What We Actually Grow, Raise, and Make on Our Homestead

If you’ve spent much time online, you’ve probably noticed that every homestead looks a little different.

Some families focus on raising livestock.

Others grow enormous gardens.

Some produce nearly all of their own food, while others simply enjoy keeping a few chickens in the backyard.

That’s one of the things I love most about homesteading.

There isn’t one “right” way to do it.

You might be homesteading on 1/4 acre of land, or you might be homesteading on a few hundred acres. Neither is wrong. Both is homesteading.

Your homestead should reflect your family’s needs, interests, and the life you’re trying to build.

Today I thought it would be fun to take you behind the scenes and share what we actually grow, raise, and make here at Quiet Life Farm.

Not because I think everyone should do the same, but because I always enjoy seeing how other families make their homesteads work for them.

We Grow Veggies

Our vegetable garden changes a little from year to year, but there are a few crops that almost always earn a place.

I always plant tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, radishes (specifically malaga radishes, I can’t get enough of that variety!), Swiss chard, and corn.

The asparagus comes back on its own every year.

I also always incorporate lots of flowers. Every year, my goal is to plant more flowers. They add so much beauty, and a pretty garden is a garden you’ll want to spend lots of time in.

But then sometimes things vary.

Some years, I’ve planted so many cucumber plants that I have enough pickles canned for the next few years. So I won’t plant cucumbers in bulk the next year, just a couple plants for fresh eating.

Some years, I’ll plant sweet corn. Other years, I might want to try popcorn. (and you can never plant both at the same time, or all your corn will be weird)

Some years certain crops thrive.

Other years they teach us patience.

Gardening has a way of keeping us humble.

We don’t grow everything we eat, and that’s perfectly okay.

The garden isn’t about producing every bite of food our family consumes.

It’s about growing what makes sense for us while enjoying the process along the way.

We Grow Fruit

We have a small orchard of peaches and apples, and a good sized berry garden of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries.

I’m very happy with our blueberries in particular. They can be challenging to grow, and while we completely failed to every successfully grow them on our suburban homestead, they have done so well where we currently are.

The blueberries in particular were planted in lots and lots of peat moss, and all our berries are heavily mulched in wood chips.

I really think the wood chips are the key to productively growing fruit.

Although, this is an area of our homestead I want to expand on even more, because all spring and summer (and fall, if the raspberries keep on going) the children eat all the fruit just as fast as it ripens.

We Raise Meat

We didn’t start this all at once, because it’s such a learning curve.

But we raise chickens, beef, and pork on our homestead.

Currently, we have a feeder pig we’re raising, and we breed kune kune pigs.

Our steer is in the freezer. We’ll wait for our cows to birth in the coming months to see if we’ll have another steer or two to raise soon enough.

But in between, we’ll buy our meat from a local butcher.

We simply do not have the space to raise enough food for our large family year round, and that’s okay. Maybe someday. Being completely sufficient in this area of our homestead is my husband’s personal goal for the future.

We Raise Sheep

Our sheep are one of the most special parts of our homestead.

Yes, they provide beautiful wool.

But they’ve also changed the way I think about clothing and handmade things.

There’s something incredible about watching a sheep born here on our farm grow its fleece through the seasons, then spinning that wool into yarn and eventually knitting it into something our family can use.

It connects every step of the process in a way that buying yarn from a store never could.

Every skein carries a story.

The sheep really are special to me here.

We raise Jersey Cows

We currently have two milk cows.

Their names are Gladys and Sybil. (that’s Gladys in the picture above)

They’re super sweet girls. Very friendly, and will lick your hand clean off if you let them.

We raised them from bottle babies, because that’s how we could get the best price on them. Jersey cows tend to be very expensive where we live. Maybe they’re just expensive everywhere, I don’t really know.

But purchasing them as bottle babies not only gave us a financial break, but it made it possible for us to be able to bond with them from birth and as a result have some of the friendliest cows.

We Raise Goats

Our goats were the first animals we brought home to our homestead.

I cried heavy tears when our very first goat we brought home finally passed from old age.

Goats have curious personalities, endless opinions, and an impressive ability to investigate anything we’d rather they leave alone.

They’ve certainly taught us plenty over the years.

More than anything, though, they’ve reminded us that every animal has its own personality.

No two goats are exactly alike.

And they’re incredibly friendly to our children, too. They make such wonderful pets. I honestly can’t imagine a homestead without goats.

We Care for Chickens, Ducks, and Geese

Fresh eggs are one of the everyday joys of keeping chickens and ducks.

Collecting eggs has become such a normal part of life that it’s easy to forget how special it really is.

It’s always one of the first chores on the homestead for the toddler. They break some eggs along the way, but it teaches them how to be gentle and careful and responsible. Plus, there’s nothing like seeing the excitement on their little faces when they get to go on their daily Easter Egg Hunt.

Our chickens also contribute in countless little ways around the homestead.

They are excellent tick control. I’m incredibly thankful that we rarely see ticks on our homestead, and our neighbors cannot say the same thing, so I have to think that the chickens are somewhat involved in that. (many of them have chickens, too, but theirs are in coops while we let ours free range the yard)

We also raise ducks, purely because they make me happy.

I feel so much at peace when I hear them quack. I know that sounds silly, but there’s just something about ducks. They have such sweet personalities and have the cutest waddle.

We certainly eat the duck eggs, but the ducks are mainly for joy.

Lastly, we raise geese.

They’re not friendly, but that’s kind of the point. They are our “guard geese” and have totally eliminated our once very prevalent predator issue.

We Bake From Scratch and Cook Our Meals

We cook all our meals.

I do keep some store bought tomato soup on hand, but we really don’t buy frozen/prepackaged food besides that. In a pinch, it’s just so easy to throw together some instant pot chili or fry up some frozen ground beef to make taco bowls. I don’t find that prepackaged meals really save me any time.

I also do most of our baking. I love my grain mill, and think it’s important to use freshly ground flour. That being said, I absolutely buy “convenience breads” too. Sometimes I buy store bought crackers. Sometimes I buy store bought bread or bagels when we’re in a pinch and I want to make some quick sandwiches. But for the most part, we bake bread.

Sometimes I make 4 loaves at once. Two loaves stay in the house. The other two are wrapped up and stuck into the freezer so we have “convenience bread.”

We Create by Hand

If you’ve followed Quiet Life Farm for very long, you already know that creating things by hand is a huge part of our lives.

I spend much of my time designing sewing patterns and knitting patterns inspired by childhood, imagination, and simple play.

All of those toys begin right here at the homestead.

Our children play with them, test them, and inspire new ideas long before they ever appear in the shop or on the blog.

Creating isn’t just my work, it’s part of our family culture.

Spinning and Knitting

Knitting has become even more meaningful since raising our own fiber animals.

Knowing where the yarn came from changes the experience completely.

A shawl is no longer simply a finished object.

It’s the result of months — years, really — of care.

Every stitch reminds me of the sheep or goat who grew the fiber and the many steps it took to transform it into yarn.

We Make Soap

But only once a year.

I’ve perfected my soap recipe to where I can very cheaply make a year’s supply of soap in about an hour’s time.

We Can, Freeze, and Dehydrate

When we have a surplus of food from either our garden or someone who has gifted it to us from theirs, we don’t want it to go to waste.

We can, freeze, or dehydrate it.

How we preserve it is completely based off of how much time I have, and how I want to eat it.

Green beans and peppers are usually just frozen.

Sometimes we dehydrate our onions (stinky, but great in soups!)

Cucumbers are always turned into relish or pickles. We can’t get enough of eating it!

I honestly don’t do too much canning or dehydrating (at least not as much as I’d like to) because we don’t live in a large house and we don’t have a root cellar or basement. There just isn’t much space to put up food, and we have to leave space in the freezer for meat.

But we can what we can.

We Make a Home

If I had to choose the most important thing we make here, it wouldn’t be bread.

Or toys.

Or knitted shawls.

It would be a home.

A place where our children can learn practical skills.

A place where family dinners matter.

A place where handmade gifts are treasured.

A place where creating is simply part of everyday life.

That’s the real purpose behind everything else we do.

The garden.

The animals.

The sewing.

The baking.

They’re all tools helping us build the kind of life we want to live together.

A homestead is about HOME.

What We Don’t Do

Sometimes people assume that homesteading means doing everything yourself.

It doesn’t.

We still visit the grocery store.

We still buy supplies.

We still have projects we haven’t learned yet.

And that’s okay.

Homesteading isn’t about becoming completely self-sufficient.

For us, it’s about becoming a little more capable every year.

Progress matters far more than perfection.

Final Thoughts

Our homestead probably doesn’t look exactly like yours.

And yours won’t look exactly like ours.

But my homestead looks like our home, and your homestead looks like your home.

And honestly, when I started writing out this blog post, I thought I was going to write about how we don’t do that many things, because I didn’t think we did. But writing it all out, I realize it probably sounds like we do a lot. But it really doesn’t feel like we do that much, and I think it’s because it’s all spaced out so much over the year. Soapmaking is one hour out of my year. Canning is just for a season. Butchering is one hard day.

Whether you’re growing herbs on a balcony, keeping a small backyard flock, tending a large garden, or dreaming about owning a few sheep someday, you’re building something meaningful.

You’re learning skills, and making memories.

You’re becoming more connected to the things you use every day.

Looking around our homestead today, I don’t just see vegetables, animals, or handmade projects.

I see years of learning, years of mistakes, and years of work. (and there was so much more work in the very beginning setting everything up!)

And I wouldn’t trade that journey for anything.

After all, the things we grow, raise, and make are wonderful.

But the life we’re building together has always been the greatest harvest.