We’ve been so busy “putting things up” the past few months, and we have one more big push to do now — pumpkins — before we’re nearly done for the year.
Daryl picked up 19 pumpkins from our local farm family source for $5 today. Daryl told Mr. H that we needed one jack-o-lantern pumpkin and 9 pie pumpkins and Mr. H told him, “How about you take as many as you want for five dollars?”. After Thursday, all the ones left over are going over the fence to the cows, after all. 
We have 5 gallons of hard apple cider brewing on the kitchen counter right now and 18 pie pumpkins waiting on the lawn to become pumpkin puree tomorrow.
Oh yes, and Mr. H had a couple of extra flats of tomatoes and another big box of peppers he threw in cheap, so we need to prep those tomorrow too…
It is a lot of work, but I honestly really love this time of year and this work we do as a family together.
Over this growing season, we’ve canned, dried, frozen, foraged and otherwise “put up”:
- applesauce
- apple juice
- hard cider
- apple pie filling
- chopped apples
- green, yellow, red and purple pepper strips
- roasted onions
- shredded zucchini
- wild elderberries
- elderberry honey syrup (anti-flu medicine)
- pears in light syrup
- peaches in light syrup
- roasted pumpkin seeds
- simple roasted tomato sauce
- rhubarb
- refrigerator pickles
- traditional pickles (various recipes)
- corn (frozen and canned)
- cattail stalks
- cattail pollen (used as a flour and incredibly high in vitamins and Omega-3 fats)
- acorn flour
- mulberries
- black raspberries
- raspberries
- triple berry sauce
- mulberry fruit leather
- dandelion syrup
- tomatoes
- roasted corn salsa
- easy fresh salsa
- fresh tomato bisque
- grape juice
- grape jelly
- milkweed pods (when tiny, they can be cooked like breaded and/or sauteed and the insides are like melted mozarella cheese)
- walnuts
- various other wild berries (gooseberries, etc.)
- whatever I’ve forgotten!
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I love the fact that even 6 year-old Alex knows how to ID wild asparagus and he can’t pass by walnuts in the park without gathering them up in his shirt to bring home.
I get a kick out of teaching my kids how to do things like baking, canning, gardening and preserving the harvest. Most people used to think of these skills as those of our parents and grandparents, but I grew up with different role models.
My mother was a single mom who put herself through doctoral school and became a professor and then a prison psychologist. Her mother was a teacher, then a principal, and eventually the dean of education at an Ohio university. After retirement, she opened an educational resource center and ran that for over twenty years (she’s nearly 90 and just sold it and retired a few years ago). Her mother was a factory worker.
My mom was actually a phenomenally terrible cook. Not a single woman in my life seemed to know how to sew, garden, can, cook, bake or anything else remotely domestic. Even normal jobs related to the keeping of a home were missing from my upbringing, since we moved at least once a year, rented wherever we lived and didn’t even own furniture.
Since my mother hid me from my father until after his death, I grew up not knowing anybody on my father’s side of the family. I have been told that my grandfather loved to garden and my grandmother may have known all of the skills I missed out on from my mother’s side, but they were all dead before I found them.
So I had to teach myself. I’ve become a regular pro at some of it (cooking and gardening, especially), and I’m still working on a few of those domestic skills (like using a sewing machine and keeping my house tidy).
I do love knowing these skills, though, and I love that my kids are growing up learning them. They can choose to become deans of education and know how to grow an organic garden and pressure cook twenty-five quarts of back yard salsa.
Maria Montessori actually advised that the middle school years should focus on teaching homesteading skills instead of academics, for many reasons. We loosely follow that during the middle school years, since it seems to suit the tween years so well, developmentally. (Montessori taught that the high school years should see a refocus on academics, along with real-world work opportunities in the form of internships and volunteer work that provides helpful experience for later careers.)
I recently wrote up 10 Homesteading Skills Every Child Should Learn, and I pointed out some of the reasons it’s so good for kids to learn homesteading skills:
- They have skills that can save them a lot of money when they’re on their own, since they won’t have to hire others to do them.
- They are able to be self-sufficient and don’t have to rely on other people to help them or take care of them.
- They are able to help their neighbors and communities. They can pass on their skills and use their knowledge to help others. Homesteading practices tend to help the environment, too.
- They have the skills needed to not just survive but thrive even in difficult financial times.
- They are prepared for emergencies and challenges.
- They have what they need for financial freedom and are equipped to live comfortably within their means.
- They have added pride and the sense of accomplishment that comes from “doing it yourself” and doing it well.
I’m still working on teaching a few of the top ten list to the kids (and myself!). I put links to lessons for each category in the article, like free woodworking pages and sites that help teach kids to sew.
If you’re interested in teaching your kids homesteading skills, I also have all my favorite stuff pinned on Pinterest to boards like:
- Homesteading
- Organic Gardening
- Cooking from the Garden
- Wild Edibles
- Natural Health
- Clean and Organized
You can see all my Pinterest boards here. (BTW, if you’re on Pinterest too, leave a comment and let me know!)
Daryl also focuses on some homesteading skills like making applesauce, using wild foods and “putting up” foods in his cooking with kids column.
I honestly think that teaching our kids homesteading skills is one of the most important parts of their education. It gives them so many advantages in life, and sneaks in plenty of science, math and other subjects along the way.
I also just find that it greatly improves our quality of life, and gives us some pretty neat memories together — and really good food.
