Hoffmann Homestead

Let’s start with the basics… What is a homesteader?

Definition: Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft work for household use or sale.

Yeah that pretty much covers it.

Really, it comes down to the self sufficiency. You don’t have to grow your own food, or if you do, you don’t have to be a canner. You don’t have to have land. You don’t have to have chickens.

Working toward self sufficiency. That is what makes a homesteader.

Hilariously, two or three generations ago, just about everyone was a “homesteader” because that’s how life worked. You grew food. Then, you preserved that food so you could have it over winter until the next growing season. You made your own dresses because fabric was easier and cheaper to come by than a new dress.

My husband and I didn’t grow up as homesteaders. In fact, I was a military brat for most of my childhood and my husband was a small town boy who preferred to play his xbox.

Our homesteading journey started with a garden in 2021, the year after we bought our first home. I was always interested in gardening. This was heightened during 2020 (as it was with most people), but I remember multiple times throughout my life leaning toward food seeds instead of flowers. I think I always craved the independence and the beauty in growing food from a tiny seed.

We started with a 600 square foot garden space made up of 9 8x4ft raised beds (and one odd sized bed in the back). This plot was an existing structure when we purchased our home and while the soil was pretty worn out, it made the perfect location for my new raised bed garden.

We found the beds on facebook marketplace for $110! We even had extra beds that we gifted to my brother. We had old trellilsing that came with the house that we used to grow cucumbers on and it was a MESS.

Then we did the dumbest thing we could and bought BAGGED MIRACLE GROW to fill the beds with… When I tell you the people at Menards looked at me like a crazy person when i picked up two and a half PALLETS of miracle grow… i mean it. Save money, buy by the yard.

Everything grew VERY well that year by the way.

This was a BEAUTIFUL garden. And it produced quite a bit! Then I went insane and decided to take this homesteading thing seriously. The spark that was ignited in 2021 lit my world on fire and I wanted to see it burn (in the best way).

Now, we have a raised bed garden made up of 29 raised beds ranging from 4x4ft beds to a long 4x54ft bed with majority of the beds being 4x20ft. This garden spans over 5400 sq ft and produced HUNDREDS of pounds of food last year. This garden now sits on an empty lot next to our home where a run-down, abandoned house used to stand.

I was not ready for this garden… even if I am grateful for it (and I totally am).

I knew that homesteading was for me so I dove in head first. Taking my all-too-willing husband along with me. Bless him.

Then I started canning in late 2021. My very first canning project was strawberry jam using store bought strawberries. I wanted to can as a means of preserving the food I grew, but I also liked the idea of controlling exactly what was going into my food. This was the point I started to understand the broken nature of our American food system. This was also the height of pandemic related food shortages.

Then, we got chickens. Not just a few either. We started with 6 and after successfully convincing my village board to increase the chicken limit to 12, we got 4 more.

All of this happened within 3 years. It certainly should not have happened that quickly.

2023 was the year we built the new garden and got our chickens. While I officially can’t change that (and really who am I kidding? I don’t want to) I now have to make some pretty significant lifestyle changes due to this massive garden and flock of 10 laying hens to take care of.

To include quitting my job and 10 year career by the way.

In the year 2023, we grew over 600 pounds of produce and began collecting over 30 eggs a week.

Now, we went head first pretty quickly and this is not necessarily something I would recommend. If you’re looking to homestead, I would HIGHLY recommend it! It’s hard work and it’s dirty, but it is REWARDING!

I’ve always had a desire for self sufficiency. There are circumstances in my life that I believe made those desires stronger, but it was always there. I’m very fortunate that I’ve found a partner that is willing to jump in head first to things that he sometimes doesn’t understand because he knows it makes me happy.

Don’t ever let that man fool you, though. He likes the chickens more than I do and they feel the same about him.

In all actuality, I think this is the way it should be. We are designed to be close to our food. I love capitalism as much as the next person, and I can’t imagine life without my phone or internet, but it’s not healthy to be so far away from the source if your food. The preservatives and processing necessary to make things fit for travel or storage aren’t healthy for human consumption. On top of it, some of the most beautiful varieties of fruits and vegetables aren’t grown or sold in stored because they don’t store or travel well and because of that, there are millions of people on this planet that don’t know the beauty they’re missing out on.

My very first purple carrot was a STUNNER. I couldn’t believe my eyes or my stained fingers.

Anywho, that’s our story! We’re still growing and we will be fore the rest of our lives, but we’re homesteaders now and forever and we honestly couldn’t enjoy life more. Just wait until I talk about my PANTRY!!!