Browsing: Homesteading

What is homesteading exactly?

Well according to Wikipedia it is:

“a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale.”

Now that’s not a bad general summary, but to different people homesteading can mean different things.

To the uninitiated, there is often the thought that you need to have a small farm to become a homesteader, and while that would be nice, it certainly isn’t necessary.

The key thing about homesteading is about becoming less reliant on others, especially big businesses, and to become more reliant on yourself.

You can do this by growing and canning more of your own food, perhaps by raising some chickens. You can also look to repair and recycle products rather than having to continually discard and replace. Becoming more energy efficient and literally trying to live off the (electrical) grid has also become a part of homesteading.

This isn’t just about being Green and helping to save Mother Earth (though that’s a bonus!), it’s about being able to do things for yourself, so if things do go wrong, you will have your own food, your own power. You will have the knowledge and experience to live sustainably.