Sustainability

Can Homesteading Offer a Sustainable Model of Living?

• How does traditional homesteading tie into rural discourses we discussed in class, such as the urban/rural dichotomy, the rural ideal, and the rural hybrid?
• How can homesteading be extended into urban settings?
• How has homesteading changed over the years from a necessity to an alternative lifestyle?
• How do different homesteaders define and understand sustainability? 

Our Definition of Sustainability:  To maintain a lifestyle that is interconnected with and understands the workings of this planet’s natural systems by decreasing reliance on fossil fuels, living locally, and increasing self-sufficiency. Wendell Berry describes sustainability as a different kind of economy,  “If we believed that the existence of the world is rooted in mystery and sanctity, then we would have a different economy. It would still be an economy of use, necessarily, but it would be an economy also of return. The economy would have to accommodate the need to be worthy of the gifts we receive and use...mostly we take without asking, use without respect or gratitude, and give nothing in return.”

Our Findings:To answer our research question, yes homesteading can offer a sustainable model of living; however, there are caveats. Homesteading is one of the most sustainable ways of living, be it in rural, suburban, urban, quasi-urban, or peri-rural spaces because it fosters self-sufficiency. The practice of homesteading relies on understanding the rhythms of ecosystem services such as nutrient cycles and this level of competency helps the homesteader to provide for herself and her community. It is important to note that homesteading requires a great amount of labor, time, and resources. We have found through our field research and interviews that many homesteaders became homesteaders after they had already established themselves as financially secure. We hypothesize that it may be difficult for the younger aspirational homesteaders to purchase land and pursue a more “traditional” method of agrarian homesteading. However, through our extensive research, we have also found that homesteading manifests itself in many ways and can be easily adopted through methods that are less resource-intensive. For instance, many aspiring homesteaders can sprout their own grains, no matter if they live in a crowded apartment with many roommates. Homesteading is a way of living rather than a rigid outline of rules and regulations.

 
 

So, you're interested in homesteading...You are concerned with the future health of our planet, you would like to decrease your dependence on fossil fuels and live a life connected with the land around you, but you don't know how? Good news! We are going to offer a little advice to get you started on your homesteading adventure. And even better news, it doesn't matter if you live in a crowded city apartment, a bustling suburban town, or where there are more cows near you than people. Homesteading comes in many shapes and sizes, and here we will present you with some tips and methods to homesteading.

The first thing you need to do is know your land and your limits. How much time will you have to devote to homesteading? What are your budgetary constraints? How much food do you want to produce? You will need to analyze your land, what are the types and characteristics of the soil? What cold hardiness zone are you in? How much annual rainfall do you get, what are the average temperatures and first frost dates, how much sun does your land get?

Once all of this information is gathered and you have a basic knowledge of gardening, you will have an idea of what you can and can't produce on your land. Check out  high mowing seeds for some quick information:


 Depending on your access to land, there are a variety of things you can do. If you do not have access to fertile land to farm but have ample sun, you can consider growing in containers. You can build your own, or purchase self watering containers that are able to fit pretty much anywhere and you will be surprised at the amount of vegetables they will produce. If container gardening is not an option, many towns have community garden plots that are available for rent. A general rule of thumb is that the closer you live to your garden, the better it will be - keep this in mind, especially with community gardens. One of the biggest tenets of homesteading is to be creative.  You will have to adapt to your situation creatively and make the best of it.

If you have a decent yard or some land, you are half way there. There are numerous options for homesteading on your own land. For instance, if you can acquire a quarter acre of land for your homestead, you will have the ability to produce:

• 50 pounds of wheat
• 280 pounds of pork
• 120 cartons of eggs
• 100 pounds of honey
• 25-75 pounds of nuts
• 600 pounds of fruit
• 2,000+ pounds of vegetable

(Madigan, 2009 p. 15)
 
Now that's a lot of food!

Something else to consider while planning your homestead is how you can preserve your harvest for the long and cold winter months (if you live, for example, somewhere seasonally diverse such as Vermont, or the Northeast in general). Preserving your food can include canning, freezing, drying, and root cellaring. To learn more about these methods, consider checking out this book: Backyard Homestead. This book is a great resource and can act as your A to Z guide to homesteading.

Another aspect of homesteading to consider is foraging. This method is great if you don't have a plethora of land to garden on or raise livestock, yet have access to forest, wetlands, or grasslands. If you want experiment with foraging, however, you must first make sure you are not trespassing on any unauthorized areas; ask permission first. AND, you MUST be very careful when foraging for unknown or unfamiliar flora. Get yourself a guide book that is relevant to your geographical area so you can safely identify plants and fungi. Remember, some plants can be toxic if ingested...such as these mushrooms to the right.

Here is a list of some common and popular wild foods:

• Apples
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Cattails
• Cherries (wild)
• Crab apples  
• Dandelions
• Daylilies
• Elderberries
• Fiddleheads
• Fox grapes
• Lamb’s quarters
• Leeks (wild)
• Milkweed
• Nettles
• Raspberries
• Rose hips
• Violets
• White pine (for tea)

(Madigan, 2009 p. 332)

Homesteading can require a lot of time, labor, and resources. BUT don't let this discourage you from giving in a go. It is extremely rewarding and beneficial for not only you, but the environment and the future health of our planet. Here is a great quote for inspiration:

"The homestead’s most valuable product isn’t a food, beverage or building. The most valuable thing being created on the homestead these days is a new sense of satisfaction and excitement as we discover more sustainable lifestyles. Modern homesteads give us all confidence that we can solve the problems our species has created, and create a truly sustainable human society" (Unknown, 2008 p.6).

  

To and From the Land

"Many back-to-the-land movements, seeking utopia, have cycled in and out over history, but the 1970s version, populated by postwar baby boomers who had come of age during one of the periods of greatest economic prosperity, represented one of the largest.” 


We are all vaguely familiar with the the story of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s but what we know very little about is what happened after all of these twenty-somethings moved "out into the country." What did their lives look like and did they stay? Eleanor Agnew's memoir, Back From the Land: How Young Americans Went to Nature in the 1970s and Why They Came Back, explores the full circle experiences of many different back-to-the-landers. 


Exploring the initial motivations for the mass exodus out of the city, Agnew writes, "The universal mystique of the country, shared by city and suburban idealists, only added magic to the escalating back-to-the-land movement. Our culture’s idealism glorification of the pastoral, through song, poetry, literature and myth, fed our growing desire for the land...We believers, of course, had never in our lives cleaned out a barn or spent long hours weeding under a broiling sun" (2004, p. 9). 

the Back "to the land" family

In an interview with my aunt Annie, a former back-to-the-lander herself, she spoke about her own romantic notions as well as her inexperience with homesteading, "We were young, in our 20’s, and we romanticized the agrarian past without appreciating the harsh reality of daily life. I was woefully unprepared... I tried to cook over an open grate because the ‘kitchen’ was kind of outside under a tarp but one day, I had the realization that I didn’t want to be 50 years old and trudging down to the creek to collect water" (Annie, 2012).


Describing the homestead she shared for a year and a half with her boyfriend, she chuckles while recalling an anecdote, "my best friend from college came to visit us and when we showed her the one-room house, she asked if it was where we kept the goats...it was a homestead but it was not an aesthetically pleasing one, it was more like a hovel on a beautiful piece of land  outside of Ithaca, New York" (Annie, 2012). 


Annie also remembers the tension she felt between the lifestyle she was choosing to experiment with and the lives of her neighbors, "I was surrounded by a level of rural poverty that made me stop and think. I had a safety net of family, resources, and education and here I was choosing a lifestyle that many around me had no choice but to live. I lived there for about a year and a half and I didn't have children yet. I didn't sacrifice much" (Annie, 2012).


Agnew speaks about the tensions between different back-to-the-lander communities in relation to finances, "Some back-to-the-land people survived much longer because they arrived in the woods with larger cash reserves—discreetly downplayed, of course, since having too much money broke the implicit rules of the counterculture...on a low budget the continued discomforts of outhouses, lanterns, or water hauling attenuated many people’s initial passion for the principles. On the other hand, back-to-the-landers who had the money to buy composting toilets or solar paneling could continue their mission to preserve the environment and hold true to the values with much less personal inconvenience" (2004, p. 121).


Annie expresses a keen interest in the resurgence of the back-to-the-land ideology, "I'm fascinated by it, I think that the movement of the 1970s planted some seeds for today's focus on sustainable living but I also think that today's homesteaders know what they're doing and are more prepared" (Annie, 2012).

Goin' to the Country

Tips and Tricks of the Trade

Homesteading in its most traditional sense can be extremely time and resource intensive but here are several easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint and improve your life. You are on your way to becoming a homesteader!

Grow Sprouts - This is quite easy, provides super nutritious food, and only requires water and seeds. SproutPeople is a great resource for sprouting information and supplies 

Grow Mushrooms - Mushrooms require some work in their early stages, but are quite low maintenance. They can be grown indoors or outdoors. Paul Stamets is the authority on mushrooms and his site has growing kits and information on mushrooms.

Container gardening - Is relatively low maintenance and can be done on a windowsill or right outside on a small patch of grass.

Volunteer at a homestead - This is probably the best way to learn about homesteading and farming. By volunteering you can make friends, learn about homesteading, and enjoy yummy and nutritious food!

Shop local and at farmers markets - If you can't homestead, you can at least support your homesteading neighbors. By being conscious of what you spend money on, you can vote with your dollars and keep your money circulating within the local community. 

Canning and Preservation - This process relies heavily on sterile conditions, it enables one to buy in bulk or stock up on vegetables when they are in season and keep them throughout the winter. Canning has been a very helpful tool for homesteaders during the winter.

Don't drive as much - This does not directly relate to homesteading but by choosing to walk or ride a bike, you can greatly lower your carbon footprint and keep more money in the local community. There are also health and safety benefits to riding or walking over driving.

Be resourceful and creative - Being resourceful is the foundation of homesteading. Whether it's repairing your home, sewing clothes, or re-using materials, it all helps in facilitating the homesteading mindset.

Spend less money- Try to barter with friends and community members! Engage in skills-sharing endeavors and encourage others to follow suit.

Foraging - Foraging offers a way to get food for free, all you need is a knowledge of wild edibles and a good place to find them. Foraging for mushrooms, berries, and other wild edibles can be fun and rewarding. Even if you don't find anything, you will still get a nice walk in the woods. You can also always do the urban version of foraging and go dumpster diving but please be careful and smart about choosing food that isn't obviously spoiled.

Urban Homesteading is a great source for getting into homesteading and offers information on all aspects of homesteading.

Urban and Suburban Homesteading

 Homesteading is often thought of in terms of large homesteads in the country. This doesn’t have to be the case. Anyone can be a homesteader at any scale and with whatever resources are available to him or her. For this post I will focus on urban and suburban homesteading. Specifically, I’ll list some of the ways in which people living in apartments or houses with small yards can incorporate homesteading practices into their lives. Just about all of the ideas in the rest of this post come from the site, www.theprairiehomestead.com.

To begin, I’ll consider urban homesteading in an apartment. When getting started as a homesteader, it is important to first have the proper mindset. Before even starting to plant crops or raise animals, one has to realize that homesteading is going to take a lot of time and motivation. If you understand when you are getting into and are ready to get started, the best place to start in an apartment is with window gardens. Window gardens can be as simple as pots on windowsills inside or window boxes outside. These are great for growing herbs and some other vegetables. If your apartment has a porch or balcony, you can use it to put pots of various types of vegetables (like tomatoes and peppers) and to hang plants to maximize the space. 

Living in an apartment limits some of the ways that you can grow your own food, but there are many local, sustainable options for buying food. These include shopping at farmers markets and utilizing Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSA). Here in Burlington, VT there are many local options for both farmers markets and CSA’s. Some CSA’s even allow customers to work for their shares instead of paying. 

Homesteading involves more than just food production. It also involves a lot of food preparation and preservation. These include canning and preserving fresh fruits and vegetables and making your own food (such as cheese and bread). One easy way for urban homesteaders to start preserving produce is by freezing the excess for later, especially during the winter months.

Beyond all of the food-related aspects of homesteading, there are other aspects to take into account. One example of a non-food based way to become more self-sufficient is to stop using a clothes dryer. If your apartment landlord allows an outdoor clothesline, those are great, but inside drying racks are just as good. Creating your own cleaning products is another good way to limit your dependence on store-bought goods. 

All of the previous ideas are great for people living in apartments, but they are all also applicable to suburban living. A suburban setting also allows for some larger-scale homesteading practices. One fairly obvious one is having a garden. Gardens don’t have to be very large, but they are great ways to contribute to your food production. It’s probably best to start with a fairly small garden plot and to expand as you learn more. A great way to get started gardening is to buy edible plants instead of flowers to plant in your flower gardens in the spring. Along with the garden, composting is an important aspect of suburban homesteading. Composting can be done pretty simply in any sort of bin or container and is great for use on your garden. 

If you want to move beyond just produce, chickens are a great way to start raising livestock and are often allowed in suburban areas. They provide many useful products including eggs, meat, and fertilizer and are fairly easy to take care of. Bee keeping is another practice that is becoming more common among suburban homesteaders. 

These are just a few of the ways to get started homesteading in urban and suburban settings. I’m sure there are many more ways to become more self-sufficient that will become more obvious as you get more involved with homesteading. The most important part about homesteading, wherever you are doing it, is to stay motivated and do things to try to become as self-sufficient as possible.

The two specific articles I looked at on The Prairie Homestead's website were: How to be an (Apartment) Homesteader and How to be a (Suburban or Urban) Homesteader. The site is a good place to get more information on homesteading and to learn about the things that other homesteaders are doing.

Our Visit to Windy Corners Farm

Pictures From Our Visit to Windy Corners Farm

 Entering Windy Corners

View of the barn and compost pile

The house in progress

Mt. Philo in the distance

They use a lot of baskets from Vietnam at Windy Corners!

Chickens...

The sheep like to keep to themselves

Pickled veggies and wine in the root cellar

Cheese in the root cellar

View from the picnic table

Modern Homesteading, Radio Segment on VPR

Modern Homesteading, Steve Zind, Vermont Edition, VPR

Steve Zind of VPR interviewed Rebecca Kneale Gould, of Middlebury College, and Philip Ackerman-Leist, of Green Mountain College, to discuss Modern Homesteading. 

Helen and Scott Nearing in 1940s inspiration for Back-to-the-Landers that came to Vermont in the 1960s and 1970s.  Their book, Living the Good Life, inspired homesteaders then and continue to do so now. 

Rebecca Kneale Gould unpacks the definition of homesteading to get at its complexity. Her definition:

• At least 50% growing own food, but some real homesteaders don’t!
• When production out lives consumption
• The values, intentions, qualities, and reason for homesteading are most important
• Scott Nearing's definition is too severe and difficult to acquire in modern world
• Gould sees a cultural (and perhaps spiritual) hunger for being more productive than consumptive, providing for self and being connected to nature.  Modern homesteading can serve as an alternative to consumptive American culture. 

Philip Ackerman-Leist moved to to Vermont with wife, started with a small cabin without electricity and lived like that for 8 years, now has an off-grid self-built house.  He discusses the homesteading class he teaches at Green Mountain College.  He asks his students to define homesteading:

• Most of Ackerman-Leist's students come from suburbs or cities, so they usually think homesteading needs to be completely self-reliant
• Most students, by the end of the course, think homesteading needs to exist in the urban and wired setting in order to be relevant
• Homesteading about the why, not the how-to.
• Triangle of sustainability values, skills, and technologies = homesteading
• Students see loss of biodiversity, overpopulation, ecological destruction and want to be productive in an answer to these problems of our society

Is Homesteading Economically Feasible? 

The Nearings had outside sources of income, yet portrayed themselves with more self-sufficient image than reality.  We need to look at the continuum, because the old, purist model is often unattainable.  One economically feasible solution is co-operative living.  In some cases it can be affordable if you go step-by-step and don't spend a lot of money up front.

Does Modern Homesteading Have to be in a Rural Setting? How About Homesteading in a Sub/urban Setting? 

The "Back to the Yard Movement” is transforming suburban environment into food productivity. In urban settings, Will Allen, of Growing Power, uses inner-city areas to crank out food, fish, and ultimately transforms entire communities.  "The Carbon Free Home” transforms home in energy and food aspects. And there are many movements in New York City to convert space into green places.  In general, the current language of carbon neutrality and local-vore is new and growing.  We have to remember this alone is a huge improvement.

The Intersection Between the Spiritual and Homesteading: 

Gould says homesteading should be included in the religious story of America because there is a long tradition in American literature (i.e. Thoreau).  Americans look to nature and land as source of answers.  A connection with nature is major in homesteading.  It's an alternative lifestyle to the corporate grind.  Homesteading "sets your mind free". 

Listeners Call in to Answer: How do you define homesteading?  Is it about getting by with the basic necessities?

-It’s not about “how”, but “why”
-One caller wants agricultural education and promotion for Americans to live on land, learn on land, etc
-Another caller calls his homesteading a hybrid approach.
-The Nearings only wanted to talk to people who could actualize their philosophize
-Modern technology tied into modern homesteading: wind power, satellite internet for communication, information, and education
-One woman calls in, her and her husband moved from New York City in their mid-40s.  They gave up pension, insurance, to live on a the land in Vermont.  She was a city girl, she thought city-living was the only way of life until she moved to Vermont.  Her secret to success was outside income and enjoying what you’re doing even if it’s inconvenient.

Suggested Readings:

Living the Good Life, Helen and Scott Nearing
Edible Forest Gardens, Dave Jack and Eric Toensmeir
At Home in Nature: Modern Homesteading in America, Rebecca Kneal Gould
Seattle's First Urban Food Forest Will Be Open to Forages, NPR (article)