How to Homestead Without Land
Is it possible to homestead without land? Absolutely! Being a homesteader isn’t about having a large plot of land, it’s about self sufficiency. Does it help to have a large piece of property? Maybe, but you can do a lot with any space you have. You can also use the time you have now in your current space to fine tune the skills you will need when you do have that piece of land.
I really can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t want to have a large farm. I grew up dreaming of front porch swings, and fields of cattle. Despite living in the suburbs, I was obsessed with the country lifestyle. When I was in the 6th grade, my mom signed me up for 4H, and my passion continued to grow. In a sense, I guess I’ve always a homesteader, I just didn’t know it yet.
My truly intentional homesteading journey started in my 900 sq ft. apartment in Southern California. Quarantine really reawakened the passions of my youth. I spent time consuming YouTube channels dedicated to gardening, raising livestock, and food storage. I’ve never let my current circumstances prevent me from doing anything, so I jumped in headfirst. I wanted land, I dreamed of land, but I didn’t have any, so I set out to homestead without land.
How to Start Homesteading Without Land
Start Cooking from Scratch
If you want to start a homestead without land, the best place to start is the kitchen. The skills you learn here will teach you how to work with fresh ingredients, and cuts of meat you may not be familiar with already. Do you dream of having a large vegetable garden? What will you do with all of that produce when it’s time to harvest? Landing a plethora of tomatoes might seem awesome until you actually have them.
If you’re not used to cooking entire meals from fresh ingredients or using unprocessed cuts of meat (i.e. whole chickens vs. breasts), then now is the time to start. I recommend finding a few recipes that look appealing and simple. Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be difficult. A family favorite dinner around our home is a whole chicken roasted atop of veggies and potatoes. It takes very little effort to prepare and tastes AMAZING!
If you’re looking for inspiration to get started cooking from scratch with simple recipes, I recommend The Prairie Homestead Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Heritage Cooking in Any Kitchen. Jill’s recipes are simple and delicious. The best part is that many of the recipes use the same ingredients, so if you end up having to purchase a jar of mustard powder, you’ll have multiple recipes to use it so nothing goes to waste!
Start Baking with Sourdough
If you want to homestead without land, baking with sourdough is the next logical step after learning how to cook from scratch. Sourdough is simply natural yeast harvested in your environment and stored in a starter which is a mixture of flour and water. Remember, homesteading is about self sufficiency, and what’s more self sufficient than harvesting your own yeast?
There are numerous health benefits from baking with sourdough as well. Sourdough baking calls for long proofing times which allows the dough to ferment. Not only do you get the added benefit of probiotics, your baked goods will also have a lower glycemic index. The glycemic index is reduced because the yeasts and bacteria in your starter feed off of the sugars in your baked goods. They release carbon dioxide which creates air pockets in the dough causing it to rise along with alcohols which can give your baked goods that sour flavor.
Note: Sourdough discard recipes do not have a long ferment time, and therefore do not have the same significant reduction in glycemic index. They also utilize another leavening agent such as baking powder or baker’s yeast and do not have a “sour” flavor.
If you’re just getting started with sourdough, you will need to have a starter. You can make one yourself, or get some of a friend’s starter. You can even purchase starter from numerous sources online. Once you have your starter, I would recommend some simple recipes like my Beginner’s Artisan Sourdough Loaf.
Learn Food Preservation Skills
The idea of growing a years worth of tomatoes may sound appealing when you’re in your dreamer phase, but what will you do with all of them when they actually are ready? If you dream of lining your pantry shelves with home canned tomato sauce, salsa, and the like, start now! You don’t need land to preserve food like you would on your homestead!
Start by purchasing a few 4 lb boxes of tomatoes at Costco, or better yet, a bulk order from a farmer at your local farmer’s market. You can start canning at home without a lot of equipment. All you need is a deep pot and mason jars! Note: You need to have canning safe recipes! Canning food with too high of a pH can allow botulism to grow in your food which can be deadly.
If you’re not ready to start canning, another great way to start homesteading without land is to learn to ferment foods! You may think that you hate sauerkraut, but have you ever tried making your own? This was me. I swore that I hated sauerkraut, but when I actually made my own, I started to really love it. Another great ferment for beginners is preserved lemons. They are an amazing ingredient that add a salty brightness to so many dishes!
Eat Seasonally
Eating seasonally is a homestead skill that is important to master. When you grow your own food, you won’t be harvesting strawberries in November. We live in a world where virtually all produce is available all year round, but that’s not reality. When you start planting your garden, you will quickly learn that some crops are ready in the spring, others in the summer or fall. Very few crops are hearty enough to have a winter harvest, and even those depend on your climate. In southern California, we could grow most things year round (as long as we had sunlight). That isn’t the case for most of the country.
How do you learn the homestead skill of eating seasonally before you have your plot of land? Shop at farmer’s markets! Not only will you be supporting small, local farmers, you will also have a closer connection to your food. You can ask questions about varieties that do well in your climate, or growing practices. The other benefit is that you will only have access to produce that is available seasonally.
Plant Your Garden
One of the things I still yearn for is a large garden full of vegetables. While we do own our property, we don’t live there yet, and are unable to invest the time and resources required to start our large garden. That hasn’t stopped me from growing what I can where I can. When embracing the idea of homesteading without land, it’s important to realize that while you won’t be able to do things to scale, you’re learning the skills required for when you do finally have your plot of land.
I started my garden on my apartment balcony and haven’t looked back. That small balcony had around 1 hour of sunlight in the summer, but I didn’t let that stop me. I purchased grow lights, and moved my potted plants around to chase the sun. We literally had a tomato plant that I would put in the front walkway of my apartment and move every few hours to chase the sunlight! I have a video on YouTube so you can see what I’m talking about.
All laughing aside, I didn’t allow myself to become discouraged or feel like a victim of my circumstances just because I didn’t have any land. I didn’t even have sunlight, and I was able to grow enough salad greens for a salad every week or so. I also learned a lot about gardening and what conditions are best for certain crops. If I could grow my own food on my little apartment patio, you can grow food where you are!
If you have ANY outdoor space, you can absolutely grow a beautiful garden. I’ve seen amazing production from patio gardens, and small backyards over the years. Some of my favorite YouTube channels for inspiration are Hey It’s a Good Life and Epic Gardening.
Raise Chickens
Raising chickens may not be an option for everyone, especially with certain city ordinances. As a kid my family was able to circumvent the HOA in our neighborhood and raise chickens because my brother and I raised them for our 4H project. Check our your city’s regulations, and you may be able to work around like we did! I even know a woman who raised chickens on the balcony of her apartment because she said the regulations stated she could have a “caged bird”.
All that being said, there may be options to raise chickens even when you think that door is closed. It’s important to be creative! It doesn’t hurt to pass some free eggs to your neighbors to keep them from complaining too. I will say that you won’t have so much flexibility if you raise roosters. Roosters are noisy all day long, not just as the sun comes up.
If your city ordinance allows for chickens, why not try your hand at a small batch of meat birds too? We butchered 6 roosters that my mom hatched out and raised for our first batch. She couldn’t keep them as they were becoming aggressive, but wasn’t too keen on the idea of dispatching and processing them herself. Here is an article where I walk through the things we learned processing this batch of roosters.
Raise Meat Rabbits
I haven’t tried to raise rabbits for meat myself, but I have met homesteaders who do. Steve and I even attended a Homesteaders of America conference where we watched rabbit processing. Personally, I have a difficult time with processing rabbits. I’m not quite there yet. I do believe it’s important to be an active participant in the dispatching of your own livestock whenever possible, because it goes hand in hand with the responsibility of raising them.
If you’re comfortable with the dispatching of the rabbit, then raising them for meat is a great option no matter where you live. Technically, I could’ve raised meat rabbits on my apartment patio, as there were no restrictions on owning and raising rabbits. If you have the desire to raise your own meat, then rabbits are a great option.
Start a Worm Farm
It’s never too early to lay a foundation for your future homestead, even if you don’t have land yet! A worm farm is something you can take with you when you move, and worm castings are literally the best fertilizer out there! You can start a worm farm ANYWHERE with a few plastic totes and food scraps. Here is a video of how to start a worm farm!
As I mentioned, you can take your worm farm with you when you do get your first bit of land, and the castings will be priceless for amending the soil. According to LSU Ag Center, worm castings are rich in micronutrients, containing iron, sulfur, magnesium, zinc, copper and calcium. They also provide macronutrients and have a nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) ratio of 1-0-0 to 5-5-3. Basically, worm castings are your garden’s best friend!
You can use the castings for your current garden to help produce higher yields of the crops you chose to grow. Also, because you now cook from scratch, you will have food scraps that are perfect to feed your worms!
What other ways can you start homesteading without land?
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