Micro homesteading invites you to take beginning steps toward more self-sufficiency, sustainability, and reconnection with the earth.
The Rising Popularity of Micro Homesteading
Begin Where You Are
Micro homesteading starts with the realities of your life and location right now. Whether you begin with an indoor herb garden, dehydrating a bushel of apples from the farmer’s market, making your own soap, or simply learning to cook at home, your efforts matter. Start small, learn as you go, and do what makes sense for you.
Benefits of Micro Homesteading
When you cook from scratch, grow some of your food, and start a journey of learning even more, you’ll notice the benefits.
Sustainable Living: Reduced Environmental Impact
Focusing your time and resources on the elements of life may be better for the earth. For example, you might change some of your current ornamental landscaping to edible plants. This makes more practical use of your water, land, and fertilizers. Making food at home reduces transportation pollution and the waste from commercial packaging.
Self-Sufficiency by Growing Your Own Food
Our modern economy involves specialization and interdependencies. Selling goods to each other gives us all more variety.
We urban and suburban dwellers benefit from nearby grocery stores and restaurants, and the accompanying efficiencies of scale. Micro homesteading works within the confines, but also the benefits, of our modern society.
As we all saw during the coronavirus pandemic, however, sometimes supply chains break down. We learned that outsourcing the basics may make you overly dependent on others.
Start With Food and Herbs You Enjoy Eating
I love to cook. Dry herbs are always on hand and they add spice to my cooking. Fresh herbs from my garden kick it up a notch. Their freshness adds an extra punch of flavor. Tomatoes from my garden, still warm from the sun, outshine any store-bought ones.
Likewise, focus your growing efforts on what you love to eat.
Financial Savings
Lowering Grocery Bills
Growing food, especially if you start early in the season with seeds rather than buying plants, costs much less than buying food. Cooking your own meals is less expensive than take-out, though ordering for pick-up still saves you money versus a delivery service.
When you cook something for yourself, especially when you grow the ingredients, you don’t have to pay for all of the people otherwise taking their cut.
Connection to Nature
Healthy Outdoor Lifestyle
Kids need to be outside in the sun, but also in the dirt. NPR quoted Jack Gilbert, the author of Dirt is Good: The Advantage of Germs for Your Child’s Developing Immune System, who said, “Their immune system’s going to become stronger because of it.”
Whether kid or adult, our roots as humans go back to the land, hence our instinctive desire to spend more time outside. Plants, animals, sunshine, and fresh air boost your well-being.
Getting Started with Micro Homesteading
Assessing Your Space
Take a look at how much space you have inside your home, and where sunlight naturally falls or you have rooms that spend the day in shadow. Look at your rooftop, balcony, porch, patio, backyard, and your front yard too. If your space is small, you may want to look into desktop gardening. Visit any nearby community gardens to see what they grow. Talk to people you see gardening.
Keep in mind that zoning laws where you live may have something to say about keeping animals, what you can grow in your yard, or whether you’re allowed to collect rainwater.
Essential Skills and Knowledge
Cooking
If you don’t already, learn to cook. It will save you money even before your first harvest comes. When it does, you’ll have the skills to use your zucchini, basil, and tomatoes to make bread, pesto, and marinara sauce.
Gardening
Gardening forms the core of micro homesteading. The best way to learn how to garden is to start.
Not sure how? Try a growing kit. These self-enclosed planters contain a self-watering base and instructions on how to add the right mix of fertilizers and soil.
Have some gardening skills but need more? Try joining a community garden or taking a class. You might also seek advice from your local extension. Many of these university off-shoots have advice specifically for urban gardeners. Every state has an extension – check here for a link to yours.
Grow What Will Grow Where You Live
Before planting anything, learn what grows easiest in your climate zone.
Not sure what that means? Find your zone based on your geographic location’s seasonal temperature range. Now you can filter all outdoor gardening advice using this newfound knowledge.
Consider a mix of annuals and perennials. You will need to plant new annuals every year, like tomato plants or lettuce. Perennial plants, by contrast, last for two years or more. Think raspberry bushes or apple trees.
Great Plants for Beginner Micro Homesteaders
Looking for a bit of direction or helpful suggestions? Try starting with any of the plants below as they are beginner-friendly and even adaptable to indoor settings.
- Herbs (Basil, Mint, Rosemary, Thyme): Herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow and are perfect for small spaces, including windowsills. They require minimal care, can be grown in pots, and offer fresh flavors for cooking.
- Leafy Greens (Spinach, Lettuce, Kale, Swiss Chard): These plants are fast-growing and can be harvested multiple times for a continuous yield. They thrive in cooler temperatures, making them great for spring and fall, and can even be grown indoors with sufficient light.
- Tomatoes (Cherry or Bush Varieties): Tomatoes are highly productive and can be grown in containers or hanging baskets. Cherry or bush varieties are especially suitable for small spaces. They need plenty of sunlight and regular watering. Consider growing a salsa garden or even a partial one.
- Peppers (Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers): Peppers are versatile, can be grown in pots, and offer a range of flavors from sweet to hot. They require warm temperatures and can be grown indoors on a sunny windowsill.
- Radishes: Radishes are one of the quickest vegetables to grow, taking as little as three weeks from seed to harvest. They’re ideal for beginners and can be grown in shallow containers.
- Strawberries: Strawberry plants are perfect for vertical gardening or hanging baskets, making them ideal for small spaces. They produce fruit throughout the summer and can even be grown indoors with enough light.
By starting with these plants, you can start to get your feet wet with micro homesteading and gain some skills and confidence. It’s about creativity, sustainability, and enjoying the process of growing your own food, no matter how much space you have.
Food Preservation
You may not be able to immediately eat everything that you harvest. That’s where food preservation comes in.
Try freezing. Lay fresh fruits, leaving space between, on a cookie sheet on parchment paper. Freeze for two or three hours, then pack into freezer bags or freezer-safe containers. Frozen berries, for example, make delicious smoothies, can be baked into muffins, or puréed into a sauce.
You can freeze pureed herbs in olive oil in ice cube trays. Tomatoes cooked into a sauce can be frozen in serving-size containers for later use.
Dehydrating, fruit, herbs, even some vegetables means they become shelf stable and great for eating on the go. Use them in your cooking, too.
You might also come across an excellent bushel of apples at your local farmers market. Take advantage of this type of seasonal produce by drying or freezing – you can lock in fresh local produce at seasonally lower prices.
Challenges of Micro Homesteading
Time Commitment
When you take steps away from the marketplace and put more focus on doing things yourself, you’ll find that, especially at first, this can take a lot more time.
Focus on the foods you get most excited about growing in your own garden. You have a limited amount of time in your day, so make sure that your efforts are worth it to you.
There’s a learning curve. You’ll get better at it over time. Trust me.
If I Can Start Micro Homesteading, You Can, Too
Kefir gets its smoothie-like texture, tangy taste, and champagne-like bubbles through a natural fermenting process. When I heard about its health benefits, I ordered kefir grains, to limited success. After asking around, someone gave me new ones, along with inspiration and education.
Turns out I was experimenting with micro homesteading – making part of what I need at home, supported by others in my community.
Homesteading seeks to reduce our dependence on industrial farming, food manufacturing, and unsustainable energy production. Micro homesteading encourages us to move a bit in that direction. When we support each other and share ideas, we can create a healthier world.
