Stephanie Leaf | Homesteading Made Simple

In this episode of The Mama Making Podcast...

Jessica talks with Stephanie, homesteader and blogger, about her inspiring journey into homesteading and how it’s shaped her family’s lifestyle. Stephanie emphasizes the importance of starting small, taking one step at a time, and prioritizing what best serves her family. She discusses how growing their own food and choosing non-toxic products have become essential aspects of their daily lives.

Stephanie also shares insights on involving her children in homesteading activities, highlighting how this fosters connection and teaches life skills. They explore the role of seasonal rhythms in homesteading, meal planning, and canning based on the produce available each season. This episode is perfect for listeners interested in mindful, sustainable living, with valuable tips for incorporating family-centered routines and intentional choices.

You can connect with Stephanie:

• On Instagram at @simpleliving_madesimple 
• On Website: https://wingingitonthehomestead.com
• Listen to the Simple Life Made Simple Podcast 

This episode is sponsored by Collabs Creative - a digital marketing company supporting makers, creatives, and small business owners with all things digital and design. 

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Transcript

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (00:58)
Hello everyone and welcome to the mama making podcast. If you're new here, I'm your host Jessica. If you're not welcome back today. I'm very excited to have Stephanie here with us. Stephanie is behind the winging it on the homestead blog and Instagram and voice behind the simple living made simple podcast. Today we're talking all things homesteading.

Stephanie (01:18)
Thank you so much for having me.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (01:21)
So tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you're from, anything you want to share about your family. We'd love to know more about you.

Stephanie (01:28)
Sure. So my name is Stephanie and I am a wife and a mother of five. Seven and under are their ages. So quite busy in that realm. Yeah. They're all like little, but they're in varying ages. So it's definitely a lot of balance. We also homeschool and we homestead. I say that in quotes because we're still, I mean, homesteading for us has been a journey. So it's not what you would.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (01:38)
Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

Stephanie (01:56)
typically call or necessarily see as homesteading, like we don't have a big farm or anything like that. And I'm sure we'll talk all about that. But yeah, that's been a journey, but something that's been really important in shaping the way our family lives and all of that. So, yeah, I have a podcast called Simple Living We Made Simple, a podcast where I have been talking to a lot of different people in the homesteading and simple living realm. And just to kind of get

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (02:02)
Yeah.

Stephanie (02:25)
more knowledge and I'd love to see how people live and make it work for their, you know, actual functional daily lives. That's what I like to do. So.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (02:35)
Yeah, well, I'm excited to learn more. I think I found you on social media. I am an aspiring homesteader. I would love to have the big hobby farm and do some homesteading and all of the things. But it's hard to know where to start. So I think finding you and you're providing very tangible ways that people can get started. So I'm definitely interested in learning more about how you came to this.

Stephanie (02:37)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (03:03)
how you got started. Would you mind sharing what region of the country you live in? Okay. Okay.

Stephanie (03:08)
Sure, so we're on the East Coast, Maryland. So a lot of what I do here kind of is seasonal. We're in a part of the country where we have four distinct seasons. So yeah, so we definitely, okay. Right, right, right. Yes.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (03:17)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. I thought that would be important to know that it's not, I'm in Chicago, so we're not all sun all the time. So, yeah. Tell me how you got started. Where did this all begin?

Stephanie (03:33)
Well, it started for me and I think it starts for a lot of mothers is when they start having like a family and they start really thinking about the foods that they eat, the products that they use, and just kind of like how they want their lifestyle for their family to be. It's not something I necessarily thought about before. I didn't grow up on a farm. I didn't grow up with my family preserving food or doing things like that. You know, I was a 90s kid so I've watched processed foods and...

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (04:01)
Yep.

Stephanie (04:01)
My mom did cook every night, but it wasn't the same as what I'm trying to strive for. So when I started having kids, we had bought a house and had a little bit of property. And my mom and I, my husband also decided to have a garden, but it was kind of like my mom and I, my thing. And we started with a garden and then that kind of snowballed into wanting to...

do make our own personal products or you know try and be non -toxic as much as possible but also a balance because you know you still have other things to do you have the laundry to do at the time when I first had my first two I was still working full -time so I was trying to balance all these things it's like you want to you know work and then you want to have laundry and cleaning and two kids to take care of and then you want to try to can some tomatoes it's

It's a balance. So I think that was for one of the first things was trying to figure out how to make it all work without going crazy.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (05:02)
Yeah, that's tough. I think, I think a lot of parents who decide to go into homesteading kind of have that same start of, I don't, I don't love what the food industry looks like right now. And, I think that's a very, likely start for a lot of people, but I think making that leap is, to actually do it is, like a hard decision to make, especially if you have.

Stephanie (05:06)
Mm -hmm.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (05:27)
no experience whatsoever. I think that's a big jump to make.

Stephanie (05:32)
Yeah, it can be. And I think that once you start getting your mindset around it, I mean, you don't want to jump into this for the sole reason of being scared or having fear behind you. But yet that's a motivating factor. So if that's what you're going in, it's real easy to be like, OK, I have to wipe everything clean and have to start like everything, like do everything homemade and homegrown and everything. And that's like just a recipe for disaster. So it's kind of a challenge to.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (05:41)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Stephanie (06:02)
slow down and be like, this is gonna be like, honestly, a lifelong process of learning different skills. Because if you, like you said, you come into it, you're learning skills. You're learning if you're not, I mean, I didn't know how to cook when I got married. And so it was a skill I had to learn, cooking from scratch. And not even that, but like, how to keep a well -stocked pantry to even be able to cook from scratch. So it's like all of these other skills that you're building upon.

It's kind of what I had to take a step back and realize that's what I was working on. Not just my goal wasn't just having a non -toxic house or having a garden, you know, an abundant garden or having chickens or anything like that. It was like building skills. So once you kind of look like that, you look at it like that and accept that it's going to be something you're learning and continuing to learn and build on.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (06:54)
Yeah, I think my first thing is like, I need to wipe the slate clean. We're starting from square one, but I think it's great advice. and what you're sharing on your podcast and on your social media, I think is very, tangible to, and feeds into that idea of it doesn't have to be all or nothing. It's like you said, it's a lifelong process of learning how to do it all.

Stephanie (06:56)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (07:21)
So I think that's great advice for people looking to get started.

Stephanie (07:25)
Thanks, yeah, I think that that is important and I think it can be overwhelming if you're trying to, you know, you've kind of caught the bug of like being interested and motivated and then you feel like you have to just do everything. But it's taking things one step at a time, doing it kind of slowly, what works for your family. And also what's important is that, let's say you like really learn to cook from scratch.

That's a great skill you've had, but it doesn't have to be the, you don't have to cook a hundred percent of your meals. It just adds a layer to your ability to take care for your family. It provides you options. You know, you're not reliant on buying takeout or pre -made things. Although you can do those things when you need to, but it just makes you more able to provide for your family in all different ways.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (07:58)
Right.

Yeah. So you started with the garden, it kind of started to expand. What did it look like from there?

Stephanie (08:15)
Yeah. We had a garden and this was the year I think before I had kids when we first bought the house, we put in a garden. So having kids and small kids is a whole nother layer that, you know, we've been through so many seasons of life throughout the last couple of years at some gardens. I only had a couple of pots because that's all I could manage because I was having a spring baby or, you know, I was maybe a little bit.

bigger, but it's like what you can manage, you know, and just knowing to this was something I had to learn, because I want to do it all. And then I feel guilty if I'm not having that full garden is that, you know, seasons just like the seasons of the year are constantly changing. And you just have to kind of accept that the season you're in, give yourself a little grace. And, you know, like make plans for the next time that the garden comes around if that's the case. So yeah, we started with the garden. We had a really good first year.

And then when I did start having babies, it was also a mindset of mine was that I was like working full time and it was a lot of stress. And once I had my second, I realized I wanted to stay home because I knew we were gonna have a couple more. And my mom was watching the kids at that point. And I knew that it was just gonna be too much. I was gonna have to look at daycare, just looking at our family options. So I decided to start staying home and doing that.

you know, was a was definitely an adjustment for our family. But it allowed me to focus a little bit more on the home. And so that's when I really started focusing on cooking more from scratch, making sure that I had like whole foods. I was built, I built like my pantry up. And by that, I just mean like having the staples. Like if you looked at my house, you'd be like, wow, you don't have any food because and I don't not know, I'm not the only person I try to stress that I don't.

Sometimes I'll bake bread, but honestly right now, that's not my season I'm in is baking bread, making sure that my homemade bread is what I have. I know we buy store -bought bread majority of the time right now. But if you look in my pantry, you'll say you don't really have much food, but have all the ingredients to make things. So that's kind of a season that I've been juggling with. Sometimes it's a lot more packaged stuffs just depending on where we're at. But I've worked on those skills. So I have those options. And I think that's important to get across for people is that like,

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (10:38)
Mm -hmm.

Stephanie (10:39)
You know, you're building your own ability to do things. So that was one thing I focused on was the cooking from scratch and getting comfortable in the kitchen because I never really was at all. And luckily my husband's very patient and ate a lot, a lot of not inedible food, but not great food, you know, there's a lot of trial and error. Yeah, yeah. Learning to like cook and just get more comfortable. I think that's the biggest thing is just.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (11:00)
Yeah, I'm in that season as well right now. Yeah, yep. Yeah.

Stephanie (11:09)
getting comfortable and knowing that it's nothing in the world if you screw it up. Yeah. So that was a lot. And then we got chickens a couple of years ago. So we've had chickens for four years. That was important for me to have a source of protein. So we just have a small flock. We have 12 chickens. And so they keep us in eggs. And my parents in eggs. And another family in eggs. And then I have some to give.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (11:12)
Yeah.

Stephanie (11:38)
When people come to visit the house, it's nice to give, you know, if we're like right now where you have a lot of eggs. So that's really nice because I like having things that I can provide to other people too, that come and visit and hand them a dozen or half dozen eggs. It's just like a nice thing for me. It's important for me, like in my life to be able to, you know, share some of the things. And then focusing on getting rid of our cleaners. Like I don't buy any cleaners.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (11:58)
Yeah, give. Yeah.

Mm.

Stephanie (12:07)
was a really important thing, but that was kind of slow moving too, because I had cleaners and I don't want to waste it. So as I was kind of like a do as I run out and I just like replace with homemade stuff. So that was so, cause that can get overwhelming too, when you start worrying about the chemicals in your house and definitely important, but you know, it's, we kind of did it at like one at a time. But now we don't buy any chemical cleaners. We make our own.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (12:21)
Yeah.

Stephanie (12:35)
which is really easy, even though it sounds like a lot, but if you're making bulk, it in bulk. but if we have like a pantry full of those ingredients that have different uses, like vinegar, you cook with it, you clean with it, you use in the garden, you know, you just have that in bulk. It takes a lot of, you know, thought out of like having to like use brain power to think about all the different stuff you have. Yep.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (12:41)
No, that's, you're good.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. It's all, it's all right there for you to, to concoct when you need it.

Stephanie (13:03)
Yeah. And now I'm starting to have, change out a lot of personal products. So I do, I have, I have like deodorants and, face lotion, like lotions and all that stuff. I mean, we have most of that is changed over at this point to a natural or, simple, like we use tallow for lotions. We make tallow lotion, and then I make our own deodorants and stuff like that.

And then my next, what I'm working on is just kind of utilizing our property in different ways at this point, because we can expand now that like I'm out of, well, I still have a one year old, but I'm out of like pregnancy that season. I feel like I can go on to the next season instead of just, you know.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (13:46)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. So what does that look like for you?

Stephanie (13:54)
So we have a quarter, two and a quarter acres here, just under what I could have a dairy cow. So, which I know, I know, I really would like that, but we might look at some goats. Right now our property just as needed in some overhaul. We've just kind of been surviving as far as that goes. So I'm looking to just utilize it better, you know, find out what other kind of animals we can.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (14:02)
bummer.

Mm -hmm.

Stephanie (14:23)
have on the property and I would like to do some fruit trees, that kind of stuff, stuff that has not been able to be entertained in my brain over the last couple years.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (14:33)
Yeah.

So how do you kind of determine what your values are on your homestead? I know you're saying you're kind of slowly allowing it to phase out some of the products you're using and kind of transitioning to other things. How do you kind of prioritize what things are important for you both in this season and long term?

Stephanie (14:58)
Yeah, so I try to focus on like what really is beneficial for our family. It sounds like a no -brainer, but really it's what thrives for our family. So food was really important because we're here all the time. And so our food that I make is, I mean, I cook from scratch 85 to 90 % of the time. So having quality food, having stuff that we know it's grown.

in a certain, in a way that we're, you can support is really important. So having a garden and then having eggs and then looking to local sources for those other things has been another thing that I'm really looking to do because we have, it's just something that supports our family, like our food and our nutrients is really important. So that's like first.

foremost and then it's the emotional stability of my family is well, I mean, I guess they're like, you know, both of those the nutrition. Yeah. Yeah. So anything that it helps our family thrive and survive emotionally is important to us. So that includes making sure that our our boys and our girls, the two oldest are boys.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (16:01)
Yeah, hand in hand. Yeah.

Stephanie (16:22)
are well -rounded in helping us with chores and that kind of stuff. If that makes any sense, just so helping, those are kind of our two main goals. So I kind of look at something, if it comes up, it's like, all right, I really want to implement this. It has to meet those two requirements to be a top priority.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (16:39)
Yeah, and I think that's great advice for kind of keeping it manageable. Like you said, I mean, with five kids, it helps you to prioritize very quickly. I imagine you need to quickly figure out like, okay, a system to say, I'd love to do this, but it's not for us right now. And I love that, because me being someone who's like all in, there's a lot of things that I would love to do, but.

Stephanie (16:43)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (17:03)
don't necessarily have the, I have the vision, but don't necessarily have the wherewithal to be like, okay, this is not it right now. And I'm very trial and error, but I think that's great advice to say like, Hey, keep it on your list. But if it doesn't meet X, Y, and Z for your family currently, if you don't have a helper to help you do it, if you don't have X amount of time available, cause you have a infant or a toddler, I think being more aware and like,

Stephanie (17:06)
Mm -hmm.

Right.

Mm -hmm.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (17:33)
graceful with yourself of time and what it would take to put that all together. I think having like specific value marks that have to be checked is a helpful determinant to what you're actually going to do.

Stephanie (17:48)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, that's I have to kind of prioritize that way I'm not someone that's like real strict in like Schedules and stuff. So I have to have some kind of boundaries. Otherwise, I yeah, I'm a little feral in that regard

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (17:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So how, speaking of that, how much involvement do your kids have in the homesteading?

Stephanie (18:10)
So right now we have, right now, like this season right now, we have our chickens and we have our garden. And that's what I have as our priorities. And it doesn't sound like a lot, but right now we are in the midst of, we are in the midst of a garden that's going to soon be ready for harvesting. So like, we work with this, you know, like season. So I know that like right now we're heavily into harvesting will be July and August once.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (18:22)
No, that's a lot.

Stephanie (18:37)
things come in and then I'm going to mark, I know my countertops are going to be overflowing with tomatoes and zucchinis and stuff needs to be done. So those are going to be the priority. And I think going back to how do I prioritize some things, it's just knowing season seasonality. So like in the middle of winter in December, we're not, I'm not worrying about canning tomatoes. So it's kind of understanding how things work together and then being able to prioritize that in your brain. So in December,

There's other things that my family will be working on. I'll be working on in the kitchen and doing things. But right now it's going to be preserving and harvesting for the next two months or so. The chickens are pretty good right now. They're heavily producing eggs. So I mean, they help with the chicken chores. So that's important. And then they do help with garden chores. So they know that like, like the other day I had strawberries or strawberry patch and just

we did our last batch harvesting of our strawberry patch. So they were out there, that was what we were doing in the afternoon was, you know, cutting up the strawberries to freeze so that we can make jelly once we get them all together. So that's just kind of what they come to expect, that I'll come to them with a project or some kind of...

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (19:53)
Yeah. So for those who don't know or not super aware of homesteading, what do each season look like for you? You mentioned what winter will look like a bit, but I imagine people who aren't super aware of homesteading are like, okay, well, what if I want to have fresh zucchini in December?

Stephanie (19:59)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, so that's, it's kind of a, you got, I look at it where like you, I kind of bring it way back to the basics. Like what did they do way back when, when they didn't have mass produced things and they didn't have all this stuff. So like zucchinis, you would, zucchinis don't preserve well, so you're not really eating zucchinis, just because you brought that up, in December. So all your zucchini recipes.

Now we'd be like, wow, we'd be sick of zucchinis in July and August. Well, yeah, but that's what they ate back then was they ate it in July and August, because that's what they had. So, yeah, so the seasons like right now we're at the time we're recording this, it's June. We're in this weird waiting game with the spring garden where it's all plants are in, but nothing's really to harvest. Although my strawberries, they came, they come in like early June.

So we've already done a harvest. So knowing, and this took years because I've had many failed gardens. This is not something that is just new this year, but I know like strawberries will come in in June and then this will come in and this will come in and this will come in and then I'll look to like a fall garden and there's certain markers like garlic will be planted in August, harvested in June, or sorry, October, and then they, over winter and then you harvest them.

in the summer. So there's just naturally, I mean, I think one of the things with gardening is that you have to understand like people have been doing this for years and years forever. And so there's there's there's seasons around it. It's not like you're just coming up with it on your own. Yeah, yeah. Mm hmm.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (21:51)
Right, there's a bit of a schedule, a natural schedule. So in terms of like canning, how do you plan meals and making meals from scratch with the produce that you have available to you each season?

Stephanie (22:11)
So once we get into, I mean, I don't have any tomatoes yet. Tomatoes for us really don't hit till like August. And then we get like an abundance of tomatoes and we'll either use them or although some of the farms around here probably have tomatoes already. So you can shop local and still get fresh stuff that way. But so you asked me about tomatoes. So or produce. So in August we'll be canning and September we'll be canning.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (22:20)
Okay.

Stephanie (22:40)
tomatoes and sometimes I I guess just let me backtrack a second because when I like feed my family and we have canned goods or something like peaches pears canned tomatoes you know all that kind of stuff I purchase a lot of that from the store and then every year I try to do a couple of those myself not only to just like build skills even though I know I can get them at the store or I know I can get them at like a local farm.

So I don't do everything. I'm not really at that phase, right? We don't have like a huge garden where we're producing all of the things and I can can all the things. Like we did pears a couple years ago or no, peaches, sorry, a couple years ago. We've done tomatoes every year because I do usually do tomatoes. We've done green beans and peas, but I don't do them every year because I don't have the garden over the last couple years. I haven't had the garden to produce that much that we can eat fresh and

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (23:11)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Stephanie (23:36)
can for us to eat all year long. And like peas, we actually chose to freeze peas. But that's where I lean towards either the local farms so that I can, like, for example, peas, we did peas two years ago, I think, and I bought them from a local farm. And then we processed them and had them all year long.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (23:39)
Okay.

Stephanie (24:02)
So I'm still in this stage where I'm trying to build

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (24:38)
So we were talking a bit about kind of that balance between still utilizing store bought products as well as utilizing local farm products while you kind of figure out like, okay, this is gonna work for us to have in our garden or on our farm. Just to kind of allow yourself some space. It's a good position to be in, I imagine, to know that you don't have to worry like, my God, if this doesn't go well, our family doesn't have.

this whatever produce for the year, you at least have some time to learn and like you said, grow those skills of figuring that all out.

Stephanie (25:18)
And I do think that that's also important. And one of the things that I've really tried to do also over the last couple of years is understand local sources and what's available in your community. Because even though we, a lot of people get into this to be self -sufficient, nowadays, you're not gonna be self -sufficient. It's more of a community sufficiency thing that you're striving for. So it's important to know what's around you and then...

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (25:28)
Mm -hmm.

Yes.

Stephanie (25:46)
and then support them also. So, you know, I probably will never grow peas in the abundance that I would like, but if I know that a farm down the street is, then I can check that off my list and I can grab it there.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (25:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love the idea of community sufficiency. And I think another positive of that is by utilizing the produce or whatever their product is of another local farm, like you're still supporting a family being sufficient as well. So I think definitely giving some grace in that area, I'm sure is helpful.

Stephanie (26:04)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. like I had mentioned that I can't have a dairy cow here. So that's something that I would look to for a local source of if I wanted to go like self sufficiency and like really bypass the grocery store. Those are the kinds of things you would want to look at in your community.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (26:27)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, how would you choose which local farmers you would like to utilize?

Stephanie (26:46)
Yeah, well, I do kind of vet some of them. A lot of places that because I guess you're looking at you want quality, you want to know that they're sourcing them in a way that's whatever meets your values, whether that's ethically or you know, not using chemicals or whatever your values are.

So a lot of places have, you know, farm storage you can go and look at. A lot of times you have to be careful and this is where like understanding seasonality comes into play because if you go to a farm store and you're in November and they're selling zucchinis, they're probably in my area, not actually local. So kind of build, that's then on you to kind of build that kind of knowledge on what is seasonally available in your area and how to vet those farms.

One of the things I do here in my community is we have a little group that we've started kind of like collective where I've got people mostly inspiring homesteaders together and we meet in person monthly to kind of, you know, foster that in person community feel because it's something that's a whole nother topic for another day is like, you know, losing the human interaction, face to face, unedited conversation kind of thing. So that's a group that I've put.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (28:04)
Yeah.

Stephanie (28:10)
me and my co -founder have put together and we go around to local farms and kind of vet them for ourselves and for others to kind of, you know, make sure that we're confident that their stuff is quality and that we, people we want to work with and buy from. So it's definitely a lot of effort and energy, but if that's important for you and your family, then that's, you know, something worth doing.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (28:24)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, I love that you guys are kind of one building that community. I think that's super important to find people locally that are kind of like minded and have the same interest in doing homesteading, but like in the way you want to do it. But I think vetting is time consuming and hard. So I think the fact that you guys are like kind of helping people through that is amazing. I live in a more like,

Stephanie (28:41)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (29:04)
urban suburb. So we don't have a ton of options. So kind of vetting is limited. But we're very lucky in that we've been able to find some local farms and dairy farms that are in line with what we're looking for. But I imagine if you're in a more rural area, there's a lot more options and thus more research you have to do.

Stephanie (29:05)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, we are in a pretty agriculturally dense area, which is great, but then there's a lot to choose from and we'll make sure that's not just someone who's got a dairy cow out back, although that's fine. But, you know, there are some things you want to check out first.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (29:33)
Okay.

Yeah, for sure. So in terms of homesteading, a question I see all the time and I've also had myself is the cost or finance part of homesteading. You mentioned and we can get into as much or as little as you would like. But I know that I mean, some of the reason people don't jump, jump right into it is the money part of.

Stephanie (30:00)
Mm -hmm.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (30:15)
going, leaving your full time corporate job or leaving your full time. that's a chunk of money that your family is not going to have. but then also if you are utilizing local farmers, that can get kind of expensive too. I mean, getting apples at the store is a lot cheap. A bag of apples is a lot cheaper than like going to an orchard. So,

Stephanie (30:28)
Mm -hmm.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (30:37)
I know there's a lot of myths about homesteading being like really expensive and you have to be super resourceful and it's like financially stressful. Again, talk about as much or as little as you'd like, but what do you have on that?

Stephanie (30:44)
Yeah.

I definitely think that it's, it all can be hard, like, you know, that it's kind of like, what sacrifice are you willing to make, whether it's the time that you're willing to put in to baking all your own, all your baked goods, your bread and everything. I mean, that's a lot of time, but it is cheaper in that regard. But you're right, a lot of things aren't. Visiting local farms could certainly be much more expensive. But then again, if you're buying in bulk,

and you're putting in the effort to shuck all those peas yourself and can them all or freeze them all yourself, that might be cheaper. Do you know what I mean? So it's, and it's also a way that you look at it. So I found that like, if you go to like when we did the peas, just to come back to this, cause it's example, we bought like a bushel of peas and it was like $30. Okay. But it was like a huge box of peas and we had to shuck them ourselves, but it was over a year's worth of peas.

Like it kept us in peas for well over a year. And that was something I didn't have to worry about then on purchasing. Now I don't know how much peas I would have bought, you know, how much that would have cost or how much that I saved. But I think as far as quality, and then I do think it was some savings. It's just when you look at it as a box of $30 box of peas, that kind of perception can get kind of, you know, confusing.

Also when you're buying in bulk, it might seem like, well, I just dropped $100 on flour or whatever, but that flour should make it so that you're not purchasing bread all year long. Or does that make sense? So it's all in a way in perception on how you're utilizing it.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (32:31)
Yeah, I was just gonna say it seems like it's more of like a mind shift about how you're looking at things a little more long term and that it may be a cost upfront, but if you're sourcing things, I think I mentioned resourcefulness, I think that is imperative for homesteading or self -reliance is finding the goods you want and need in a way that's

Stephanie (32:38)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (33:00)
gives you some longevity.

Stephanie (33:02)
Yeah, I think resourcefulness certainly is that. And I think that there's also, so like, even though like your food costs may go up, part of the mindset too is that like, you're not as wasteful in other ways. Does that make sense? So you utilize things until you can't utilize them anymore and then you utilize them in a different way. So being that resourcefulness of not being.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (33:17)
Yeah.

Stephanie (33:29)
consuming every, like always consuming or purchasing things is also kind of goes hand in hand. So I think that if you're going to adopt that in order to balance it, at least in a financial way to also go resourcefulness as a priority is important.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (33:34)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. So back to your family, you mentioned you do homeschooling. How does that kind of all integrate together? I imagine they do a lot on the homestead that relates to homeschool.

Stephanie (33:52)
Yes. Yeah. Home school definitely, it kind of is all encompassing. For us, home school is not just doing school at home, but it's home. Like, it's home. It's, I don't know how to explain it. Like, our living, the way we live and the way we do things is all intertwined. So like,

they're involved in the cooking and the cleaning and the way we move about our day. So I think all of that is just the way it is. So our schedule is kind of, I mean, obviously we do the reading and the math and we hit those topics, but I don't know, it's not like they're just people living in the house. We work, it's home life.

It's basically, it's not just school at home, it's, you know, home is school, basically.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (34:49)
Yeah. And did you know that you wanted to homeschool your kids or you kind of got into it as you started homesteading or homesteading kind of propelled you into it as well?

Stephanie (34:59)
Yeah, well, it kind of was that the, at the year that I was going to have to put my oldest into some kind of preschool was 2020. So that would have been, you know, right in the beginning of the pandemic. Yeah. So the fact that there weren't any openings or any school going on necessarily at that point kind of made my decision for me at that point. So, and then we just didn't look back. We kind of,

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (35:12)
Yeah, kind of made your decision for you.

Stephanie (35:26)
I liked it, although it was also a balance because we were still having babies and kids and we just kind of balanced through it. But we get it done and then it's just the way that we live now at this point. Yeah, as I get older though, it's a little bit of balance because I have a seven -year -old who would be third grade, quote unquote, next year. And then I have my middle child will be four. So,

you know, I'm doing some preschool stuff with her and she is with her brothers all the time. So it's just a balance. I like it that we're able to really utilize the relationships together to kind of nurture the school environment. And of course we do other things. They do baseball and they do 4 -H and all kinds of other stuff. So yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (36:12)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And do you have kind of a homeschool community in your area?

Stephanie (36:22)
we do. We actually have a pretty good homeschool community. And then I also early on met a group of homeschool moms, I guess, that have kids in various ages, three to five kids, each that are from probably eight down to baby. And we get together and do play dates pretty frequently. And so yeah, so they get that socialization and it's yeah.

It's just nice. But yeah, I mean, if you're interested in homeschooling, I definitely think it's definitely worth looking into because it can really add a value and lifestyle, unrushed lifestyle that we were really needing.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (37:02)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, yeah, I think one of the unexpected positives of COVID was people being forced to homeschool somewhat. And I know in my community, like I said, it's more suburb. So I think we had a lot of working parents that were like, I can't do this. But other parents that were like, hey, this is amazing. I'm able to spend more time with my kids. And I'm seeing that they're

Stephanie (37:12)
Nothing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (37:32)
get it, they're thriving in this. And so I think it was kind of a cool opportunity for parents to kind of say, Hey, do we want to do things differently? It was kind of like a propelled people who were either kind of on the cusp or like, I want to do things differently to go ahead and do it.

Stephanie (37:34)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. I agree. I definitely think it just kind of changed, like you said, like shifted their mindset on like, this is how things are have to be done. There's no other way to do it. And it's just not necessarily the case. I mean, I don't believe it works for everyone. I don't think it has to work for everyone. But for us, it's, I don't think that I could, even though we get up and do things in the morning, chores and stuff, I could not.

get up and get out the door in any kind of like presentable fashion I think at this point.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (38:18)
Yeah, yeah. And you've done it too long at this point to even force yourself to try. I'm interested. You have five kids. Do you foresee all of them being homeschool kids or kind of seeing how they go through the years homeschooling?

Stephanie (38:21)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I do.

Yeah, I think so. Unless some other kind of problem presents itself or issue arises or some other kind of challenge, that's what I should say, in which case I think they would thrive better in a school environment. I definitely think that we'll just continue to homeschool. For us, it allows, the one thing I love the best is that I was, I had not to get on a whole homeschool spiel, but the first year with my oldest, because here in Maryland we have,

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (38:43)
Mm -hmm.

No, that's all right.

Stephanie (39:02)
to do something at five. We have to report to the school that they are in kindergarten. And then I had to do two reviews with the school or school system. And I didn't know what I was doing whatsoever. I was like, I'm just gonna take this next year, this first year to figure out how he learns, what motivates him. He's a five year old. So like what makes him...

do what he needs to do as far as schoolwork and what really is he's interested in. And if I focus on that for each of them, that really helps me off in a good footing on how to meet them where they need me to meet them because I really just believe that I'm the best advocate and there's wonderful teachers out there that I will make sure that they, I mean teachers, but they have a.

a classroom full of other kids, you know, so if I'm their hub for their, like motivating them to get their schoolwork done and what they need to learn and how how they're thriving and their meet their emotional needs and all that stuff. Then we supplement with all kinds of other things and really nurture their interests. It's one of the things that's one of my favorite things is that once we find something they're interested in, we dive into it.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (40:16)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Stephanie (40:21)
and you know just really find all the ways then to connect the different subjects and the different skills to that interest. Yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (40:28)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think, like you said, it's all like an all encompassing lifestyle, like they're homesteading, it's where they live, it's where they do schoolwork, it's where they're learning in general. So I think it is a very cool way to raise your family. And yeah, it sounds like it's you guys are thriving.

Stephanie (40:35)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, it's been working for us. I mean, it's not always easy. I don't have, sometimes it's like, man, if I just had a couple hours during the day where I could clean the house sufficiently or thoroughly and not just have, you know, it be better than it was, it might be nice, but you know, yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (41:00)
Yeah, for sure.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah. So anything else on homesteading, homeschool before I ask my last question?

Stephanie (41:20)
No, I just think that homesteading and I want people to understand that homesteading isn't like sometimes that can be an intimidating term. Like, you know, you're going to be like all self -sufficient. You're going to live off the grid and have a dairy cow and and make your own butter and soap and all kinds of stuff. But it's really just a simpler lifestyle, a slowed down lifestyle, a pure cleaner, kind of getting back to basics, working with your hands, tangible.

intentional mindset more is what I think most people now when they're seeing homesteading, that's what they're thriving for. And I think people that are focused and driven and attracted to that lifestyle are like go getters, they want to get it all done, they want to do it all, or they feel like they're not moving fast enough. So I think it's important that if you're interested in this kind of slower lifestyle that you do slow down, you make goals for yourself.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (42:04)
Mm -hmm.

Stephanie (42:17)
and you learn and focus on building the skills because it's going to be a lifelong learning process. Yeah. So, yeah. okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, good.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (42:24)
Yeah. Well, that perfectly answered my next question. I was going to say, what tips do you have for people who are interested? But that answers the question. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Do you have anything going on on your social media, your blog or podcast coming up?

Stephanie (42:41)
Yeah, well, my podcast Simple Living Made Simple has been in a little bit of a hiatus, but we are rebooting this summer. Don't know the exact date, but definitely rebooting or coming back. So look for that. You can find that on the Instagram, Simple Living Made Simple. And yeah, so that's really all I got going on right now as we're deep in the harvesting season. Yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (42:46)
Okay.

All right. And yeah, definitely. So outside of the blog, which we'll link and then your podcast, where can people reach out if they have questions?

Stephanie (43:13)
If they have questions, they can either email me at info at winging on the homestead .com or find me on Instagram is probably where I'm mostly like can DM me on there and I can talk to you.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (43:26)
Awesome. We'll link all of those in the show notes for people to grab. But this was awesome. I think this is a really good, attainable way to start slowly living a little more simply. And I love that advice that you gave of like slowing down a bit. Yeah, I think that's a great start. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This is amazing. Of

Stephanie (43:36)
Great.

Yeah, yeah, a little bit. good. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for having me.