NOTE: Most of these questions are common questions frequently asked on social media platforms. Which is why some of the Q & A might seem unusual or redundant. This is an effort to save time on answering the same questions over and over.
Q: WHY A HOMESTEAD?
A: Well, why not?
Everyone should be somewhat able to produce some of their own food. Especially, if they want to be a mature responsible adult. There are basic skills in life everyone should know, like: reading, writing, arithmetic, and anatomy. Understanding how to produce your own food so you don't DIE should be included in that. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as “plant it in the ground and watch it grow”. It is about being able to get the production from it, which is where the learning curve is. You can plant a tomato seed in the dirt, and it will grow, but if you're only getting 1-3 tomatoes a year off of it, then it is not doing you much good, is it?
Having a homestead can be a challenge that is very rewarding if you succeed. Knowing where your food comes from, what goes into it, and how it is processed can be very enlightening. It helps you have more appreciation for what you do buy at the grocery store and also mother nature herself.
Although, it is not for everybody. It is expensive when you start out, you have to be strong, hard working, intelligent enough to be competent, able to face adversity, and willing to try again after failure.
Homesteading is not for the weak.
Q: ARE ALL HOMESTEADERS PREPPERS?
A: No.
Some people choose this kind of lifestyle just because they want to provide for themselves and bond with their family during the process. A good example of this is: “More Than Farmers”.
Other people have so many food sensitivities that they choose to produce their own organic food that is not provided in stores.
Then, there are preppers…
Q: WHY DO PREPPERS HOMESTEAD?
A: Food security.
Having a homestead is like having food insurance and you should want it for the same reasons you want life, medical, or auto insurance. It is to protect you if something bad were to happen; such as, but not limited to: pandemics, lockdowns, and extended utility failures due to weather, brownouts, blackouts, cyber attacks, or war.
Your investment in homesteading from landscaping, building, and acquiring tools, is like paying your insurance deductible. The more you spend on your deductible, the better your insurance payout is.
Q: ARE ALL HOMESTEADERS RELIGIOUS?
A: No.
Some people are just spiritual and want to be close with nature. While others just want to reduce their footprint. Then there are those who want to be more free by being self-reliant. There is freedom in not having to depend on business, government, or anyone else.
Q: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A FARM, RANCH, AND A HOMESTEAD?
A: Modern terms are different from traditional or historical terms.
In today’s modern terms, having a homestead means to produce enough food to be self-sufficient. Having a farm means to produce excess food to sell for a profit. A ranch is just a farm that only produces excess meat to sell for a profit.
Q: IF I SELL FOOD FROM MY HOMESTEAD TO OFFSET THE COSTS OF MAINTENANCE OR FEED, DOES THAT MAKE IT A FARM?
A: No.
Farming is when you're selling massive amounts of excess food that you have produced for a profit. Selling a few eggs to pay for chicken feed just to offset costs doesn't necessarily make it a farm, because there is no profit. However, selling a massive amount of eggs to advertise your homestead so you can sell more from your homestead just might make it a farm though. Homesteading is about being sufficient, and not being excessive, as you shouldn't produce more than what it needs.
Q: IS THERE MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF HOMESTEAD?
A: Yes.
There is the “Traditional Homestead”, which is a piece of land that is claimed for the first time, or given to by the government for free for a heavy discount. It is usually far from a city or town, where the land has to be developed over several years to control resources, such as: water, forestation, and wildlife. Usually, it is later sectioned off into smaller homesteads, farms, or ranches, to be sold or occupied by multiple independent families. Often, tax breaks or credits are given for developing the land.
There is the “Country Homestead”, which is a single family homestead just outside the city that usually consists of: alot of land, alot of animals, fields of produce, barns, and has utilities connected to a nearby town or city.
There is the “Off-Grid Homestead”, which is like a country homestead, but purposefully isolated from contact with civilization.
There is the “Community Homestead”, which is like a country homestead, except it is managed by multiple families andor neighbors.
There is the “Suburban Homestead”, which is usually within a town or city with smaller land plots and fewer animals due to regulations.
There is the “Urban Homestead”, which is within heavily populated areas of a town or city, with almost no land, and almost no animals.
Q: DON'T YOU NEED ALOT OF LAND FOR A HOMESTEAD?
A: No.
Research in the 1970’s by John Jeavons and the Ecology Action Organization in the UK found that 4000 square feet of growing space (about 1/10 of an acre) was enough land to sustain one person on a complete vegetarian diet for a year.
However, if you include all types of food using modern techniques you can produce enough to sustain one person for a year on 750 square feet according to one study. Another study says ¼ of an acre can feed a family of 3, while another study says a family of 4. Although, in all 3 cases though, you may have to outsource your animal feed, grain, and salt.
Q: CAN YOU SHOW ME PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL AT PRODUCING THEIR OWN FOOD ON LESS THAN AN ACRE?
A: Yes.
Here is a link to “The Urban Homestead”, an urban home that produces up to a literal 5 TONS OF FOOD on 1/10 of an acre, per year, for over 30 years in Pasadena, California (website) and (Tour Video 2009).
There are several folks on YouTube who are currently producing over 75% of their own food on less than an acre. Here are some of my favorites:
Epic Gardening in California (Tour Video 2023)
The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni - in New Jersey (Tour Video 2023)
Self Sufficient Me - in Australia (Tour Video 2023)
An honorable mention as a non-homestead:
The Millennial Gardener - in North Carolina (Tour Video 2023)
Q: ARE YOU SAYING I SHOULD HOMESTEAD ON LESS THAN AN ACRE?
A: No.
If you're gonna have animals, you need to grow food such as grain or provide pasture for your animals if you want to be 100% self-reliant. However, if you stick to small animals such as rabbits and chickens, you can still do it on less than an acre. Rabbits do well on lawns using a tractor. Chickens can be fed kitchen scraps and forage for food in lawns, compost piles, or small wooded areas.
Q: ARE URBAN HOMESTEADS IN THE CITY REALLY A THING?
A: Yes.
Urban Homesteaders will have quail for eggs in their closet. They also usually utilize aeroponics for year round vegetable production in a spare room. Sometimes they will grow dwarf fruit trees in pots on their patio or balcony. They even grow herbs in their window seals. They can even make their own compost in a bucket underneath the sink.
While I've never heard of urban homesteaders being completely self-reliant, I have heard some claim to produce about 50% of their own food, year round, without preserving or canning, just using just aeroponics in an apartment. Of course, in a doomsday scenario this wouldn't be possible because utilities would be required. However, kudos to them for finding ways to make it happen with what they have.
Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST OBSTACLES IN THE BEGINNING ON A HOMESTEAD?
A: Cost. Time.
Homesteads in the beginning are surprisingly expensive, even excluding the purchase of the land it is on. You may figure it will only cost you “X” amount of money to build something, but it always ends up costing you more than you think, if you're building it right. You might also think that you can use cheap or even free scrap materials, and you can, but you'll be re-doing most of it almost every year until you do it right. Also, soil or organic compost is also ridiculously expensive, even for a poor quality, unless you learn and take the time to produce your own.
There are alot of opportunities to get things done on a homestead, but what you'll learn the hard way is all of those windows of opportunity have very short time frames. You might think you can do a project tomorrow, but then it rains because the weatherman said it would be sunny. So you plan to do it the day after, but then have an emergency repair that has to be done immediately. Afterwards, you have a planned project lined up with a neighbor's help that will take a few days. So you push the project to the beginning of the next week, but then you realize you have to return the favor to the neighbor and help them with their project for the next few days. So you have to push that project back by two weeks. Then it rains again, or another emergency repair must be done, so on and so forth.
Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST OBSTACLES AFTER THE HOMESTEAD IS ESTABLISHED?
A: Fertilizer. Pests. Disease.
After your homestead is established, the biggest long term cost is fertilizer. Learning to produce your own organic fertilizer using JADAM techniques and other techniques can save yourself alot of money in the long run. To be healthy and productive, your plants need lots of it.
I don't know what to tell you about pests and diseases without going into monumental details that probably won't help you. All I can say is that they vary wildly depending on the environment, and specifically what is actually being affected. This is just one of those things that you learn about when you actually have to deal with it; plant or animal. Also, the more you have on your homestead, the more pests and disease you will attract.
Q: SHOULD I WAIT TO BUY LAND TO START HOMESTEADING, OR START NOW?
A: Now.
There is a steep learning curve when it comes to gardening. Like I said before, there is a difference between letting it grow, and making it productive. There are soil types, drainage types, watering, PH levels, temperatures, seasons, pests, diseases, graphing, rootstocks, and plant varieties to learn. Do what you can now, but don't break the bank. These things take experience to learn and you won't learn it from a book or video.
Q: SHOULD I START BIG WITH EVERYTHING AT ONCE OR SMALL ADDING LITTLE BY LITTLE EACH YEAR?
A: Start small.
Homestead Burnout is real. Odds are you won't be able to start big no matter how hard you try, not unless you buy an existing homestead and take over from there. If you try to start big, you will grind day by day trying to get everything setup in the first couple of years and it will burn you out. Instead, start small with a 5-10 year plan, adding a little bit each year, and stick to it. Consistency is key.
The reality is a good homestead takes about a decade, give or take a couple of years.
Q: WHERE ARE THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT HOMESTEADING?
A: YouTube.
Alot of folks would disagree with me here. Most would recommend interning on a farm. That would be great if you're wanting to build a farm and not a homestead. I say that because modern homesteads use different techniques than traditional farms. YouTube “urban suburban homesteads”, you'll see them do amazing things on such small properties that will save you space, time, and energy.
A rough example would be that on a farm, you will want your fruit tree orchard to grow to maximum size for maximum production, ergo more fruit for profit. This means you use more land and possibly need more room for navigating equipment around. However, on a homestead plant your dwarf fruit trees 6 feet apart, and prune them back to 6-7 feet tall in the winter each year, and you don't need large equipment. Yes, you get less fruit from these smaller trees, but you use less space, less water, and spend less time harvesting or preserving a large amount of excess fruit you can't eat or sell.
Q: WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT TOPICS I SHOULD RESEARCH FOR HOMESTEADING?
A: Urban Homestead, Suburban Homestead, Canning, Preserving, Hot Composting, Vermi-Composting, JADAM fertilizer, High Density Fruit Orchard, Edible Landscapes, Perma-culture, Food Forest, Rain Barrels, Gravity Fed Watering, Raised Beds, Determinate Versus Indeterminate, NPK, Greenhouse Thermal Mass, Beeswax Window Openers, Carolina Coops, Chicken Breeds, Garage Quail, Meat Rabbits, Jersey Cows Versus Goats, Barn Cats, Farm Dogs, Your State or Country’s Cooperative Extension, and if it applies Your City or County Municipal Code.
Q: HOW WOULD I BEGIN A NEW HOMESTEAD?
A: Very carefully.
It really depends on your type of homestead, but in a nutshell:
Before Buying new land to homestead on, get soil tests. Visit the property after a heavy rain and make note of water runoff and possible flooding. Research the local growing season length, average temperatures, average first & last frost dates, invasive plants, invasive animals, common pests, common diseases, and common predators. Alot of this information can be found in the local county or state Cooperative Extension, if in the United States. Also, look up the local city, county, or state municipal code. Finally, before buying, lookup what the neighbors are doing on their land. This information could drastically affect your decision to buy.
After buying, identify your borders or property lines with markers using a professional to avoid future litigation with neighbors or government.
Fence your property lines to keep out pests, predators, and the neighbors animals. If in a suburban homestead, I recommend noy fencing in the frontyard only for aesthetic purposes.
Map out your property and its existing buildings. Make note of land elevations and watershed direction. Also, make note of the sunrise and sunset direction. On your map, design your homestead that you want to build over the next several years. Set goals for each year. When setting your goals, building or expanding things should be done in the winter if it's not too cold. You will be too busy actually homesteading in the spring, summer, and fall. Remember, put shorter things closer to the sun and taller things further from the sun to avoid overshadowing, unless intended.
Landscape the property the way you want it before building anything. The smaller the property, the less forgiveness there is if you start building things. In other words, the things you build before landscaping your property, get in the way of landscaping it later on down the road. Trust me on this…
Q: WHAT KIND OF THINGS SHOULD BE ON MY HOMESTEAD?
A: I can't answer that. It depends on your goals, the type of homestead you are wanting, and your location. Research what other like minded people are doing in the area.
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