The other night I was thinking about the homesteading skills I learned from my grandmothers. They were very different women, each with their own skill set. Neither of these women were homesteaders really but they had vintage skills to share with me…sadly, at the time, I wasn’t very interested in learning them. But it got me thinking about homesteading skills; how important it is that we learn them and begin to teach them to others (especially the younger generation).
These vintage skills were naturally passed on for generations. That is until many of us moved into cities and found that we enjoyed convenience over quality. However in the last few years I have seen a revival of homesteading – from small backyard homesteaders to those leaving city life behind and moving onto acres in the country. But what homesteading skills do we really need? Where can we learn them and who needs to be taught?
Homesteading Skills We Need to Learn and Teach
Well I’m glad you asked! I formulated a little list of what I think are the most important homesteading skills that we need to learn. Now I’m not saying these are the only homesteading skills you need, nor am I saying you are not a homesteader if you do not know how to do some of these. But I do believe we all should be doing our best to acquire and then pass down these skills; and I’ll share why as well as some resources.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you, before we head into the list, is to take on one or two skills at a time. If you try to learn and execute them all at once, you are going to do them poorly and probably burn out.
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So I sat down and made a list of of the vintage cooking skills or kitchen skills. Some of these may feel extreme for you while others may be ones you know well and can’t believe anyone doesn’t know it. But bear with me because there is something here for all of us to learn! Never assume that these old-fashioned skills are used by anyone, just because you and a group of people on a forum are putting them to practice….
Homestead mentors are more important than you can ever imagine. As a modern homesteader there are so many tools at our disposal and ways we can learn so many skills (like homestead bloggers). So you may feel like that online community and a few books are all you need to start your homestead journey. And you might do just fine. But the reality is that a homestead mentor could be the difference between “just fine” and “kicking some homesteading butt”.