A #homestead is a place where you engage everything in your toolbox to mimic nature in order to nourish the family, land and community through all seasons. A careful observing of your particular land and assets, skills and talents. Then, a planning of a design that will allow your family and your surroundings to work together to adapt to one another and conserve energy.
The homestead or farmstead offers a sense of belonging and deep appreciation for what the Creator has already provided, a desire to create with your own hands and to grow food and herbs from dirt. A glimpse back to Eden, the ultimate vision.
The hard work of cultivating healthy communities begins at the farmstead and the gathering of like-minded people. Community is a lot like farming. It takes well planted seeds, time to grow, cultivation and intimate relationship for it to flourish.
Homesteaders seek to be self-reliant in many of the following areas:
Gardens - Fresh Veg, Flowers & Companion planting
Gardens - Fruit Orchard
Preserving, canning, freezing, dehydrating
Distilling, pressing, juicing
Goats or donkey
Chicken husbandry for eggs/meat
Owl, bats and pest control
Bird + bee habitat
Hunting - Turkeys, grouse, etc.
Compost -active
Water storage
Food storage
When designing a permaculture plan to manage the systems through preservation and farming, make sure to pay attention to and note down these factors:
Environmental hazards
Weather, wind and sun directions
Greenhouse for longer growing season
100 yr. Plan
Water management & swale (Pipes, Pond, Fountain)
Pond and water flow/drainage
Willow tree & other water loving plants
Soil amendment
Gardening Zones
Property lines
The goal is to create a holistic environment that works in symbiosis with farmer and land particulars. A regeneration in the agriculture, an agroecology that promotes healthy relationship with nature, animals and humans.
Agroecology = "Central to the strategies of agroecology is the understanding that an agricultural system should resemble the local ecosystem, with healthy nutrient cycles, complex structures, and optimal biological diversity.[1] To achieve this goal, agroecological practitioners promote crop diversification and oppose monocropping, chemical pesticide and fertilizer use, intensive animal farming, and extractive practices that hasten environmental degradation."
- https://straydoginstitute.org/agroecology/
Let us know in the comments: What does homesteading mean to you?
References
[1] Miguel A. Altieri et al., “Agroecology and the Design of Climate Change-Resilient Farming Systems,” Agronomy for Sustainable Development 35 (July 2015): 869–890, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-015-0285-2.
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