Roots and Resilience: How to get Started Homesteading, Going to Market, and Making it Profitable

Starting a homestead isn't just early mornings and hard work—it's about living a life more fulfilled and growing joy in your heart sowing seeds in the ground. Brianna from Honey and Nectar Co. stopped by this week to take us back through her memories of growing up on a farm and her homestead heritage. She shares the sweet joys of bottle-feeding little lambs and real piggyback rides. Her recent escapades with uncooperative animals during a photo shoot prove that while farm life can be unpredictable, it's also filled with great lessons and lots of laughter.

We go back to the roots, literally, and talk about how to start. From the first animals to buy, to going to market, we uncover the why behind the satisfaction we get from working the land. From the simple acts of planting seeds in your apartment window to buying land and caring for animals. If you are a  spade-wielding newbie or you come with soil under already under your nails, you'll appreciate how starting with bread or the first sprout in spring reconnects us to the cycle of nature. Whether it's the pride of your first tomato harvest or the first egg in the coop, Brianna and I dive deep into the joy of homesteading and the fulfillment of living a life entwined with the land.

Finally, for those with dreams of turning their green thumbs into greenbacks, we pack the end of the episode with practical advice. Lay the groundwork for a profitable hobby farm, understand your local laws and regulations, and charm your way through the farmer's market scene. Stay tuned for the big scoop on Honey and Nectar Co.'s digital expansion, where Brianna will continue to spread her knowledge on sustainable living brimming with tips to support your dream of living off the land.

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Chapters

• 0:07 Homesteading and Farm Childhood Memories
• 7:20 Back to Basics
• 13:32 Starting a Farm or Garden Profitably
• 23:38 Growing Regenerative Market

Transcript

Cicily: 0:07

Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Creative Mountain Mama podcast. This week I am joined by Brianna from the Honey and Nectar Co. I am really excited about our conversation. If you've been interested in homesteading at all, we're going to talk a lot about how to get started. She also talks on her page a little bit about Jesus and gardening as well. Thank you for joining me, brianna.

Brianna: 0:33

Yes, thank you. I am so happy to be here.

Cicily: 0:37

I appreciate your time. Is there anything new?

Brianna: 0:41

Yes, I mean it's been like a crazy week here, but just in general, but it always is like on a farm or anything I feel like at least. But this week I had I never get professional photos taken of me like ever and I was like it's about time, you know, to do that for my business and I, um, we have more of like a hobby farm at the moment we don't have the space for much more and, um, I was out in the field with our. We got just really cute. They look really innocent animals. Um, we've got a little horse and a mini mule and we were out there taking pictures. So we got maybe like four before. Um, before they started like the mule.

Brianna: 1:27

You know, they constantly are like changing their emotions like all the time, and one second they're like taking cute pictures with me and then the next they're like urging at me like I think maybe five or six times I was dressed like super nice for the occasion five or six times and I was dressed like super nice for the occasion and he was, I was like on a tree stump and he was like just running around me in circles, like for like 10 minutes maybe, as I was like yelling at my dog like stop barking. And um. It was, like you know, a great reminder of what it's like to be like on a homestead or a farm, because they are constantly like. It was like I was on this stump in this long dress and I was like scaling the fences to get away from it. It was like absolutely insane.

Cicily: 2:18

You grew up on a farm. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Brianna: 2:22

Yeah, I grew up on like a real deal farm. So, like I said, now our farm side of things with the animals is super like hobby farm now. But I grew up on a pretty large farm. We had just like 13 to 15 acres but we did just about everything you could think of. We had sheep and horses and we had goats and we had pigs and sheep.

Brianna: 2:48

I can't remember if I said that we had a garden and sometimes we took this to market. We did starts for market and it was pretty real deal and we sold a lot of. We had like a lot of lambs. That was our biggest thing. We did lambs in a garden and we were able I mean it was such a good experience.

Brianna: 3:08

We had this farm basically the whole time that I grew up and it was an experience that I wish everyone could have to be able to grow up in that kind of a setting with um around like nature and living animals and, uh, creatures and not just. I know it's like so different to how a lot of us grew up today, but, um, I'm so thankful for that experience. It was um, it teaches you so many lessons and it's just so fun to be involved in something like that it was. It was a great childhood. It was a hard like. We were able to learn lots of skills, to work hard, and of course, it's just fun to be around cute little lambs and cows and things like that as well, so it was great.

Cicily: 3:59

I'm so glad you said that. I was wondering if there are any early memories you have of cute little animals and running around the farm.

Brianna: 4:07

Yeah, I definitely. Um, I mean, my favorites were probably went with the lambs, cause they're like the cutest. Um, we had like some pretty fun like experiences with all of the animals that we raised, but the lambs were, of course, the cutest and the most fluffy and fun and I'd say like my favorite memories with them was we bottle fed a lot of them, and so that was a lot of like late nights, early mornings, like 12 am, headed outside, make sure there's like no cougars in the dark or anything, and you're running to the shed and you just get like surrounded by like 30 little lambs and we all like had our hands full of bottles and they just sit on your laps and it was like I'd say that was like maybe my my favorite thing. It's not always fun to wake up at like 12 AM and go outside in the freezing cold, but once you got into the shed and they're all like surrounding you and that was like my favorite.

Brianna: 5:10

One of my favorite things was always the little lambs or little pigs, and we had some pigs that were actually really friendly and some we did giant, like giant pigs I don't even know what the name is anymore, but when we were younger we could ride them, and so we had a pig that was like I think that it had been showed earlier in its life, and so it was very, very kind, very tame, and we were able to ride it around, and so there's a lot of fun memories that we have, all of us kids.

Brianna: 5:46

But those are two of my favorites was all the little lambs, the bottle babies and bottle baby calves that we did as well, and just getting to raise these animals and then they almost become tame like a dog or a cat, and I had one sheep that just passed away last year and she was my bottle baby that I had when I was like 12. And so she, she was like a dog, she would follow us around and, uh, was pretty spoiled, and so, yeah, there was so many great memories that, um, I think everyone I've ever chatted with that grew up on a farm. I think we all have great like some great experiences in there, and it's always fun to be raised around animals, I think.

Cicily: 6:33

Can you tell me a little bit about how that background has informed your lifestyle today?

Brianna: 6:39

Right, yeah, absolutely. I think it has everything to do with what I do today, I think, because for a while I had left like the farming kind of like what we call like the homesteading or country lifestyle. I did a few different things. I worked at like a bronze factory and I worked at a, a childcare, um, and a few other random things, and I just it just feels so different.

Brianna: 7:20

Um, I it feels like, um, like the way that I feel like I could best explain it is I felt less purposeful there in those places, if that makes sense, and less connected with creation and less connected with the Lord, because I felt like I was disconnected from life and disconnected from watching things grow from seed and watching flowers bloom and getting to be around these babies and raise these baby lambs and things like that. And same with chickens is a big one that we did as well, and they're so cute when they're little and watching them grow. And it felt like there was such a disconnect from creation and even from the Lord at times, because it feels like when I was in my nine to five, a lot more, there's just so much routine and it didn't leave a lot of room for those things anymore, and so, after a couple of years of that, I was just like I can't do this anymore, and what was coming back to me was the way that I felt when I was growing up and making my own food and raising our animals and do it in gardening and things like that as well, and so I really um that I think it pretty much informed everything that I do now. Um, because it's, I think, cause I left the lifestyle for a couple of years and just being able to recall those memories and how it makes you feel and, um, the way that I felt so different, um, when I was being raised in this environment versus when I left it. So, yeah, I so, yeah, I think it really was the foundation for everything that I do now, which I'm so thankful for that.

Cicily: 9:12

Can you walk me through what exactly that is and what your operation looks like today?

Brianna: 9:18

Yeah, so it's definitely a lot smaller than what it was when I was growing up. It's primarily me now, and so when I grew up, it was a family operation and they had a garden and orchard and animals, everything like that, and we moved from that scenario and I'm the only one so far that's really picked back up on it. So it's a lot smaller. It's scaled back quite a bit, um, but, um, we have chickens still. We do have a hobby farm animals, like I said, like the horse, two horses and a mule, um, right now, and um, they're just for fun. But I do a lot more of like in the home things and that's a lot of what I teach is like, um, basically, my primary thing is for people that are starting, like, where can they start? And I would say, start in the kitchen, and so that's a lot of what I teach now is, um, starting in the kitchen. What can you do to begin to make your own food from scratch, bake from scratch, canned food, and a lot of that goes hand in hand with what I've picked back up, which is gardening, and I garden for myself, I garden for my business online and I garden for market, and so I do take things to market in the summer.

Brianna: 10:43

Whenever I'm talking to someone that is starting at the very basic, have no idea how to get into homesteading or even what that looks like, I always encourage start with those sorts of things.

Brianna: 10:58

They're often more familiar with the kitchen and often more familiar with growing indoor plants, and so those are the places that I start with. When it gets into like animals and things like that and outdoor gardening, I always recommend well, I started pretty big with my garden and so if someone is willing to start like pretty big, I'm like go ahead, experiment, try whatever the heck you want like, really get into it, plant as many things as you want to plant and, um, along the way you can learn what works and what doesn't and um, that's like how I got into doing it on my own. Um was just more of approaching it as like experimental and fun and not having a lot of like weight on it, needing to provide for me or anything along those lines. It was more just to learn. And so if someone is going to be like in the garden or in the kitchen and a lot of that has to do with, like, my location and also my business and how it's geared like who it's geared towards.

Cicily: 12:21

That makes sense absolutely, and I would assume it's geared towards people that have no background. They weren't raised, you know. Yeah, how would you tell someone to get started that wants to get into right raising animals?

Brianna: 12:38

for animals. I always would say chickens is like the best place to start, and starting with a small flock, I say like, start with hens, especially like if you can rooster, you can easily rehome them. Generally, and oftentimes if you buy them from the store, they're already separated by gender, and so I think like it's very that's like the easiest place to start when you're starting with animals would be sickens. They're extremely low maintenance and um they they're also just fun. It gives you a great experience, especially when you get them as as chicks. It's like it's a great, um. It's kind of like what I was talking about with the having the baby lambs and things like that. It creates like a great experience and um, yet one that's not burdensome and one that doesn't require a lot of funds as well. That's a big thing that I try to share is like ways that people can save money and also, uh, learn self sustainability and learn how to homestead and learn more about um, like country living and farming. Um is how can you do it in cheap ways, and so chickens is a great way, especially if you have a small flock. You don't need a large coop. Um, a lot of the time, you can buy like prebuilt ones from the store for like $150. And so that's a really, really great place to start.

Brianna: 14:04

Chicken feed isn't overly expensive and you get a great return. To be able to get eggs and use like a farm fresh item that you helped raise is so encouraging and so refreshing. And so that's where I always encourage people to start. When it comes to animals and gardening, I always, if it's someone that's starting small, I say start with like five plants, like five different varieties, like tomatoes, a pepper plant, maybe some herbs and some greens, and that gives you a beautiful variety of plants to harvest at different times throughout the summer. But it's very manageable, very inexpensive, and purchasing starts over. Starting seeds is also a great way to start. It really sets you up for more success than if you are starting from scratch and trying to grow from seed. So I know that's a lot of information, but I think that's like generally where I try to have people land when they're starting from scratch with farming and gardening.

Cicily: 15:12

As far as making money, I know you break down a lot of ways to save money. Can you explain coming to market and how you can make a profit off of your homestead?

Brianna: 15:23

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's one of my favorite things to talk about. I feel like a lot of the time people are really intimidated by starting a farm or garden or going to market because of the expenses and feeling like overwhelmed with like oftentimes it's a really different environment than we're used to in other places. That like settings, like work settings and things like that it's it's very different. And so I definitely chat with a lot of people who are like what do I? It feels overwhelming or it feels so new and so different, and so I have a lot of tips that have to do with you know how can you do it inexpensively? And also tips for communication skills and also in general, there's so many things we don't even think about, like my.

Brianna: 16:21

One of my very first things I always tell anyone when they are, uh, wanting to join their farmer's market or even just open a farm stand or sell on Facebook marketplace and things like that is to make sure that you know your state laws. That is, like always my biggest thing. Um, because a lot of States have, like you think like the strangest and like from where I live, I can sell butchered chickens for like meat chickens and I did that for a long time, but I can't sell their eggs without, like, a licensed kitchen, which is totally crazy. I could sell the chickens without a licensed kitchen, but I have to have a licensed kitchen for the eggs. So it is the most random things that you wouldn't even think of, like a sourdough starter. Some States you can't sell sourdough starter like if it's dehydrated or not. You can't sell it and can't sell fermented things like kombucha. And so really make sure that you know that you are stepping into this, doing it legally, and that you have the credentials that you need to sell what you want at market, and it's not impossible to sell these things.

Brianna: 17:41

Getting a licensed kitchen is not as intimidating or hard as it often looks. I don't currently have one where I live, because I don't need one for what I do, but I have in the past and it is really a simple process depending on where you live, um. But that is definitely the first thing that I would encourage everyone to do is make sure that they know what they can and can't sell, legally speaking, um. And then the second thing is I always encourage filling your booth with secondhand goods, that you're set up with secondhand goods, so, um, for me, that means like Apple boxes and baskets that I bought secondhand. I never buy anything from my booth that is like purchased right from the store.

Brianna: 18:29

I always buy secondhand or I was salvage goods and all those sorts of things, anything like that that I can think of, because the thing that we want is we want to really we want we're going to market to make money, and we're going to market to find a new way to earn income, especially oftentimes doing what we really love and that can be hard with farming lately to make a good income off of it. And so if there's ways that you can cut costs, I always recommend find ways that you can cut costs. And so another one if you do starts in your garden. I always sell mine out of tin cans and other recycled goods that cost me no extra money at all, and so, along those lines, I always encourage people to learn to compost, because that way you never have to buy potting soil ever again. So there's a lot of things along those lines. That's like that's ways to save money. Make sure that you're doing it legally, and I also really encourage people to get to know the people that run their market and the people that are in their market as well. This is going to really help you understand the culture of your farmer's market, who runs it, so that you are able to learn so much more about the operation when you are in contact with the people that run it. When you are in contact with the people that run it and when you are going to the meetings and the symposiums that they put on, oftentimes like once a year before market. A lot of markets put on symposiums for the vendors, and so I always recommend, if they send an email out, read it, reply to it, chat with the people in charge and get to know the people that are in market with you, especially if they've been there a long time. They're going to have amazing tips.

Brianna: 20:17

One of my favorite gals that's a part of my market encourage all of us to write out our story so that when we feel like we're having trouble communicating and I often feel like I have trouble communicating I am able to just give them this story and be like hey, if you want to learn more about my farm, this is my paper, and that way, my words are on the paper. I don't have to worry about like stumbling over my words and so getting to know the people in your market. They're going to have wisdom for you that no one else is going to have that because they're not a part of your market, they're not a part wisdom for you that no one else is going to have that because they're not a part of your market, they're not a part of, and especially for such a long time. So I really encourage that as well. Get to know these people.

Brianna: 21:03

And lastly, I really say, just do your research on how you want your booth to be set up, as well as what's the pricing generally in your area for these things. And is there a way to make your produce or your crafted like goods or, um, your baked goods? Is there a way to make them stick out? And is that maybe by cutting costs so that you can have lower pricing than other people, or is it a part of your story? So for me, I'm able to market my produce.

Brianna: 21:36

It's not just local, but it's also.

Brianna: 21:39

It's non-certified, organic.

Brianna: 21:40

You can oftentimes label yourself as non-certified organic, but even people just knowing she's not certified but she is organic and or pesticide, chemical free and things along those lines.

Brianna: 21:55

I also do a lot of regenerative gardening, so the earth is not as disturbed and disrupted in the way that I approach gardening and oftentimes I'm giving back to it with compost and things like that, so it's really giving back to the local environment as in nature, a lot more than from the produce you'll get like from the store and things like that. And so there's a lot of ways that you can market your products and your brand and your produce and your farm that are going to encourage others to be interested in it and to come back for more, because you have a story behind it and because you're trying to cut costs, or even if you can't cut costs, your story and your produce and your crafted goods are going to be much more valuable because of your story and because of what you do and the time and energy you put into what you're selling. And so those are a couple of tips that I would give someone who is just starting with market.

Cicily: 23:00

So good. Brianna, you are clearly a wealth of knowledge, and I feel this is just the tip of the iceberg. If someone were to want to learn more from you, where are a couple of places you would direct them?

Brianna: 23:14

want to learn more from you. Where are a couple of places you would direct them? Yeah, I, um, I have Instagram is is my primary um, the primary place that I post lately, and that's at the honey and nectar co. That's my username. I also have a website that I post on about once a week uh, just honey and nectarcocom and I try to do a blog post that's really extensive.

Brianna: 23:38

I have a separate amount of blog posts and things like that that are for subscribers and they are the ones that go really in depth with the market and growing regeneratively and things like that. If you're really interested in those things and I did just start a YouTube channel and you were the one that encouraged me to do that, and it's going to be at the same handle as my Instagram that's where you can find me at any platform. I have Pinterest as well and different things like that, and so it's the honey and nectar co and that's. Yeah, that's where I mostly share. My stuff is social media, but you really want in depth? Uh, you can definitely find me at my blog and now at my youtube channel thank you so much for your time.

Cicily: 24:25

I really appreciate you helping us.

Brianna: 24:28

Yes, thank you so much.