Two Ways to Homestead

There are two ways to start and run your homestead. And those two ways are pretty much like anything else in life… the easy way or the hard way.

The hard way to homestead involves a lot of trial and error. Emphasis on “a lot.” A lot of learning lessons slowly one season at a time. One failed crop of carrots at a time. One or two pigs at a time. It’s slow going and on such a small scale, it can take a decade or more to start really accruing the knowledge it takes to make things run a little more easily.

Or we can be smart about it and glean from those who have gone before. (That’s the easy way.)

Things get easier and the success rate for homesteaders, especially for first-generation homesteaders, goes up exponentially when we see the value in learning from other’s observations, successes, and failures and take that practical information home and apply it to our own farms.

And there’s nowhere better to start than from the master himself, Joel Salatin.

Justin Rhodes recently visited Joel on his sustainable farm, Polyface Farms, and as he said, learned how Joel “brings out the pigness of the pig.” And he taught us, as only Joel can, the integrated systems for raising hogs that have stood the test of time and work so well on his farm.

It could have taken us a lifetime to learn these things! But now we can take this back to our homesteads and get busy right away growing & raising more food!

Do you want to know something exciting? You can meet BOTH Joel & Justin at the 2019 Homesteaders of America conference this fall in Front Royal, Virginia!

Joel will be teaching conference attendees about raising chickens for meat, (including a butchering demonstration) AND the nuts and bolts of running a successful farm business. While Justin will help us understand how to set up a permaculture homestead as well as how to embrace the chicken-ness of the chicken and get them to do most of the hard work for us in the garden. Your hand is definitely going to be cramped from all of the note-taking you’ll be doing!

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg! When you join us at the conference you’ll grow in your homestead wisdom, learning a ton of skills that will help you cheat the homestead learning curve. Everything from sourdough baking, butchering, cheesemaking, gardening, livestock, preserving the harvest, beekeeping, finances, survival, and so much more!

It’s the educational event of the year that your homestead can’t afford for you to miss! And the fellowship with like-minded folks, plus the chance to meet Joel & Justin and hear them speak in person? It will be the best weekend of your year!