These are 15 homesteading skills for food security you need to have to get through tough times as a family. This post is the ultimate list of homestead food security skills for self sufficient living when the unexpected hits hard.
We busily prepared for winter on our homestead by completing our fall homesteading tasks with two kids 2 and under on my hips and at my ankles.
Stoking the fire, feeding the cows, making our meals from scratch, keeping the firewood stacked by the back door, cutting the kindling, putting the garden to rest and planting the garlic and bulbs. Finishing up the last of my preserves. I wash the dishes by hand and I keep myself busy with reading and writing.
I’m slowing becoming more self sufficient I feel connected to the generations of women in my family and country that did this and so much more, without hearing word from their husbands for far longer than just a few weeks.
I never would have thought that these skills would come in so handy during the recent pandemic scare. Wether preparing for the end of the world, or stock piling for the winter in case of an emergency food security skills can bring a sense of peace during hard times.
Learn the benefits and how to build your own food security skills for a prepared future and enjoy getting back to basics while achieving food security.
HOMESTEAD FOOD SECURITY SKILLS
Homesteading provides many benefits for a happier, more self sufficient life. When learning homesteading survival skills there are some benefits that might motivate you and some that come as a great surprise. Here are some of the major benefits that homesteading survival skills can provide.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Be prepared for the worst case scenario, like a quarantine or pandemic. When you have the survival skills to meet your families basic needs, food, water and shelter.
FRUGAL LIVING
Relying solely what you have and being creative in how you meet your needs is the first step to saving money and earning money on the homestead.
Being able to sustain yourself and your family without relying on credit or the weight of debt is a goal to work towards in living a self sufficient life from wherever you live.
EAT HEALTHIER
When you make it, bake it, grow it, forage for it and raise it your diet changes with the seasons and you naturally start to eat healthier. Your food becomes your fuel and working for your food becomes your hobby, your livelihood and your passion.
Soon you’ll find your backyard is your own personal farmers market, your freezer and pantry is your grocery store and your kitchen your restaurant.
LIVE SLOWLY
Many of us admit we hate the rat race, building self sufficiency skills on the homestead helps eliminate the daily need to be part of the hustle and bustle. Less trips to the grocery store and the day job.
HARDWORK
Hard work is what you must do to get where you want to go. Homesteading and striving to me more self sustaining is not easy and not for the faint of heart but it’s awfully rewarding.
PROVIDE A LEGACY
Sharing your self sustaining life with others, your family, your children and your community leaves a legacy for others to follow. Bringing back the skills generations of parents passed down to their children will help your children lead a more fulfilling life.
Even if it’s your orchard that you leave behind, someones going to eat them apples.
GAIN KNOWLEDGE FROM GENERATIONS BEFORE
When times are tough, generations before have always experienced something similar and have much knowledge to share with us. Our grand and great grandparents were around in the time of victory gardens and surviving the Great Depression. Our grandparents have much to share.
RELATED: TIPS FROM MY GREAT GRANDMOTHERS KITCHEN
15 SKILLS FOR FOOD SECURITY
BAKE AND COOK FROM SCRATCH
Baking bread, biscuits and loaves from scratch is the gateway to becoming self sufficient in the kitchen. Learn how to make bread from scratch with basic ingredients, flour, yeast and water. Take a course on making sourdough bread.
PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
HOMEMADE APPLE PIE FROM SCRATCH
MAKE BONE BROTH
Learn just how to make beef bone broth using beef bones, vinegar, water and the optional vegetables and herbs. You’ll never have to buy beef broth again at the store and reap the many nutritional benefits of bone broth currently taking the health industry by storm.
CREATE A FOOD BUDGET AND STOCK PILE
It’s important to learn to live within your means as a life skill but also as a survival skill. Learning how to budget your daily needs helps prepare you for when money is short.My biggest recommendation is learning to create a food budget.
CREATE A FOOD BUDGET & LIVE DEBT FREE, SAVE LOTS OF MONEY ON FOOD!
GROW A GARDEN
Nothing is more rewarding than growing your own food. Learning to grow your own fruit and vegetables is beyond thrilling and a basic skill that is essential to survival. Learn how to grow your own food. I’m going to show you the very basic gardening tips for the ultimate foolproof approach to vegetable gardening for beginners.
PLANT AN ORCHARD
Planting fruit trees and starting a small backyard orchard or food forest will help you feed your family for years to come. You’ll learn how to grow fruit trees and fruit bearing plants with tips and tricks for planting, maintenance and preserving. Ready? Let’s do this!
HOW TO PLANT FRUIT TREES FOR BEGINNERS
GROW YOUR OWN MEDICINE
Protect yourself, your family and your immunity with the power of herbs by growing a herb garden and learning about their healing powers for a healthier happier natural life. The Herbal Academy is the place to learn
LEARN HOW TO GROW A HERB GARDEN FOR MEDICINAL USE
FOOD STORAGE PREPAREDNESS
Prepping requires being prepared with adequate food supplies. Learning how to make the most of what you have when it’s seasonably available by preserving the nutrients for later use. Popular methods include, dehydrating, canning, pressure canning, freezing, freeze drying and meal prep to freeze.
DEHYDRATE FOOD FOR SURVIVAL
Dehydrating food is an easy process to preserve the nutrients and benefits of healthy, local organic foods like tomatoes, apples, mushrooms and more. Having a dehydrate or using the dehydrating power of the sun to dehydrate food is a crucial skill for homesteaders and preparing for survival situations.
LEARN HOW TO DEHYDRATE MUSHROOMS
PRESERVE FOOD IN MASON JARS
If you’re new to hot water bath canning I highly recommend you read this guide, Quickstart Guide to Water Bath Canning, before you prepare your jars and use your hot water bath.
PRESSURE CANNING MEAT AND VEGETABLES
FREEZING FOOD FOR LONG TERM STORAGE
Freezing is the easiest and best method to preserve food for later use. Learn how to freeze tomatoes and add them to soups, stews and pasta sauces. It’s a great way to add the flavour of summer to winter time meals.
MEAL PLAN USING WHAT YOU HAVE
Learning how to use what you have, what to store in case of an emergency and how to ration is a very useful survival skill when it comes to food. Thankfully one of the benefits of growing and raising your own food is constantly eating what’s in season and preparing for tomorrow.
RAISE ANIMALS FOR MEAT
All meat comes from a farm or from the wild. Raising Meat on the homestead fills the freezer and is just one of the way homesteaders prepare for emergency situations with protein food sources.
LEARN HOW TO RAISE FARM ANIMALS FOR BEGINNERS
My favourite is raising chickens. They are a great first farm animal to raise. Raising chickens provide eggs, meat, amazing soup stock and even feathers for crafting. They are also great helpers with mulching the garden. Raise chickens from the start by incubating your own eggs for laying hens, stew chickens and meat birds for raising poultry.
HOW TO INCUBATE YOUR OWN CHICKEN EGGS
FORAGING
Find wild edibles in your backyard, your local forests and even on the side of the street. Use a field guide for proper identification and discover mushrooms, herbs, nettle, and more. These are all amazing survival homesteading skills to acquire.
LEARN HOW TO FORAGE FOR MUSHROOMS
GLEANING
Go around your neighbourhood and see if anyone has fruit trees needing picking and share the harvest. Look for gleaning programs in your community where you can volunteer in exchange for fruits, vegetables and even preserves.
HOW TO PRESERVE APPLES IN A WEEKEND
MAKE MONEY HOMESTEADING
YES! It’s totally possible, let me help you turn that money sucking hobby into a profitable side hustle you’ll be proud to talk about.
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