You need to eat, don't ya?

There are multiple ways to source food on and around the homestead! After sourcing it, if you don't eat it right away you need to store it and that is what this section is all about!

FOOD SOURCES

Growing/Gardening

Of course you will grow your own food if you're homesteading. What you grow and how you grow it is greatly dependent upon your climate and growing season. We are in zone 4 and our season is short so we plan to keep our outside gardens simple. But we also plan on having hoop houses and a large underground greenhouse that will be heated and able to grow food year round! One of the things we have learned is that it is important not to try to grow too many different vegetables and fruits, keep it simple and plentiful! We also plan to naturalize as many edible plants as possible.
  • Grow vegetables in raised bed gardens, hoop houses, and an underground heated greenhouse. Vegetables we plan to grow: string beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots, squash, onions, garlic, asparagus, lettuce, kale, collard greens, cucumbers
  • Grow fruits: apple trees, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
  • Grow nut trees - we are in the process of raising 5 walnut trees from nuts!

Foraging

You need to know your land and what is available! This is so important. There are so many fruits, vegetables, nuts, mushrooms, and other edibles growing all around! 
  • Mushrooms - so far we have identified Reishi, Chicken of the Woods, and Bear tooth!
  • Nut trees - our land has hickory nuts, but we can also harvest walnuts from our neighbor since our trees won't be producing for at least 10 years. Theres also edible beech nuts.
  • Maple trees and Birch trees - we can harvest the sap from these trees to drink and or make into syrup! Yum​
  • Dandelions - the greens are great in a salad when young, and the flowers are delicious when fried! The roots also make a healthy tincture.

Raising Animals

There is a certain joy in raising your own animals to feed your family whether it is for their eggs, their honey, or their meat! Of course, all of this has to wait until we have a house.....LOL
  • Fowl - Eggs and meat! Chickens has always been our animal of choice for over 10 years. Now that we have a bigger homestead we also are planning to add ducks if we can get the artesian well to keep a small pond working. And of course, raising turkey which is a family favorite! 
  • Sheep - I really want to raise sheep not only for eating, but because their wool can be made into yarn. Sheep can also be milked, yes, that's right, you can milk a sheep! Redundancy at it's best! We thought about goats, but that is a big NO for so many reasons we will have to leave that for another day!
  • Pigs - What can I say, these provide a tremendous amount of meat! We are thinking of having 2-3 per year. They literally eat all your scraps....we will see
  • Bees - yes, I plan on having bees. In fact I can't wait to have my own raw honey!

Hunting/Fishing

Yes, we hunt and fish. It's something my family has always done and continues to do! Deer meat is absolutely delicious and there's nothing like fresh caught fish. It is also a great way to supplement feeding a family that is running on a very tight fixed budget!

FOOD PRESERVATION

We did a lot of food preservation on our mini Long Island homestead. At the bottom of this section is a button where you can learn more about how we froze vegetables and fruit and canning too!

Freezing

I like to freeze a lot during the summer. It is just so much simpler to just keep adding raspberries or grapes to a freezer bag until I am ready to can them. However, I also freeze a lot of other foods as well. I will cut corn off the stalk and freeze in small baggies. I will take an abundance of fish and also freeze small amounts in baggies. I know it is not the best way, but for me it is the simplest until I am ready to do what I want with it. That could be cooking, canning, or even dehydrating which all take more time.

Canning (water & pressure)

Dehydrating

Smoking/Jerkey

We do want to build a smoke house, but that is going to be a bit down the road! 
Click the button below to learn more about how we froze and canned our food on our Long Island Homestead!

FOOD STORAGE

Freezer

A freezer is important and we have had both a chest and a stand up over the years. A chest is more economical to buy and uses less energy, however we found it a real pain to organize and find what you need, and well, we are all about simple! For that reason we now prefer a stand up freezer. This way each shelf can be dedicated to something in particular be it meat, fruits, or vegetables! 

Pantry

A pantry is something I have NEVER had before! However, since we are building a new house I have designed it so that we have a nice big one for logs of storage! Check out our earth sheltered house floor plan to see why we designed it the way we did!

Root Cellar

This is definitely in the plans for the future, it just might be a while since we need to get the house done first!

Spring House

This is just another option that we think a lot about for the future since we have so many springs on the land!

ALTERNATIVE FOOD SOURCES IN EMERGENCIES

Of course you can have MRE's and canned food saved up and that is great. Everyone should do that but even that might run out at some point, and then what do you do? You forage! If you know the plants and trees on your homestead then you can find a way to eat. 

We already talked about Maple and Birch trees for sap, but did you know how useful a pine tree can be? You can eat the inner bark layer (cadmium) and the needles are a great source of vitamin C.

Those acorns from the oak trees? Well, you can't eat them directly, but if you soak them and process them they can be ground up and added to soups and used as a flour. 

There are so many other plants around that can be utilized. Here are a few that we know we have:
*NOTE - always do research before eating any plant you are unfamiliar with! Even if it is edible for others, you may still have a reaction.
  • White Pine, hemlock (not the poison kind), balsam fir (conifers)
  • Oak Trees
  • Beach Nut Trees (yes, the nuts are edible!)
  • Mullein
  • Rose of Sharon (the leaves and flowers are edible)
  • Hastas - the sprouts in early spring
  • Milkweed - flowers are edible like broccoli before they bloom and the young seed pods are edible. Supposedly the early shoots are also edible.