Essential Homesteading Books For 2023 (2024)

FAQs

What do I need to know before starting a homestead? ›

Don't try to do too much too soon. Choose a few areas of homesteading that you're interested in and focus on those. For example, you might start by growing a small vegetable garden or raising a few chickens. We started with chickens and a garden, over the years we've added more livestock and expanded our garden.

Modern homesteading means making more intentional decisions – like purchasing meat from stores that source small farms when possible. Better yet, it means making plans and starting the process of raising our own meat.

Homesteading, or living self-sufficiently off the land, has grown in popularity since early 2020. Young families are increasingly choosing to raise chickens, grow crops, and live off-grid.

The truth is you can be self-sustaining on a 1-acre property but it takes work, education, dedication, and time. So, if you have an oversized lot or small acreage and want to be as sustainable as possible, here are some ideas and suggestions on how to get started creating a self-sufficient homestead.

Start Growing Something

You don't have to start growing a large vegetable garden in order to be a homesteader. Our recommendation is to start growing something! Even if it's as simple as a houseplant, or taking some grocery store herbs, putting them in a jar of water, and keeping them growing on a sunny windowsill.

Arizona. A desert climate will be a challenge, but not an impossibility, for growing your own crops and farming the land. It's one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) of all 50 states to buy land in, but you'll need to check whether the specific location you might have in mind actually allows for homestead building.

Most people aren't looking for 50 acres. Normally when searching for homestead land for self-sufficiency, you're looking between 10 and 30 acres.

How do homesteads make money? ›

One way to earn extra cash on a homestead is to sell foraged goods. This includes selling wild berries, mushrooms, and other edibles that are found on or near the homestead. Some homesteaders even go as far as cultivating these wild plants and creating unique products to sell at farmers' markets or online.

Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft work for household use or sale.

Newcomers' failures at homesteading were common due to the harsh climate, their lack of experience, or the inability to obtain prime farming lands. In some areas “taking the cure” – declaring bankruptcy or simply abandoning the land claim – became common.

As settlers and homesteaders moved westward to improve the land given to them through the Homestead Act, they faced a difficult and often insurmountable challenge. The land was difficult to farm, there were few building materials, and harsh weather, insects, and inexperience led to frequent setbacks.

For the average family of four, you can expect to grow a year's worth of food on three to five acres. We really do think that five acres is the sweet spot because it allows you to stack your animals and really utilize permaculture practices. One acre for gardens, perennials and fruit trees.

The new law established a three-fold homestead acquisition process: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. Government could file an application and lay claim to 160 acres of surveyed Government land.