It's so simple that it's easy to overlook. Homesteading is hands on learning. It is okay to not know where to start and no you don't have to grow sourdough starter on your counter with them, although that is an amazing and fun project to do with them.
Let's start with what even is homesteading and why is it trending right now?
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.
But why the growing popularity? It's really simple. People started noticing that our bodies are malnourished by foods from the store. Many store products contain chemicals and dyes that are harmful to your body. People wanted to start feeding their body whole foods and less processed items to in general feel better throughout the day. Connecting with humans again over something so simple and human nature.
Children are only so little for so long - lets show them responsibility, persistence, empathy, determination, to be fearless, human kindness and most importantly love.
Homesteading can start as simple as planting a kitchen herb garden. Fresh herbs to cook with not only tastes better but also offers more nutrients to your body. It is a cheap and easy way to get the children involved and be hands on with them. It can be as simple as planting herbs in solo cups and having them grow on a shelf or as elaborate as a potted hanging herb garden.
Chicken Fodder
Chicken fodder is sprouted seeds.
What Grains Can You Use to Grow Chicken Fodder?
When growing fodder for chickens, there are a few different grains you can use for sprouting. You can use just one of these grains, or a mixture of them, for your chicken fodder. Grains you can use for fodder include Wheat, Oats, Barley, Rye.
Steps to Growing Chicken Fodder
What you’ll need to grow fodder:
Shallow container (I like to use glass so the children can see it sprout)
Grains of choice (listed above)
Water (non-chlorinated)
STEP 1:
Soak your grains of choice in a food grade bucket or bowl overnight. This will jumpstart the process.
STEP 2:
Drain then add your soaked grains to a container or pan, no more than 2 inches thick. I like to add just a thin layer until I can’t see the bottom of the pan any longer.
STEP 3:
Keep the grains moist, but not soaking wet, until they begin to sprout. You can do this by using a spray bottle with water, or by simply running the fodder under water each day and allowing it to drain fully. Make sure you’ve set them in a sunny place so they grow quicker.
STEP 4:
After 3-7 days, your fodder will be sprouting nicely, depending on the temperature in your home or where the fodder is located. Once the fodder reaches the desired length serve to your chickens.
Fodder can take a few tries to master, but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll begin putting together a constant rotational system that suits your needs.
Sourdough
I think this is the most famous one trending right now. Rightfully so - it is so much fun and you can make endless amounts of products with just the starter. This may seem so confusing as there is not black and white answers for this one. Yes, you can do it without the atheistic jars and without the fancy proof bowls and designs in the bread. I started my starter with a wide mouth glass mason jar, bread flour, water and a rubber spatula. Here is my starter recipe I followed which I got from The Birch Cottage.
The 1:1:1 Ratio
There appears to be many different methods for creating sourdough starters. But, don’t let that confuse you. What may seem like different methods are really just people using different ratios.
So, let’s take a look at the minimum feeding or the 1:1:1 ratio. What this means is that however much starter you keep by weight, you will want to feed your starter equal amounts of flour and water by weight.
For example, let’s pretend you have 25 grams of your starter that you have saved and want to continue feeding. For a 1:1:1 feeding ratio you would feed the 25 grams of starter with 25 grams of water and 25 grams of flour. Once you add the 25 grams of water and 25 grams of flour to the 25 grams of starter, you will now have 75 grams total starter after your feeding. Make sense?
Think of it as one part starter, one part water, plus one part flour (or 1:1:1). Just remember to keep all parts equal by weight. This is the ratio that I recommend for starting and feeding your starter until it is well established (after the 10–14-day initial time frame).
If you are interested in more ways to explore sourdough, please visit their website by clicking this link. Ratios for Feeding Sourdough Starter - The Birch Cottage
Planting A Garden
EEEEEEEKKK! This is my FAVROITE to do in the classroom. It shows children a full life cycle hands on. They plant the seed, watch them grow, watch them produce, gather the harvest then dispose the plants and clean the garden for fall. How beautiful. They wait all those months for a product they hoped and wished the plant would grow. (Talk about a lesson of patience at such a young age.)
Amazon is the BEST at putting raised garden beds on sale for around $30. It is relatively cheap to get a small garden going. If time is limited or space, a theme garden bed would work best. One of my favorites is the salsa garden bed.
Salsa Raised Garden Bed
Divide your raised bed garden into one-foot sections to make it easy to map out the growing area so you know where to plant everything in your salsa garden.
Beginning at the back of the bed:
Row 4: Tomatoes (3) along a trellis
Row 3: Peppers (4) in front of the tomatoes 1 per square foot
Row 2: Onions 9 per square foot
Row 2: Garlic
Row 1: Cilantro 9 per square foot
Homemade Dairy Products
In our colder weather states - this is something you can do all year long. Fresh butter or fresh whipped cream is just something easy but fun to do.
Our butter recipe involves no hand churning and is as simple as pour and walk away.
Butter
Recipe:
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt (optional)
Mix on high in a stand up mixer for around 10 minutes. Separate butter from butter milk. Rinse butter. Season how you like. Serve and enjoy!
You can enjoy your fresh butter on a nice fresh and warm sourdough loaf.
This is just the first of many more blog posts to come on how to be more hands on with homesteading with children at home and in the classroom. Subscribe to our website to see new activities, ideas and learn how to communicate best with your child.
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