Hi, I’m Laura
Rooted Homestead is a half-acre in Zone 7a Tennessee that my husband Ben and I have been slowly turning into something that feeds us. It started as a kitchen garden that got out of hand, then a few laying hens, then a pressure canner that intimidated me for a full year before I used it.
I am not a farmer and this is not a farm. Ben builds things in the barn. I grow, preserve and keep track of what actually worked. Most of what you read online about homesteading assumes you have forty acres, a tractor and unlimited weekends. We have none of those, so everything here is written for people working a normal-sized piece of ground around a normal life.
What you will find here
- Vegetable gardening on a small footprint, including the layouts and varieties that earned their space.
- Water bath and pressure canning, fermenting and dehydrating, written by someone who has ruined batches and says so.
- Chickens, compost, root cellaring and the other projects that are cheaper to do right the first time.
- Honest accounting of cost, time and whether we would do it again.
How I write
Every guide on this site comes from something we tried on our own ground. When a method failed, the failure is in the post. When I cite a number, such as a frost date, a processing time or a seed spacing, I say where it comes from. If something is only my experience, I say that too.
You can find Rooted Homestead on Pinterest, where most of our readers come from. If you have a question about a post, the comments are open and I read all of them.