Urban homesteading (or suburban homesteading, which is what I like to think I am dabbling in) is the new homesteading. There aren’t really any more frontiers in the U.S. available to us to go homestead and I would dissuade you from attempting to find any lest we not leave some mostly pristine & underpopulated areas of this country left at all.
Anyway, the bulk of us live in cities, and the aforementioned suburbs, but some among us long for putting dinner on the table by some of other means than a trip to the grocery store. That’s urban homesteading, which involves aspects of edible landscaping, foraging, community-based agriculture, recycling, using alternative energy, sustainable practices, food preservation, bartering, raising chickens and more. It’s about making the most of the space you have, sharing with others, getting creative and lots of DIY.
Cat Rocketship from Hipster Houswife has way more experience with this than I do (I just have a garden and don’t cut my grass). In fact, she wrote an article about it for issue #4 of Joiein which she shares some of her urban homesteading adventures.
A special thank you to Angela Traunig of Ferntree Studio for creating the amazing artwork to go along with Cat’s article.
