This is the question my husband asked me recently.
“Why do you want to call this project a homestead? Why not a mini farm or a small holding?”
I thought about this question a lot.
It is indeed true that the term ‘homestead’ is not often, if ever, used in England. Yet, smallholding or farming simply does not embody the full vision and picture of all I am pursuing. I am pursuing more than a hobby or a passion; its something we have lost, a lifestyle we were originally intended that has been stolen and repackaged in a most ugly form.
Yet, as with most things, a term and a description must form to help people understand and ‘homesteading’, so far, is the closest I have seen.
Homeseading is a lifestyle, a mentality and at heart, a life fully and completely connected to the ‘HOME’.
Homesteading is characteritised by a degree of self sufficiency. Notice the word ‘degree’, as I doubt we could or should ever live completely independent from others. This is not what God has designed for mankind. We are built for community and in this we thrive! Yet, what helps our families and wider community is being creative and productive. No one was ever ‘helped’ by forever sitting in the house watching tv!
Homesteading includes, not only growing and raising food, but preserving. Learning almost forgotten skills of sewing and craft, that can produce saleworthy goods, out of the home, to sustain the families income. Modern equivalents could be using a skill or talent to forge an income or supplement your family income without being continually away from the home.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised that this whole picture is only really what God set out and intended for a homemaker in the first place!
‘She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard…She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.’ (Proverbs 31).
I reflected on the stripped down ragged version of homemaking we as women have been presented in this modern age. Easy meals, convenience and consumerism has disarmed, discouraged and disorientated the homemaker. She no longer needs to rise early to bake the families bread. She need not bake, sew, raise animals, garden or even cook, if she doesn’t want to. Society has provided a completely downgraded version of homemaking (on a paper plate!) No wonder is it neither attractive, nor satisfying to most strong, intelligent women. No wonder they feel drawn to use their talents outside the home!
My cousin once removed, is in her 80s and still chopping wood for her wood fired Aga. My other one, again in her late 70s, along with her husband, keep highland cattle and heat their homes with wood burners. There is a toughness and independence that is so attractive. But for these women, it is simply not extraordinary at all, they are just doing what they have always done.
I am not trying to be ‘old fashioned’, as i’ve often been accused of, but seeking to reclaim something we were always meant to have. We are creatures built for work, built for creativity and built, as homemakers, to find great satisfaction in providing through our home!
The end. For now…