Have you just stepped off on a new homemaking adventure? Have you been at it for a while now? Readers would love to hear from you. When people are considering making major life changes, the stories of others on similar paths can be extremely helpful and deeply inspirational. Tell us how you came to this path, the challenges you’ve overcome, the changes you are bringing about, the impact you feel you are having. Please be sure to check back to answer any questions folks may have for you!
20 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
I was raised in the “big” city and was content to stay the course until I lost my health. As I started researching ways to address my health issues, I was horrified at how the food we ate, the water we drank, the clothes we wore and the homes we lived in profoundly affected our health.
After a few years of in depth research, we decided to pull the plug on rampant consumerism and learn to do things like our grand/great grandparents did them. Cooking from scratch is now such a part of our lives that we don’t even think about it. Going out to eat just isn’t an option anymore. Why pay twice the money for half (or less) the quality.
We moved to a rural area, found a home where we could have chickens, orchards, garden, etc. got in touch with local farmers, learned to knit, can, make soap, and a hundred other things that our ancestors accepted as everyday living. Our children are better for this lifestyle and we feel we are healthier. Instead of sitting, planted in front of the TV we spend time watching our chickens, working in the garden, exploring the river, really living kind of things.
It has been difficult, two steps forward-one step back, but we would never give up this life. Each year we look forward to learning new skills and have networked with those who can teach and guide us. We are very fortunate to live in an area which offers such rich opportunities for self-sufficiency.
Shannon, biggest congrats on your new book! I traded my business suit for an apron to work on my Cook for Good project, which helps people save money, eat delicious food, and make a difference. We can help ourselves, our families and community, and our planet by buying sustainably grown food and eating with the seasons.
For more than two years, I’ve been tracking grocery prices and developing recipes, menus, and cooking plans. In November 2009, my average meal per person cost $1.07 using thrifty ingredients and only $1.73 for the “green” plan, which uses mostly sustainably grown and organic ingredients. (It’s all vegetarian, but helps those who want to afford meat from kindly raised, grass-fed animals.)
At first, I ruined several batches of yogurt, baked flat or odd bread, and stayed up late waiting for food to cool. But now that I’ve figured it all out, it’s a snap. The food is scrumptious, our health is excellent, and we get some peace of mind knowing that we are making a real difference in our local economy and global environment. My husband and I both work at home, enjoying lunch together nearly every day and glad to be out of the rat race.
So glad you are helping to bring back the nearly lost art of homemaking. … Linda
Wow! New sisters! Yesterday when I was feeling a tad lonely, Shannon’s email about her book showed up. It was perfect timing as we are contemplating the possiblity of my returning to paid work….. I have a Master’s degree in nursing and lots of work experience in hospice, cancer nursing and geriatrics. But that was over 15 years ago! Now college expenses are looming on the horizon, so I am wavering. Been home raising two awesome sons during that time (now 16 and 18) and got seriously into beekeeping, raising chickens for eggs and gardening. Just got elected President of our county beekeeping club and now care for over 20 hives and 40 chickens. (All on 4 acres in the suburbs!) Ours is definitely the “different” house, but the neighborhood kids flock here. They ask why I hang my laundry out on the clothesline, “can I see the chicks?” and a million other questions. I have NO regrets. Every moment spent outside is worth it! The slower pace is healthier and the time invested in being there for my family is bearing fruit in our sons and marriage. The best part lately has been finding local farmers and their awesome food! The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture has been a great resource here outside of Philadelphia (www.pasafarming.org). As more farmer’s markets and CSA’s open it will be easier for folks over the next few years to find these foods than it has been in the past 5 years when I began my searching! Shannon’s Grassfed Gourmet book is a true inspiration and has really helped my know how to prepare these great foods. I highly recommend it! Can’t wait to get this new book and correspond with all you like minded homemakers! I’d love to offer encouragement (and get some too) with this “radical counter cultural” group. Sign me up!
Thanks so much Shannon. This revolution has been going on quietly for some time now but honestly, it has more power and meaning when it is named and claimed.
We live on a small farm we call Bit of Earth Farm http://www.bitofearthfarm where we raise cows, chickens, turkeys, bees and produce.
We’ve been going our own way in for a long time, sharing our path quietly when asked. We homeschool, eat locally as much as possible, live gently, practice mirth and don’t take ourselves too seriously.
I teach non-violence classes and write when I’m not making cheese, sewing with repurposed materials or causing a ruckus. My book Free Range Learning explains how natural education can, and is, changing rigid structures around us.
I welcome conversation on farming, sustainability, education and more. Visit me at http://www.lauragraceweldon.com
Thanks again Shannon. I keep rolling around the term Radical Homemakers. It says so much.
I grew up in a farming community but it wasn’t really part of my life. When I took a job working in public relations for an international relief & development organization, I began to realize that what we eat has an impact on the world around us. Around the same time I decided to do something about my weight, and learned a lot about needing natural foods to be healthy. So glad to read about this book – it comes at a good time in my journey.
You can read more about me trying to cook locally and in season at http://thelocalcook.com
Holy Smokes! How am I just now finding this site???? The internet is a strange and complex maze….
Instead of sharing my story here (I’m much to wordy) please visit my blog and read my about page Cowgirl, Renegade, Cookie Baker at
http://apronstringz.wordpress.com/cowgirl-renegade-cookie-baker/
I am so excited about this site! and am off to order the book post haste. I’ve been calling it “revolutionary housewifery,” but radical homemaking is maybe better. the gender neutral-ness is good. But, being the feisty little scrap that I am, i couldn’t help but want to dredge the word “housewife” out of the mud, where anyone and everyone has been tramping on it, and flaunt it in the face of Progress.
Ahem.
Glad to meet you, friends!
I just discovered this site today by reading an article in Simple Living News and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve been married for 20 years now and have 3 children. I started married life in the work force. When I got pregnant with my second child I opted out to raise my kids. After a time, I was bored and went back to work. Then our third child came along. Again, I opted out and raised my babies but eventually went back to work again. I just couldn’t find my place. Then, health issues arose so I was out of work again. But I didn’t want to be bored. Sitting around watching soap operas and cleaning house just wasn’t doing it for me. So, I started watching hgtv to learn ways to make my cleaning chores easier. Around about the same time I started seriously getting concerned about the environment and healthy living. Even voluntary simplicity was of interest. My family thought I was nuts so I let it go but stuck with trying to make my chores less mundane. I also started really learning how to cook instead of just mixing up a box of something. It had been a struggle to find things to keep me busy. Then I learned cross stitch. That helped and consumed much of my time for many years. But still I felt cluttered, stressed, bored and lonely. When my oldest daughter reached 5th grade I decided to homeschool my kids. Suddenly I had PLENTY to keep me busy. But, in educating my children, I didn’t want to just teach them what the schools did. I wanted to teach them practical life skills. So we cooked. We made things. We gardened. We learned together. Oh, I’d dabbled in each of those things here and there over the years but we REALLY got into them. My oldest daughter is now graduated, married and a licensed massage therapist. She’s loving her career and works for a great spa. My son is now in college learning gaming and is well on his way to his dream career. My youngest opted to go to high school at a public school and was recently accepted to the academy of her choice. She’s well on her way to her dream career as well. However, me no longer homeschooling freed up a huge chunk of my day and I was beginning to feel the sting of too much free time on my hands. I’m a busy person in that I need occupations to feel fulfilled. I’m just not the couch potato I used to be in my younger days. I’ve been struggling with this for a few months now and can honestly say it was getting the better of me. I’d been led back to the voluntary simplicity movement for several reasons. It appeals to the eco-geek in me on every level. It makes life less cluttered as well. Plus, I’d read 2 things that really struck me. There is a Shaker philosophy that hit home of “Never make anything unless its both practical and necessary. If its practical and necessary, make it beautiful.” Wow! Suddenly I was opened up to the world of crochet and sewing and the simple joy of finishing something beautiful and useful. Another was the basic tenet of voluntary simplicity “Get rid of everything that doesn’t matter to make room for what does.” Aha! So that’s what I’d been doing since last year when I’d been going through everything in the house and clearing things out. That’s why my home has been a revolving door of freecyclers and I’d spent more on gas to drop things off at the thrift store than trips to the store to buy new things. I recently purchased a deep freeze and started stocking my pantry and freezing leftovers (so I wouldn’t have to rely on processed or fast foods when in a time crunch) in an effort to ensure my family’s food supply is cared for. I’ve even started a container vegetable & herb garden to provide for some of our food needs. “Charity begins at home.” I’ve heard that so often but added, “So does everything else!” Environmental stewardship, family, personal accountability, education, even my personal spiritual path is tied up in hearth and home, simple living and being environmentally responsible and sustainable. But, as I said, this site (and the book I’ll soon be ordering) couldn’t have come at a better time. To be honest, I was feeling as if there was still something missing. Like there was some key element that wasn’t there to pull everything together for me. Like I wasn’t doing enough for the greater good. Now I see, just by reading what I have on your site. What was missing was a proper attitude and understanding of what I was/am doing and of who I am…a proud Cottage Witch and Radical Homemaker! Thank you SO much! You really have put things into perspective for me. With my path once again clearly defined, I head to the kitchen to try that new recipe for biscuits since I didn’t like the one I tried yesterday. Hmmmm….I really need to find a good pattern to make myself a proper apron!
Oh! I forgot to add, please visit my blog at http://jennascottage.blogspot.com/ . I’m journalling about my experiences there. I’ll definitely be adding a link to this site in my blog roll!
Excited to buy the book and read and learn. I set aside my Real Estate Appraisal business to be at home with the family grow a garden, sew, knit and aim toward being self sufficiant. I have a lot to learn, but I think this is going to be a very exciting adventure!
After living in the city for five or so years, my husband and I returned to where we met in college in the Hudson Valley to buy a house and have a baby. Being at home with my son is, I realize, what I am destined to do, and need I mention that it’s volumes more worthwhile than the many office jobs I’ve held? Good on you for bringing attention to the need for validation of this kind of lifestyle. I garden, preserve, bake and cook and never tire of it, but it makes a difference when there are reminders saying: this is worthwhile! I blog a bit at http://whatjuliaate.blogspot.com and that keeps me attached to a lively bunch of people with similar ideas and passions.
Not much of a story here, but I just wanted to take the moment and congratulate you on your good work!
More than five years ago, I decided to learn a new homemaking skill a year. It started with soap making and from there: knitting, gardening, canning, composting, beekeeping and this year {hopefully} making cheese. We are hoping one day to move out of the suburbs and onto some acreage. My blog goes into our adventures: the suburban road less traveled
I had to post because I too get neighbors asking me why I hang my laundry. One neighborhood boy asked me “Why? It’s not Earth Day today.” I went on to tell him that every day is Earth Day at our house.
For now, I’m in school hoping to major in sustainable agriculture. I’ve realized that other “radical homemakers” are my favorite people to meet. So willing to share their knowledge & ask for help learning something new.
Thanks so much for promoting a lifestyle that I am happy & proud to be a part of!
I have been a radical homemaker for nearly 25 years now. My high school friends all wanted to run off to explore the world and everything it had to offer, while I was content to stay behind, find my soul mate and raise a family in the suburban house with the white picket fence.
I did find my soul mate, and we’ve been together 31 years now, married 28. We raised two sons, I was a home school mom when it wasn’t popular, in fact I was the second home schooler in our area. We forged the path for those who would come in the future, and come they did! We raised hens for eggs and meat, bees for honey and pollinatio,n and grew large gardens of vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. We also planted plum, apricot, pear and apple trees in addition to blueberry bushes and grapes. A mulberry tree grows across the street from our driveway on a bit of no-mans land, and we harvest the berries from it, too. When we bought the home, we had 5 big maple trees we would tap for syrup. Storms have taken out 3 of them, a turned over winter salting truck killed one, and one tree remains. But we still tap it along with a few neighbors’ trees, to get about 2 gallons of syrup. In fact, my two sons (25 and 23) tap the trees and boil down the sap.
My eldest son keeps the bees and makes wine from the mulberries and many other fruits. He even made wine from spearmint, which I thought would be just awful but to my surprise, it is delicious!!! We grow a large garden of tomatoes, peppers, summer squashes, winter squashes, eggplant, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, onions, carrots, green beans and cucumbers. Our hens (affectionately known as ‘the girls’) are happy and healthy and provide in abundance. We have truly been blessed with the work of our hands. Plenty for us and plenty to share. We are constantly aware of our place on this planet of ours, and do our best to make our little 1 acre plot of land a paradise. I am incensed when I go to the market, and, understanding the need to watch our carbon footprint, I am unable to find a single piece of produce grown in this country, let alone my locale. Granted, it is winter, but this is a big country and it isn’t winter everywhere. Everything comes from Mexico or Chile. My response to that is grow it in the summer, can it or freeze it and eat it all winter.
Shannon and Bob and all,
I just read Peggy Orenstein’s NYT mag piece on femavores, and it was definitely worth having to read her describe her chicken-keeping-stay-at-home-mom friends as “precious” so that I could find out about Shannon’s new book. I can’t wait to read it!
I’ve always been a gardener, but it wasn’t until I kind of accidently became a part-time-working, mostly-staying-at-home parent that I really got into urban homesteading/revolutionary homemaking. Since I enjoy my life now and have mostly come to terms about what I’ve given up to get here (a job as a tenure-track professor), I hadn’t realized how amazing it would feel to have some outside affirmation about my choices. Just reading the blurbs on the cover of your new book made me feel great, though, so I guess I was looking for some affirmation! I look forward to reading it.
One thing that I especially enjoy is doing this work within the context of an urban neighborhood; it’s fantastic to walk down an alley in my neighborhood and hear someone else’s chickens calling– it’s like hearing our secret password to a new world. I’ve also gotten so much out of neighborhood-wide projects and workshops on topics like gleaning, seed saving and exchanging, bee keeping, etc. It’s great fun and important work to do this stuff in my own household, but it’s the connections with others doing similar things that keep me going and growing. Thanks for this connection!
Goodbye big business BS. I just bought a farm. Hello Earth.
I have been raising kids, grade dairy goats, Pyrenees dogs, ducks, and chickens in a 1/5 acre lot in the middle of a small town for a little over a decade. (the city counsel hated it, but I was grandfathered in so there. ;-P )
I have learned to make my own cheese and bread, sew, crochet, spin and weave. We finally made the jump to the farm from the town house a little under a year ago. We now live in an owner-built house here at Welcome Home Farm, and here I thought I was a throw-back because I chose to be a work at home farm mom…I’m an alternative feminist!
Thought I was living the “hippie MBA” life but perhaps I’m a radical homemaker at heart. Left a marketing career of developing “not so good for you” products for big brands to start a nonprofit featuring “NOURISH Farm to Table Tour.”
The NOURISH tour experience starts with a volunteer group and a NOURISH tour guide. We meet at a local organic farm where everyone rolls up thier sleeves and harvests vegetables for that night’s dinner. Next we load up the vegetables and drive to a homeless shelter where a volunteer chef teaches the volunteers & the homeless how to prepare dinner using the freshly harvested vegetables and other ingredients. Dinner is shared family style.
I’ve never been happier, my kids are definately happier (and for teenagers that’s no small feat). Though the words “career suicide” come to mind more often than I’d like to admit.
I left these comments as a review on Amazon, but, really, this is a Thank You letter to the author of this book, so…
This is a very subjective and emotional review, admittedly, BUT I just wanted to thank this author for lifting the monkey of guilt off my back…the one that’s been living there, whispering little nasties in my ear, ever since I left my Ph.D. program, abandoned my dissertation, shocked my fellow feminist academicians, disappointed my ambitious father, and exchanged the career track for two decades of living simply, raising my daughters, and doing our little part to save the environment.
Back in 1991, when my second daughter was born, my husband and I had no “manifesto” to explain our decision to scale back our lives. No one had attached a “name” to the conclusion I reached–after an ordeal of soul-searching, self-doubt, and even recrimination–that staying home with my babies, scaling back our ambitions and our lifestyle, and throwing my energies into raising our own organic food, becoming caretaker to a large flock of (although we didn’t call them that at the time) natural, pastured chickens, of spending many, many hours volunteering with other like-minded women in our community health food cooperative, of devoting time and effort to various environmental organizations and causes, working for politicians who had believed as we did, and–most importantly–unschooling my two girls so that the world became their classroom and their minds were not limited by pedagogy or ideology, was THE most worthwhile use of my time, my passions, and my talents.
Nope. It was just a bizarre detour from my carefully laid, feminist plans. This was a life choice my husband and I HAD to make, because in our hearts we could accept no other, but society (and my own critical, Intellectual Self) sneered at our rusticity, our modest income, my domesticity, our family-centered existence. And I never, ever was able to dispel the vague shame that I had somehow, some way, failed myself and my feminist beliefs.
It was a lonely row to how, back then. My colleagues went on to professorships, acclaim, even some modest fame. I collected eggs, read to my children (and then taught them to read) picked and jammed strawberries, marched in parades for liberal politicians, stuffed envelopes for “good causes” and made ends meet. By conventional standards, I had “wasted my valuable education” and yet–when I looked at those healthy, happy, flourishing faces smiling up at me like sunflowers, when my Little Family paused at the end of a quiet, green, sunny spell of learning and playing and experiencing the day ON OUR OWN SCHEDULE, when I saw the stress that eroded the contentment of so many of my contemporaries–the rushing and dashing and scheduling and conflicting desires–our choices seemed right for us, and no waste at all. But…how I wish I’d had a greater sense of community! Of someone else to say, “Oh, yes…we reached the same conclusions and made the same “sacrifices” and we don’t think you are nuts.”
THIS book is that long-awaited community, that absolution of the last vestiges of guilt (”quitter…quitter”..taunted the little voice in my ear) still remaining, 20 years later. For publishing this, you have my deepest, most heartfelt gratitude.
Shannon,
Your book is a gift, and will be for countless souls. I left an unhappy, unhealthy marriage and gilded cage to lead a more simple and true life. After leaving my career, I stayed home with my children then. I stay home with my children now. But now we are happier, healthier. Even our dogs are more well adjusted. We live on 1/4 the income we used to. Financial support from my childrens father, random money making endeavors of my own. We have more money in the bank then we ever did when i was married. Because we are not spending it. Because we are growing our food, playing at home, spending time with friends, making stuff, building stuff, walking in the woods, being content. Our life is so sweet here, I dont want to go out and buy things. I want to stay home and play in the dirt, build fairy houses with my children. Im working on a friends organic farm in exchange for vegetables, knowledge, experience and community. We shop in thrift stores and do clothing swaps. For two weeks I kept a box of clothes in my house and in my car that friends could ’shop’ in or add too. Seven of us ladies got something fabulous and new to us. The first year after I left the marriage, my two children and I led a beautiful, rich life on $15,000 while i took care of a dying friend. Our total income that year was $30,000 but i put that other half away. Im a big fan of enough. Peace and beauty abound in this life if only we take the time.
My feminist mother worked. I was a ‘latch key’ kid from 10 on. And though I learned from her and admire her strength, I always promised myself I wouldnt do that. Somebody should be home for the children. So the criticism that rains down on us, and the voice of self doubt that sometimes chimes in, oh well. Im doing what I truly believe is best for my kids, my self, the community and the earth. Leading a gentler life.
Rock on.
Hello there! Wonderful book–thank you. I thought y’all might be interested to read my comment on Peggy Orenstein’s troubling piece in the NYT Mag last weekend:
http://southernurbanhomestead.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/urban-farm-feminism/
After pouring ourselves into a franchise business money pit and my husband traveling 25 out of 30 days of the month. Something had to give…it wasn’t the marriage or the kids, it was the 5 bedroom house, 3/4 acre lawn and all of our “stuff”! We downsized into a 28′ travel trailer rv and began to travel with my husband’s work as a family on the road http://www.familiesontheroad.com . The freedom of not having mountains of laundry, a huge house to clean, clutter and too many kid activities has lead to a simpler way of living and being. Every day is an adventure as we explore different aspects of the US. As a result of our journey I am helping to found a holistic sustainable living retreat & educational center where we will honor authors and books just like yours!