I think that gardens and earth connections draw us closer to God, perhaps easier than anything else. – Joel Salatin
Welcome to Reformation Acres!
I’m Quinn and as a first generation homesteader I’ve experienced many of the same challenges, fears, dreams, disappointments, triumphs, and failures that you have every single day.
My mission is to encourage and support you as you follow your homestead dream today regardless of what circumstances you’re in and what obstacles are in your path. Homesteading isn’t where you live. It’s how you live. If you are taking an active role in your food production, you are a homesteader.
For the Christian agrarian, it’s about exercising dominion over the Lord’s Creation and mindful stewardship of the land and livestock. Your property with all its imperfections is what He has blessed you with and called you to manage today. Homestead it to the glory of God!
I’ve been homesteading for around a decade now. I remember when we were looking to buy what turned out to be our first homestead the owner had pictures of the vegetables she had grown in her garden lining the dining room table. She considered her garden to be one of the selling features of her home. I was more interested in the nice backyard for my children to run and play around in. Growing a garden hadn’t even been something I considered.
A couple summers after we moved in, we did plant a little garden. I was more concerned with frugality than vegetable production. I just figured a pack of seeds was about as much as one tomato. As our firstborn began to grow older, we started to think about instilling a work ethic in him. Something beyond feeding and watering our Basset Hound. A contribution that had a meaningful return to the family economy. And so we converted an unused shed into a cute little chicken coop and ordered 6 Buff Orpington chicks from a hatchery.
I should have seen the writing on wall when my husband, Bill, couldn’t even wait for our order to come and brought home 6 Black Star hens from the feed store. ( I’ve since fallen victim to that temptation myself!) Well you know what they say? Chickens are the gateway livestock and it wasn’t long before I was thinking of what we could raise to go with our eggs at breakfast.
From gardens to orchards, meat chickens to homegrown bacon, sheep to our beloved Jersey cows, we’ve been walking the old path to a simple life and have never looked back. We dream with anticipation of what the future will hold and are excited over the prospects. Will it be bees, rabbits, aquaponics with homegrown Tilapia? What skills will we acquire? I’m sure you can relate!
I’ve discovered along the way that the simple life isn’t always so simple and have learned that often times using good homestead management can go a long way to restoring the joy and passion that originally began the journey. With 8 children, from the ages of 17 down to 2, and a busy farm being somewhat organized has been essential to keeping things running smoothly. I know you’re facing many of the same challenges and am here to encourage you that you can learn new skills, create new habits, and education yourself in the forgotten arts of animal husbandry, gardening, scratch cooking, and more!
Over time, we’ve developed a vision and passion for simple agrarian living, raising our children to enjoy meaningful work, and good food. (Really good food!) We seek to reform our small farm into a beautiful, productive land that glorifies the Lord and honors His design in creation. We go beyond organic and use natural and sustainable solutions to grow and raise nutrient-dense food while exercising dominion and mindful stewardship of the land and livestock.
This site has evolved over the years. When it began I had never even heard of a homesteader, but as I struggled to learn new things, I realized there were others on the journey with me, albeit at different stages, and that we could learn from each other’s experiences. You can look back and see our children playing with our first hens in the grass, see as we planted our first fruit trees, butchered our first hogs, buried our first dairy cow. Life and death, hope and disappoint, accomplishments and failures, I’ve shared them all with you.
You can expect me to continue sharing what I’ve been learning in our gardens and from around our homestead. I hope to encourage you as you walk the path on your own homestead journey and follow your dream. I want you to keep the “simple” in the simple life by managing orderly, abundant, and joyful farms. I want you to be inspired to acquire new knowledge and skills. I want you to take control of your health and learn to build a natural herbal medicine cabinet. And because what we do on our homesteads is so intimately connected with our kitchen table’s I will share seasonal, from-scratch recipes my kitchen.
Here is a collection of some of my “popular” posts and a sampling of what you’ll find when you visit:
• How to Kill Squash Bugs, Squash Bug Eggs, and Nymphs
• 8 Culinary Herbs for the Shade Garden
• All-Natural Hair Care Recipes
• How to Make Mozzarelle Cheese (The Easy Way)
• Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
• Sweet Lemon, Honey, & Thyme Cough Syrup
• 5 Things You Should Know About Wood Chip Mulch
• Gathering & Harvest Apron Tutorial
• How We Use the Bible For Our Home Education Program
I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter! Not only will I send you a 10% coupon good for anything in our Etsy shop, but it’s the best way to make sure that you receive all of the latest posts from Reformation Acres. You’ll also get our free newsletter, filled with Farm Scenes homestead updates, “Gleanings” from around the web, the (very) occasional special offer, and exclusive from-scratch recipes from our Farmstead Cookery kitchen!
Be sure to connect with me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Youtube!
Need to contact me?
Head on over to the contact page to get in touch!
I hope you enjoy your visit here!
Soli deo gloria,
Quinn
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God!
