I have my starting point, but exactly where do I want to take my family in all of this? Honestly, I'd like us to be more self reliant when it comes to our own food, and to make better choices that have an enviromental impact. Being sustainable. And making memories and being closer together as a family, seeing what is important along the way.
I'll fully admit it, we're a low income family needing foodstamps and state medical coverage. Do I LIKE it? NO, but at the time being our circumstances dictate that we need these things in order to do what is best for our family. My husband Mark is a good man. He workes hard at a full time job where I doubt he'll ever get any farther ahead. He stays because right now in Ohio, there aren't many jobs to be had that would get us out of this rut.
What can one family do?
I think the answer is simply found in homesteading, or going (in part) back to the land as our forefathers did. What would it accomplish? More self reliance, less reliance on the state. The lot we live on has a spacious backyard, most of which we don't use when out playing. What isn't being used as a playground, using a technique called square foot gardening, can grow a massive amount of produce that can be eaten fresh, canned, or frozen. And if you find yourself with more produce than you can manage, there's always friends, family, and the local food pantry that could put it to good use. All for the cost of seeds and hard work.
I have a vision of a lot where most of the plants around it are a food source. I have plans for a large garden boasting heirloom tomatoes, rainbow colored carrots, beans, pumpkins, corn, and herbs, to name a small few. I'd like to clear space for berry bushes, currants, and gooseberries for jam. Tall sunflowers for Sarah, birdfeeders for her feathered friends. A clothesline for drying laundry in the warm sunshine. No chickens though, city ordinance states that there are to be no farm animals in the city. But one can daydream.
I see myself learning to can, freeze, and root cellar all this produce come harvest time. I can learn how to do it if I set myself to it, its a LOT of hard work- but my family is worth is. I see Sarah smiling as she bites into a home canned fruit or jam , telling everyone around that "Momma made this for me."
Maybe its too over the top, but our homesteading forefathers did all this not out of luxury, but neccessity. In these poor economic times, when gas is going up- it trickles down to everything else. Everything else is going up too. At this time, it's a neccessity to my family to turn to homesteading and free ourselves of some of our dependence on the world outside our home.
But what about the COST of this endeavor? It can be only as expensive to start as you allow it. In days past homesteaders had to be creative because going to the store most times wasn't an option. If you didn't have it, you had to substitute, jerry rig, or just plain do without.
So far I've been blessed to have friends, family, and strangers help me with gathering a few of the supplies I'll be needing. A fellow Freecycler (http://www.freecycle.org/), graciously gave me 133 canning jars. My Husband's Aunt has agreed to let me use her canning jars and water bath canner, since she no longer uses them. Good friends have given me a pressure canner for my low acid foods, so that I can safely process them for my family.
My only cost has been seeds for the garden, and lids for canning. Well not my only, I did say that it can only be as expensive as YOU let it be. My family opted to buy a chest freezer at Tax time, and I opted to also include a compost bin and mini greenhouse as well. But all in all, my cost has still been very low in starting my homestead. And the rewards will be well worth it.:)
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