5 Simple Steps to Beginning an Urban Homestead
What is homesteading? How do you homestead in an Urban area?
If you remember your history lessons from school, you may be thinking a homesteader is someone who travels to unclaimed land, settles it, and receives it free from the government.
However, that definition is no longer accurate for what a homesteader is in modern times.
A homesteader is now considered to be more of a state of mind.
It is a person who aims to be self-sufficient and takes steps to make that possible. Therefore, an urban homesteader would be a person who becomes as self-sufficient as possible while living in a city or town.
In our case, we are a traveling family. We live in an RV and travel throughout the United States as we search for the place that makes us want to plant roots.
However, we are not letting our location (or lack thereof) stop us from being a homesteading family.
Why would you want to be an urban homesteader?
When the pandemic descended across the globe and products began to disappear from the grocery store shelves, the dependence citizens have on other companies was forced to be acknowledged.
To me, it was one of those life-changing, unforgettable moments.
Do you know who was not feeling the craze at the grocery store?
Homesteaders.
They generally grow at least some of their own food and participate in food preservation practices.
Seeing how largely unaffected homesteaders were by the panic caused many people to sit up and take notice.
I have to say we are some of those people.
I had the desire to buy land and be self-sufficient prior to the pandemic; however, the pandemic lit a fire in my soul and transformed that desire into a need.
Even with the world beginning to return to somewhat normal, I strive to become more self-sufficient every single day.
I never want to feel panicked that I will be unable to put food in my child’s belly when the grocery stores have supply chain issues.
I never want to have to walk through a grocery store with bare shelves and feel a sense of apprehension.
It is just not who I am.
If you’re reading this, chances are, it is not who you are either.
So, I have 5 simple things you can start doing today to begin living with a homesteading state of mind, even if you live in a city environment.
How to start homesteading today for beginners:
The first step to beginning a homestead is to make food from scratch.
Learning to make food from scratch is the most important act you can take on your journey in becoming a homesteader, and it was the very first step I took as well.
When you begin to make your own food from simple, basic ingredients you begin to understand each ingredient.
You learn what that ingredient tastes like and how it blends with other ingredients.
You learn how to use that ingredient in a way your family will enjoy.
You also learn if that ingredient is something your family does not enjoy eating.
When you begin to make all of your family’s food from ingredients instead of packages, you are able to know exactly what goes into your food.
It gives you the opportunity to eliminate any ingredients you do not like to see in your food, such as sugar if you are a diabetic.
But the most important aspect of it for myself and my family is decreasing the number of chemicals and preservatives we consume in a day. I want that number to be zero or as close to zero as possible.
Notice I say ingredients when discussing food from scratch because that is what from-scratch cooking is.
For example, my homemade pasta sauce is created from basic ingredients such as tomatoes, salt, pepper, carrots, garlic, onion, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and olive oil.
If you purchase a pasta sauce from the store, it may have twice that many ingredients, with many of them being ingredients you do not know or understand.
The second step to beginning a homestead is to bake bread from scratch.
Bread baking could be lumped into from-scratch cooking, but personally, I consider it a whole other category.
Bread baking requires many different skills and techniques that you will not find any many other aspects of cooking, and depending on what type of bread you make depends on what those skills are.
Sourdough bread baking requires an understanding of a sourdough starter and how to keep it alive.
Whole grain flour requires recipes created for that specific type of flour.
Yeast bread requires an understanding of activating that yeast.
The list could go on and on.
The type of bread baking you want to do depends on what you enjoy eating. For us, we really enjoy all of the loaves of bread, but I find whole grain flour to make denser bread that I am not very fond of. Sourdough makes amazing pancakes and biscuits, but the actual breadmaking is too technical for what I want at this time.
Yeast breads are my favorite. I enjoy kneading and baking it, almost as much as I enjoy eating it.
During the time that I have been perfecting my bread-making skills, I have made some loaves of bread that were as hard as bricks many times. They would be dense, thick, and hard as a rock, but each loaf I made got better and I gained a deeper understanding of how to read the dough.
I tell you this so that you know if your bread comes out as dense as a brick do not give up and do not throw it away. That dense bread can be turned into some amazing dishes such as french toast, bread pudding, croutons, bread crumbs, or bread bowls.
I have never met a bread that did not taste absolutely delicious when used in one of these ways, so what excuse do you have now?
If it is not perfect, turn it into something else, and try again.
The third step to beginning a homestead is to grow your own food.
Now I know some of you are probably thinking, “I live in the city, I can not plant a garden!”, but that is just an excuse you are telling yourself.
When you stop making excuses, you start making possibilities.
I know.
I live in an RV and travel full-time, and I am still growing vegetables in containers.
That means you can do it too!
I have seen some impressive backyard gardens and individuals who make beautiful landscapes with edible plants.
Who needs a plain boring bush in their yard, when you can have a blackberry bush?
Who needs a boring tree when you can have an apple or walnut tree?
Get creative and squeeze that food in!
Other suggestions I have on how to grow food while living in a city are:
Planting herbs among your flowers or in pots on your windowsill.
Starting a small backyard garden around the outside perimeter of your yard.
Planting in containers on your porch/deck.
Dedicate a portion of a room to growing plants in containers using windows and grow lights to mimic the sun.
Use grow lights indoors and move your plants outside throughout the week for sun.
Put stacking containers on your balcony for growing plants.
Plant using vertical planters to take advantage of a small area.
Remember, if you have a spot big enough for a flower planter, you have a spot big enough for a vegetable garden. Many plants will grow exceptionally well in a flowerpot, and some even look beautiful while doing it.
Currently, I am growing tomatoes, bell peppers, mustard greens, and carrots in containers on the top bunk bed in our son’s room. We use a grow light to ensure they get enough light during the day on days we can not take them outside.
If I can find room in our 200 sq ft RV to dedicate to growing plants, then you can too!
Do not be afraid to get creative and think vertically. Often we fail to use the space up above our heads to the best of its ability, but it is a great place to put something and have it out of the way.
The fourth step to beginning a homestead is to know where your meat comes from.
Have you ever purchased your meat from a butcher or a farmer?
Often times you can purchase your meat in bulk packages that will cost a good bit upfront but save you in the long run.
We love this option and utilize it frequently.
We have found many butchers offer different meat packages that contain a mix of different meats and meat cuts, with prices ranging from $75 - $200 depending on what cuts of meat you choose and how much you purchase.
Remember, the more you purchase the cheaper per pound you will get the meat.
Another option, similar to this, is buying your meat from a farmer or homesteader.
These individuals will often sell whole, halves, or quarters of cows or pigs. You can ask local butchers if they have anyone currently offering this or put the word out on social media for what you are looking for.
I know some homesteaders even offer to ‘grow out’ your pig, cow, or chicken for you. This means that you will purchase the animals as a baby and pay for them to feed it and care for it. Once it reaches butchering age, you can pick the animal up or have them deliver it to the butcher for you to be harvested.
The opportunities in this step are pretty unlimited depending on your area and what is around you.
However, I know many homesteads now offer their meat for sale online, so I guess the possibilities of getting farm-fresh meat are truly endless.
The point is to know exactly where your food comes from, shrink the distance from farm to fork, and get into that homesteader state of mind.
Plus, you are supporting small businesses and farmers instead of corporate CEOs.
The fifth step to beginning a homestead is to begin preserving your own food.
One key thing that kept many homesteaders from panicking as the grocery store shelves became bare, was the food they had preserved and put away for future use.
Preserving food can come in many different forms to include pressure canning, water bath canning, dehydrating, freeze-drying, freezing, fermenting, salt curing, etc.
I personally began my food preservation journey with freezing food and water bath canning food.
I do not have the equipment or space to continue to branch out in this area at the moment, but that’s ok because one day I will.
For now, I will just do what I can with what I have, and focus on perfect these methods of food preservation.
To preserve your food by freezing, you need a freezer and freezer-safe containers to store your food in.
You can store homemade chicken broth, vegetables, fruit, whole meals, meats, cheeses, bread, etc. all with just a plain old freezer.
A deep freezer or stand-alone freezer is of course the best option, but the freezer that comes with your household fridge is a great place to get started with this technique.
To preserve your food by water bath canning, you need a large stockpot or water bath pot, canning jars (with lids and rings), a water bath canning approved recipe, and a tool to pick up your hot jars.
It is that simple.
I began to learn this process with pickles. We love pickles, and they are a great place to begin, but you could water bath can many different foods. The next foods on my list to begin learning to can are salsa and jam.
I think water bath canning is a wonderful introduction to canning and a good place to start without investing in an expensive pressure canner.
The most important part though is to make sure the recipe you use is WATER BATH approved and not PRESSURE CANNED approved. These words are not interchangeable, and you can not use your water bath canner to pressure can your food.
If you do, you may make your family sick with botulism.
It just is not worth the risk, so double check your recipes and make sure you are using the right method to can your food.
These 5 steps can help you gain perspective and develop that homesteader state of mind while increasing your family’s self-sufficiency, health, and food preserves.
They can be accomplished if you live on 20 acres or on the 5th floor of an apartment building.
What these 5 steps can not do, is develop in you the drive to want to do this. That has to come from deep inside of you.
We have that drive.
We feel the urgency to power through these steps and move past them.
We are searching for our homestead.
We are getting in touch with other homesteaders to find mentors that are willing to take us under their wing.
We are putting ourselves out there.
It is scary sometimes, but I know it will be worth it in the end.
If you want to be part of our journey and watch as we develop into true homesteaders, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
We would love to have you!
What do you think of these 5 steps? Have you accomplished any of them?
Let us know below!