Small Scale Homesteading for Beginners: Best of Growing Joy Replay
Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care
Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness
4.8 • 883 Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2025
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a homesteader? A growing number of people are turning to self-sufficiency and sustainability in their way of living. However, homesteading can seem intimidating, especially when social media portrays it as an exclusive lifestyle requiring acres of land and living off the grid. The good news is that it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing lifestyle! In this episode, learn how Stephanie Thurow and Michelle Bruhn, co-authors of the book Small Scale Homesteading and absolute BFFs, are making homesteading accessible to everyone—no matter how much land you have. They share their experiences with gardening, chicken keeping, maple sugaring, and more, all while living on less than an acre in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
In this episode, we learn:
- [06:43] Stephanie & Michelle’s homesteading journey
- [13:08] The challenges of gardening in different regions (know your last frost date)
- [16:24] How Stephanie & Michelle’s friendship and shared interests led to their book “Small-Scale Homesteading”
- [17:51] What is the role of community in their homesteading journeys?
- [24:32] What is the difference between gardening and homesteading?
- [26:40] What inspired Michelle and Stephanie’s move from gardening to homesteading
- [30:50] Tips for transitioning from gardening to homesteading
- [40:21] Michelle on seed starting
- [43:36] What are the easiest seeds to save?
- [44:59] How can you preserve your homegrown food?
- [46:45] Fermentation vs pickling
- [48:36] What is water bath canning?
- [51:21] Things you should know about raising chickens!
- [01:01:13] Further homesteading stories and experiences from Michelle & Stephanie
Mentioned in our conversation:
- Book by Stephanie Thurow & Michelle Bruhn Small-Scale Homesteading: A Sustainable Guide to Gardening, Keeping Chickens, Maple Sugaring, Preserving the Harvest, and More
- Can It & Ferment It: More Than 75 Satisfying Small-Batch Canning and Fermentation Recipes for the Whole Year
- WECK Home Preserving: Made-from-Scratch Recipes for Water-Bath Canning, Fermenting, Pickling, and More
- WECK Small-Batch Preserving: Year-Round Recipes for Canning, Fermenting, Pickling, and MoreFood Preservation Cookbooks by Stephanie Thurow:
- Chicken Pens at Tractor Supply Co.
Ready to start your homesteading journey?
Check out the full show notes and blog for the best beginner tips!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When you think of the word homestead, you think of sprawling land, horses, composting, gardening, |
| 0:08.0 | jarring, canning. Kind of feels inaccessible, right, plant friends? But what if I was to tell you, |
| 0:13.7 | you could have a homestead on less than an acre? And there are people in our community that have |
| 0:18.4 | been successfully doing it for years. Today, we are celebrating the small-scale homestead and how having an accessible homestead |
| 0:26.3 | could be way closer and more attainable than you think. |
| 0:36.0 | Welcome to the Growing Joy with Plants podcast, where we not only learn how to care for plants |
| 0:40.7 | successfully, but how to simply and affordably use our plant babies to cultivate more joy |
| 0:45.6 | in our lives by doing so. |
| 0:47.6 | I'm Maria, former plant killer turned happy plant lady, author of Growing Joy, The Plant |
| 0:52.3 | Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness, Speaker, podcaster, and most importantly, your new best plant friend. |
| 0:58.1 | On Growing Joy with Plants, you'll find conversations about house plant care, gardening |
| 1:01.9 | tutorials, and wellness through the lens of plants. |
| 1:05.1 | Plant care is self-care. |
| 1:08.1 | On Growing Joy. |
| 1:14.2 | Hello, plant friends. |
| 1:15.4 | Welcome to the Best of Growing Joy series, which is going to be extra episodes released |
| 1:19.5 | every week, where I'm bringing back our top episodes from the entirety of our 300 episode |
| 1:25.0 | catalog. |
| 1:25.9 | Because we have so many new listeners, I don't want you |
| 1:28.3 | to miss some of the amazing episodes that we've had before. So today's episode is an interview |
| 1:33.7 | that I did with Stephanie Thoreau and Michelle Byrne several years ago celebrating their book |
| 1:38.7 | Small Scale Homesteading. They are best friends who also both successfully homestead were talking gardening, chicken |
... |
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