Is Country Life the New Viral Trend?
A new trend has emerged where people, especially millennials, are showcasing their backyard gardens, chickens, and even cows. They’re leaving city life behind for a simpler, sustainable lifestyle, growing their own food and raising animals.
This modern homesteading movement offers self-sufficiency and a refreshing return to old-fashioned values. It’s inspiring to see individuals take control of their lives, embracing a slower, more intentional way of living that promotes health, savings, and a deeper connection with nature.
Cost Savings
Practicing homesteading, growing crops, and raising livestock can potentially lead to spending less money on groceries for a household.
Producing your own fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat directly eliminates the need to purchase those items from retail vendors. You can save money on your groceries and eventually invest it in sustainable practices like solar power generation or rainwater harvesting.
These practices can help you take full financial control, and a lifestyle according to sustainability principles.
Turn Your Homestead Into a Moneymaker
By embracing this self-sufficient lifestyle, you get to break free from relying on large corporations for necessities that force you to shell out big bucks for basic necessities.
With each homegrown tomato or warm egg from your own hens, you’ll feel a great sense of freedom from the system. All those jars of preserved bounty from your gardens, homemade goods like jams and bread can turn into a nice little side hustle.
You can sell them at farmer’s markets, online, or through a homestead store to bring in extra income.
Healthy Food
Homegrown food is often fresher, more nutritious, and free from harmful chemicals found in processed or commercially grown products.
Homesteading allows you to grow organic vegetables and fruits and raise animals ethically, ensuring a healthier diet.
The control over food production allows for better quality, increased nutritional value, and reduced exposure to pesticides or additives. This self-grown food supports overall health and wellness.
Exercise and Physical Activity
Homesteading also provides opportunities for ample body movement through daily tasks like gardening, caring for animals, and building projects.
These activities require physical effort and eventually improve strength, stamina, and overall fitness without needing a gym.
Regular physical labor also helps maintain flexibility and balance, promoting a healthier lifestyle. When Homesteading, physical activity becomes an essential part of one’s life, improving their physical and mental well-being.
Mind Detox
Spending time outdoors and working with nature can have a calming and stress-reducing effect on our minds.
Homesteading encourages connection with the earth through gardening, tending animals, or simply enjoying the outdoors.
This natural rhythm helps reduce the stress of modern life, offering a peaceful escape from the daily pressures of work and technology.
Sustainability
This permaculture lifestyle promotes sustainability by encouraging practices that conserve resources, reduce waste, and support local ecosystems.
Growing your food, using renewable energy sources like solar panels, and reducing reliance on packaging will reduce waste.
While adopting composting, rainwater collection, and recycling to reduce their carbon footprint, contributing to a more sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle aligned with environmental values.
Carbon Footprint Reduction
By growing food and producing goods locally, homesteaders can also reduce the need for transportation, lowering their carbon footprint.
Avoiding processed foods and mass-produced products means fewer emissions related to manufacturing and shipping.
Homesteading promotes low-impact living through practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions for a more eco-conscious lifestyle.
Self-Sufficiency
Country living can also make us self-reliant by growing food, raising animals, and producing necessary goods like soap or clothing.
It reduces dependency on external suppliers and infrastructure, having greater control over daily necessities.
Self-sufficiency provides security and resilience against supply chain disruptions, economic downturns, or environmental changes. Homesteading is a lifestyle of independence, prioritizing resourcefulness and self-reliance.
Community Building
Whether you’re swapping gardening secrets at the farmer’s market, geeking out over chicken coops in an online forum, or breaking bread with your local homesteading guild, you instantly feel like you’ve found your tribe.
Homesteading can create strong bonds within communities, fostering connections with like-minded individuals who share similar values.
Building a community of support helps homesteaders exchange tips, tools, and resources, enhancing both social connections and the overall success of their homestead endeavors.
Quality of Life
Many homesteaders find that the lifestyle offers a more fulfilling and meaningful way of living. It allows for a deeper connection with nature, personal growth through learning new skills, and the satisfaction of providing for oneself.
This simple, purposeful lifestyle often leads to increased happiness, contentment, and a slower pace of life, all of which contribute to a higher quality of life.
Skill Development
Homesteading teaches valuable life skills such as gardening, animal care, food preservation, and renewable energy management.
These skills promote self-sufficiency and create a deeper appreciation for natural resources and ecosystems. Homesteaders gain practical knowledge that not only supports their own needs but also provides a sense of accomplishment and personal growth.
Creative Problem Solving
Homesteading challenges individuals to think creatively and solve problems regularly. For example, a homesteader might need to design a water irrigation system using only reclaimed materials or figure out how to extend the growing season with a DIY greenhouse.
Whether it’s finding efficient ways to grow crops or building structures, these problem-solving tasks build resilience and encourage innovation in day-to-day living.
Legacy
There’s something incredibly special about the legacy you get to craft as a homesteader. It goes far beyond just accumulating stuff to pass down.
Just imagine looking out over your flourishing gardens, lovingly tended by your own calloused hands, and having the profound realization – “I’m growing the seeds of the future here.”
With each radish plucked, chicken tended, or jar of preserves canned, you’re ensuring your kids and grandkids inherit the skills of self-reliance and environmental stewardship.
Connection with Tradition
Homesteading provides a deep connection to historical and cultural traditions of self-reliance and living off the land. Many homesteaders feel a sense of continuity with past generations who lived in a similar way out of necessity.
This lifestyle revives old-world skills such as canning, animal husbandry, and preserving food, allowing individuals to carry on traditions that have been passed down for centuries.
Escape from the Modern World
Homesteading offers a way to disconnect from the fast-paced, tech-driven modern world and enjoy a simpler, more peaceful existence.
For many, it provides an escape from the constant noise, stress, and demands of urban life. Living in tune with nature, growing food, and caring for animals can provide a sense of peace and tranquility, offering a rewarding break from the pressures of modern society.
Read More: How To Tell If Your Food Was Raised Inhumanely — And What To Do About It