For Every ‘dystopian/post-apocalyptic Story That Has People Still Surviving From Scavenging And Canned

By juliedillon // Support the artist

Start a 1-Acre, Self-Sufficient Homestead

Expert advice on how to establish self-sufficient food production, including guidance on crop rotations, raising livestock and grazing management.

By John Seymour

Illustration by Dorling Kindersley

shopping responsibly

this is a sequel to my other post about alternatives to throwing things away. that post detailed some ways to reduce your waste, but the production, shipping, handling & transportation of new items can also be extremely wasteful & push costs up. obviously there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism & you aren’t a bad person for being unable to “shop ethically,” but some of these ideas can help with personal consumption. here are some tips about purchasing or acquiring goods with minimum environmental impact or just minimal financial impact.

ask around: ask your friends & neighbors if they have the desired item(s) that they are no longer using. this can be handy for most nonperishable goods, especially if you have a cooperative community. the free section of craigslist in your area is a good place to start, or the free section of the nextdoor app; you can also put up an advertisement in nextdoor or a similar app to ask if anyone has what you’re looking for & is willing to give it away.

thrift stores: good for clothing, furniture, & other things. it’s fairly easy to find a local thrift store online, & you never know what kind of treasures are there.

do your research before donating unwanted goods: some thrift stores that depend on donations will give out discounts to donators. you can use this on your next purchase at the store.

reselling sites: if you’re on the hunt for something more specific/that you prefer to be unused (such as makeup), people list all kinds of unwanted gifts & random things on resale sites. ebay is the most famous example, but poshmark, mercari & depop are all more fashion-focused places to get trends at a discount & without directly paying a corporation. thredup is the equivalent of an online thrift store, with more emphasis on basic/classic/affordable pieces. also, check out facebook for sale/trade groups in your area!

farmer’s markets: perfect for local produce. you support small businesses & get food that’s full of fewer artificial additives! warning, though: these can be pricey.

borrowing & renting: if you’re not going to need it forever, then don’t pay a forever price! often local hardware stores have tool rentals, for instance.

barter: trade something you don’t need for something you do. this can easily be another “ask around” one, but there are some websites specifically for swapping makeup, clothes, & more.

local artisans/stores: in the event that you absolutely NEED to buy something new, try getting it handmade or local. etsy is a good online marketplace for handmade goods, & some areas have their own sites/directories. ask around!

make it yourself/repair something: if you need something that you can create on your own (especially from reused materials), then just do it. see if you have a local makerspace, where you can access tools & assistance.

reuse: see if you have anything that would do the job, even if it’s not conventional. as long as it’s safe, you can do some WEIRD substitutions.

reduce: the classic solution, which is just not getting anything new. do you REALLY need another tube of lipstick? more shoes? your 5th jacket this season? i thought not!

edit: dumpster diving & curb picking are valid options as well. you might want to look into the legality of this in your area, but if you’re not afraid of getting your hands dirty it’s great. people throw away things that are still useable ALL the time.

this post isn’t exhaustive, so PLEASE add any websites or ideas that you might have! good luck!!

8 vegetables that you can regrow again and again.

Scallions

You can regrow scallions by leaving an inch attached to the roots and place them in a small glass with a little water in a well-lit room.

Garlic

When garlic begins to sprout, you can put them in a glass with a little water and grow garlic sprouts. The sprouts have a mild flavor than garlic and can be added to salads, pasta and other dishes.

Bok Choy

Bok choy can be regrown by placing the root end in water in a well-lit area. In 1-2 weeks , you can transplant it to a pot with soil and grow a full new head.

Carrots

Put carrot tops in a dish with a little water. Set the dish in a well-lit room or a window sill.  You’ll have carrot tops to use in salads. 

Basil

Put clippings from basil with 3 to 4-inch stems in a glass of water and place it in direct sunlight. When the roots are about 2 inches long, plant them in pots to and in time it will grow a full basil plant.

Celery

Cut off the base of the celery and place it in a saucer or shallow bowl of warm water in the sun. Leaves will begin to thicken and grow in the middle of the base, then transfer the celery to soil. 

Romaine Lettuce

Put romaine lettuce stumps in a ½ inch of water. Re-water to keep water level at ½ inch. After a few days, roots and new leaves will appear and you can transplant it into soil.

Cilantro

The stems of cilantro will grown when placed in a glass of water. Once the roots are long enough, plant them in a pot in a well-lit room. You will have a full plant in a few months.

How I Got into Backyard Farming

Idea:

Backyard Farming sounds crazy, so let’s try it  

What is it?

There is a movement where regular people are turning their backyards into micro farms and doing things like:

Growing all the salad ingredients they need for a year (minus the Russian dressing)

Growing 100 pounds of potatoes on a tiny patio

Raising a couple of chickens for meat and/or eggs

Raising Talapia fish to eat

Raising rabbits or quail for meat

Converting lawns into mini farms producing staple crops like corn and wheat

Using things like fences, walls, posts and garages to trellis things like grapes, squash, beans, and melons

Growing 100 pounds of garlic and selling it for $10 a pound at farmers markets

Raising bees and selling honey for $7 a pound at farmers markets

Making your own Beer, Wine, Meade, Cider or Brandy

Why this could be Awesome:

The goal here is that you do these things on your property without anyone really noticing or caring.  The goal is not to start up some “you might be a redneck if” style crazy farm on the lawn and instantly tank the neighborhood housing prices in the process.  With this project the goal is to be clandestine, or at least unnoticeable.  Do it right and neighbors will compliment how well your property looks as you bring them goodies from the garden all year long.  Other reasons this scheme could be awesome:

Lower your grocery bills

Be totally organic and chemical free

Potentially earn income

Less lawn mowing / Less using anything that runs on gas

Could be Fun

My Situation:

I live in a typical Cape Cod house on a quiet street in a medium sized city in Ohio.  I have neighbors very close on both sides and in the back.  In total I have about 0.3 acres of “land” which consists of a small front yard and a descent sized backyard enclosed in a chain link fence.  I have a tiny 1-car garage, a small patio, and normal guy yard tools.

Research Phase:

I went to the library and to the internet and looked up the following topics:

Small space / patio / container gardening

Permaculture / food forests / Organic Gardening

Homesteading /  Survivalist / Prepper (I’m not a prepper)

Aquaponics

Take a look at some YouTube videos on people who have backyard food forests.  Also Jeff Lawton’s videos on this topic are amazing.  I also recommend the book Gaia’s Garden and the website Permies.com

Let’s Do This:

And so when Spring rolled around I began…  The plan was to start small and incorporate little things at a time into my landscape, wait until I was used to them and make sure no one freaked out, and then slowly expand. 

Things I have Accomplished:

I’m on year three now and I think things are going relatively well.  Here’s a summary of things I have been able to do.   Note: Each topic below will have its own full post soon.

Toxin Free:  Gave up insecticide, commercial fertilizer and other toxins totally.

Compost: Created a composting system that produces about 1 pickup truck load of compost per year.

Waste Reduction: Generate zero yard waste.  Generate 1-2 bags of garbage per week, which is a reduction from 5 bags.  This reduction is due to composting, canning, burning paper with wood fires and using ashes in garden, reduction of processed foods purchased, etc.

Rainwater harvesting:  Made and Installed 2 Rain Barrels (55 gallons each), with a system to auto water the front yard with the flip of a switch using garden hose and gravity

Lawn Reduction:  More than half of my front yard is garden (but doesn’t look out of the ordinary at all).  Converted 1/3rd of my backyard to garden

Hugelkultur:  Installed about 56 feet of Hugelkultur mounds

Heavy Mulching: Threw down 2 dump truck loads of mulch, 3 pickup load of hay (about 40 bales) and 1 pickup load manure. 

Sheet Mulching: Experimented with Sheet mulching using cardboard and other materials to convert lawn to garden without digging.

Less Weeds: Cut weeding time down by using mulching techniques as well as chop & drop methods.  (you still get weeds, but less, and easier to pull)

No Dig / No till: Gave up Tilling totally.  There are many good reasons to do this. 

Less Mowing:  Mow only about 4-6 times a year (due to letting certain “weeds” grow into the lawn such as clover which doesn’t grow very tall).  Also, I mow the front lawn every other time with a gas free reel push mower, which saves gas and is very quiet (and a good workout).

Less Watering:  Cut watering in half (because of the rain barrels, a well-placed swale to slow down run-off and Hugelkultur mounds which soak up water like crazy)

Perennial Food:  Planted long-term plants such as 2 apple trees, 1 cherry tree, 2 blueberry bushes, 2 raspberry and 2 blackberry bushes, 10 square feet of strawberries, 2 grapevines, 8 asparagus plants.

Quasi Perennial Food:  Tomato patch comes back 80% every year from self seeding.  Also get a lot of self seeded greens and squash, by not picking everything.

Seed Starting:  Beginning to perfect a seed starting regimen that is actually starting to pay off.  Seed starting takes practice!

Big Crops:  Set to plant about 50 garlic plants this year.  Set to plant about 30 potato plants this year (these two plants both can be mixed into the front yard landscape).  Planted about 60 mustard green plants (also a beautiful plant)

Medicine:  Growing comfrey to be used for medicinal purposes as well as green manure / mulch.

Cool mini-Projects:  Things I have made from my backyard include Grape Juice, Vinegar, Tomato juice, Dijon Mustard, Tomato sauce, Roasted Dandelion Root coffee, Echinacea tincture, garlic braids, burn medicine, flower arrangements, and lots of delicious meals.

Things I want to Try:

There are so many things in backyard farming/ urban permaculture I still want to try. Here is my to-do list:

Plant way more fruit trees.  The ultimate goal of the permaculture “food forest” is basically to have tons of food growing everywhere on your property that requires little to no maintenance.  The hardest part should be picking all of the bounty.  Of course a key to this end state is to have lots of mature fruit trees that produce large quantities of high calorie foods year after year.  And even in cold Ohio, we can grow so many different kinds of fruit like cherry, apple, peach, plum, apricot and lots of berry and nut trees

Plant a successful cash crop.  I want to sell something at the farmers market!  I think garlic will be my first attempt because it is 100% maintenance free and 99% guaranteed to come up beautiful.  It also sells for a lot of money.  So far I have been eating mine, but each year I plant more and more.  One other nice thing is that you can space them really close together and plant them almost anywhere on the property, including right out in the front yard.  I tried to sell my mustard greens but nobody wanted them :(

Get bees.  Although probably not for everyone, I want bees.  There is some cost and some work involved, but you get honey, wax and increased pollination, and that is more than enough for me to want to try it.

Meat?  I’m not allowed to have chickens or any animal like that in my city.  Rabbits could work since they are silent and you could raise them somewhere covert and no one would know you had them.  But I don’t think I could kill and clean rabbits I raised.  I looked into pheasant and quail but same thing there.

Eggs? I’m not yet to the point where I’m going to defy my local laws and get a couple of chickens for egg productions, but If you are, there is a whole community on the net of covert chicken raisers.  The more hip urban cities such as St. Louis have legalized it, so do some research and go for it.  Don’t get any roosters unless you want to anger everyone within a 5 mile radius.

More Mulch!  Once you get into this hobby you quickly find that your soil sucks.  If you have a typical American house your soil is terrible because for the last 50 years your property has consisted of 90% grass which some guy mowed short twice a week and probably dumped mass quantities of weed and feed and other chemicals onto it.  All of the clippings were bagged and sent to the landfill and heavy rains continuously washed away any soil that happened to build up.  The fix is to throw down tons and tons of organic material like leaves, cut up weeds, hay, mulch, coffee grounds, manure, compost, etc.  But if you are a regular person with an office job you probably don’t have access to as much of this organic mulch as you need.  I’m always on the lookout on Craigslist for free manure and mulch, but it can be hard to come by.  You can grow your own, but this takes time.

Flowers  I got so caught up with food that I realized I didn’t plant many beautiful flowers that can serve multiple purposes.  I want them for cut flower arrangements as well as for medicinal purposes and sheer beauty.  Next year there will be flowers!

Edible Seeds:  I also want to get some edible seeds such as sunflower and pumpkin, yum!  Per square foot, sunflowers are one of the most productive foods you can grow, calorie wise.

Just a silly idea I had: Glow-Bugs! They are mechanical bugs, roughly the size of a hand, and they are great lights! They cling to anywhere you put them, making different lighting in your room very easy. Or you can program them to follow you to have optimal light, either crawling on a wall, or flying in front of you when wandering through the darker parts of the town (or forest). The wings are flexible sun panels. Folded in, the wings block the light to a warmer, dim lighting. If you turn them off, the outer wings close, making them compact to transport or just pretty to look at. They can also sit on you, like a brooch!

DIY Laundry Detergent

GUYS, THIS WORKED. YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW EXCITED I AM.

My first homesteading project was a roaring success! I know this probably means I’m doomed for failure in the future (ever the optimist, I am), but YAY for now.

!!

Okay, done squealing. Here’s what happened:

I used this recipe from Budget101.com. I had several detergent recipes pinned, but I’m partial to a liquid/non-powder detergent. Especially when said liquid is concentrated (you only need to use one tablespoon per load here).

I did this on Sunday as a weekend project with my mom, and was 90% convinced I was going to have a nasty, sudsy mess all over her stove. But instead, we made THESE:

Aren’t they gorgeous?

But I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Alright.

Ready?

Here’s what you need: 

1 cup Borax

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1 bar Fels Naptha 

4 cups water

2 1-quart Mason jars

Total cost for 128 loads of laundry: $1.76

Grate the bar of Fels Naptha using a cheese grater (yes, really). It’s super soft, and shouldn’t be too difficult. It will take about five or ten minutes, depending on your pressure and attention span.

Put the 4 cups of water in a LARGE pot (big enough to take on all the ingredients, plus room for a bit of foam) and set it to high, waiting for a boil.

Measure out the Borax and Washing Soda, mix together well in a bowl. 

Once the water begins to boil, add the grated Fels Naptha gently, and reduce the heat to medium. Stir constantly until the soap is completely dissolved, about 10-15 minutes. Be careful not to let this boil over, or you will end up with the sudsy mess I was anticipating. This is the extent of foam you should see:

Once the Fels Naptha has melted, remove the pot from the heat and add the blended Borax and Washing Soda. It’s essential you stir constantly here as well, lest you end up with an icky, grainy detergent that could leave residue on your clothes. Stir for about 5 minutes, or until you no longer feel graininess on the bottom of your pot.

Next, pour the detergent equally into your two Mason jars. Add water until the liquid reaches the “shoulders” of the jar (the rounded part near the top). There should be about 1.5 - 2 inches of air space at the top of the jar.

Put the lids on your jars and set them upside down. Leave them like this for 4-5 hours, so they can do their separation thang. Have a Netflix marathon, make a four-course dinner, go for a run, whatever. Just DON’T TOUCH THE JARS until those 4-5 hours are up!

When you come back, they’ll look like this:

Kinda nasty, eh? Just wait – your detergent is about to become oh-so-beautiful.

Grab a mixing bowl and your hand mixer, and empty out the contents of both jars into the bowl. Make sure you scrape the sides of the jar to get all the detergent out. Now whip it! Whip it good!

…until your detergent is light and fluffy.

Ta-da! Transfer back into your (rinsed and dried) jars, and you’re done!

To use, simply add one tablespoon of detergent per load of laundry. Add it directly in with the clothes, no matter what your machine says. Take a spoonful, and put it under the running water, allowing the detergent to run off the spoon onto your dirty clothes. Close the machine up and you’re done! 

Notes: Since the soaps are already dissolved in this detergent, it won’t leave any residue on your clothes like other DIY detergents can. Also, at $1.76 for 128 loads of laundry, this one is a real money saver!

Happy Laundering,

Becca, The Semi-Homesteader

Clean & Restore: Vintage Dr. Martens — Dr. Martens are one of my favorites because of their durability. Although, I think just as important as durability is taking the care to clean, restore and repair items that have led long and reliable lives.