When I first became interested in homesteading, I lived in a two bedroom apartment on the second floor. There was no yard space and the balcony hardly had enough room to accommodate two chairs. It could have been very easy for me to feel defeated and like it wasn’t possible to homestead from my current position, but instead I chose to use that time as a learning period.
Which is why today, I am going to share 5 things you can do now to prepare for your future homestead.
1. Experiment with food scraps!
The first veggie I tried to grow from scratch was green onions. I remember seeing the new growth for the first time and being completely mind blown. It might sound ridiculous to some, but I literally never thought about where our food came from and always just expected it to be at the store when you needed it. The fact that I just stuck the end of a green onion into a bowl of water, gave it a little sun, and watched it grow was absolutely baffling and opened up an entire new world to me.
From there I began sticking any veggie scrap I had in bowls of water all over our kitchen counter.
2. Start composting!
When I think of homesteading, I think of self sufficiency but I also think of being in harmony with the earth. I know how hippy that sounds but we take so much from the world around us and the majority of us don’t give anything back. One easy way you can give back to the earth is by composting. And you might think that this is definitely not possible while living in an apartment, or similar situation, but it 100% is.
I began composting by getting a kitchen composter off of amazon, like this one here. I was worried about it smelling and attracting bugs but the charcoal filters masked any potential scent.
There are many great and informative websites that explain what you can and cannot compost. It can seem very daunting at first, but once you do a little research, it’s very simple. I made a couple infographics to get you started!
Now that you’ve got your composting set up, what do you do with it? You can let it continue composting down in your bucket and then feed it to your houseplants or if you have any friends with chickens, you can offer your scraps to them. If your bucket ends up filling fast, it might be worth investing in a backyard composter like this one. If you don’t have the space or the means for even an outdoor composter, you can look into worm composting, or there are indoor composter bins made specifically with apartment dwellers in mind.
3. Read, read, and read some more!
When I become interested in something, the first thing I do is research. There is so much you can learn before ever actively beginning something. Most, if not all of us have the internet and google random things multiple times a day, why not use this same resource to look up useful information for your future goals. If you prefer to spend less time on the internet, your next avenue of research should be books.
Books are such an underrated and forgotten resource. There are hundreds of books specific to homesteading available at your local libraries or from any book seller. I have found some of my favorite homesteading books at thrift stores, so it doesn’t have to be expensive either.
To save you from getting overwhelmed, you can refer to my other blog post where I share my top books that I think every homesteader should have.
4. Learn How to cook from scratch
This, by far, was the most intimidating thing to learn for me. When I became an adult and moved into my own house, I did not even know when water was boiling. (This is extremely embarrassing but it’s true.) I was not taught how to cook and I had had no interest in learning. It wasn’t until my first born couldn’t tolerate any formula that I realized our food system is not the way it should be.
You might not care about the food system, you might just be trying to save money, but regardless of the reason, learning how to cook from scratch is an essential skill to homesteading. Whether your growing your own veggie garden or raising your own meat, you’re going to need to know how to use it. It would be awful if you gave as much time, money, and care that it takes to raise animals and grow food, just to have it all go to waste.
Pinterest was, and still is, my favorite place to go for recipes when I’m not trying to create my own. I would type in things like, “from scratch hamburger helper,” or ‘easy beef dinner recipes,” and hundreds of recipes would show up. I promise the more you cook from other peoples recipes, the easier it is to throw your own ingredients together and create your own.
For your first from scratch endeavor, I highly recommend baking your own bread. Just your basic yeast, water, flour recipes to start. There’s no reason to overwhelm yourself with sourdough from the beginning. I share my absolute favorite bread recipe here.
You can do it!
5. Learn to Can!
I know, I know, this one gets a lot of people. Most people think you have to be growing your own food to start canning, but that’s absolutely not true.
In preparation for my first year trying to preserve my garden harvest, (I had been gardening for a couple years by then), I would buy fruits and veggies in bulk, bring them home and practice. Not only did this expose me to the process of canning, but it also allowed me to get used to my canner.
I recommend starting with water-bath canning. It’s the easiest, least scary, and safest option for beginners. You can can your own jams, salsas, and even just chopped up fruit such as peaches and pears.
Because I only live on a 1/4 acre, we don’t have the room to grow an abundance of fruit such as strawberries, apples, or other fruit trees. I often buy frozen berries to make my own jams as well as large amounts of fresh fruit when there’s a good deal going on. My favorite part about canning our own food is that I get to control what ingredients go into the end product.
As far as equipment, most big box stores such as Walmart or Tractor Supply carry everything you need to start, but to save you from searching, you can get a beginner friendly kit on Amazon here.
It’s not impossible!
Although it may feel like there is nothing you can do without the land or the space needed for your typical homestead, there is plenty of learning and growing for you to do to become more equipped for your future.
I encourage you to use your waiting period as an opportunity to fill your brain with as much knowledge as possible.
When the time comes for you to have your dream homestead, you will be more than ready.
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