A growing number of Americans are rejecting processed foods and living off the land. Olivia Reingold meets the homesteaders who say ‘things mean more when you have less.’
FP friends, you don't have to move to Montana to start homesteading, although I do dream of that LOL. For years, I kept bees and chickens in my backyard in an urban city. When covid pushed us out of the city and to the burbs I brought the chickens and bees with me and now I have a modest garden. Now about 50% of what I eat I've grown or raised myself. In the suburbs.
I can't tell you how cathartic it is to watch your food grow. The point being, take whatever control over your food that you can even if you live in the city. You can make a change in your own life.
Everything the FP does has that old school journalism feel that I miss so much, the story choices, the writing, the photography. What a breath of fresh air when literally everything has that Teen Vogue vibe.
you don't have to go whole "hog" like that you can modify your diet get rid of processed crap , I did and lost 80 lbs and a few health problems . Sugar is as bad as cigarettes eggs meat from properly sourced grown farms are fine the crap in"super" markets who knows
I would suggest that most people have zero concept of where food - especially meat - comes from, though it’s not exactly for lack of effort. Michael Pollan has made life immeasurably more difficult for those of us in agriculture. When I was in my undergraduate program, we had to read a bunch of books and articles from him and his ilk in our freshman composition class, and this was at a state university in a state whose main industry was, and remains, agriculture. Every student had to read that well-meaning but inaccurate nonsense, and because of it believe that those of us involved in raising food are the ones killing them.
I am glad that there are people that are able to live like the ones depicted in this article. I am glad any time someone works hard and becomes successful. Just remember that the people like me - what many call “industrial” agriculturalists, which just means that our family has been at it for a long time and manages to do it at scale - are not producing anything processed or preserved or “value-added” or sugary or any of the other descriptors you might hear.
Finally, I would love it if there were some way to provide real food to our schools. Unfortunately, the current levels of bureaucracy involved in that make it impossible.
Something that I really appreciated about this piece was it’s lack of bias. I know nothing about Olivia Reingold and after reading this, I couldn’t tell you anything about her other than that she’s a good listener. Similar articles have popped up since 2020 and you can easily pin down whether the author thinks they’re writing about loonies or whether they are part of the movement themselves. This was a beautiful example of journalism: this is what I saw and what I heard, now decide what you think about it yourself.
We haven’t gone as far as homesteading, but my husband I are wading into this movement for the exact same reasons. Infertility and severe side effects from the Covid vaccination woke us up. We buy all organic food, eat grass fed beef, and are careful about everything that goes in and on our bodies. I switched out all of my cleaners for natural ones. We tried for five years to have a baby and had six miscarriages. Within less than a year of these lifestyle changes, I’m now 15 weeks pregnant - the furthest we’ve ever gotten. There’s no going back. When this little boy makes into the world, and I’m now confident he will, we’re wading farther into this movement. We can’t trust the corporations that handle our food, pharma, the government, or our doctors. If we want our son to live a healthy, fulfilling life, we have to take matters into our own hands.
Wow, I loved this story. This has been my dream, my entire life. My maternal grandparents lived off the land until they died in their 80s and were strong like ox's. This is the way!
The nice thing about this type of self-reliance is that you can live a fully modern life and add as many bits and pieces of "homesteading" as you wish. No need to butcher a hog and compost your own poop if that's too much effort. Grow some veggies and jar them for winter. Chop some logs into kindling and tinder, then re-sharpen the ax, just to learn how. Next time an appliance breaks, figure out how to fix it yourself. Spend some of your weekends camping; pitch a tent, cook a meal over a fire you built yourself. Then come home to hot showers and air conditioning.
Self-reliance is not either-or, it's adapt and adopt as your time and interests dictate. Every old-timey skill you learn, practice, and master is one less thing you have to buy from Big Corporate, and it's a notch of pride for your timber axe.
Most of us are never going to live in the wilds off the grid. But all of us can benefit from learning the old ways and having fun practicing them.
What a great story. A very nice piece of journalism too. Makes me wanna build a cabin and live of the land...but I can not and will not give up my internet. Can't we have a movements that keeps some of the good stuff we've developed over the decades. Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water
I think these people are cool. As long as they don't insist everyone follow their homesteading ways, more power to 'em. Everyone should learn the art of self-reliance, just in case, and these folks are ahead of the curve.
Great article! One minor point is that Catholics are Christians so saying "Christian or Catholic" implies they are not.
FP friends, you don't have to move to Montana to start homesteading, although I do dream of that LOL. For years, I kept bees and chickens in my backyard in an urban city. When covid pushed us out of the city and to the burbs I brought the chickens and bees with me and now I have a modest garden. Now about 50% of what I eat I've grown or raised myself. In the suburbs.
I can't tell you how cathartic it is to watch your food grow. The point being, take whatever control over your food that you can even if you live in the city. You can make a change in your own life.
Much love!
Excellent work, Olivia.
Everything the FP does has that old school journalism feel that I miss so much, the story choices, the writing, the photography. What a breath of fresh air when literally everything has that Teen Vogue vibe.
It’s great for some but not for all. You can be fit and healthy without butchering your own meat. I can see the allure of it for some.
you don't have to go whole "hog" like that you can modify your diet get rid of processed crap , I did and lost 80 lbs and a few health problems . Sugar is as bad as cigarettes eggs meat from properly sourced grown farms are fine the crap in"super" markets who knows
I would suggest that most people have zero concept of where food - especially meat - comes from, though it’s not exactly for lack of effort. Michael Pollan has made life immeasurably more difficult for those of us in agriculture. When I was in my undergraduate program, we had to read a bunch of books and articles from him and his ilk in our freshman composition class, and this was at a state university in a state whose main industry was, and remains, agriculture. Every student had to read that well-meaning but inaccurate nonsense, and because of it believe that those of us involved in raising food are the ones killing them.
I am glad that there are people that are able to live like the ones depicted in this article. I am glad any time someone works hard and becomes successful. Just remember that the people like me - what many call “industrial” agriculturalists, which just means that our family has been at it for a long time and manages to do it at scale - are not producing anything processed or preserved or “value-added” or sugary or any of the other descriptors you might hear.
Finally, I would love it if there were some way to provide real food to our schools. Unfortunately, the current levels of bureaucracy involved in that make it impossible.
Something that I really appreciated about this piece was it’s lack of bias. I know nothing about Olivia Reingold and after reading this, I couldn’t tell you anything about her other than that she’s a good listener. Similar articles have popped up since 2020 and you can easily pin down whether the author thinks they’re writing about loonies or whether they are part of the movement themselves. This was a beautiful example of journalism: this is what I saw and what I heard, now decide what you think about it yourself.
We haven’t gone as far as homesteading, but my husband I are wading into this movement for the exact same reasons. Infertility and severe side effects from the Covid vaccination woke us up. We buy all organic food, eat grass fed beef, and are careful about everything that goes in and on our bodies. I switched out all of my cleaners for natural ones. We tried for five years to have a baby and had six miscarriages. Within less than a year of these lifestyle changes, I’m now 15 weeks pregnant - the furthest we’ve ever gotten. There’s no going back. When this little boy makes into the world, and I’m now confident he will, we’re wading farther into this movement. We can’t trust the corporations that handle our food, pharma, the government, or our doctors. If we want our son to live a healthy, fulfilling life, we have to take matters into our own hands.
Such a well-written article. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Doesn't everyone save table scraps and cut out the rotten bits?
A link to gun nerdery on .22WMR? Hell yeah, welcome to the Dark Side, FP!
Wow, I loved this story. This has been my dream, my entire life. My maternal grandparents lived off the land until they died in their 80s and were strong like ox's. This is the way!
The nice thing about this type of self-reliance is that you can live a fully modern life and add as many bits and pieces of "homesteading" as you wish. No need to butcher a hog and compost your own poop if that's too much effort. Grow some veggies and jar them for winter. Chop some logs into kindling and tinder, then re-sharpen the ax, just to learn how. Next time an appliance breaks, figure out how to fix it yourself. Spend some of your weekends camping; pitch a tent, cook a meal over a fire you built yourself. Then come home to hot showers and air conditioning.
Self-reliance is not either-or, it's adapt and adopt as your time and interests dictate. Every old-timey skill you learn, practice, and master is one less thing you have to buy from Big Corporate, and it's a notch of pride for your timber axe.
Most of us are never going to live in the wilds off the grid. But all of us can benefit from learning the old ways and having fun practicing them.
What a great story. A very nice piece of journalism too. Makes me wanna build a cabin and live of the land...but I can not and will not give up my internet. Can't we have a movements that keeps some of the good stuff we've developed over the decades. Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water
I think these people are cool. As long as they don't insist everyone follow their homesteading ways, more power to 'em. Everyone should learn the art of self-reliance, just in case, and these folks are ahead of the curve.