I think the main question I hear over and over again, is “can you homestead on less than 5 acres?” The short answer is yes. However, I keep hearing people telling others that unless you have 5 or more acres it’s not a homestead. My question to them is why not?

I am a firm believer that one should start where they are. If there is no yard, do container gardening in the window sills. Use your kitchen waste for compost. You don’t need a whole lot of soil for containers. You can start with herbs to use in your kitchen or some vegetables grow well in containers too. It all depends on what you want and what you need.

Honestly, we are on just over 1 acre and we are listed by the state as a farm. I put in for our farm number this year with the Farm Service Agency. That is 1 acre. So why would someone need 5 or more to do this? You don’t! Yes, more land would be better but it’s not necessary to be homesteading.

We have a fairly large garden, chickens, goats, cows, and pigs. They all have 1/2 an acre to roam on and for what we have, that is plenty. We are growing the majority of our food. We have fresh eggs every day. We have fresh goats milk (the cow is too young for breeding just yet). We have most of what we need. If I could just get the herbs going we wouldn’t have to go the store for much of anything. So when someone tells you that you can’t homestead on less than 5 acres, find out why they feel that way and then explain to them that you are!

Have a great day!

Renee