Top 5 Things I do in the Homestead Kitchen

   Our family is preparing for a homestead life.  One area of focus for us is in the kitchen.  We have been making small changes over time to adjust our living habits so that when we do move to a 40+ acre house, it won't be a total shock.

1 - Hand Wash Dishes

I personally have never liked using a dishwasher even when I lived in an apartment.  It kept leaving that weird white residue all over my see through glasses.  Which made them not very see through and more cringe worthy to use.  Clean water glasses should not make you cringe when you go to use it.  So this switch was quite easy to make and actually welcoming.

Now, we do enlist our children to wash dishes. Not that they enjoy it, but hey, it teaches them to help with dinner time and we all have a role to play. 

You might say that, "Hey, most homes have working dishwashers now.  Why not use them?"  It's quite possible that older farm houses don't have that updated appliance.  We are trying to be more efficient with using less electricity and more with our hands.  

2 - Hang Used Dish Washcloths and Towels

This helps from them getting that weird foul smell.  Our dish clothes we can now use over and over before they need to be properly washed.  Saves on time and money. 

We have a washcloth hanging rack under our sink and a paper towel dispenser that's mounted under the cabinet.  We use that for our hand towel since we have a dog who loves to chew up materials (a very annoying habit).

3 - Cook From Scratch

Let's face it, homemade food just taste so much better than boxed food.  It's cheaper too.  Fresh, real ingredients are healthier and look appealing.  The taste is much more vibrant.  Plus, I know what we are actually putting in our bodies.  

I started cooking from scratch before I started growing a garden.  This process really helped me to know what to grow because I also knew what I was more comfortable with cooking.  For example, eggplant seeds and starting plants are everywhere to buy, but how many people are really cooking and eating eggplant?  I sure wasn't.  I did buy some and tried them in a few recipes before deciding for sure that I was not interested in growing them because I just couldn't use them well in my cooking.

4 - Portion Meat to Meal Sizes

When I buy meat, I try to buy in bulk.  Not like a quarter of a cow bulk, but 5 pounds of hamburger at a time kind of deal.  I like to squeeze out one (secret) extra meal out of this. For example: 5 lbs = 6 meals.  Slightly less but no one will know and it helps our pocket a bit.  My freezer is becoming full of dinner portion meats.  I label them (because I will forget) and put if there's extra portions in case we are planning guest to be over for dinner with us.  I don't want 4 chicken thighs for 5 people. 

Since we don't do frozen meals, there is so much available room in our freezer for meat.  So when it does go on sale or I find a really good buy, I get a lot.  

5 - Dehydrate Extra Fruit

It's hard to keep fresh fruit in our kitchen for long because they do rot quickly.  I love to buy extra when the sales happen, but then it goes bad.  However, when we got a dehydrator one summer, I fell in love with it.  Certain fruits go for really cheap at certain times of the year and now I can go crazy on them.  I buy a ton and dehydrate most of them.  When things are about to go bad, I dehydrate them.  

When we go camping (which we do about 4 times a year), we have dehydrated fruit (or jerky) that's light and easily portable.  

Building up my pantry of healthy snacks is great too!

In Conclusion

These 5 simple changes I've made in our kitchen I would gladly make even if we weren't planning on being homesteaders.  I feels like our home flows better and I'm more prepared when it comes to feeding our family which is a very nice feeling.