Thanks for the great post and showing people the bright side of being free(er)! Although not part of a full-fledged homestead, I myself enjoy many of the benefits including many fresh fruits and wines, and can definitely agree that nothing compares to home-grown anything!
I would like to define the philosophy behind Homesteading:
Homesteading is the art of producing value (not necessarily monetary) to a level which ensures self (and community) sufficiency.
I would challenge anyone, if you are not doing so already, to start to produce at least 1 thing for yourself that you use on a day to day basis. You can begin to do this regardless of where you live. Some great ideas to get started on are;
- Grow a herb garden
- Grow your own cannabis
- Brewing/fermenting/distilling
- Make your own soaps
- Produce even just 1 or 2 veggies you use on the reg. (I grow indoor tomatoes and jalapenos all year round!)
- Grow your own tobacco
- Grow any variety of mushrooms
Etc... start with something fun to you! Once you start to produce more than you need start gifting and trading to add value to your community. Don't forget you can be an urban homesteader as well!
One thing we have done is remove all unnecessary expenses from our lives as to reduce the amount of currency required to sustain our day-to-day lives, in turn requiring less time focused on earning money and leaving us more time to add value to our personal lives and community.
Great comment, a valuable contribution to the discussion. It all starts with little steps, and any of these things are a good step forward. Upon doing one or two of these, I suspect many people would start to experience some of the freedom associated with homesteading, and disintermediation.
I tried tobacco one time.. did not go well! There is a fair bit of knowledge to doing that properly, from what I gather.
I've done tobacco twice now. I haven't found it to be over challenging on the growing end. Drying and curing can be a challenge if you don't have a flue or a curing box. This last run I did a slow dry (about 10-14 days) in a high humidity (80-90%) situation. Worked great!