Well, at the end of Earth Week, I am so excited to introduce you and yours to this month’s sponsor: Our Happy Homestead.
Really, when I first heard from owner Dave, I was wholly charmed as soon as my eyeballs glanced the business name. It makes me smile. And, after several e mail exchanges, it became clear that he, his wife Jesi and their family, are indeed thoughtful earth-dwellers and happy homesteaders. The couple signs their “about us” page on their website: Helping to make your homestead a happy one, David and Jesi Coles. What an inspiring and important mission.
Their site is full of fabulously helpful items that will assist any person, seasoned or newbie, looking to connect with their happy homesteading self. In their words: At Our Happy Homestead, our vision is simple. From the products you need for rural and urban-rural living available here at our store to the insights and educational resources on our blog, Our Happy Homestead is here to equip you for a wholesome lifestyle.
I asked Dave a few questions about Our Happy Homestead and his answers make me, well, happy. Read on, happy homesteaders, there’s a wonderful giveaway and reader discount at the end!
What inspired you to start your business?
Our family has been using most of the products that we now sell for more than a decade. We started well inside the city limits of a large metro area and have been working hard to find a self-sufficient and more natural lifestyle in that environment, even as we’ve been slowly moving towards the outskirts of the city.
The more involved we became, the more sense it made to move from a hobby and lifestyle into a family business; it’s been a fantastic experience in which we’ve been able to demonstrate hard work and entrepreneurship to our children while helping other people move towards the lifestyle that we love.
Our business philosophy is very simple; we’re more concerned with earning and keeping your business five or ten years from now than we are about the product you’re buying from us today.
What three Happy Homestead products does your family rely on the most?
We’ve worked very hard to make sure all of the products we carry are either products we use in our own home, products we have extensive experience with, or products with exceptional track records that we can stand behind. Obviously we can’t use everything since we want to offer a good selection of the best products, but we’ve very sensitive to the feedback we receive on all of our self-sufficiency supplies.
All of our family’s bread comes from our
Wondermill Wheat Grinder (we’ve been using the same unit continuously for more than six years now) and our
Bosch Universal Mixer. We also use the
Berky Light water filter in our kitchen on an almost hourly basis. Our municipal water doesn’t taste the best and it saved us a considerable amount of time and effort last year when a broken water main forced our town into boil restrictions for three days. Finally, we’ve put the miles on our
Open Country Meat Grinder which we’ve been using for the last three years to process all of our game and small livestock.
Sometimes it takes some extra effort to learn the skills necessary to prepare and process your own whole foods, but the results are more than worth it – our family hasn’t bought a loaf of store bread in more than seven years!
What ideas/advice do you have for urban dwellers who seek a more self-sufficient lifestyle?
As with anything new, take small steps and only go as far as you’re comfortable. It’s taken us years to slowly learn the techniques and methods to move towards self-sufficiency. Remember that “self-sufficiency” isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. There are a thousand ways you can bring the homestead into your urban or suburban home – most of our whole wheat customers live in larger city areas and are trying to bring some of the country back into their homes. Grain co-ops are prevalent in metro areas, often giving urban bread makers a wider selection of grains and beans at lower prices. Get started on your food storage if you haven’t already – pick up a few extra cans the next time you’re at the store. There are some exceptional resources on building and cooking from bulk food storage; our goal is to provide all the tools you’ll need to get back to basics.
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giveaway deets:
Leave a comment on today’s post and you’ll have a chance to win a
Pragotrade Roma Sauce Maker Deluxe. What is this, you wonder? This is all you need to know:
No more peeling or coring! Simply load the hopper and turn the handle to create fresh sauces and purees from just about any fruit or vegetable.
Hello, dreamboat. I bought one. My mind is swimming about the possibilities of baby food, tomato sauce, peach butter…and ALL THAT FREE TIME I’ll have because I won’t be manually pitting, coring, skinning, de-seeding for a million hours in my hot summer kitchen…
So the comments will close next Tuesday, April 27, at 9pm MST. I’ll randomly pick a winner and announce The Lucky Duck in Wednesday’s nuggets.
But wait! There’s more! For everyone else who isn’t The Lucky Duck,
Our Happy Homestead is offering a killer deal on this food strainer/sauce maker: it’s normally $89.99 and, *just for you*, dear readers, it’s $69.99. Just enter ‘digthischick’ at checkout to get the deal (offer ends May 31). (Also, free shipping on orders over $99 so grab a few other happy homesteading items while you’re there and save big.)
