We are not even going to tap into the fact that the world is imploding right now, even though I really want to. We are solely going to focus on how to reclaim lost skills before it’s too late. What skills you ask? Skills that will save your ass because the world, my friend, is freaking imploding right now!!!
But listen, we are not freaking out. Why are we not freaking out? Because we are going to reclaim some lost skills that will give you the confidence to do this thing and THRIVE.
Homesteading is really all about learning skills that build capability. Skills that allow you to detach from being dependent when you don’t have to be. It is hard to get started when you have no idea where to start. And if you just woke up to what has been going on in the world and have decided you need to learn how to homestead NOW, you are going to straight up fail. Not just fail, but run yourself into a wall over and over again type of fail. Homesteading is not easy.
But what is easy, is learning skill by skill that builds upon one another and allows you to gain the confidence you need to give a big fat middle finger to….well, we don’t need to be specific here now do we!
What skills need to be reclaimed?
Lots!
For the sake of your sanity though, we are going to reclaim these 5 skills. Here we go:
Lost Skill- Growing Your Own Food:
I know, I know, I started with an incredibly difficult skill. But listen, this is the main skill y’all. This is the skill that is going to allow you to provide for your family when shelves are empty and no one is willing to help you. Learning how to grow your own food seems way more intimidating than it is. And it doesn’t mean you need land to do it either.
Start with the five most basic foods you eat. One of the biggest mistakes when starting a garden is growing foods you don’t even eat. Don’t just buy seeds at the store of foods you never even heard of because of a “just in case moment.” I have to say, when shit hits the fan you are not going to want to be eating okra if you’ve never had okra before. Will you eat it…yep but will it add to the stress you are already under…also yep! So, stick to the basics.
Best things to start with are potatoes, lettuces, pole beans, cucumbers and tomatoes.
It is also good to think about protein sources when creating your plan within this skill set too. Chickens are an amazing place to start. They are a triple whammy type of livestock. Not only can you have them hang out in your backyard, they lay eggs AND they themselves can be dinner. Remember, the point is to provide for your family.
If chickens are a no go because of your living situation, totally get it. Been there, done that! Our next suggestion would be to get a pair of meat rabbits. If you are living in the city, rabbits don’t make noise and you have protein on the table within two months. Incredibly easy animals to take care of and super fast turn around when it comes to food.
Lost Skill- Make Your Family Some Bread:
Ugh, another hard skill! Again, I get it but hear me out. If all else fails, you can still fill your family’s bellies with some bread. This was one of the hardest skills for me to master and I had fermented a ton of stuff along my journey. For some reason this one just took a hold of me. So, believe me when I say I know this isn’t the easiest of skills to learn. But right behind growing your own food skill, I believe this one is the next most important skill to learn.
Everyone has their own variations to making bread. You will find this person saying how their recipe is the best, or that person saying their recipe is the easiest, or no knead this and overnight bread that. It’s all overwhelming. I got caught up in the perfection of things and didn’t allow myself the grace to embrace it.
I am going to give you a little snippet of our book, “15 Shockingly Simple Homesteading Skills To Learn This Weekend.” You can learn how to create your very own sourdough starter. We have had many people share their success with this recipe.
Here is my way of making bread successfully:
- Three days before making bread, feed your starter. 1 cup of flour, 3/4 cup of water. Continue feeding over the next two days. Now, here is the trick. Most people say feed your sourdough starter once a day and that is it. I found that not to be true. So, if you see your starter rise then fall and continue to fall flat, feed it again.
- The day before you make your bread be sure to feed your starter earlier in the day.
- That night you are going to take 2 cups of starter and pour it into a big bowl. Pour 1 1/2 cups of water over it and mix well. Add 2 teaspoons of salt into your starter water. Mix well. Add in 4 cups of flour into your bowl and mix until dough comes together. There is no kneading just simply mixing your flour and starter water together until you have a sticky ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight.
- In the morning your dough should look bubbly and it should have risen to the top of your plastic wrap. Flour a surface and pour dough out on top. Knead dough for about 5 minutes. Adding flour if needed to bind it together. **Don’t freak out if it is a gooey mess. Just keep adding flour as needed until it firms up.
Don’t feel overwhelmed…you got this…
- Place in a big clean bowl and allow to rise for an hour. When your timer goes off, place a dutch oven with the lid on in your oven and preheat to 450 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Spread your dough out on a floured surface again and knead for another 5 minutes. Shape your dough by folding under the sides of your dough and turning your hands in a clockwise motion. This will create a ball.
- Now, flour your proofing basket with flour and plop your balled dough inside with the seam side up. Cover with a light towel until your oven is ready.
- Take your dutch oven out of the oven and plop your bread inside. Take a scoring razor and make three slices nice and clean down your bread. Place the lid back on and bake for 25 minutes.
- After timer goes off, take the lid off your dutch oven and reduce heat to 425. Continue to bake with lid off for another 20 minutes.
- Next, plop your bread out of the dutch oven and place directly on oven rack for an additional 8 minutes.
That is it. You should have created a nice healthy size loaf of bread. Is this recipe perfect? Absolutely not. But will it make your family some bread to fill their bellies? Absolutely. You will find all sorts of people saying wait you need to do this, or I thought you had to do that. I am sure y’all are right.
Lost Skill- How to Preserve Food:
Again, a hard one. You know what…all these skills are hard but you know what…they are all necessary. So, just bare with me.
Preserving food is just as important as growing it if not more. Because once you have an abundance of food, what exactly are you going to do with it? You have to find a way to make it shelf stable so that it is available when you need it. The easiest place to start when it comes to preserving food is, water bath canning. This method allows you to start with a large pot and boiling water. You can make things like jam, pickles, tomato sauce.
All sorts of fun food that will make you want to go deeper into food preservation. There is nothing more amazing than pulling a jar of jam off your shelf or homemade pickles.
Fermenting foods is another incredibly easy way to dip your baby toe into the pool of food preservation. All you need is some veggies, salt and water. The words “food preservation” sound like you need to have years of skill behind you but in reality you just need to give it a try. Here is another snippet from our book for our recipe on sauerkraut. Give it a go and see how easy it really is.
Lost Skill- How to Make Cleaning Products:
This one was a huge win for us when we figured out our cleaning products. The amount of chemicals in each cleaning product off the shelf is absolutely absurd. But that is a whole other article for another day. Learning how to make your own products can be one of the most liberating feelings ever. Here are two easy ways to switch out your cleaning products.
Glass Cleaner:
Mix equal parts of white vinegar and filtered water in a spray bottle. Umm….that is is! If the smell of vinegar is gross to you…then move on my friend because the homesteading life is not for you!
Abrasive surface cleaner:
Mix equal parts borax, washing soda, and baking soda in a jar with a shaker lid. If you want to get fancy add some essential oils to it. Our favorite to use are lemon, a blend called purify, and peppermint. Sprinkle over the surface you want to scrub like a bath tub and see how easy that shit cleans!
We also have a multipurpose cleaner recipe in our book!
Lost Skill- How to Build a Fire Without Matches:
Learning how to build a fire was one of the first skills we focused on. What if we had no ability to get our hands on matches, what then? How will we provide heat for ourselves or even cook food? So, what we did was got ourselves a couple of flint starters. We sat there and practiced over and over until we felt confident around starting a fire in an emergency.
The best way to get you going is to get yourself a couple of flint starters like these (affiliate link) and take some dryer lint along with some small sticks and practice making yourself a little fire. Being prepared is better than being lost.
I hope you are ready to reclaim these 5 lost skills. It is time you got your ass going. We are headed towards a very different future. And if you are interested in expanding your skill set and you liked the snippets of our book we provided you, download now for FREE, “Stop Being Lazy! 15 Shockingly Simple Homesteading Skills To Start this Weekend.”
A brief outline of some of the things you’ll learn in this ebook;
-Essential Tools & Products
-Gardening
-Composting
-Making Chicken Stock
-Making Kombucha
-Canning Jam
-Making a Sourdough Starter
-Making Sauerkraut
-Making Cleaning Products
-Making Hygiene Products
-Making Deodorant
-Making Toothpaste
-Herbal Medicine
-AND MORE
We cannot stress enough the importance of building skills. Start your skill building journey TODAY!
Until next time,
Dig on our friend,
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