Over the past few years as I have traveled to Homesteading events all over the United States, I have had the opportunity to visit with dozens of folks who have been successfully homesteading for decades and some even for their entire lives! As I have visited with them, I have noticed that they all have 2 things in common.
What do I mean by a simplified diet?
They are not trying to recreate the Standard American diet from scratch in their own kitchens! They just simplify their diet to reflect the homestead season and region they are in.
For example: they aren’t making from-scratch pop tarts or cereal bars for their family’s breakfast. They are simply preparing their home-grown eggs and sausage with a tall glass of raw milk for breakfast most every morning. In the summer they might have kefir (or clabber) and berries for breakfast.
Their lunch-time sandwiches don’t have 2-4 different kinds of meat and cheese on a fancy bread with different condiments and greens that are shipped from thousands of miles away. They’re enjoying homemade bread with butter, leftover cold meat, and cheese from the cheese cave or a soft cheese like ricotta or cottage cheese. If the season is correct there might be some spinach or lettuce, onions and radishes from the garden
Dinner is homegrown meat, home canned, or in season veggies, and a thick slice of homemade bread!
A simplified diet means we are eating with the primary goal of nutrition!
They all have a simplified lifestyle.
They aren’t trying to take a modern American lifestyle with gym and club memberships, children with busy extracurricular and school schedules and squeezing this onto a homestead. I have seen many families giving up their dream of the homestead lifestyle and heard from many more exhausted ones because they have tried to add all the homestead responsibilities to their Modern American Lifestyle.
Long term successful homesteaders use the homestead as their gym. Hard physical labor or as our family calls it ‘Farm boy strong’ is the natural strength that comes from daily physical labor.
The Homesteaders social club is primarily found within the family unit and with God and almost always in the setting of God’s cathedral in the great outdoors.
Homesteaders use the homestead to replace children’s busy extra extracurricular schedules. Building strength of character, work ethic, resilience and much more through daily chores, and plenty of screen free time for developing natural interests like mechanic work, woodwork, cooking, crafting, gardening.
As with all journeys, it begins with one small step! If you were to ask me what step to take first in your journey towards simplifying, I would strongly encourage you to simplify your diet first! Simplifying your family’s diet will free up so many resources for you!
If you feel like your dream of homesteading is unattainable because you cannot imagine adding homesteading responsibilities to your already busy lifestyle, I hope this post inspired you and brought you a bit of hope!
