Self-sufficiency skills, or homesteading skills, are a set of skills that will give you the means to survive in any survival situation.
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Self-Sufficiency Skills Every Prepper Must Be Equipped With
— This post is courtesy of homesteading.com and shared with permission —
To be an ultimate homesteader requires a set of homesteading skills essential for success.
Homestead living, off-grid living, or self-sufficient living is flat-out challenging. But getting to know these practical homesteading skills will save you from half the trouble of this amazing journey.
Check this list for the homesteading skills you might be missing and get working!
Food Preparation Skills
1. Canning Homegrown Produce
Growing your own food will furnish you with more fruits and vegetables than you can handle.
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Preserve them naturally through canning so you can eat wholesomely all year long.
2. Prepare Wheat Without a Grinder
If you don’t have a grinder or wheat mill, there are other brilliant ways to prepare wheat.
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You see, homesteaders are such ingenious fellows; there’s no obstacle we can’t overcome.
3. Baking Your Own Bread
Never rely again on grocery store bread with bleached flour or expensive organic loaves.
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Bake your own at home because, we all know, no bread tastes better than home-baked.
4. Baking Without Oven
Every homesteader should know a few tricks to cook without any power.
We’ve gone a step further and made a tutorial on how to bake without the help of electricity.
5. Preparing Raw Milk
Keep milk longer and break it down into a form our bodies find friendlier than raw milk.
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You can do this by learning how to pasteurize. Also, we’ve got a few more ways to prepare here.
6. Making Butter
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Butter is a pantry essential. Keep a steady supply of this dairy product by making your own.
7. Making Homemade Cheese
With a steady supply of milk from your dairy livestock, why not make your own cheese?
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You can make your own specialty you can also earn some hard cash out of it.
8. Making Yogurt
If you’ve got more milk even after making cheese, make yogurt too.
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Everything that comes out of hard labor is always sweetest, and in this case, creamiest!
9. Making Preserves
Make chutney, fruit roll-ups, homemade jam, palm jelly, or marmalade with crops in season.
A homesteader has to preserve that extra harvest with these food preservation techniques.
10. Freezing To Preserve Food
What’s the best way to preserve food? Canning or freezing? http://t.co/MBFrRPMgFY pic.twitter.com/LHoDo6aOU5
— MotherNatureNetwork (@MotherNatureNet) August 13, 2015
Not all foods store either by canning or dehydrating. Freezing food is another food preservation technique. A certified homesteader has a few tricks up their sleeves.
11. Cooking Food From Scratch
Some fruits and veggies can spoil fast, so before they get to the last stage before the compost, deal with ’em fast.
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Take these delicious banana recipes and don’t waste those nutritious fruits.
12. Making Pancakes From Scratch
Every homesteader knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
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A boxed mix isn’t a good way to treat breakfast royalty, so always prepare pancakes the good old-fashioned way.
RELATED: Food Preservation | How To Freeze Dry Your Food In Your Home
13. Making Meat Stock From Scratch
Organic meat broth is the secret to some of the most delicious recipes.
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Don’t waste the bones from the livestock you just had but make savory stock soup with those.
14. Planning Meals According To What’s In-Season
You can easily have too many fruits and veggies in season. Plan your meals and add variety in preparing your dishes with your produce.
15. Cooking With Cast Iron Skillet
Everything you need to know before you start #cooking with a cast iron skillet is right here: https://t.co/EDy1qrPIpa#Happy Homesteading 🍳 pic.twitter.com/1Q8Jje4z4C
— Homesteading (@HomesteadingUSA) March 1, 2017
One signature of old-school homesteaders is cooking with a cast-iron skillet. Don’t underestimate this trusty cooking tool. There are a lot of savory recipes you can cook with it.
16. Freezing Herbs
Some of the best cooks out there are also homesteaders.
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Incorporating herbs into every recipe, like herbs frozen with oil or soup stock is one secret.
17. Stocking Dried Herbs And Spices
You’ll see some of the loveliest and liveliest spice pantries around are of homesteaders.
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Jars of colorful herbs, spices, and condiments line up my pantry–it’s like a party.
18. Make Homemade Starter Dough
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If you bake your own bread with your homemade organic flour, why not take the extra step of making and maintaining your own starter dough? It’s really simple and easy, you know!
19. Make Your Own Smokehouse
Whether you butcher your own livestock or hunt wild game, you will need a way to preserve the meat properly.
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In that case, a homemade smokehouse should be in order.
20. Vacuum Sealing
Your food will easily go bad if you don’t seal it properly. Learn the art of vacuum sealing so you don’t waste any.
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The more food preservation techniques you have up your sleeve, the better for homestead survival.
21. Brewing Drinks
Making your own beer is rewarding and delicious. It can be one of the many perks of a self-sufficient lifestyle.
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Also, the process is simple and becomes easier once you get the hang of it.
22. Tapping Maple Trees
Tapping maple trees in late winter is a great pastime, and the results are divine!
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Also, I smell some sweet, cold, hard cash. This is one of the more productive skills to learn in off-grid living.
23. Make Your Own Homemade Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is a simple ingredient, yet the benefits and uses around the home are incredible.
You can make apple cider vinegar from apple parts you would otherwise dispose of.
24. Canning Tomatoes
Canning Raw Pack Whole Tomatoes… it's easier than you think. #tomatoes #fallisintheair #backyardgarden https://t.co/ohg9lAVDkE pic.twitter.com/aWmK5LeoyZ
— Maria (@loves_biscotti) September 26, 2017
When tomatoes fruit, you know they produce more than you can handle. Luckily, canned tomatoes are a staple at home, and I keep a steady supply of homemade ones.
25. Dehydrating Fruits And Veggies
If you love raisins, you can make them on your own. This food preservation technique will make healthy snacks.
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Dehydrate a variety of fruits and veggies for your own year-round supply.
Want to see the full list? Check it out here at homesteading.com!
Self-sufficiency skills are essential if you're preparing for homesteading, living off the grid, or preparing for an SHTF scenario. Becoming a full-fledged homesteader or transitioning to self-sufficient farm living is a learning process.
You have to learn how to be self-sufficient and hone those self-sufficient skills you already have. Just like other major life decisions, the choice to be self-sufficient might be a shock at first.
Using the wisdom and knowledge of self-sufficiency skills of others who have done it can help.
Do you have any other self-sufficiency skills in mind you can add to this set? We would like to know about it in the comments section below!
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***Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for informational purposes only. Please read our full disclaimer.***
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on August 3, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
Most of these skills, like first aid, are easy to learn and should be in everyone’s pocket already. Other things, like baking bread, require some practice to get the hang of it (yes, I can make bread but it took a year of trial and error to perfect). I’d recommend learning how to make what the Australians call damper bread. It’s just as tasty as our normal bread and easier to master than our yeast breads and can be cooked over a campfire or in a Dutch oven covered with coals. Lots of recipes are available on web.
I don’t bake bread I bake hardtack it doesn’t get crushed in a pack it keeps longer, it does take some getting used to. The Civil War was fought on hard tack, jerky, pemmican, and dry milk. Not the tastiest menu but you get carbohydrates proteins and fats.
First Aid is probably the easiest of these skills. In order of simplicity, simplest first: take a class at the Red Cross or American Heart Association; a class a the local community college for MFR (Medical First Responder), EMT, or Paramedic.
If you like those, go on to try Wilderness First Aid add-on courses.
Most of the other things you can do trial-and-error or piecemeal, or however. CPR and FA are skills that need to be acquired from a trained professional, and practiced. Merely reading a book or Googling the information simply is not enough. I say this as a trained professional with over ten years experience.
Good list, except for #12. The whole “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” thing is a myth created by the cereal industry decades ago. While scratch made pancakes would definitely be better than a box mix, that many carbs will set you up for a sluggish afternoon. If you must have breakfast, you should opt for pastured eggs and meat and perhaps some sliced avocado or home made cheese from #7. The protein and healthy fats from this will give you way more long lasting energy without the insulin crash of the high carb breakfast. Or you could try intermittent fasting and just skip breakfast, been doing that for years now myself, haven’t needed it.
I agree. Thanks.