I Am Not a Homesteader

Why I don't claim to homestead and instead claim to be a land steward

If you snap a photo of me at any point in the year, you would see me on the land here at our home. Maybe it is tending to the chickens or gathering eggs. Sometimes, I am wrangling the dog from wandering too far or playing with the kids in the snow or tromping through the Pine Valley. Other times I am walking around with stakes to mark plants I want to protect or propagate. Many times, though, you can see me wandering the garden, tending to the intricacies and longing for it to slow down in all its beauty even in these in-between times. Some may say gardening is my hobby or that I have a natural green thumb or maybe it is because I am a Capricorn (earth sign). I am not certain of any of this, though.

The last few years, as I have dug into permaculture and started my design certificate, I have learned immense things about the way nature works. I have learned how to read the land and analyze the things it is telling us. I can tell you about where the water is moving, how the sun will come in your windows to heat it in the winter, or just how to amend your soil. I still, though, am a modern human who drives my kids to school every day and negotiates with them about what TV show is okay to watch. I still have all the modern amenities that are part of being a human in 2025, for better or worse.

Yet, when people see this life and the way I live out on this land, they label me as a homesteader. At first, I got lumped into those words when I was an influencer. On marketing proposals, brands would say I had a “homesteader perspective”. This always perplexed me, but I accepted it because my knowledge of the labels was less than it is now.

Then, I started thinking more about the term. Homesteading was a way of survival years ago when the amenities of the world were inexcessible to us. Communities were distant from us because there were no cars, and we couldn’t easily go to the farm market. and we had to survive off the land because the community was so far away. We couldn’t as easily work with our neighbors to solve issues or feed ourselves. Homesteading meant survival in the depths of the wilderness and undeveloped world.

In the modern world, though, homesteading has changed. I see it now as a label for a life of living self-sufficiently from the land and removing ourselves from the gifts of our greater community. Being a permaculturist, there is a vein of others in the field who identify this way, but the more I have learned about permaculture, the more I see that in fact, self-sufficiency is far from what permaculture is.

“We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it, we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it.”

Wendell Berry

Instead, permaculture is about a web of connections. It is about awareness, observation, gratitude, kindness, and caring for all beings fairly and respectfully. It is about seeing diversity as valuable and analyzing the best way to use skills and energy whether human or earth-provided. As one of my lovely instructors stated, “Permaculture is about love.” I couldn’t agree more. The ways I have learned to observe and listen to the land have taught me that nothing acts alone in nature. So why would we believe we should or need to as humans? What makes us any different?

Heading into this year, far from the life of influencing and more or less removed from the world of Instagram, I have shucked the idea of Homesteading from my vocabulary. In the state of the world, we need nothing more than to believe we have a sense of belonging and place in our communities. We must instead see we need 2 things as humans more than ever: The earth and our communities.

In one of my classes, we read a piece from David Holmgren (one of the originators of Permaculture who is still alive today), who made the analogy of the difference between building a model of self-sufficiency in the face of the real need to live off the land. He discussed that if we had a farm we were managing alone that held everything we needed, who would watch it at night while we slept? We would be tasked with that, the exhaustion and stress would take us before anything if we were caring for everything we needed alone. Yet, in a model of community sufficiency, we can share the load of the work. Maybe focus on a few key suppliers, and then if we lose them in the night, our neighbors will be there to cover for us whether we grow things together in a community model or just share the load.

In fact, in Amish communities, every January, the growers come together to decide who will grow what based on their individual strengths. No one competes, but they work together to share the load so there is never too much or too much weight on any one individual.

When I think of homesteading, I think of doing it alone. I think of the vision Instagram gives that you do your chicken chores in a perfectly pristine coops in a white dress. None of these things align with me. Instead in the last year, I have learned I am a steward of this land before anything else. This means I listen, pay attention, love this land as it is, and continually ask how might I work with what already offers me? How might this little spot I am responsible for do good in the greater world? Ultimately the joy of this will exude beyond the land itself and into the greater world. Everything I do and choose to grow or choose to tackle as a project is chosen to better this land around me because when my land is healthy and improving I myself will find the community support and offerings to share with others. My chickens are thriving and making eggs, these can be given to anyone who desires to come help me build a fence this spring who doesn’t have chickens. I can share in the labor soil movement and also divide plants to give to another farmer to use as protection and support to the habitat where they grow food. The act of tending to the land is one of the most beautiful and reciprocal ways of living as a human.

In a time when it feels the world sees only monetary value to land if it gives something to us, I believe it an act of protest to be a steward. I believe it is an act of activism to grow a garden with your neighbors rather than alone. I believe learning the nuances of your land, whether a little square behind your apartment or a favorite park or even a swath of acreage, is a dismissal of the larger consumerist world we have become accustomed to.

I know it is a privilege to have land. I never take it for granted. I love this land, and I love tending to it. I am teaching my kids the same. I am also showing them what it is steward land alongside community. How to grieve when things fail or a chicken gets taken, but also to see it is a lesson in this continued work we are all tasked with.

Every year, I find everything I put into the land is given back to me tenfold, and much of it never lands in my belly. Mostly I find it becomes stored in my soul, whether it be a place to gather with friends that provides haven or just a beautiful morning playing and painting with my children. I find it utterly imperative to not just steward and tend to this land but fight for accebitible of public land because of how I have learned from this land.

In many ways, though, I see it as a responsibility to not extricate everything I can financially from this land. Instead, I see the responsibility is to leave this place far better than I found it. The funny thing is is that by tending to it, it gives me more than I could ever use, where if I depleted it there would be nothing to continue to take. Knowing the history of its use by native Americans long before me, and then the logging and clearing that happened, to now residing here myself, I will spend what I believe will to be much of my life removing invasive plants and planting native and climate-adaptive ones instead. It is all an act of love. A love for earth. A love for self. Most of all, I hope for the future world I hope to see even if I never will.

All this to say, I am not anti the term homestead, but instead, I think it is an outdated term for what many of us who tend to our land are actually looking to do. I see the word hasn’t evolved. I do not see the value of self-sufficiency in this world anymore or removing ourselves from society (if you haven’t read The Great Alone as a cautionary tale). Instead, I believe we must practice land stewardship because that is based on the practice of tending and caring not just to land but the greater communal connection of people, earth, and a sense of place and belonging that is needed in this time of the world more than ever.

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Come join me this Sunday at 2 PM at Deyoung Natural Area, one of the many amazing properties part of the Leelanau Conservancy, for a hike in collaboration with the Northern Michigan Climate Families group and our LC Collective group.

Expect a fun scavenger hunt for all ages to find the first sights of spring along a shifting terrain on Cedar Lake.

At the end, we will enjoy snacks from Oryana and plenty of good company.

Come dressed for the weather. More info can be found here.

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There are still about 10 or so tickets left for this event, even in April. I love talking about gardens and helping gardeners of all skill levels and styles gain awareness about how to build such a beautiful and intentional space for themselves while working with nature.

If you want more information, you can check it out here.

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Image was found meandering Pinterest

On my mind this week

Just some things happening and that I am thinking of lately:

• Cooking:
  I find this time of year somewhat lacking in terms of local options, so I spread my wings a bit till the local goodies really start rolling in. I always incorporate as many local ingredients or things that are in season relatively to their region of origin. Most of all I really slow down on buying typical greens for salads and use a lot of other things to make salads for the week. If you know me, I have two loves in the food department: cabbage and fennel. So when I saw this recipe pop up, I knew I had to give it a go, and WOW, I think this will be a go-to for a while

• Our wild places, weather predictions (NOAA), and the EPA:
  I am beyond heart-stricken these days with the news. There are many things that fall along party lines that I am not sure about, but one of them I believe should never be negotiated with our finances in our country are the public and wild spaces we have protected and the agencies that protect and ensure that our water and air remain clean. These are natural rights we deserve as citizens who pay taxes. I will never be silent about this because without these protected spaces, we lose quality of life as humans, we lose food, we lose livelihoods, and we lose the web of nature that is barely holding together these days as it is. I beg of you all to take a bit of time to write your senators and reps at least once a week about how these things are being gutted. We shouldn’t have to do this, but because we are, we must not tire; we must continue. The Sierra Club is always an advocate for protection but get a call or letters/emails in now. There are bills coming and lawsuits brewing that will alter and protect these things.

• Thrifting and Local Purchasing as Revolution:
  In our home, we have dramatically been shifting where we put our money right now. If there is something we can do is we to vote with our dollars. One of these ways is by buying less new this year. As tariffs are threatened and large corporations are losing money, it is good to be conscious of where you spend right now. Whether it is a local thrift shop or something like Thredup, these places are great ways to support a healthier cycle of buying more than before. Also look to get a CSA, help a farmer (many have lost their funding and grants with the cuts to the NRCS). If I buy new, I am looking to buy directly from the company and am conscious of what and who they support. I find this ultimately is lighter on my pocket as the friction slows my spending and makes me question what I need.

• Passing Time:
  This year, both my kids have been in full-time school, and this summer, they both asked to be at camp every week. I feel in some way like a moment has shifted in life, and it is really clicking. I parented young kids during the hardest few years in the world (the pandemic). I had a newborn and a toddler. I couldn’t work because I had no outside help. I didn’t miss a moment with them, and when things shifted I was more than ready for space for myself. Now, in some way, I don’t long for more children, but I long to feel their littleness. I miss that especially because I wish I could experience now as a slower, calmer, and more present parent they way I am. Those years were exhausting on many levels, and many times I was distracted or just longing for personal space even though technically I was there. I realize that, in some way, the balance is never perfect, but it does make me realize how quickly it does go and how beautiful it is, too. It is just one of those thoughts that has flipped through my brain lately this week more than normal. Maybe it was my son being tall enough to sit in the front seat of the car, I am sure that triggered it. Especially because when he was born, he was just so tiny.

• Pruning:
  As we wait for the ground to be ready this is a lovely time to prune and even move plants while they are still dormant and shifting their energy. Don’t wait till it is too warm. Now is the time to get out there and get these tasks done before it is too late and it makes the plants suspetible to disease and so on.

• England:
  In just a few months I am taking a trip back to England to spend time visiting other gardens and experiencing the Chelsea Flower Show. It has been a dream to attend as most of my inspiration and research comes from England. Sure, colonialism is a challenge here, but the way things are shifting with research on permaculture, regeneration, and more in the English gardening world is not to also note. They are actively moving their direction and celebrating new styles of thinking in the landscaping realm in ways that aren’t common here in the US. The Wisley garden has the largest research center for plants and some of the most inspiring plant community concepts I have ever experienced. This is why I continue to go back and am a member of the RHS. I wish these things existed in the US. Not to mention the restaurants at the properties are superb and source food from their own gardens.

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