4 Reasons to Consider Starting a Homestead This Year

sustainablelivingreport | January 19, 2022 | Homesteading & Off-Grid Living

If you’ve been thinking about starting a homestead, here are a few reasons why you should!

If you’ve been on the fence (so to speak) about homesteading for a while, why not make this the year you take the plunge? It’s not an easy decision – nor is it one you should take lightly. There are a number of considerations to take into account when starting a homestead. However, if homesteading is something that your heart has been calling you to, there are lots of great reasons to go ahead and make the leap!

It doesn’t have to happen all at once, though. Baby steps are often the best way to achieve most goals, and starting a homestead is no exception. For example, you could resolve to simply spend this year finding the perfect piece of land for sale and making an offer. Or if you already have a plot of land but haven’t gotten around to doing anything with it yet, consider erecting a simple, temporary tiny home – or even living in a mobile home for a while as you get started working your land.

However you choose to start, here are 4 good reasons to consider starting a homestead this year – brought to you by the experienced homesteaders over at ThePrairieHomestead.com:

1. It connects you with your food.

Our society is disturbingly unaware of how our food arrives on our table. Kids don’t have a clue their hamburger once had eyes and a nose, or that their french fries grew in the ground (in dirt? ewwwwww…).

Homesteading breaks this cycle by getting our fingernails dirty and encouraging us to return to an intimate relationship with the cycles of nature and food production. I’m convinced this is a need every human carries, and returning to it satisfies something deep inside us.

2. It tastes good.

So I lied a little up there in point #1. The whole reconnecting with nature thing is only part of the reason we raise our own food. The other reason is because it just plain tastes good.

Juicy red strawberries picked mere seconds before landing on your tastebuds, happy brown eggs with full-flavored orange yolks, frothy fresh milk with a five-inch creamline to be turned into golden butter… How can you argue with that? Case closed.

3. Homesteading brings freedom.

We, homesteaders, tend to be an independent bunch, and our self-sufficient tendencies are usually the primary factors leading us down this unconventional path. Homesteading can provide freedom from a centralized food supply and even freedom from the power grid, if you choose that route.

When people start complaining about the rising prices of dairy products? I simply grin and give our milk cow an extra flake of hay and a pat on the head. When the news starts chattering about how beef prices will skyrocket? I feel secure knowing we have two steers out in the pasture, and one in the freezer.

And this increased measure of freedom from the price-hikes at the grocery store makes this wildly-independent homesteader girl’s heart happy. It’s a good reason to start homesteading today.

4. It provides security during hard times.

Whether your concern is a small emergency (such as a job loss), or a big one (you know, the whole zombie thing…), homesteading provides a reassuring measure of security in both the areas of food and skills.

Most homesteaders keep an impressive supply of food on hand because: a) When you grow your own food, you almost always have a surplus to preserve. b) Most of us have a strange addiction to mason jars and canning (we can’t help it).

While our own personal preparedness measures still need a little polishing, we always have enough food to last for many months, tucked away in our pantry, basement, cupboards, and freezer. Plus, it’s reassuring to know many of the skills we possess (such as gardening, hunting/butchering, milking, food preservation) would help carry us through in an extreme survival scenario.