What Is Homesteading?

Homesteading is a mindset rooted in living a more self-sufficient, intentional lifestyle. It’s about making practical, thoughtful choices to better care for your household and meet your own needs. This often includes growing food, preserving harvests, and creating useful items for the home—such as clothing, textiles, or handmade goods.

The most exciting part? Homesteading is not defined by where you live. You can embrace homesteading whether you’re in the middle of a busy city, a suburban neighborhood, or on a remote rural farm.

Traditionally, homesteading traces back to the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted land to citizens willing to settle and improve it as the United States expanded westward after the Civil War. Families built lives from the ground up, relying on their skills and the land itself.

Modern homesteading looks different. With today’s conveniences, it’s no longer something most people do out of necessity—it’s something we choose because we want to live more intentionally, sustainably, and independently.

Why Choose Homesteading?

Why would anyone want to grow their own vegetables, cook from scratch, raise animals, make compost, or learn how to render tallow soap?

Homesteading can:

• Reconnect you with nature through gardening, foraging, and raising animals

• Reclaim “lost” skills like sewing, woodworking, soap making, and preserving food

• Slow the pace of life by working with natural rhythms and traditional processes

• Support healthier living with homegrown food and physical activity

• Reduce your carbon footprint through sustainability, recycling, and reuse

• Lower stress levels by working with your hands and experiencing the satisfaction of doing it yourself

Common Homesteading Skills

Homesteading skills can be learned gradually and adapted to any lifestyle. Some common areas include:

• Gardening: Growing food to supplement groceries; learning soil health, crop rotation, seasonal planting, and pest control

• Canning & Food Preservation: Freezing, canning, dehydrating, and pickling to enjoy food year-round

• Raising Livestock: Chickens, goats, rabbits, or bees for eggs, milk, meat, honey, and pollination

• Composting: Turning kitchen scraps and garden waste into nutrient-rich soil

• Home Cooking & Baking: Cooking from scratch using homegrown or locally sourced ingredients

• Basic Carpentry: Building raised beds, chicken coops, and garden structures

• Sewing & Mending: Making and repairing clothing and household items

• Herbal Medicine: Learning about medicinal herbs and natural remedies

• Renewable & Off-Grid Skills: Solar energy, rainwater harvesting, wood heat, and preparedness

Types of Homesteading

Rural Homesteading

• Larger acreage

• Gardens, orchards, hunting land

• Livestock raised on a larger scale

• Greater opportunity for off-grid living and renewable energy

Suburban Homesteading

• Smaller plots of land

• Intensive gardening and composting

• Backyard chickens (where allowed)

Urban Homesteading

• Rooftop or balcony gardens

• Vertical gardening and container growing

• Herbs grown on windowsills

Suburban & Urban Homesteading Ideas

Homesteading in town often starts with a mindset shift—from convenience to intention.

Simple ways to begin:

• Cook meals from scratch instead of eating out

• DIY home décor and gifts

• Thrift, mend, or repurpose clothing

• Grow food in containers, raised beds, or vertical systems

• Plant dwarf fruit trees or edible landscaping

• Grow herbs on a windowsill

Food & Waste Reduction:

• Start composting with a tumbler or worm bin

• Capture rainwater for garden use

• Preserve food by freezing, canning, or dehydrating

• Buy in bulk and repackage or preserve at home

Raising Chickens (if allowed):

• Fresh eggs

• Reduce food waste with table scraps

• Natural fertilizer for compost

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle:

• Replace single-use plastics with beeswax wraps

• Fix broken items instead of replacing them

• Upcycle everyday items for new purposes

The key to adopting homesteading is simple: pick one thing. Choose something meaningful, interesting, and manageable—and grow from there.

Why Is Homesteading Trending?

While homesteading has always existed, interest surged during and after the COVID pandemic. Disruptions to food supply chains forced many people to rethink how dependent we are on outside systems.

At the same time, our fast-paced, high-stress culture has left many longing for a slower, more grounded way of life. Homesteading offers a path toward improved mental and physical health, greater self-reliance, and deep personal satisfaction.

Homesteading Is a Journey

Everyone’s homesteading journey looks different. Some are drawn to it to reconnect with nature, reduce chemicals in their home, improve their health, save money, or protect the environment for future generations.

Homesteading is not all-or-nothing. You don’t have to do everything. Start with one intentional choice, then build from there at your own pace.

My Homesteading Journey

I grew up in rural Iowa, where homesteading wasn’t a trend—it was simply life. My family didn’t have much, so we learned to make the most of what we had. Our food came from gardens, fruit trees in our orchard, and animals we raised ourselves.

Some of my earliest memories are hands-on lessons from my family. I cut and froze corn with my great-grandma. I made applesauce and baked alongside my mom. I learned to process deer with my dad. Sewing, canning, and cooking from scratch weren’t hobbies—they were necessities.

Those lessons stayed with me as I grew older and raised my own family. Gardening, canning, sewing, scratch cooking, and DIY projects have always been part of my life. As my children have grown and become more independent, I found myself leaning even more deeply into homesteading—filling that space with purpose and creativity.

That’s how Root & Table was born. It reflects my return to my roots, blending what I learned growing up with what I continue to learn today—intentional living, sustainability, and caring well for my family.