Starting to grow nutrient food for your family let alone building a homestead in the process can feel overwhelming. I know that is how I felt at the beginning. There are just so many things to learn and paths to follow. Do I raise dairy goats or Do I jump into learning how to make my own bread? With all of these options and overwhelming options to boot, How do you break through all of the decision fatigue and find a path to abundance on your budding homestead?
Today in the episode, I want to take you on a little journey into the past and show you how with a little guidance and strategy you can build a homestead from scratch while kicking that overwhelm in the tushy. Let’s get growing.
Hello fellow growers, and welcome to the Pray, Just Plant Podcast where I, your host and fellow grower help you grow nutrient-dense food for your family while deepening your connection to nature and God.
Today, I thought I would take you down memory lane and share with you how I got started homesteading, a few struggles I had that ended up being my path to success. And even how the Lord stepped in and showed me I could do more.
Now don’t worry this is not just going to be a story all about me and Red Ridge Farm but also a story of showing you that when you find your purpose, you find your path to abundance. I am going to even share 6 steps or stages that you as a budding homesteader should follow so that you can break through the overwhelm of decision fatigue when it comes to asking what to do next.
Let me be real with you, there was a time when I was convinced that the only way my homestead would thrive was if I worked harder and learned everything. That my homestead just depends solely on my shoulders. And that I need to just buck it up and do more and grow more so that my family could have the best. This was the only way!
But the truth was that this attitude actually almost resulted in me completely quitting. I almost stopped doing the one thing I loved, and the path that God led me down to provide more for my family.
First of all I fell for the homesteading mantra of self sufficiency. That as homesteaders I need to do it all on my own. I had to grow everything for my family on my own. Which as you know if you've been a listener for a while that is not how we define self sufficiency here at Red Ridge Farm any more.
My second mistake was that I felt I had to know and do everything now. I needed the huge garden, the dairy, the chickens, the orchard all before I could see myself as a homesteader. It didn’t matter that I was already growing a preserving 75% of all my family consumed in a year. It didn’t matter that I had learned to preserve my harvest in so many ways. In my mind, I was still purchasing from the grocery store so guess what I was not a homesteader yet.
Do you feel that way too? Do you feel like everything rests on your shoulders and because you don’t grow all your own food you are not a successful homesteader?
Well then you fell for the myths of homesteading just like me.
One thing that I wished that I had when I first started was a mentor. Someone that could tell me that I was getting my panties in a wad for nothing and that homesteading was a journey. A journey that takes time, failures, success and above all that I needed Jesus on this journey too.
I didn’t need to do it all right away, that I could start small and build my abundance over time.
The journey of homesteading was about slow and continual growth. That is completely different from what the world tries to tell us isn’t it?
Put that is how the earth, nature, and God works. Slow and Steady!
It might have taken me a few years to come to these conclusions but I did find a few things that guided me over the years. The first being God of course but the others were Permaculture and Market Gardening.
Those two things may seem counterintuitive. But let me show my thinking behind each.
First you might be surprised but both of these practices lead me to more abundance. Even though both are different their main goals are to help you grow more in as little space or time.
Market Gardening is gardening, yes, but it is also about creating processes and procedures, growing more in limited space, and creating a garden plan that looks at the end result and not just the beginning. So many times growers focus on the planting of the garden and nothing else. As beginners we think that planting is all I need to worry about. But the years of struggle of trying to grow more and more. I learned that it wasn’t the size of my garden but the strategic time I spent with what I already had. I fell for the other gardeners' mantra: the bigger area the more I could grow. This led to burnout and overwhelm on my part but also a feeling of discontent in my growing journey. (By the way, here at Red Ridge Farm I call the journey all growers take to growing food for their family a growing journey. You have one too.)
But the market gardening philosophy showed me that I need to be more efficient and strategic with what the Lord had already given me. I just needed to make a garden plan that included more than a simple drawing to one with goals, schedules, and procedure so I could grow more for my family without being overwhelmed by it all.
Maybe this is how you feel too. If so then I can’t wait for you to learn more about the path to success that I developed after I learned all of this and more.
Permaculture also played an integral part of my growing journey. Don’t ask me why I did add this earlier. I mean, I always want to grow as God intended, but maybe like you I felt that permaculture was too much to undergo on my little homestead. Wow, was I wrong! It was the recipe that guided Red Ridge Farm into what it is today. I found that permaculture can seem overwhelming and difficult from the outside but when you dive in, especially the way I teach you, it can be very simple. Permaculture is all about growing as God intended but what some miss is that it is about developing a culture of abundance too. It teaches growers how to not only grow more but create a community. All can’t be provided by the earth, we need others in our journey to provide different pieces, items, and even knowledge. Which to put it bluntly throws the world's view of self sufficiency under the bus. Would you agree?
These two added principles, practices, or ideas turned my view of my homestead on its head. Growing food for our family is not all about us but others too. It does not rest all on my shoulders but on the people and knowledge we allow into our lives.
I do believe these are the reasons God told me he wanted me to do more. He wants me to be the mentor to others that I wished I had found in the beginning. He wants me to teach and show others the path to success that takes the overwhelm out of growing and what to do next no matter how far along they are on their growing journey.
What started in 2020, of me sharing life here at Red Ridge Farm with others on Facebook, has led to so much more. First the Homesteaders Hands Blog that you are reading now, to the Pray, Just Plant Podcast that you may be listening to right now. To books, planners, and courses developed to help others grow and to the Purposeful Growing Journey developed to guide all growers to abundance. You can learn more about my books and planners on my website. But today I want to show how you can take the 6 steps or stages, the Purposeful Growing Journey, that you as a budding homesteader should follow so that you can break through the overwhelm of decision fatigue when it comes to asking what to do next, as I promised at the beginning of this episode.
The Purposeful Growing Journey is the step by step guide to starting, growing, and creating abundance on your path to a thriving homestead where you grow nutrient-dense food for your family.
Your homestead is just as unique as you are and every piece of growing advice is right for you. You need a step by step strategy that is relevant to you right where you are in your path to success.
That is why I created the Purposeful Growing Journey so you can access an actionable plan with benchmarks so you can have clarity at every stage.
Let’s dive into each stage together.
#1) Just Grow Stage
You are unique. Your home and family are unique. So the very first step is to define you! Get all of your thoughts, plans, and even concerns out on paper.
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You are in the Just Grow Stage when you:
You are deciding if the growing or purposeful life is for you and your family
You are finding your purpose no matter if you are just starting or have been growing for years
You want to start growing but are not sure where to begin
You have not defined your why
You crave clarity on your path
#2) Purposeful Kitchen
The next stage is the next circle out from you and that is the very heart of your home, the Kitchen. What is so amazing about this stage is that you can start growing in this stage at any time because you already have a kitchen and the skill you develop here will help you provide your family with the very essentials of life, food. You don’t need a garden or a homestead to start growing here because this stage is all about learning the skills you will need so that when you do have a garden or homestead, you are ready. The skill in our kitchen is the foundation that the whole purposeful life is built on and caring for our family’s needs should always come first.
Growing in this stage simply starts with what you are already doing, eating healthy food, cooking for your family, and purchasing the best food.
You are in the Purposeful Kitchen stage when:
You want to give this growing journey a try and want to start growing now
You don’t eat or shop with the seasons
You want to learn how to create a meal plan for your family
You want to learn how to preserve produce
You want to learn to cook from scratch
#3) Purposeful Home
The next stage is the Purposeful Home stage. As growers, it is easy to jump over this stage because we just want to start growing our food and get outdoors. But you have to remember the home is where you create an environment of purpose.
A question I get asked a lot, is “How do you get it all done? How do you grow your own food and still have time for worship? Or How do you work all day in the garden and still have joy when you are cooking dinner?
Well, the answer is that I work hard to be a homemaker first.
You know you are in the Purposeful Homemaker stage when:
You want to bring purpose beyond your kitchen and into your everyday life
You are asking how do I get everything done
Clean my home
Grow everyday
Cook from Scratch
Preserve my own Food
#4) Purposeful Garden
In the Purposeful Garden stage you are going to begin doing just that growing a garden or if you have been growing for years you are going to be developing a system to help you get everything in your garden done not just growing food. Growing a garden is all about taking care of your soil. Your soil is a living and full of microorganisms that break down nutrients for your plants. You may call yourself a gardener but what you truly are is a steward of the soil.
You also need to develop a garden plan that goes beyond planting the seed to one that includes everything that needs done. A simple drawing is not going to remind you to fertilize, harvest, weed, water, transplant, and so on. You are going to need something more. I personally make a plan modeled after a market gardener.
You are in the Purposeful Garden stage when:
You desire to not only eat healthy but to grow your own produce
You want to provide homegrown produce for your family
You are unsure how you are going to add even more to your already full plate
#5 Purposeful Homestead
Time for animals to join the mix or if you already have animals now it is time to develop a homestead of abundance using permaculture. Having a homestead is one thing but your true goal should be to create a homestead that is sustainable, full circle, and essentially feeds itself. Permaculture has about 15 principles that help you use God’s connections in nature to create abundance. One example is that when you add animals you will have two unique byproducts, protein or product the animals produce and it poop! You will probably be consuming the product but the poop and litter can be developed into compost to feed your garden.
You are in the Purposeful Homestead stage when:
You want to add animals
You want to develop a homestead built on Permaculture
You are ready to purchase land or develop beyond a garden
#6) Purposeful Life
This could be looked at as the final stage but I don’t think it is because it is more of combining all of the other stages and creating more. So like in your garden you will start adding perennials, like strawberries and blueberries or you want to start an orchard. With the homestead instead of just growing purchased animals for meat you decide to grow your own or start a mini dairy.
This stage is where you are going to expand the skill you learned in the other stage and fill out every part of your life with purpose. And maybe you have asked the question, “Could I make money from my garden or my homestead”. This stage is full of abundance and more!
You are in the Purposeful Life stage when:
You are ready to scale what you are already doing
You want to make purpose your lifestyle and create a business
You are ready to learn more skills so that you can create independence
On To You
There you have it, the full six stages of the Purposeful Growing Journey. Growing is a journey that moves forward slow and steady, essentially with purpose, see how the name ties in now.
I can’t wait for you to kick overwhelm in the tushy and get your budding homestead off to the road of abundance.
Did you Dive into the Purposeful Growing Journey yet?
No, then what are you waiting for?
I will see you inside!
And remember,
Don’t let the world hold you back,
Pray, Just Plant
Until next time,
Crystal
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