Longing For The Homestead

As Barb and I are on the cusp of a move to a new home in just a few weeks, I have renewed a lifelong interest I have had in homesteading and self-sufficiency.  Being we live in the concrete-and-asphalt wilderness known as Tampa Bay, farming, wildcrafting, and other such disciplines are not that widely practiced, and a lot of these corporate-bound yuppies wouldn't know what to do anyway.   Therefore, I have had to spend time reading up on the subject until we can get to the place where we can put the knowledge into practice.   Being it is a part of my heritage anyway - I grew up small-town, so know something about gardening, hunting, and gathering - I consider this a rediscovery of a repressed aspect of my upbringing provided I get the opportunity to practice these arts again.

As many of you may already know, I grew up in West Virginia, and the luxuries of city life were often not that easily accessed.   Therefore, when I was a kid, gardening and gathering was pretty much a part of normal life for me.  It carried a certain appeal to be able to forage for or grow your own produce, different types of berries, morel mushrooms, and other bounty of the earth.  And, to witness the tiny seed of a tomato plant or a cucumber vine producing a large quantity of harvest in the course of time cannot be overestimated.   Additionally, there was always fishing, canning, hunting, and a number of other cottage industries that could provide an adequate supply of food and thus saving quite a bit of money at the grocery store.   And, to know you did all that gave a certain amount of satisfaction too, and that was a feeling that made one proud and gave a sense of accomplishment.  Oftentimes today in the corporate world, it is as if you work your butt off for practically nothing, for an employer who couldn't give a rat's behind about you or your talents as long as the bossman's stock goes up a point.  Therefore, agrarian life provides a way to channel creative energy in a way that makes the people who really count - you, your folks, and the good Lord - appreciate you better.

Many of my old friends from my grade school and high school years still live back home and carry on the tradition, and one of them, a childhood classmate named Cindy Twigg, has proven to be quite resourceful.  I mean, seriously, not many people can get that creative with a lowly zucchini, yet Cindy manages to make good and unexpected recipes such as brownies out of it - who'd had thought that a lowly vegetable that resembles a huge cucumber could produce such good dessert recipes (Cindy, we gave that brownie recipe a try, by the way - they were as delicious as you said they were!  Thanks for sharing that)??  However, that is the way and tradition of our West Virginian spirit - we can take the meager and turn it into a gourmet masterpiece.  My friend Cindy and so many others of our native sons and daughters do a great service by preserving a precious legacy, and as a fellow West Virginian, they make me proud because they are indeed brilliant people.  Yet, thinking about it makes me somewhat melancholy, because I sure do miss a lot of that too.

One of my aunts, Angie McDaniel who lives just outside the town of Hambleton, WV, some 3 miles from where I was born, is equally gifted in these skills, and she could make all sorts of stuff that you wouldn't normally consider - one of her specialties were these homemade peanut butter cups which could rival Reese's any day!  Our Appalachian women in particular were genius in their own right, and many of them - our aunts, grandmothers, etc. - taught some of us men a thing or two as well!  God bless them.

Upon our move, it is our objective to get back into doing a little planting and growing ourselves, and with the harvest of the bounty of our labors I plan on doing a little experimentation myself (see my food blog, www.davidskitchen-david.blogspot.com, in the future for more about that, as I plan on posting a lot there too!).  It will feel great to have that level of self-sufficiency again, and hopefully it will inspire others.   I have also picked up a thing or two from the local Florida Cracker culture here as well, and plan on utilizing that in the future by eventually stocking our freezer with our own freshly-caught seafood and such - I learned the arts of shrimping and crabbing years ago from my Southern-born father and grandfather, and would like to get back into doing that again as well.  Even foraging for wild produce here in Florida is not totally out of the question either, but rather a matter of being in the right place to look for it.   All of this collectively will be a process that will require time and patience, as it takes time to build a greenhouse, grow the plants, etc.   However, in the end, the rewards will pay for themselves.   Throw in a small goat for milk and a couple of hens for eggs, and that essentially is a rudimentary backyard homestead ready to roll!

So concludes my thoughts on the subject for the time being, but I am hoping to update progress as this new experiment rolls forward, and for those who have similar aspirations, happy homesteading to you as well, and feel free to share tips and ideas.   See you all next time.