Summer is closing down for most of us. We are in the end stages of harvest and beginning stages of preserve, prepare and cozy up for the Fall and Winter. Sometimes when all of our dedication has gone to Summer tasks like gardening we often feel lost when Fall and Winter come around. What do we do with our time now? (I write this post primarily for myself). Fall is a time to relax but many of us still need something to do, especially if you are like me and can get kind of downcast as the weather changes. This is five homesteading skills to learn on the downtime of Fall and Winter. Skills that are so useful to know and so worth knowing!
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Let’s learn some new homesteading skills this Fall!
These seasons are beautiful illustrations of how much God longs for us to slow down and rest sometimes. We watch all of nature do this and we ourselves can’t seem to settle down. Which is okay’ but I think we better learn to aim our work towards things that still reflect this time of hunkering down. If you struggle during these two seasons it probably has more to do with how and where you spend your time more than anything else. I know that when I have something meaningful to do with my hands that I always feel better. Gardening practically cured my anxiety and depression. So what now?
If you want to cure boredom, or the feeling of being stuck indoors. No matter what the reason it’s time to find some hobbies for colder months that explore the same characteristics as our favorite Summer activities: the outdoors, purpose, usefulness, fun, there is so many. While also respecting the flow of the Seasons to be cozy and to rest.
With this all in mind, let’s get right into it.
1.) Sewing
The first thing on my list is sewing. This is such a productive and achieving hobby. It provides for you and your family, and it’s go fulfilling. As an adult it is a hobby that allows you to learn, to level up, to grow and just like gardening it creates. With hard work your hands can make beautiful things. I remember when I first learned to sew many Winter’s ago. Let me tel you, it provided the same euphoria as those long Summertime days. We were meant to do things with our hands and when the thing we do is this purposeful it can really affect our mental health and our hearts.
It can be overwhelming to learn what you need to get started so I made a list below of essentials to get this hobby started! Each item was picked for price not aesthetics just so you know! There is cute irons but they cost fifty dollars not seventeen! This is so that you can have a cheap start for if you don’t like it or don’t catch on!
“She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.”Proverbs 31:21-22 ESV
2.) Learn about Natural Cures and Herbal Remedies
Fall and Winter are the perfect times to learn more about herbal remedies. So many of our herbs are dried for tea and there is no better time for tea than when it’s chilly and cold. Reading up on herbs and natural remedies and incorporating touches of the practice into each of your days can not only give you something to do but it can be extremely beneficial for your family. This is something that will also benefit your Spring and Summer by giving you the knowledge you will need to grow an herb garden of your own for the next Fall and Winter.
Related Post: 11 Must Have’s for your at Home Apothecary
If this is something you want to get into starting with a small amount of herbs and a few books on the subject is all you need to begin. As you learn you can begin making your own oils, medicines and more. “The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies” and the “Complete Beginners Guide to Herbalism” are both highly rated books! You can get dried herbs from local natural medicine shops, or a favorite of mine online is Nichols Garden Nursery. They have lots of good teas and different herbs for sale!
3.) Learn to Knit and Crochet
If you are looking for something that doesn’t take so much work like sewing, and learning from a book doesn’t scream “fun and cozy” for Fall then there are many other options. Learning to see and knit are both great and necessary homesteading skills to obtain and they just scream cozy. Watch a favorite movie with a warm drink while you knit yourself a scarf for the cold Winter ahead. This is productive, useful, relaxing and the products are unbeatable. Amazon sells beginner kits for both the hobby of crocheting and knitting. Clicking the pictures below will bring you right to them.
4.) Sourdough and Bread Making
Nothing beats the smell of warm homemade bread and the taste will make you never desire store bought bread again. Learning to make bread is another labor of love you can give your family especially in these colder seasons. It is much cheaper and most homemade bread recipes have four ingredients- while store bought can climb near twenty. Sourdough is a craft of its own and can become a very fun hobby. One that tastes delicious that is! I make far more regular loaves than sourdough and both are fun and can be super easy!
To learn more about sourdough you can check out our posts on sourdough starters and frequently asked sourdough questions! Otherwise Amazon has an incredibly handy and simple sourdough starter kit with instructions and tools to help your sourdough be a success. They also have some really amazing bread cookbooks that will help you majorly. Having a ton of bread recipes in one place on my shelf is always my go to option over a recipe from the Internet. Bread is mostly simply understood in book form is my motto. Some recipes get over complicated and can seem overwhelming, having a bread cookbook can eliminate that factor, truthfully!
5.) Learn How to Make Your Own Foods
What I mean by this is: butter, kombucha, cheese, and similar foods. There is a lot of foods we can make at home that we often rely on the store for. Though you still need to source the milk or kombucha scoby it can be really handy to know the logistics of turning those things into food and drinks. Making milk or heavy cream into other things- especially edible foods is a craft we are losing. So I say learn this Fall and Winter to create foods in your own home. Growing your own food may be on hold but that doesn’t mean you can’t create it in other ways. The Lord has taught us this way of life for thousands of years and in the modern world we are losing the design of the family and the farm, the ability to provide for ourselves. So let’s take some time learning these skills back!
Homesteading doesn’t have to stop when the garden is resting and the snow pouring this winter. Learn these five homesteading skills and more this Fall and Winter for a more productive and fun homestead!
We hope you learned lots from this post and make it a point to have fun with new hobbies this Fall and Winter. Do you have a favorite? Some homesteading skills you want to learn? God bless you and thank you for reading. It’s always our hope that you gain knowledge through our posts, definitely let us know if that is accomplished and if you have any blog post requests or homestead questions! Fun homesteading!
