1. Farmer’s Markets – From home-grown fruits and vegetables to freshly baked bread, farmers markets offer many areas of income opportunity to the homesteader. Many homesteaders bring their honey, beeswax candles, flowers, seeds from the last harvest and herbs. The variety of things that can be sold at a farmers market is vast!

2. Farm Tours - Many people from the city and suburbs are often intrigued with farm life and excited to learn new skills that you may have already acquired. Set specific tour and lesson dates and get the word out. You may be surprised to find how many groups want to dig in the dirt and get in touch with where their food comes from. Sheep shearing and wool spinning are often interesting events along with a host of other typical homestead activities, that others don’t have the joy of sharing in unless you invite them.

3. Lessons – As we have seen more and more people are getting back to the basics of living more simply. The trouble with that is, many who move to the country don’t have the benefit of having had generations who passed down the skills to do so. You could teach bread baking, canning or animal husbandry with your neighbors who are new to the area.

 4. Share your skills for a fee – Again touching on the newly arrived, greenhorn homesteader, you may want to offer a service of bush-hogging land they wish cleared, tilling the garden spot, hauling in or out debris or livestock for a small fee. You might be surprised what a tiny ad in the local paper may turn up as others move to your more rural neighborhood.

These are but a very few suggestions for making more income come into your homesteading budget. Count your blessings even in the tougher economic times and see just how many options you have as someone who has even the smallest of homesteads, or at least some homesteading skills!

Until next time!

Best Blessings!

Donna

The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Chemical Free and Organic Grains, Grain Mills, Bread Machines,Grain buckets, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

Technorati Tags: budget, farmers market, frut, homestead, honey, income, skills, vegetables

There are really only two things in this world that are completely pure in the true VALUE of that thinking. No, it’s not an Elvis memorabilia or an 1813 Singer Sewing machine. The two true ‘it’ items that are not made any more are: Land and Family.

Land: The old adage is that God’s just not making any more of it! I’m pretty sure that’s true. So a little piece of land is a rare commodity. Not just having land itself, but utilizing it and being a good steward of it. That too is rare.

 Family: Well, you’ve got one. It may grow and change, but you can’t get a NEW replacement one like you can upgrade a cell phone. So my suggestion is to treat this as one of the rarest commodities you may have. Not only are your family members one of a kind, but they (as you) are finite and only last for one generation at a time.

 Lastly, this one came to me as I was writing.  

Family land is also very rare now days. Not many people can say they live on the same land that their great-great-grandparent once owned, farmed or played on as a child. We have become such a fragmented society that this combination of two rare jewels (land and family) in one – is even more rare.

The Tip to Homesteading in all this is…although we can upgrade to new tools and new gadgets, we can put on a new roof or buy a new appliance, all these things they will make a newer model for next year. Your family, your land, and especially your family’s land – does not get a replacement model. So take good care of these better than the material objects that can be updated.

Remember to always enJOY the journey!

Best Blessings!

Donna Miller

The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Chemical Free and Organic Grains, Grain Mills, Bread Machines,Grain buckets, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

Technorati Tags: comodity, family, generations, land, rare

Below are a few options:

Canning - This is one of the most widely used forms of preserving and putting up the harvest used in (at least) America.  You can CAN just about everything and many items last for several years! 

  Looking for canning items? CLICK HERE

Dehydrating - Dehydrating is one of the oldest forms of preserving. Beef (and other meat) jerky came from the sun drying process that is so closely related to dehydrating. If temperatures are kept low enough, this is the most reasonably close method to keeping foods at a nutritional peak for long term storage. 

For many dehydrating options – CLICK HERE

 Fermenting/Pickling – This is also another low heat option for storing the garden harvest. The composition of each item does change a bit and the taste may be an acquired one, but the process is more simple than one may think. Nature does most of the work and you get the extra nutritional benefits!

Harsch Miracle Fermenting Crock – CLICK HERE

Freezing - Nothing replaces a good sized deep freeze on the homestead for keeping the harvest lasting long into the winter months. One trick is to be sure items are dry and as free of air as possible when you put up the harvest for freezing.

Most homesteaders put up the harvest in a variety of ways. The biggest tip to saving your garden harvest is to try many methods for each food and find what works best that you’ll use the most!

EnJOY the journey!

Best Blessings!

The Millers

Technorati Tags: canning, dehydrator, fermenting, food storage, freezing, garden, harvest, pickling, preserve

It can be relatives, friends or neighbors, an occasional visitor or a planned weekly chore sharing – no matter how you go about it, running a homestead takes some team work at least some of the time.

If you’re new to homesteading, book learning and ‘how-to’ articles will never take you as far as you want to go. Take the time to get to know a few other people in your area. Maybe you like their garden plot and see how great their veggies grow! Ask them some tips!

Don’t have livestock yet? Well ask your neighbor if you can come learn and help him with his chickens, goats, horse or dairy cow. I’d bet he’d love the extra hands and you’ll get some tips and hand’s on training before you ever purchased a little life to raise of your own!

Don’t try to go it alone on the homestead. You will sit looking at an insurmountable ‘to-do’ list (since the list never gets finished on the homestead) and you’ll live in a solitary void of only your own experiences.

Share, learn and grow….more than just your garden!

Best Blessings!

The Millers

The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Chemical Free and Organic Grains, Grain Mills, Bread Machines,Grain buckets, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

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Technorati Tags: alone, garden, homestead, livestock, neighbor, skill, tips

A Basic Herb Wheel

With warmer weather it’s time to get those herbs that have been basket-bound all winter out into the fresh air!

Technorati Tags: aromatherapy, culinary, herb, homesteading, medicinal, plant, spring, tips, wheel, winter

So how long before a child starts taking his/her first steps (at about 10 months to a year old) before you expect them to be in the Boston Marathon? Tomorrow?

If you think about it, that’s what we do to ourselves. We take huge leaps past some vital steps that are needed in homesteading. We think we need all the equipment, land, livestock and THEN we’re homesteading.

This is not the case. If we are taking ‘baby steps’ we’re still walking.  If we are doing a little of ‘this and that’ we are still homsteadING. Notice the ‘ing’ – it is a process.

Only if we give up on the process do we cease stepping in the homesteading direction.

Keep walking, taking baby steps and keep working out that dream of homesteading. Don’t be so hard on your self if you’re at least taking steps.

EnJOY the journey!

Best Blessings!

The Millers

Donna Miller is an author, teacher and entrepreneur. Her favorite roles are that of wife and mother to three home-school graduates. Living with a Homesteading Mindset in the country, the city and suburbs has been an adventure! The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House  which offers Organic and Chemical-free Whole Grains, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more. Listen to her Radio Show – Live or Archived at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/millersgrainhouse

Technorati Tags: baby steps, equipment, homesteading, land, livestock, tips

The dream of having that large spread of land and the acres of fertile soil to grow and homestead on seems farther out of reach than ever. Don’t give up on the dream, learn some much needed skills (and scratch that homesteading itch) by becoming an urban homsteader.

This is not as new of a twist on homesteading as the recent media may make it seem. Many people who have dreamed of owning a large homestead have learned to make a life of homesteading in a more urban environment.

Here are a few things that can get you started:

• Compost – fruits and veggies can be composted with little annoyance to the neighbors.
• Grow Boxes – or indoor growing gardens like this one turn counter space into garden space.
• Study/learn skills – Libraries, on line, good subscriptions to magazines help keep the dream alive. So does this book – “Making the Best of Basics”
• Practice skills – Contact your local Co-op or Agricultural extention for classes and fairs.

Look at all areas of your urban environment more creatively and you can learn many needed skills that any homesteader needs. From tending small animals (some areas will let you keep a chicken or goat or two) to gaining that green thumb, you can preserve and go back to basics right where you are!

Homesteading on a Sub-urban Scale

Happy Homesteading – no matter where you live!

Best Blessings!

The Millers

Technorati Tags: book, dream, garden, grow box, homestead, homesteader, indoor, land, soil, urban