What is a homestead (part 2)

I thought that I had mentioned everything that we do to make our homestead work in part one! But, there is more!

1. Eat what is in season! I know, sometimes you want strawberries in the middle of winter. But, that’s also why I preserve foods. Eating in season helps to keep food from being shipped thousands of miles!

2. We grow foods that we know that we are going to eat! I know that’s kind of a weird statement, but some people grow foods that they don’t even like to eat! Not us! We also grow foods with multiple purposes! Like pumpkins for example. We grow them for decoration, carving and chicken food. They don’t ever go in the garbage around here!

3. Make it instead of buying it! I actually really like cooking and baking, so this is easy for me! It allows us to control the ingredients in our food and eat more wholesome food. (Even if it’s not always the best for me;) and, there is less packaging going into the trash.

4. We save seeds and use some heirloom varieties. We saved many sunflower and muskmelon seeds. We also used many varieties from a seed vault, with only heirloom varieties.

5. I still can’t believe that I forgot this in my first homestead post! We use red wriggles to make the most amazing food for our crops! Vermicompost is seriously amazing and requires very little work! These little wigglers enjoy eating old banana peels, coffee grounds and other veggie/fruit scraps!

I really do believe that a simpler life allows us to be friendlier to the earth and appreciate more of what we have!