08/25/2026
Iāve noticed a trend lately where some people feel discouraged about homesteading and their own abilities based on what they currently have or what theyāre able to do. That was really heavy on my mind tonight while I was juicing pounds of lemons and limes for marinades, lemonades and drinks, dressings, and of course margaritas and lemon drops over the next couple of weeks.
I just want to remind everyone that homesteading can be as simple as you make it. It can meet you where you are, any day of the week, in whatever way works for you.
We lost most of our fruit trees last year, right after we had finally invested in getting some baby trees. They lost all of their growth from the hard freeze, and theyāre only just now starting to come back with some decent greenery. No blooms. No key lime pie dreams or Meyer lemons for sweet treats. No juicy tangelos. We had to let go of those dreams for this year, and thatās okay. You donāt have to have a thriving orchard to still be homesteading.
Itās okay to buy a bag of lemons or limes from the store because your trees arenāt producing yet. Itās okay to spend twenty minutes hand squeezing 2 pounds of lemons and 3 pounds of limes and call that a win. What you are capable of doing with what you have available to you IS ENOUGH.
Please donāt look at the aesthetic homesteads and farms online with their perfect gardens, beautiful harvests, seasonal produce plans and perfectly stocked pantries and think youāre doing less because yours doesnāt look like that. Homesteading doesnāt have to look a certain way. It can be growing a few tomatoes in a pot. It can be baking your own bread. It can be raising chickens. It can be buying produce from the grocery store and preserving it yourself. It can be learning one new skill at a time.
Thatās the beauty of homesteading. It can meet you right in the middle, wherever you are. Start with what you have. Do what you can. THAT is enough.