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!
11 Responses
TY Ruthann for these tips. I love canning, trying ‘new to me things’ and tips of convenience or energy saving suggestions. Your instructional videos are very practical and appreciated for that quality. It was on your use of mixer that I purchased one and made your bread recipe. Many other uses as well. Great tool. Good solid info you present. Part of family roots were farming and blacksmith skills. So my interest is instinctively drawn to your lifestyle. TY for sharing your skills for God’s bountiful harvest.
Hi RuthAnn,
I love your videos, have watched them over and over again. I get a kick out of your opp, messes. cause I’ve been there done that, your down to earth and easy to follow your recipes. keep watching for new videos. I have made cheese and the cinnamon roll, and a lot of your canning recipes. You have inspired me to try some recipes like your fermented apples. Thank you for all you do. Keep up the great job your doing.
Thanks again
Sandy Scrivener
We have found this to be so very true! And practice. Even simplifying takes practice. ❤️
I love your common sense wisdom. I wish we had gotten a few acres when we were young. Now I’m a widow, in town but a country girl at heart. Love your Homestead book!
This is totally true! We have limited our activities to homeschool, homesteading chores, Martial Arts as a family all-together and that’s pretty much it. When I try to do more, we all burn out. Last year we added a play, dance lessons, swim lessons and driving my oldest to work everyday and I got very physically and mentally ill. Everything I planted went to waste at the end of the season and we didn’t have time to do meat birds. I learned a lot though and this year consisted of minimal commitments so I could give homeschooling and homesteading first priority.
Thank you for this article.
I have been following you for years and have learned so much from you!
We just finished our mid morning breakfast of home grown meat and eggs with raw milk (not homegrown).
I will be making bread today for the week.
Many, many blessings to you & yours. 💗💕
Thank so much for the great article and recipe. I can’t wait to give it a go.
I always look forward to watching you Saturday videos
Thank you again 💕
This is so beautifully put!! We have been moving away from the Standard American lifestyle for many years. We started with cleaning up our diets and cleaning supplies. Then we bought chickens and decided we wanted to keep moving towards providing better food and experiences for our family.
We moved from under an acre to over 100 acres a few years ago and are loving it! We have had chickens for over 11 years, and have since added meat chickens, turkeys (on occasion), ducks, guinea fowl, pigs, and most recently, sheep. We have a large garden and enjoy the harvests we get from it each year. It had been a wonderful learning experience for all of us and I truly believe it has made us healthier physically, mentally and spiritually. God has blessed is in so many ways and continues to guide us down this path of stewarding this land, as well as our family. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience regularly. We enjoy learning from you!
Thank you, Ruthann! I believe too that a wholesome homesteading life is the perfect answer to the very busy lifestyles that people think will fulfill their lives. I am knocking on 65 years old and have gradually incorporated homesteading skills and seasonal living into my life the last few years and I have personally grown more at peace and gained physical healing through the change. There’s always more to do but I feel good about the path I’m on. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us all, you are a blessing to my life.
This is what I wanted since I was young visiting my grandparents in the mountains of Kentucky. Back then everyone had huge gardens and everyone helped. They butchered pigs for meat. My favorite were the pigs skins crisped in my Grandmothers wood stove. She made homemade butter and fresh milk and at night they would have a glass of buttermilk with cornbread crumbled in it. I always helped them in the garden and feeding the animals. We would visit them every weekend. I loved it! Watching your channel reminds me of those days. It wasn’t work to me helping my grandparents because they would tell stories of times past.
Love your channel RuthAnne
We would like to learn to become homesteaders but I do hesitate at the thought because of giving up fitness classes and PT and chiro that help so much with my back issues. Can a couple of 40, ( almost 50 year olds) realistically become homesteaders with existing back and knee issues?