2017 Goals for our Mini Suburban Homestead!

I am a little late in posting our goals for this year, considering it's already mid-February, but with everything we have going on with the pregnancy and homeschool, I am giving myself grace! Our ultimate goal (5-10 years out) is to buy a house on at least 5 acres and begin raising more animals, have a larger garden, and become more self-sufficient.

But in the meantime, I have decided that I can do most things that true homesteaders do, just on a smaller scale.  Besides having a dairy cow.  I don't think the neighbors would like that very much! I do plan on getting a few more chicks in March so that once our current hens get older, we will not have to start from scratch with new layers.  As many eggs as we had last summer and fall, I may have to start selling the excess once the new chicks start laying!

Homesteading to me is more of a mindset than anything.  It is about knowing where your food came from and having that direct connection to the land.  It is about having less of a reliance on consumer goods and becoming more of a producer.  Let's face it, none of us will ever be fully self-sufficient without living a very meager lifestyle, but all of us can do something to reduce our dependence upon commercial America. 

So with that in mind, I have come up with a list of skills that I would like to master (or at least try!) before the year is out:

• Make vanilla and almond extracts (sooo expensive at the store-and I bake enough to make this one worth a try!).
• Experiment with making different flavors of yogurt. We love the vanilla, but I'm sure the kids would enjoy something different from time to time.
• Make homemade mayonnaise.
• Research ways to preserve fruits at their cheapest price (freezing, dehydrating, and/or canning). We go through a LOT of fruit and it gets expensive in the wintertime! 
• Find a great, non-crumbly sandwich bread recipe.
• Expand my bread making to include brioche, challah, and sourdough varieties.
• Expand my canning repertoire to include:
• Beef broth
• Chicken broth
• Beans (kidney, black, and white)
• Homemade spaghetti/pasta sauce (find recipe!)
• Chicken chunks
• Make soap.
• Make beeswax candles.
• Make homemade pasta.
• Make homemade cheese (start with mozzarella).
• Find great from scratch biscuit recipe and freeze them for quick breakfasts.

I would like to come back and update each of these bullets when I accomplish one of the tasks, just to keep myself on track.  For example, I made challah bread this afternoon for our French toast dinner! It was easier than I thought and the braided loaves look very fancy!

 

 The braided loaves before their last rise.

After baking.

Next time I will let them bake for about 5 minutes less and they should be perfect!