The Mindset of Homesteading: Accessible Alternatives for More Sustainable Living
Plus Mary & Emma on Capitol Hill!
I think homesteading just comes back to a mindset. It's not about what's outside your window necessarily.
It's about wanting to live more in alignment with the seasons, wanting to rely more locally for your diet. It's about using your hands. I think it's just more about hands-on local seasonal living.
Angela Ferraro Fanning
This week on The Good Dirt we’re going back a few years to our conversation with Angela Ferraro Fanning, where she shares how she traded her job income for time outside growing food. Now she finds herself balancing a life raising two boys with managing a working farm, as well as authoring a cookbook, a children's book series and hosting a homesteading podcast.
Angela’s story is inspiring in so many ways, but what brings us back to this episode is a take -away that we think bears repeating again and again. Homesteading is what you make it.
You might not be in a position to make a job change or move somewhere with lots of land, but almost anyone can look closely at how they live and see where change is possible. Even the smallest shifts in our daily decisions can bring us a deepening relationship with the earth and the place we inhabit.
So often, as in Angela’s case, we are drawn to making a change of some kind because we recognize where our current way of life is not sustainable— not for us, our families and communities or the planet. But before we get lost in the yearning for something that seems unattainable, there is so much we can do. See if there is anything on this list that speaks to you today, starting now— that could bring you closer to your desire for a life of more connection and balance.
Source your food as locally as possible through farmers markets, buying clubs, or a CSA membership. You can look up local food sources for your location here.
Grow something you can eat—even if it’s just one thing! It can be as simple as one tomato plant, a head of lettuce in the middle of a flower bed, a pepper plant in a window box or herbs in a pot on your patio. Having a bit of your own parsley or oregano around to enhance your meal prep brings an amazing amount of satisfaction.
Be discerning in your clothing choices. Avoid fast fashion by buying thrift, limiting you wardrobe to all natural fibers, mending more as well as buying and discarding less.
Do something with your hands. Bake bread, dig in the dirt, mend a sock, use a tool to fix something, make a meal from scratch, go pick berries….
Be mindful of your purchases. When possible, choose outdoors over stores!
Eat seasonally.
For your 4th of July celebrations coming up, consider ways to reduce waste. Having a gathering? If and when possible, avoid the single use items and use real plates and utensils. Ask guests to think low waste for the items they bring, and skip the plastic water bottles! A pitcher of ice water sitting out with a few jelly jar glasses is the perfect solution.
Use your senses. Take time to notice, observe and appreciate the environment around you, wherever you are!
How do you embrace the mindset of hands-on, seasonal, local and lower waste living? As always, we love hearing your ideas and experiences.
Let us know in the comments!
FROM EMMA & MARY:
We spent a lot of time together this week, so we have just a couple of joint shares! As the weeks close in on the arrival of our first child & grandchild, we’re trying to savor this time together in preparation and make sure that Lady Farmer and the podcast have what they need to hum along while we step into this new phase.
On Thursday, 6/27, we were invited to attend the press conference for the launch of Rep. Chellie Pingree’s Slow Fashion Caucus, the first-ever congressional effort to rein in fast fashion. We were so excited to run into Rebecca Goodstein from Patagonia, who attended a Lady Farmer Retreat a few years back, as well as meet & chat with Rep. Pingree herself. There were a few different speakers from different areas of the Slow Fashion movement, and we can’t wait to watch what happens here and if we can get any closer to policy change, which in many cases equals real change. We will keep you updated as we learn more about it!
After spending the morning on the Hill, we decided to explore the gardens at Hillwood Estate in DC, a magnificent manor just outside Rock Creek Park that was the last home of Marjorie Merriweather Post (heiress to the General Mills/Post empire. She was quite the lady, as you can imagine, and taking in all that she left was such an interesting experience. At 27 years old, she inherited the Postum Cereal Company, and then continued to build her empire on the kind of processed foods that are the hallmark of our industrialized food system. On the other hand, she helped bring frozen foods to market and made them widely accessible, an innovation that has been extremely important in food safety and accessibility. And on the OTHER hand, she was an amazing philanthropist, woman, gardener, connector, supporter of the arts, and friend to so many. We appreciate all the nuance here— and found her fascinating!
Have a happy and safe 4th of July, and we’ll be back next week!
~ Mary & Emma