I’m a 30 year old black man who grew up in the some of the rougher “hoods” of NYC. On any corner you can find, a liquor store, a Mc Donalds, a Kansas Fried Chicken fast food spot and a “corner store” that makes most of its profit from sodas and juice, as well as cigars used to wrap “blunts” or marijuana cigarettes.
I knew nothing about natural anything. I had no idea what organic was, what buying local meant, or what I would do with the fresh foods I passed at the Union Square farmers market. I never heard of homesteading, or sustainability. All I knew was death through processed foods and hard liquor and slavery to a system that only cares about profiting from us.
I am now aware there is another way and I thirst for it. I am intimidated by what I have learned. Change can be scary but I thirst for it now. I need to learn more and more.
I really appreciate this blog as well as this post in particular. I’m sorry for the long-winded comment but I am simply excited to be on this journey.
I see a lot of you making comments already make foods from scratch. A lot of you already garden and grow your own organic fruits vegetables and herbs. I also know some of you already know how to, can, bottle and pickle your foods….
….My question is how does someone like myself learn to live this life? Is it a matter of searching one recipe at a time on the internet? Is it a matter of going to a school like http://www.iuhoakland.com/ to learn these skills? What are your suggestions? from facethelove
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When I read this comment I thought it deserved a dedicated post. I’m sure there are many of you are wondering the same thing. How do you get started down the road of homesteading, growing food, canning, pickling, making things from scratch, etc?
My first main piece of advice is to START SLOWLY!
When we first read a book, see a movie, or hear something that makes us want to make big changes to our lifestyle it’s easy to get a little overzealous. We want to clear our pantry of all processed foods and start making everything from scratch. We want to avoid pesticide and irradiated produce from the grocery store so we decide we need to grow it all ourselves. We decide that storing food in plastic is killing us so we need to spend hundreds replacing all of our plastic containers. We no longer feel comfortable eating meat from the grocery store and want to make sure the cow was allowed to eat grass and the chicken was allowed to peck for bugs. We decide we need to buy a big chest freezer and a half a cow, and we needed to do it all yesterday! But this can be a HUGE mistake! There’s nothing worse than making changes that you can’t stick to, you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew, or the changes will most likely not stick. You may end up back where you started, hundreds of dollars wasted and feeling guilty. That is why I recommend starting small, you don’t want to overwhelm yourself or your family (because if you have a spouse or kids, they’ll be making these changes along with you).
Here are a few of my recommendations if you want to turn around your life:
1) Give yourself time, it took a lifetime to learn you current bad habits, give yourself time to change. Be patient, it may take a while to find local sources for things you want, or to find a recipe that works for your family and it may take you a while to learn how to make the perfect bread.
2) Start small. I recommend trying to source eggs and meat locally as you’re your first venture. It’s actually fairly easy to find eggs that a neighbor or local farmer is producing that are much better quality. Meat and poultry is also fairly easy to source. If you live in a city, you may have to take a Saturday and drive outside of town to find a farm, but take the family long, talk to the farmer, tour the farm, it’s of great educational value not just to your children but to yourself as well. If you want to start growing your own food, start with a small 4×10 garden, grow things that can be harvested rather quickly and that are fairly easy to grow: lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber…
3) Decide how often you can feasibly incorporate new foods, through learning to cook them, buying them, sourcing them locally, or growing them yourself. I’d recommend maybe one per week. Head to the farmers market and pick out something you’ve never tried before, if you have children, let them choose, they’re more likely to be excited about the new venture if they’re involved in making the decisions. That gives you time to learn to cook each thing.
4) Try to find others around you, friends or neighbors, that are already doing a few of these things and connect with them, they can be an invaluable resource of knowledge. You can ask gardening advice, they might even give you seeds or plants. They can help you with your first batch of canning. Most of us who are living this kind of lifestyle already are thrilled when others want to join and are more than willing to share what we know. Build a support network of local folks, these people will be an invaluable resource for you, and who knows what kinds of relationships will spring from this journey. You may find a spouse, a future best friends, or get to know one of your neighbors.
5) Be patient and persevere. It will take a LONG time to feel like you’ve mastered something. You may not like bok choi the first or the second time you cook it, but keep trying. You may find you never like it, but trying it and learning to appreciate things you don’t love is an important part of this journey. You may fail at making bread so many times, but don’t feel bad about feeding your compost pile as you try. One day you’ll make the perfect bread and it will all be worth it.
6) Learning to appreciate food for it’s nourishing qualities instead of it’s taste is something we could all spend some time on. Food should be good, but sometimes the things we make to replace store bought items don’t quite cut it, we eat them anyway because we don’t want to waste food. It’s an important lesson to learn, especially for children, while you eat your simple, not super great meal, talk about all the people in the world that don’t have a choice, those that don’t have food or don’t have good food.
Any questions from newbies or great advice from our seasoned veterans in this area?
I’ve found the best way for me is to read. I may not have the time to incorporate everything, but I’ve learned a lot about how to do things when I get the chance. I don’t have a root cellar yet, but know all about how I want to build one and how to store my foods as they need it, for now. I don’t have bee hives or chickens but know more about both for when I can get them. I have books on canning, preserving, pickling, bread, gardening, root cellaring, raising chickens, etc etc. I don’t *have* all those things, but I hope to sometime, and arming myself with good books works really well for me. This way, when I see an opportunity in my life to easily incorporate one of these ideas/practices, I can jump at it without so much tripping.
I’ve found, aside from growing fast-harvest foods, bread making has been a great jump into a healthier lifestyle. I promised myself one year to bake all our baked goods and I’ve been doing that since. The results are (almost) immediate and deeply satisfying. I highly recommend ‘Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day’ since it makes such stellar bread, so easily. For non-quick bread I use recipes I’ve found and been given, as well as ‘Baba a Louis Bakery Bread Book’.
Maybe, then, my recommendation is to find one thing that most interests you (gardening, preserving, making foods from scratch, local meat, etc) and inform yourself on that one thing and then start trying (big or small – I tend toward ‘go big or go home’, myself). Figure out how it works in your life, get really good at it, then start another new thing. One step at a time.
My first step was to get a Family Bin delivered once a week from Green Earth Organics.
https://toronto.greenearthorganics.com/
Right now we’re getting the Family bin but this summer I plan to switch to the local bin.
We eat a lot of fruits and veggies as a family and I like that I can make substitues at GEO and get the food right to my door. I’ve been using GEO since October and am still thrilled with our weekly bins.
The thing is, when you have so much produce and you’ve paid good money for it, you’re really loath to waste it. This has led to a significant decrease in our eating out.
My second step was to order beef and pork from http://www.beefconnections.ca . My first pick up will be March 5th. If it works out well I will also order the poultry in the summer (it’s not available right now).
I already made muffins and cookies from scratch on occasion. For the RFC I’m going to make a point of making them more often and leaving the packaged stuff at the store.
I realize I’m not producing myself yet, but at least I feel that I’m purchasing from more responsible and more local producers and those are my first baby steps into my healthier lifestyle.
I will be planting herbs and some hardy plants this summer. I can’t wait!
Awesome, inspiring article…and right on the nose! Perfect advice, perfectly handled. I wish I was half as well-spoken.
I agree with the advice to go slowly since you will be taking your family along with you–I really had to give my husband time to adjust to the fact that I wanted to spend my weekends building raised beds and putting up marmalade. Now he’s on board with a lot of my goals and I think it’s because I gave him time to understand that they were good, feasible changes (and that I wasn’t going insane).
slowly, slowly.
If you haven’t cooked before, go round the library or bookshop and pick out a recipe book with food you might like which looks reasonably easy, take it home and have a go.
don’t start on home-made bread; start on an easy meal or just part of one.
You don’t have to preserve food yet. I don’t do it at all. I’ve no room for a freezer here and ‘canning’ is not done that often here in the uk. anyway, I lack storage space. I buy fresh, grow fresh and eat fresh.
I guess there’s no space for allotments in NYC, but I’ve heard of community gardens there. If you can find them they’ll be full of like-minded people who can help.
good luck to you my friend.
I agree with starting slowly. If you’re looking for videos on how to, Patti Moreno has a great site at gardengirltv.com. She is inner city and doing it all. Fabulous stuff there. Once you start, you’ll find tons of books, websites and ideas. Have fun on your adventure!
If there was one practical thing I could encourage you to do first, it would be to learn how to make bone broth. There are many blogs about it, including my own: http://encouragingnourishment.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/bone-broth-good-for-the-body-good-for-the-soul/
I think getting a few good basic recipes under your belt would go far in giving you confidence to try more. Blessings on your new quest!
I agree, bone broths are such great nourishment. You just can’t beat soup made with them, so healthy and delicious!
I have many friends who ask me this very same question. My answer is much like yours…but goes like this.
First, really look at where you are now. And think about what it was that prompted you to ask the question in the first place. Do you cook anything now? Or is learning to cook a place to begin. Do you have a pantry? How do you shop? etc.
In there somewhere lies a first step. A single step that you can identify, in your current life that you can begin to change. A warning…as others have said. Take it slowly. You’ll be tempted to jump in all over the place. But resist! Take one step at a time, get comfortable with it, and then take another.
For one friend, it was reviewing everything in her pantry and slowly replacing each item with a locally resourced, and or organic option.
For another friend it was buying a great cookbook “Feeding the Whole Family” and trying one new recipe a week.
For a third, it was learning to cook.
For me, back when I began this journey with my husband, it was taking 20% of our weekly grocery budget and using it to only purchase local, sustainable food…then slowly upping the percentage over time. Since then, I’ve made so many other changes, there are too many to count. But, really it all begins with a single step. Don’t look too far down the path, just think of one single point of pain or irritation in your present situation and look at a manageable way to begin changing that.
Congratulations! And welcome to the journey!
A great comment from someone seeking a healthy life altering change .. and great answers. With time, one new skill upon another can be developed .. after a while .. it all seems more effortless.
I have to admit that I got a little misty reading the facethelove’s comment. I am always so happy to find someone new discovering that there is a better way. My journey down this path is only about a year old. I started with Hip Mountain Mama’s One Small Change campaign last year. My husband and I are both very headstrong, so we started taking those first few baby steps and running. Finding the kind of information I needed and wanted was not always an easy task, but I turned to books, blogs and magazines and slowly started stitching the ideas together. The most important thing I’ve learned so far is to keep at it. It’s hard to stay encouraged sometimes, but it is so important to just keep trying. Do the best you can, however small it may be. You think it’s not enough, but it is. It’s enough for now. You’ll continue to grow and learn and do better everyday. And as a wife, mother, daughter, friend… I give you my support and sincerest thanks for helping make the world a little bit better for us all.
I agree with everything said here! Start slowly. Make small adjustments to your shopping habits and identify one new skill to work on at a time.
There are great companies available to city dwellers (and rural dwellers) now that act as distributors for local farms. Do some research and find one that has a vegetable/fruit box and also will provide you with additional staples. Many of these companies are even doing Peapod style home deliveries. And their prices are often cheaper than Whole Foods. (So many wins, I recommend my Chicago-based Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks to everyone.)
Also, try to think ahead a little bit. If you’re making soup, make a double batch and then save individual portions for lunches later that week. You’ll spend a little extra time in the cooking and clean-up, but lunch for the rest of the week will be a no-brainer.
What a fantastic post and very realistic comment. It’s funny to think of where we each are in our journey and how we got to where we are, especially with food and taking care of ourselves. I think reading has been the biggest help for me – blogs and books with so many ideas and resources and just trying new and different things one day at a time with major, sweeping overhauls that I know I won’t realistically sustain.
What an inspiring post! I agree with all others to begin slowly. Personally, I’m still going slowly, doing what I can as I can afford to. Unfortunately in our society, healthy options are often not the most economical. I know it will take several more years before I am able to achieve some of my goals, but I will keep working toward them.
I think another important part of making a significant lifestyle change is to immerse yourself among like-minded people. Strike up conversations with vendors at the farmer’s market; talk to employees at natural food stores. Never be afraid to ask questions. These folks usually have a wealth of knowledge and experience and are usually more than happy to share.
Very best of luck to you in your journey.
I think it is so wonderful that this person wrote in. Humility and willingness to learn are great beginnings. Everyone else has given such good advice, so I won’t add much more, except to say that you are not alone in your journey. Take comfort in knowing that others around you are going through similar transitions. Good luck!
I want to throw out a possible disagreement with the “start slowly” philosophy. The danger, it’s said, is that you will overwhelm yourself and quit, but IMO that only applies if what you’re doing is in some way unpleasant or stressful, like dieting, or an unexpected exercise routine. I have never felt that way about this “lifestyle” (whatever that means). It’s all just been one big brainstorming session. Whatever sounds good and is within my means, I run out and do it! I wanted chickens, because I wanted fresh eggs, so I did a lot of reading (libraries are wonderful) and I bought some chickens. One day, I had owned chickens for months and couldn’t imagine ever not having owned them. Same deal with pigs. Same deal with my garden, which ended up twice as big as my “conservative” estimate. Unlike the animals, which turned out relatively stress-free, the garden completely overwhelmed me with cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. Oh. My. God. If I never saw another cherry tomato, that would have been fine. I canned, I froze, I dehydrated, and when I couldn’t stand another minute of it, I pulled the plants out of the ground and put them on the compost pile. It was early August, and the plants would have happily kept on producing, or I could have gotten a winter crop in, but I was just DONE for the year. If I had “taken it slow,” maybe I would have kept growing all season, but who cares? It’s not like somebody is grading me and I’m going to get an F if I don’t do it exactly right. Next year, I’ll do it a little different, and that’ll be fine too.
I say, whatever sounds fun and attractive to you, and is within your means, go for it. Don’t hold back. And if you burn yourself out a little bit, that’s fine too, because you can always cool off and come back and pick it up again later. Just don’t get hung up on ideas of doing it “right”, because you will NEVER do it exactly “right” and if you expect that of yourself, you will get all full of guilt and a sense of failure and that will suck all the joy out of it.
This doesn’t mean jump in unprepared. Do your research (libraries are awesome). Especially with livestock, where there are living animals depending on you, unlike plants which, if they die, well, it’s not such a big deal. But if you wait until you are totally ready, you will never be ready.
Very true, I think some people can handle the “jump in with both feet” way. Mr Chiots and I are like this with many things. With changed in diet, I’m OK with this way, Mr Chiots on the other hand wasn’t, it took me a few years to transition him to Real Foods. If I had tried to do this change quickly he may have revolted and we may not be where we are today.
And so true about being prepared, the library and the internet is your best friend when taking on a new challenge. I read so many books all the time about things I may never even do, but I love knowing I could do them if I wanted to. Plus you never know what opportunity will arise that you need to be prepared for.
Welcome to homesteading! As several said we are always thrilled when we find someone else who is interested. Because there are so many people who look at me and my ideas and say “you’re crazy”! Maybe but I’m happy crazy and healthy.
Its an adventure and a challenge and I love it. Somethings work for me some don’t.
Check out http://www.localharvest.org I have found alot of local sources for meat etc… thru them.
I now am a garden advisor at a community garden and have met lots of like minded folks.
Enjoy the journey.
I think it is important to try to look at your exsisting diet for things you really enjoy. Start looking at those ingredients and find a way to get closer to the source. Most people have favorite foods that come from their culture, that when you dig deeper originally came from real food not boxes. Start using fresh ingredients, preferably from the farmers market. Then learn to grow them.
While frozen pizza fills your stomach quickly and tastes fairly good, if you make it from scratch using fresh ingredients it can be amazing. A side bonus is it is a good way for families to bond while cooking as a unit.
When I buy or grow a new vegetable I like to do a web search on it. I look for recipes and look for other parts of the plant to eat. Most people know you can eat pumpkin seeds, but few know you can roast squash seeds as well. One of my favorite greens are beet greens as they are slightly sweet.
This can also help keep you from wasting those resourses. Carrot tops, celery geens, etc can make a great stock for soups. Left over cornbread is great crumbled over a casserole.
I love this post–so fantastic to hear all of the responses as well. I love that feelthelove mentioned the iuh (institute of urban homesteading) website. I live in Oakland and have taken many classes there. Ruby, who runs the school, is amazing…and she teaches some classes from a beginner’s perspective. I took a preserving class from her a few years ago, and it inspired me to start my own small jam and pickle business!
For me, I find that I tend to get caught up in new ideas, and start a lot of things. Some things stick–my edible garden, preserving and canning, shopping at farmers markets, and buying meats directly from farmers (the bay area meat CSA, a cooperative buying group organized by Slow Food in the bay area: http://bamcsa.ning.com/). Others don’t as much–I make simple chevre, but never got around to making that brie…I still have that kombucha mother in a jar in the fridge…you get the picture. The key for me has been experimenting and finding what works for me.
Good luck in your journey!
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