Getting to Know Me

Hi there! My name is Allison. You have found my blog and journal for all things homesteading and gardening! If you are wanting to get to know me, I come from a family of farmers/homesteaders who have been canning and growing food since at least the early 1900’s.

I live and work in the city, saying suburbs might imply I have any semblance of land and I don’t. I work a full time job as an administrator in a school district. I have a wonderful puppy dog (who is about to be 10 years young) and I have the love of my life who supports all of my crazy dreams. I live about 10 minutes away from my father and we are doing this crazy urban homestead, garden in the city, we don’t need no land thing together!

My Goal to Homestead

The goal is to one day be able to live out in the country on the land that my family has farmed and tended to for generations, but until I have my own homestead, I’ll operate this one unnamed (hence the name Unnamed Homestead). Subscribe if you want to see recipes for canning, my advice on gardening, and all of the other things I do to try to become more self sufficient and have less waste while living in the city.

While my immediate family are practicing some urban homesteading, it didn’t start with us.

Family Background

My grandparents got away from their farm life when they were in their prime and spent most of their time in the suburbs. Even though they spent most of their time away from the bucolic farm life, my mother, who was and will always be a shining star in my life, loved to do the country girl activities like fishing, gardening, and camping on the river. Once my grandparents retired, they returned to their roots and went into a tiny town in Oklahoma where their parents lived.

While I always lived in the suburbs and the big Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex in Texas, we would always go visit my grandparents and do our own camping, fishing and gardening with the family on holidays and long weekends.

After my mother passed, my life felt like it was in shambles, but I wanted to connect to the family I had, so instead of my primary hobby/side business being decorating and baking cakes, I pivoted to gardening and canning.

It only made sense. I loved to cook and take care of my family, and I can connect to my mother and grandparents. I’m learning so much as I go, but try to do the research I can to plan for this to be the best year yet.

I think from time to time about all the ventures I have turned away from. Selling lesson plans, baking, and now urban homesteading, and think about how life has taken me here. I used to think that none of these things were related, but I have come to the conclusion a higher power is guiding me and connecting those dots.

How I Got Here

Family

I feel very fortunate for the people who got me here today. My mother and father have always been incredibly supportive, along with my grandparents. No matter whether it was me going to university, starting a side gig as a custom cake maker, or pursuing this homestead, they have been by my side along the way.

It is the love of my life though, who no matter what is going on has done everything he could to support my dreams. We have a saying, I give him roots and he gives me wings. This is certainly not his dream, it’s certainly more work for him. I do what I can and not spring too much on at once, and not bite too much where neither one of us can chew it, but I know with a person like him in my corner, I can chase whatever this life has to offer.

Aside from my family, I have had some amazing co-workers who propelled me upwards to the wonderful job I have today. I am blessed with co-workers who I believe will continue to be life long friends. Some whom might be take this homestead journey with me one day. If I could find some way to convince them, I would think we would have our homestead community already.

Skills

Growing Up

Since I wasn’t born on a farm, I wasn’t taught some of those basic skills. I was an outdoorsy kid who enjoyed spending time with my grandparents, climbing trees, fishing and camping (because I really wanted to be just like my mom), I wasn’t taught how to garden, or how to can, until much much later. I do remember tagging along while my parents harvested tomatoes or onions in the backyard, feeding cows with my grandfather, or harvesting black eyed peas with my grandmother, but it’s like asking for a dog as a kid versus having one when you are an adult.

My First Garden

The first little bit of homesteading I had, that I didn’t really even think about was trying to grow my own culinary herbs. I have always loved to cook and when I got my first apartment, as a gift to celebrate the completion of my Master’s degree, I was able to purchase my first hydroponic setup from Aerogarden. I loved having fresh herbs around whenever I needed them, especially when they were so expensive when buying them at the grocery store. Not long after that though, we went looking for a house and a few new job opportunities were on the horizon so the homesteading journey went into hibernation for a few years.

DIY and Getting the Kitchen of My Dreams

I mentioned I loved to cook. Well I always did even after getting the house. Heck, part of the reason we picked this house was because of the kitchen. I don’t know how to this day I was able to function in a kitchen at the apartment where you could not open the fridge and the dishwasher at the same time!

While I loved the space of the kitchen it was a bit outdated, featuring mushrooms on the muted yellow subway tile backsplash and a cast iron sink featuring the same dull hue. Nothing was going to stop me from having my dream kitchen, especially as it overlooked a beautiful covered patio that is a sanctuary for us on holidays. I learned some DIY tips that were in our budget so if I share some crazy tips, know they were first tested in our home first!

Cooking

Over the years I developed some delicious recipes. Due to taking various paths for diets for both myself and family, we have explored nearly every type of food restriction possible. Mom was a type one diabetic. Dad was type two but has also done diets like south beach and whole food plant based. DH and myself have been vegetarian, tried keto, Atkins, and vegan. Vegan didn’t last long, I like cheese too much.

When I was learning about cottage law for selling my cakes, I learned so much about how food was tested and deemed safe. While we aren’t there yet, my goal is to one day be able to operate and sell my baked goods, pickles, and produce similarly to how I sold custom cakes.