Day 2 | Set Up Your Working Kitchen

Welcome to Homesteading Bootcamp!

Day 2 of our Bootcamp is all about setting up your working kitchen. 

The kitchen is the heart of a homestead. Here is where all the homegrown produce becomes homegrown food. Here we make, preserve, and enjoy our meals. And because we are going to be spending so much time in the kitchen we need it to function for us!

A full-on kitchen reno is probably not in your budget especially if you are trying to save for that dream homestead but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a homestead kitchen.  I am going to share with you 3 things you can to this week to start setting up your Homestead kitchen.

Let’s start with cookware-

Cast Iron is BEST!! Yes, there is a learning curve when it comes to using cast iron but to know that you are cooking on a non-toxic surface that will last a lifetime will give you peace of mind. If you currently don’t own anything cast iron take a weekend and hit up some thrift store. You will probably not find any that are in amazing condition but the great thing about castn iron is they can be rehabbed and brought back to life.  And! And! when you bring them back to life and seasoned you will have very little maintenance.  After we clean our pans we wipe them down with a homemade wax and they are ready to use for the next meal. 

If you can’t find any castiron in thrift stores or you just don’t want to clean up the ones you find you can always buy new, we suggest getting the 15-Inch Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Skillet

Food Storage-

Airtight containers is going to become your go-to for food storage whether you are wanting to can your produce or just store your dried herbs. I suggest investing in mason jars with air-tight lids, it can be expensive to purchase a bunch at once but start small (maybe one case a month, we prefer wide-mouth pints) and before you know it you will have more jars than you know what to do with. 

We not only use the jars for canning but we also use them to store leftover pizza sauce on Friday nights or our Blackberry BBQ sauce after a cook-out.  You will be surprised how often you will reach for a mason jar. 

Start buying in Bulk-

You are going to be cooking A LOT of homegrown, from-scratch meals which means you are going to be using a lot of pantry staples. And running out while cooking dinner or making bread is not going to be fun. Start buying things in bulk. This week buy an extra bag of flour or sugar and next week maybe an extra thing or two of rice. Each week you are building your pantry.  Buying in bulk can take up extra space which is why we love to use food-grade buckets and twistable lids to store our dry bulk items. 

As you start to use your kitchen more you will find yourself gravitating to certain spoons, pans, and even burners on the stove.  I promise the more you cook from scratch meals and treats it will become second nature AND you will want to cook more because it will ALL taste so good. 

We are going to dive deeper into from-scratch cooking later in this boot camp but I want to give you one more piece of advice today –

If you aren’t already a “natural” in the kitchen – don’t worry! Dig in and have fun. While I totally embrace following recipes at times, don’t let them restrict you either. If you aren’t sure where to start check out our 7 Easy to Make From Scratch Dinners. 

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