About My Homesteading Lifestyle
If you love a back-to-your-roots lifestyle, using old-fashioned skills, and time-tested homesteading practices, you have come to the right place!
My name is Anja and I am so glad you stopped by! Keep reading to learn a bit more about me and my homesteading lifestyle.
My Roots
I grew up in Germany where my grandparents with their sometimes old-fashioned way of life were a big inspiration to me — unbeknownst to me at the time.
With a huge garden, they were mostly self-sustaining. They ate simple, healthy, and real food. They lived a very sustainable lifestyle.
I watched them harvest and juice elderberries so we could drink the warm juice in the winter. I helped them harvest herbs, fruits, and vegetables from their garden.
When staying with them, I often went to one of the dairy farms in the village to fetch raw milk that was still warm. My grandmother would take off the cream and ferment some of the milk.
My grandmother taught my mom how to make sourdough bread from a recipe that is generations old. We ate good homemade food.
My grandparents lived an organic lifestyle before that was even a word.
I remember how my great-aunt was washing her hair with beer and egg.
I was baking with whole wheat when even in Germany that was considered pretty “granola”. 😉
Back to My Roots
In 1996, I moved to Northern California. We live in our beautiful 1910 gabled home that is a shingle-style Victorian. My handy, handsome husband is my biggest supporter. My sons are young adults now, but I so much loved the whole parenting journey. They went to a school that was all about organic food from scratch and crafts — yep, both of them knitted a pair of socks.
I love being creative! You can find me in the kitchen making food or thinking about a new recipe. I am always “playing” with my sourdough. Or trying to figure out how to make something that I would otherwise buy. Sometimes, I am trying to figure out how to make something that you can only buy in Germany.
I might be sewing another Dirndl dress or slipcover. Or I might be knitting something beautiful and useful.
However, anything I do has to be simple and easy. I don’t like when things become too complicated!
When I am not in the kitchen or making things, you can often find me on a mat teaching or practicing yoga, in the hills hiking with our dog, in the saddle of a horse, or deep underwater, marveling at fish.
On this homesteading blog, I am sharing my passions and endeavors. I hope that you, too, enjoy learning about a more simple, beautiful, healthy, and sustainable lifestyle.
My grandparents have passed away but their spirit lives on in this home. I have inherited a lot of their furniture and other heirlooms — but most importantly, their homesteading way of life.
If you want to know more about homesteading, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and keep in touch with my newsletter. I post everything you could ever want to know about living old-fashioned in the modern world. From easy sewing tutorials to healthy, getting comfortable with anything sourdough, authentic German recipes, I will show you how easy it is to be self-sufficient. If you want to learn more about homestead living, please feel free to contact me!
