1/25/83
 

Homestead Farm Offers Skills to Live By

The Michigan Land Trust Homestead Farm offers a unique living-learning experience in small-scale farming and homesteading. Students learn skills of self-sufficiency as well as organic methods of crop production and livestock care, the operation and maintenance of farm equipment, and woodlot management. Students can hope to gain an appreciation for the rigors and rewards of farm life and learn to work with nature, enjoy physical labor, and find satisfaction in frugality.

The length of the term is flexible to accommodate students' schedules.  The 1983 term begins June 15th.  A fee of $150.00 per month includes room, board, and tuition.  All students and instructors live together and share in the planning and eating of all meals.  Students are expected to fully participate in the chores and daily activities on the 36 acre farm and contribute to its productivity.

For more information send a SASE to MLT Homestead Farm, Rt.2 Box 311, Bangor, MI 49013, call (616) 427·8791, or visit.  The farm is located approx. one mile north of M43 on Center St. (CR 681).
 

INFORMATION ABOUT THE HOMESTEAD FARM

The purpose of The Homestead Farm is to provide a place where people who are serious about learning the arts and skills of low-technology subsistence farming can participate in the life and work of a diversified farm. The Homestead Farm is a place where theory and practice can come together.  This kind of integration is characteristic of a life lived close to the land, for in it production and consumption, way of life and livelihood, similarly come together.  As a mode of small-scale farming, homesteading can provide an ecological alternative to current energy intensive agricultural practices. As a way of life which rejects artificial needs and wasteful consumption it is an alternative to urban life and the strains and tensions it imposes on persons, society, and on the ecosystem. On a more general level, homesteading is a way of enlarging one's ecological awareness as it facilitates the integration of human beings into their natural environment.
 

Location and Description

The Homestead is a 38-acre diversified farm located just outside the city of Bangor in Southwest Michigan. About 23 acres of the land is tillable, 8 acres are used for Woodlot, and the rest is occupied by the farmhouse, barns, roadways, and a small pond.  Field crops such as oats, corn, wheat, rye, and soybeans are grown and fed to cattle, pigs and poultry which are then sold for cash or butchered for home consumption.  Hayland and pasture also provide forage for the livestock.  A large garden provides fresh produce for the farm residents as well as farm income through market sales.
 

The Homestead Program

Participants in the program gain experience in small farm management which includes the operation and maintenance of farm machinery and equipment; organic methods of raising crops, produce, and livestock; Woodlot management; and building repair and construction.  Other experiences include the butchering of livestock; the preparation and preservation of home-grown food; making cheese, butter, ice cream, and yogurt from milk; making home-brewed beer and wine; and marketing vegetable produce.  Students also gain an understanding of cooperative living.  They live and eat together in the same house and also share the work and responsibilities of the farm. Reflections take place regularly through group discussions of farm activities and reading materials.. The experience of rural life is augmented by attendance at area cultural events, Organic Growers meetings, auctions, and potlucks; and knowledgeable guests from throughout the area are invited to informal gatherings to share their ideas. Emphasis is placed on efficient use and recycling of materials, working with nature rather than against it, and finding satisfaction in frugality rather than consumption.  In general participants become familiar with the realities of rural self-sufficiency.
 

A Day in the Life

The day starts early with the chore people milking, feeding, and watering the livestock while the kitchen crew prepares breakfast.  The routine jobs, cooking, cleaning, chores, and garden management, are alternated throughout the week on a rotating schedule. Each person is encouraged to do all kinds of work, including those activities traditionally done by the opposite sex. Meals are prepared from foods grown and preserved on the farm and everyone eats together. The work to be done on any particular day depends on the time of season, the weather, and other circumstances.  The appropriate farm activities are performed such as tending the garden, bringing in the hay, or fixing equipment, with time out for lunch.  After dinner, the day winds down and students can reflect and discuss farm matters or pursue personal concerns. The program is flexible to accommodate individual interests and desires and the weekends are generally free for other kinds of activities.
 

Money Matters

The farm is organized for maximum diversity in order to facilitate learning experiences rather than to show a profit.  A fee totaling $150.00 per month includes room, board, and tuition.  The fee helps cover the expenses of supporting the students on the farm.  Personal expenses are not included in the fee and the students will receive no "profits" in cash or produce during the term.  Therefore it is recommended that students have resources to provide for their own clothing, spending money, and medical needs.  It is not practical for a student to have a job off the farm during the term since it would create a time conflict.
 

The Homestead Opportunity

Evaluations of The Homestead program by past participants have been consistently favorable; several students have regarded it as a turning point in their life. The Homestead offers opportunities for both the beginner and the experienced "caretaker of the land".  Experimentation is encouraged and incorporated into the program.  The farm provides a place to try out new techniques in energy conservation, gardening methods, and living habits.  Prospective homesteaders should do as much advance reading as possible. Of the many recently-published books on homesteading, two are especially recommended. Both contain lists of books, pamphlets, and periodicals for further reading and list sources for obtaining tools and materials.

Richard W. Langer, Grow It! The Beginner's Complete In Harmony With-Nature Small Farm Guide.  (New York: Avon Fare Books, 1973.365 pp., $4.95).  This is probably the most comprehensive book on how to do it.

David Robinson, The Complete Homesteading Book, (Charlotte, Vermont: Garden Way Publishing Co., 1974. 248 pp., $5.95) The special strength of this one is its ability to communicate a sense of homesteading as a satisfying way of life.


Thom Phillips, Jan Filonowizc (Homestead Farm Instructors) 1983



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