Many people today have a dream of starting a homestead farm. Some feel it is too distant a reality to even imagine. Others are close and making plans. A few have actually taken that leap of faith by diving into homesteading, on a whim, a prayer and a bunch of grit.
Teresa and Lee McCullar, are well on their way to living their dream. They fall into that last category. They’ve taken that leap and are living the homesteading life. While they’ll be the first to admit that it’s not easy, and they’re barely getting by, they wouldn’t trade their hardest day homesteading for their best day working for someone else and living in town.
That’s the essence of life… learning and growing as we go. It’s important to have a plan and a goal to work toward, but we don’t have to have it all figured out to get started.
The main purpose of sharing this story is to show that there’s more than one way to start homesteading and market gardening, even if you don’t have the money or land at first. Hopefully, the McCullar’s story will help generate ideas for you to consider, if you have a homesteading dream.
Even if you have the land and money to start, there are ideas here that might kickstart some ideas that might work for you.
Creative Financing
Teresa, 36, and Lee, 38, set out on their dream a couple years ago, along with Lee’s teenage son. A friend had property he wasn’t using with back taxes due. He paid half and they paid the other half, and ended up with one acre for just $1,400 in back taxes in Dalton, Minnesota.
Creative Homesteading Tip #1: you may be able to buy land cheap for just the back taxes.
Not Easy, but Possible
The McCullars are working hard in a number of ways to make ends meet. It’s definitely not easy, but what they’re proving is that it’s possible with some creative trading and bartering. They help an 87 year old farmer plant, harvest and sell his onions. It’s a win-win for all of them. For 12 years now, Teresa has helped Ellard with his crops.
When it’s time to harvest the onions, Teresa helps distribute the onions ordered from Ellard for 50 cents per pound wholesale to local grocery stores, which earns her a winter supply of onions and other produce Ellard’s land provides. Then she helps sell some at the Farmer’s Markets for $1 per pound, depending on the timing, harvest and going rate, and then splits the Farmers Market money with Ellard.
Ellard, with the McCullar’s help is also growing about 100 tomatoes on half an acre, plus beets and white and red potatoes. Teresa’s family gets their fill of these, plus buy them wholesale from Ellard to sell at retail at the Farmer’s Market.
Teresa grew up farming, and missed it, so long before she and Lee staked their homestead claim, they were drawn back to helping farm when and where they could. They have two grandmothers, parents, aunts and uncles, all living in the area and now they’re following in the family legacy. Farming runs in their blood.
So… if you have a dream to homestead, one of the best ways to gain experience and earn money before taking the leap is to help other farmers now. If you wanted to start a restaurant, the best way to get into that would be to work at a restaurant first. That strategy would apply to any business you might want to own, and works for homesteading too.
Creative Homesteading Tip #2: you can help other farmers with their crops and selling to market.
Here’s 18,000 hand planted Texas candy onions.
Whatever it Takes
The McCullars are versatile and creative in the many ways they work to earn a living homesteading. In addition to helping Ellard with his onions, they help “Grandpa Gary” with his tree farm. They help other farmers, grow and sell some of their own produce, and are gradually increasing this each year, and they’ll also be selling baby chicks, eggs, and more over time.
The thing about all these different pieces and ventures is that it keeps it interesting for them. They enjoy the variety of all that they do, while steadily working on growing their own homestead farm.
They’re raising a baby calf now which they rescued from a local dairy farm. It was injured and the farmer didn’t have time to baby it, but the McCullars do, so they’re healing its injury and nurturing (babying it actually ) back to health. So now they have a cow… for free.
And remember, some of what they’re selling at the Farmer’s Market and curbside, they didn’t even grow on their own land yet.
Homesteading Tip #3: Look for opportunities to trade or barter.
Garden Bounty from the McCullar Garden
Teresa said, “My little at-home garden is enough to eat on for the summer plus seed bank to continuously get larger every year. I have 30 plus tomato plants this year.”
