If you’re hesitant to get into the kitchen and begin cooking rather than ordering in, here’s 12 reasons to start cooking from scratch on your homestead!
This post contains affiliate links: I am grateful to be of service and bring you content free of charge. In order to do this, please note that when you click links and purchase items; in most (but not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to keep blogging to help you start homesteading and it doesn’t cost you a penny extra!
See Disclosure, Terms and Conditions for more information. Thank you for supporting Misfit Gardening.
Join over 20K listeners and tune into the podcast episode or read on to learn more!
Welcome To Our Homestead Kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of our suburban homestead. It’s where we can and preserve produce from the garden, sit and plan our meals, eat dinner together as a family, make our own sausages, and even plan the garden! Our kitchen isn’t big or fancy and at the time I’m writing this, it is still being remodeled. But, we cook from scratch meals from the garden and the pantry throughout the year even working crazy schedules.
Sure, we use vintage kitchen items I’ve thrifted or found online, baking tins and pie pans I inherited from my Granny and cast iron pans my husband inherited from his MomMom but we also make use of a Crock-Pot or slow cooker
Why Start Cooking From Scratch?
So there are many reasons to start cooking from scratch meals. And cooking, just like gardening is a skill that you will develop and hone on your homesteading journey! So if you’re wanting a slice of the good life or a homesteader’s life, see if any of these reasons to start cooking from scratch resonate with you!
1. Know What Is In Your Food
I recently surveyed readers of the blog and listeners of the Homesteading & Gardening In The Suburbs podcast on why they grow their own food. The number one reason is to know where their food comes from. And cooking from scratch has the same kind of vibe!
You know what is in the meal you prepared. What the ingredients were and how it was made.
For me, this is super important I have an allergy to soy which is in almost everything ready made and fast food. And over the last couple of years I became lactose intolerant so cooking from scratch became the only way I could manage my allergies.
2. Understanding Labels
Knowing what is in your food isn’t limited to allergies. What about avoiding preservatives, MSG and a whole heap other other weird and wonderful stuff that is in there. Seriously, check out the label on a loaf of bread next time you are in the store and see how many of the ingredients you know what they are! The UK and EU even have numbers for various food additives!
You might be trying to avoid GMOs in your foods and the product label is going to tell you if it contains bioengineered products.
As you start cooking from scratch you will likely start reading product labels and will soon start to find brands which you leave behind and new ones to trust for you and your family.
3. Learning To Grocery Shop
Did you know that the healthier foods and staples are around the outsides of the grocery store? Did you know that grocery stores are designed in a certain way to make you spend money? There has been tons of research performed on shoppers and the grocery store you shop at was designed to entice you into buying more and spending more money!
Cooking from scratch teaches you some new skills to navigate the store and stay clear of the ready meals and snacks.
4. Cook It Your Way
So much of homesteading (yes, even in an urban area!) is learning to cook and to eat what you grow. One of the wonderful things about cooking from scratch is deciding YOUR way to create nourishing meals with organic, wholesome, and natural ingredients.
You can tailor the recipe to your family’s tastes and create something new! For example, I found a sweet potato and butternut squash soup that I wanted to try with the harvest from the garden but I knew I would never get my family to eat it unless I spiced it up a bit. So, I tossed in a dried habanero and boom! My family love the butternut squash and sweet potato soup I make (especially if I make crispy bacon bits to sit on top of the soup)!
5. Cooking From Scratch Is An Experiment!
Part of cooking it your way is experimenting in the kitchen too. Perhaps you are trying to add more whole wheat flour in your baking or maybe your just switching up white rice for brown rice. Don’t be afraid to experiment and substitute in the kitchen.
6. Super Power of Planning
Cooking from scratch helps you build new skills and being a homesteader means that you do spend quite a bit of time planning. Planning the garden and what you will grow, planning for livestock and meal planning are all part of the homesteader’s life.
My Mum is a freaking wizard at meal planning prep. She has meals planned out for 6 months! You don’t need to go to that extreme unless you really want to :). When I was a kid, Mum had meals planned for weeks and planned the grocery list too. If we ran out of something or we used the last one she had my sister and I trained to write it on the paper in the bulldog clip so it could be added to the next grocery run.
Mum has the planning (and training!) down so that every day they have a different meal. Even as a kid it was rare we ate the same thing twice in a row. Sitting down to think about what you want to eat over the next few days (or weeks) then writing down everything you need for the recipes to create your shopping list for the grocery store is how she does that. And you can do it too!
7. Connecting With People
When you start cooking from scratch, you will find that there a LOTS of other people who like to cook! People love to share how they cook for their families, their favorite recipes and so much more.
It’s also a wonderful way to involve the family when you are cooking from scratch and have them help in the kitchen cooking dinner or just eating at the table together. Connecting with loved ones and others lifts your spirits and is good for your mental health too!
8. Cooking From Scratch Saves You Money
Sure my husband and I love going out to a nice Italian restaurant. Having a nice meal and a glass or two of wine together and not have to deal with the dishes! But date night is something we save up for since our last fancy date night wound up costing $100. Yikes, that’s a week of groceries or my annual seed shopping budget!!!!
Cooking from scratch meals for your day to day meals not just date night can save you money in the long run. Our favorite Indian restaurant closed down with the pandemic so we make our own vindaloo and biriyani with leftovers to pop into the freezer for a speedy meal another evening. Once you have your homestead pantry staples together and your planned list you are ready to go!
The benefit of planning your cooking and meals means you can better stick to a food budget for spending and may even mean you can invest a little at a time in buying organic for items or better quality products. I’m a sucker for Greek extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on salad with balsamic vinegar and even though it is expensive, I use less of it to make my own dressings at a fraction of the cost of a salad dressing at the store.
Stuck for ideas to make a from scratch switch? Try making pizza from scratch for family movie night rather than ordering take out.
Love a ready made lasagna from the store? Try making your own in a big casserole dish.
Fond of a frozen meat loaf? Have a bash at making your own meat loaf from scratch and freshly mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.
9. Your Tastes Will Change
Once you start skipping the ready made, processed foods, you might just find that your taste is changing. Some people change the amount of salt or sugar they are adding to foods. And when your eat something ready made or out at a restaurant you notice how overly salty or sweet foods are. The same goes for the products you buy or the brands you choose. I ditched the ready made canned tomato sauces a long time ago. I found they were sweet. Then I read the label and saw they were loaded with high fructose corn syrup!
Eating homemade meals usually means fresh vegetables or meat and you will start to develop what tastes good to you and tweak recipes that suit your taste buds.
10. You May Start Losing Weight
Some people find that as they start cooking from scratch, they are better prepared for portion control and meal prepping to help stick to a diet. I love these glass containers to prepare my lunches for work
You might also find that your meals are more balanced, wholesome and nutritious and you are finding that you are not as hungry or those cravings for sugary, salty snacks have been kicked to the curb.
You might not notice a change in your weight but you might start to find that you feel more energetic when you eat something and sluggish and yucky after eating something else. Cooking from scratch helps you start noticing your body and digestive system a lot more!
11. Cooking From Scratch Builds Confidence
Having that sense of satisfaction and pride in creating something from scratch that tastes amazing is definitely a morale boost. Cooking from scratch is also giving you the skills to nourish your body and feed your family. Whether it is fresh veggies from the garden or whole wheat boxed pasta and a homemade marinara sauce there is a joy to cooking and sharing the food you have made.
There will be times things don’t work right but persevere and keep trying really are keys to success in the kitchen!
12. It Brings You Full Circle
One of the joys of homesteading is garden to plate eating. Food that you pick fresh from the homestead and bring it into the kitchen to be whipped up into something delicious! When you cook from scratch, you know what is in your food and when you grow it yourself you know what went into making the garden grow or raising your own chickens. You are nourishing yourself by nourishing the land you homestead on.
Your ultimate goal might be self sufficiency. Cooking from scratch will help you make the most of everything you produce on your homestead! Whether it is chicken and dumplings and using the bones to make bone broth. Or eating more with the seasons. You will start to see how much more you can use ingredients in the kitchen without breaking the bank.
If you liked this post please take a moment to share it using the share buttons below or pin the image below to Pinterest and save it for later and join us over on YouTube to get to know me and my homestead in the suburbs or join the Facebook group for live Q&A, advice, and support on homesteading or learn how you can get more tips and tricks by signing up for my newsletter and get free printables in the Homestead Resource Library.
Always ensure to operate safely. All projects are purely “at your own risk” and are for information purposes only. As with any project, unfamiliarity with the tools, animals, plants, and processes can be dangerous. Posts, podcasts, and videos should be read and interpreted as theoretical advice only and are not a substitute for advice from a fully licensed professional.
As remuneration for running this blog, this post contains affiliate links. Misfit Gardening is a participant in Affiliate or Associate’s programs. An affiliate advertising program is designed to provide a means for this website/blog to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to websites offering products described in the blog post. It does not cost you the Reader anything extra. See Disclosures, Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy for more information about use of this website.
Share this:
