14 Ways to be More Self Sufficient

 In honor of International Homesteading Education Month (September) from Mother Earth News(one of the my very fav mags!) I thought we'd take some time to explain how one can make some changes to become more of a homesteader be it in the city or the country. :) Enjoy!


I tend to throw around the word "homesteader" without giving much thought to it's meaning and it's occurred to me in talking to a few people over the last week, that homesteaders are generally seen as "country folks" living in "rural" areas with "lots of land". This could not be further from the truth.

Up until recently in history, homesteader was defined as above. I imagine the Homestead Act of 1862 had a lot to do with this But recently, we see that homesteading is in it's essence a word used to describe self-sufficiency. And anyone can do it. Obviously, unless we want to hermit ourselves away, true self-sufficiency is not possible. One must still use the roads, the local hospitals when something bad happens, or even supply the farm or urban homestead with tools. But there's no reason even an apartment dweller cannot strive to be more self-sufficient and then support those local vendors for things they cannot produce or provide for themselves.

So here's a primer of sorts designed to help you become more self sufficient. Remember, one needs not do it all, just do as much as you can :)

1. Learn to cook. You would so surprised at how many that "cook" that really can't cook. Cooking is a life skill that's more than opening a few cans and boxes. And I'll be honest, until recently, I thought I was a great cook because I could mix a few things from the store and produce a nice tasting result.  But that's not the kind of cooking I mean Cooking is about knowing how to make those things you would buy from the store. It's procuring the ingredients and knowing how to use every available thing to you, as much as you can. Lets take chicken. Every other week we have roast chicken. A whole chicken. I roast it in the oven, and we have the meat for dinner that night. I use the leftover meat for chicken salad for hubby's work lunches. I then use the carcass (bone, fat, everything) and make and can chicken stock from it. This will enable me to make from scratch soups from our garden veggies come winter, without having to run to the store to do so. So if you can learn to cook, you can grow/produce a lot of the food you'll need yourself, even on a quarter acre. Which bring us to our next point:

2. Learn to garden. One can do this, even in an apartment on a balcony. Grow what you can, what you'll eat, what you use, and visit your local pick your own farms, or farmers markets for the rest. For two people, having a balcony full of veggies can provide most of what you need if you grow vertically and use every inch of available space. There's also ways to get around this, by finding community gardens, finding relatives or friends that will "loan" you the use of some of their land, or asking your apartment complex if you can grow a garden in the back. For those of you in the city, get rid of your lawn if you have to! I mean, what does a lawn do FOR you? It's weekly mowing, fertilizing if you want it to look nice and manicured, seeding and reseeding bare spots, it's work. And you get nothing. So dig it up! Plant some things! Plant All the Things. :) We have a family of six and are going to be using about 1/3 of our quarter acre next year to garden and it will provide almost everything we need for the whole year

3. Learn how to preserve your foods. There are three ways one can do this. Freezing, drying and canning. Canning works well and I use it for a lot, but there are things that benefit from using one of the other two methods. You can grow and dry hot peppers for use in your kitchen as chili powder (grind once dry). I find that I like to freeze green beans because I think they're too mushy after being canned. I also like to freeze my meats instead of canning them. The Ball Blue Book is a great place to start on learning to can, and it's really really easy, though I understand how intimidating it is, I was intimidated for a very long time. You'll be surprised how easy you get it though I promise :)

4. Learn how to hunt, and butcher your own meats. Now, this one is going to get some mixed reviews, I know. I know that some people wont' mind the hunting so much but the butchering! So here's the thing. You're already going to have to field dress your kill, why not learn to just butcher it too? I'll be honest, it's going to be a gross job. It's not going to be something you'll want to do in your Sunday Best and if you're squeamish at all...you might want to find a butcher locally to do it for you. But it's something I think everyone should try to learn.

5 Reduce your energy dependence. This could be getting a bicycle to use as transportation, hoofing it to and from work, line drying your clothing or even using a solar battery recharger for household use. Im not a prepper per se, but the less energy you use, the better off you'll be if that energy becomes too expensive or unavailable, which is more real than the zombies. We live in tornado alley and I've seen towns decimated in just an hour. Energy prices are constantly on the rise, at more of a rate than the wage increases as well, so this will leave you more disposable cash for other more important items in your household.

6. Find alternate water sources. Now this could be as simple as living near a creek, putting in a pond, or drilling a shallow well. This one won't be able to be utilized by everyone, but it's another way to "reduce energy dependence" as potable water isn't free. We have a well on our property and are in the process of getting a hand pump installed so that next year we can use it to irrigate the garden as well as other things. While our water bill runs about $30-$50 a month (higher in the summer from watering), and that's not a significant amount of money to be saving, it's not using clean potable water for drinking for our garden, which is in turn, less energy spent cleaning the water. Another thing you can do is to collect rainwater. (be careful, this is actually illegal in some states).Simply using a barrel under your downspouts and a sump pump or watering can, can provide a lot of your outdoor water uses. Water filters can also be made/purchased so if you needed to, you could use rainwater as drinking and cooking water.

7. Plant a medicinal herb garden. One thing that we're very dependent on is the doctor. A lot of things one really doesn't need to go to the doctor for, but we do anyway. This causes doctors to be backed up every day and honestly, just takes time from YOUR day. I have four kids and we have no shortage of sickness. Seems like every other month they come home with some kind of crap or another. Nine times of ten, you don't' need to do anything. Even if they have a fever, you can often just stay at home and nurse it. That being said, one of the things we do wrong is give Tylenol at the slightest hint of a fever. This is costly, and honestly will do nothing but mask symptoms. I let fevers run in this house because that's the body's way of fighting off something and by bringing the fever down, I am taking away the body's natural defenses and then my children stay sicker, longer. For every day things, you'd be surprised what you can do with a medicinal herb garden. This book is a good place to start. Keeping a stock on hand of medicinal supplies is always a good idea too, this will allow you to not have to travel out when someone is sick or hurt. I keep lots of gauze, tape, band aids and antibiotic cream on hand with my children :)

8. Barter and trade. This is a great way to be more self-sufficient. Lets say you have a bumper crop of strawberries and your neighbor has a bumper crop of corn. Why not trade? Or perhaps you can fix electrical items and your neighbor has extra eggs from the chickens? There's many thing you can barter and trade for. If you have a skill, or items, you can usually find someone else that has skills or items to trade. This is one of those areas that if you can't provide it on your own, find a way to procure it with your own means.

9. Go re-usable. Whether this be with batteries, mama cloth/diva cups, cloth diapers, family cloth, napkins, placemats, etc. Being able to buy or make something once, and keep it around for a long time keeps you from having to rebuy.

10. Invest and learn how to use hand tools. This can be anything from kitchen appliances to outdoor tools. Currently hubby and I own a reel mower for what little lawn we have to keep mowed. It uses no power (other than our own), and needs no special care. Is it harder than using a gas powered? No. It is a bit more time consuming though. I find it takes about 10% more time to complete the lawn with the reel mower than a gas one. But we're talking minutes here. Once a week. Totally worth it.  I also use hand tools in the kitchen. Recently I bought replacement screens for my hand cranked food mill. This allows me to make sauces and what not from our garden yields. I will also be purchasing a hand cranked flour mill in the next bit so we can mill our own flour.

11. Learn some new outdoor survival skills. This could be something like learning how to start a fire, building a shelter/pitching a tent, fishing and hunting, using the sun to navigate and tell time, there's many things that one can learn. Should you get snowed in, lose power, be hit by a storm/tornado, your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, you get lost camping, you just never know :)

12. Learn some indoor skills. These would including things like baking, knitting, sewing, mending/darning, making cheeses and yogurts, candle and soap making, spinning wool, etc. For the very self sufficient, raising your own sheep for wool, dairy cow or goat for milk and bees for wax, these skills would up the amount of things you can produce yourself. Even procuring local milk, yarn and other necessities can allow you to have an end product you know what's in, and you've been able to provide yourself. :)

13. Raise animals. Depending on the codes of your city, you might be able to have chickens, goats or rabbits. Having chickens will provide you with eggs, stew meat, and manure. Rabbits will provide you with fur (angora), meat and manure and goats will provide you with meat (chevon), milk and fur (mohair).

14. Pay off your debt. This mainly is about your mortgage if you have one. Owning your home free and clear not only provides you with shelter and more disposable cash every month, but most people who are self-sufficient would be able to sell or trade their wares for the cash to cough up the change for property taxes every year if they didn't have a job. This number one enables you go without a job, or at least live on one income (which provides more time and energy for homesteading chores), and if one should lose that income, and I think the last few years have shown us that nothing is guaranteed, you could still survive.

Soaked Whole Wheat Tortillas, even if they are crooked!

So they're not perfectly round like the store bought ones. That's a good thing right? I mean, that just shows you they're authentic! This recipe is so easy, I'm betting my nine year old could work it. Really. Ok wait. My husband could work it. And that's saying something because he can't cook. At all. 

I made tortillas once and they sucked. They were gummy, they tasted like cardboard and they were stiff and not at all like you think a tortilla should be. Who knows what I did wrong, I haven't the slightest, but whatever it was, it was enough to turn me off of them. Or so I thought.

In our quest to eat as naturally as possible, I came across soaking your grains, beans and nuts for optimal digestion and health. I won't launch into a tirade about why you should soak your grains, but here's how I look at it. Number one, humans have been doing it (until recently that is) for thousands of years. There are actually a lot of other (healthier) cultures that still do. Secondly, it doesn't take any more time, so why not? I mean, it can't hurt you to soak your grains, and I've got nothing to lose, not even time, so why wouldn't I do something that takes absolutely no energy, time or effort on my part? Granted, it's not as easy as pulling something off a shelf and shoving it into a cart, but healthy eating is never that easy. That's how Americans have become the most obese people on the planet, and I want no part of that. Thirdly, yes thirdly, I've actually seen improvement since I began soaking our grains. I'm losing weight, and don't crave carbs the way I used to. And I don't feel gross like there's a brick of crap in my belly when I eat them now either.

There's also nothing better than a beautiful loaf of whole wheat bread to entice you too!

So here's what you do!

Soaked Whole Wheat Tortillas

Makes 8 awesome rounds!

Ingredients:
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of coconut oil
3/4 cup of water
1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp of salt
arrowroot powder or cornstarch for rolling out




Mix everything but the salt and arrowroot. Mix it well, in a bowl. Throw a plate or something over the bowl to keep it from drying out and let it sit on your counter for at least 8 hours. I made mine at about 8 am this morning and let it sit until about 5. You could always leave it overnight and then roll it out the next morning.

2. Cut it into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece until it seems like it's too thin. I promise you, it's not. :)

3. Throw that bad boy in a heated skillet on about medium heat, and let it cook maybe 45 seconds on each side. You'll want to watch for it to bubble up in places, and when it bubbles up, you know it's time to turn. Then, turn and cook on the other side. Take a look at the video above to get an idea of when to turn.

4. Enjoy!

You can even make them and freeze them for future use if you are like me, have six people and eat them once or twice a week!

How does your Garden Grow? Aug 7, 2013

 I can't believe it's already August! Where has the summer gone? Our garden is producing and starting to look really good! How are yours looking?

Tomatoes are finally turning! Check all those spots of red in there!
Won't be long now and our canning will go from the occasional
batch to serious biznass!

Strawberries! They need to be weeded in the middle there and you
can see the runners keep running! Every week I go through and pinch
off the extra runners as we've got enough this season. I'm also wondering if the
plants are June bearing unlike I was told at the nursery, we've not had a bloom since late June

Pea plants for our fall crop, they're getting big already!

Can you believe this melon patch? I have tried to keep it
contained, but to no avail!

Potatoes are still flowering and I rummaged around, they're growing just fine! 

I might be really proud of these strawberry plants that I have to show two pics!

Our lima beans are...beaning! We have a ton of these pods and it won't be long
till we can pick them! 

Tell me these aren't just gorgeous! These are the black cherokee beans we
planted, we like black beans in this house. I am just amazed how beautiful they are. 

This is what iron deficiency looks like in strawberry plants. The yellowing of the
leaves the green veins and the brown on the edges. We've added bone meal and
you can see the ones next to it have perked up a bit already. I estimate within a week
they'll all be back to being green. 

Side yard garden. All that green is just so pretty!

Carrots are finally getting it! Bout time too!

Look how tall these carrot tops are. We thinned a few weeks ago and might
need to thin a few more, but oh well, yummy carrots!

Love these maters. All that red coming in. 

Cherry tomatoes have been producing for a couple of weeks now.
Getting enough to eat in my salad every other day. And there's nothing
better than a homegrown tomato in your salad. 

Lookit how the watermelon vines have just creeped out of the fencing much to my dismay!
I tried to keep them contained, but I would wind them up only to come out the next morning and find
them through the fence and blooming, and I didn't want to hurt the blooms! 

These are bigger than they seem in the picture. The largest one, on the left is probably about 10lbs by now, and they're
growing larger every day. I can't wait to eat them! The kids are super excited too, wanting to check progress every day. 

A hidden watermelon I found this morning. I don't know how I missed it. It's about 10 inches long. 

What's left of our bean patch. We've got Montezuma Reds, Black Cherokee, Green Snap and Lima Beans. 

I don't remember which variety I planted, but these are getting about a foot long before they're ready.
They're also cross pollinating with my Boston pickling cukes and are making for some very misshapen
cucumber "balls". I need to not plant so close next time! 

I completely forgot until two days ago when it began to turn, that I'd planted red peppers.
Isn't it gorgeous!

These are the hot peppers I planted in the Smart Grow containers for salsa. I am really pleased with these containers. Six plants fit in this container and they're thriving!

Potatoes. Won't be long now, it seems. Some of the foliage is starting to die off already. More Smart Pot Containers. 

Finally! A bloom on the Eggplant! We haven't had any eggplant yet this season. 

Homestead Barn Hop!

Soaked Whole Wheat Bread

So. I had a whole post on why soaking your wheat is a good thing. The science behind it, why it can help your body, and how it makes a great loaf of bread! But then as I punched the backspace key, I thought you know what? If you're looking for soaked whole wheat bread recipes and you found mine, you already know the benefits of soaking your wheat. You already know that until the last century every society soaked their grains beans and nuts. You are already willing to soak your wheat, but simply need a recipe! But if you do want to know more about soaking your wheat/beans/nuts, Da'nelle over at Weed Em and Reap has a great blog that tells us all about soaking our grains. She also has a great tutorial on making whole wheat bread, but it's by hand and I needed something for the bread machine. We go through 10 loaves or so a week not to mention other wheat things I make, and I like to use the bread machine for efficiency.

So, I have one for you. And let me tell you. I was super surprised. I started making whole wheat bread a couple of years ago. I got a bread machine and every day or so, I would make 1-2 loaves of bread. Only on rare occasions did we buy store bought bread. I make all sorts of things in there. Hamburger buns, cinnamon roll dough, italian/french bread doughs, and regular sandwich bread. Needless to say we eat some serious wheat in this house. But I noticed that when I ate wheat, I felt like crap. It felt heavy in my stomach and caused some mild nausea. So I decided instead of jumping on the low-carb, no carb gluten free bandwagon, I was going to keep wheat because humans have been eating it since about 6000 BC when we learned we could use rocks to grind it up. So. Onto the bread.

Now, Here's the thing. All you have to do is mix your wet ingredients and your wheat. Here's my recipe. This makes a 1.5lb loaf in the bread machine.

3 and 1/3 cups of whole wheat bread flour
1 Tbsp and 1tsp of Coconut oil 
2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 and 1/3 cup of water
3 Tbsp of honey
1 tsp of salt
2 Tbsp of Arrowroot powder
2 and 1/4 tsp of yeast 

Now real quick like, I know you're like what the heck is arrowroot powder? (or maybe you know! I didn't). It's like Cornstarch but with cornstarch its of course, made from corn, and 90% of the corn in the US today is GMO and we try to stay away from all GMO's around here. So arrowroot it is.

So. You just mix up your wheat, oil, honey and vinegar and mix it. Now I have 3 and 1/3 cups of wheat. 3 cups is your starting place. On average I use 3 and 1/3 cups. But sometimes I use a little less, and sometimes a little more. It will depend on the humidity level of your kitchen how much wheat you need that day. What I do, is turn on the machine and then add the 3 cups of wheat and let it mix a bit. Then I add a little at a time until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the machine but it still a bit sticky.

I use the bread machine to mix it in. It doesn't have a mix cycle per se, but I just toss it in there and turn it on the first cycle and let it mix. Then I just turn it off. Iffn' you want to you could just leave the dough in there for the required 8 hours (or up to 48 hours). When I make two loaves I sit them out on the counter uncovered. Don't worry, it's completely safe. :)

Then, after it's sat for the amount of time, you simply add in the salt, the arrowroot powder and the yeast and turn your machine on "white bread" setting. And honestly, it's as simple as that! I thought soaking my bread would take me longer. I thought it would be extra work. It's really not. And let me tell you. Before, I switched us over to white wheat because even though I *love* the taste and texture of whole wheat bread and that dark caramel color it has, it wasn't rising right in my machine. Now I know why. The loaves rise beautifully now. They're also super yummy. Also also, they don't give my belly any issues now either! So what are you waiting for!!! Get to baking!