lose less. In your first year of gardening, you may have a lot of loss.

Losing to insects, diseases, over or under watering, or too much or too little shade. One or all of these may happen, actually, almost everyone encounters pests! Learning to deal with these issues while your garden is small, makes it much more manageable.

For More Info on Gardening Read:

6. Raising Animals

When you start homesteading, you might think about raising some animals for meat/milk/eggs, etc… Raising chickens is probably the easiest. The best way to start raising animals is to gather supplies and build living quarters FIRST. Having everything they need before they arrive makes it much easier.

For Chickens Read:

Egg Posts

If you decide to keep chicken or other egg-laying poultry, eventually you’ll be swimming in eggs. It’s best to read up on them and have a few good recipes in your back pocket.

For Ducks

7. Learn to be Frugal

Homesteading and living frugally kinda go hand in hand. One reason this is, is because many of us try to make it a point to use what we have, and buy less.

Reusing and repurposing items can be a fun hobby at times. I repurposed some tin cans I had and now I use them all over the house.

Many of the items listed are all about living frugally. Cooking at home is much more frugal than eating out.

Making homemade items is usually something that is cheaper to make at home, but not always.

Read More About Being Frugal:

8. Buying land

When we were trying to find a property to buy, I learned a lot from the experience. There’s so much that goes into it.

Align your homesteading goals with what you will need from your property. Make sure that the land is not prone to flooding.

Make a list of needs, and of deal breakers. Understand that you probably need to have the money upfront to pay for inspections, and other fees like closing costs, possibly a well, and for a septic tank if the land doesn’t already have them.

Miscellaneous

Random things you can do or make to start homesteading right where you are.

  • Make coffee in a french press or a percolator. These don’t require electricity like a regular drip coffee machine. The coffee that you make with them is superior to that of a drip machine. Don’t believe me? Before starting my homesteading journey I was a barista!
  • Check out the pantry guide, so you know what to store and for how long.
  • Learn how to make your own water kefir soda! It’s a super easy and delicious way to get some homemade probiotics.
  • Make homemade sandwich bread, and learn how to store it properly.
  • Learn to help soothe you and your family when you are sick. Check out my cold and flu remedies.

So here’s the thing about when you want to start homesteading… Just start. Do it in your own way.

After all, homesteading is all about living a life you want to live. It may look different from the way I live.

You may want to live in a tiny house, on a lot of land, or in a cabin on the mountain. No matter what it looks like to you, start with the basics and go from there. My journey has been slow, but so rewarding!

So I wish you the best! If you want to tell me all about your homesteading journey join our weekly mailing list.

You can reply to the emails and tell me about your week! I have several pen pals all over the nation, and I enjoy writing to them each week and reading about their homesteading tales too!

Read a little bit about my personal homesteading journey. Then, send me a comment about your personal homesteading journey!

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Are you ready to start homesteading? Where do you start? I have some great tips on where to start homesteading in this post, just check it out! | http://homesteadwishing.com/start-homesteading/ | Homestead Wishing, Author Kristi Wheeler | start-homesteading, homesteading-where-to-start |