This website is for those with an interest in natural resources, sustainable agriculture, ecosystem health, financial success and biological diversity.
How to Make a Sustainable Living on Your Land – 5 acres to 5 sections.
We’ll gather at Homestead Heritage, a 500 acre homesteading community at Elm Mott near Waco, to learn how the families work together to create a truly sustainable community. The two-day symposium presents short classes in many of the craft/skills used at the farm, showing how each integrates into the whole of a sustainable family homestead. Tours of various aspects of Homestead Heritage might include:
- A walking tour of the working demonstration homestead, which includes an organic vegetable garden, herb garden, orchard and vineyard, small pasture, animals and animal pens, water catchment system and possibly a horse farming demonstration.
- A horse-drawn hayride tour of the upper land and a stop at the scenic overlook of the Brazos River bottom where they farm with horses.
- A craft village tour of each craft shop, which includes the woodworking/furniture shop, pottery shop, blacksmith shop, restored barn (circa 1760) which serves as a retail shop for our handmade crafts, deli and bakery and the restored gristmill (circa 1750).
- Tour of the restored historical buildings detailing the history and explaining the historical construction methods of each building. These buildings include the barn and gristmill described above as well as one other barn (circa 1780), a log cabin from the 1850’s and a smokehouse approximately 150 years old.
Meals will be created onsite with home grown grass-fed meats and other goodies.
As a community that has existed as a community attempting to sustainably live off of the land for the past 30 years, the folks at Homestead Heritage have found that community is a necessity for successful sustainable living. They view sustainable agriculture as such—agriculture, a culture based in the land rather than a one family, individualistic endeavor. Butch Tindell explains, “We have not seen successful, sustainable farms existing long-term in the absence of community. We have found that a network of like-minded persons with a common goal is necessary for the success of a sustainable farm. Our own community is a community of small family farms with each family helping one another and consequently, we teach our classes from this perspective.”
Registration information is not yet available, but please mark your calendars. You will not want to miss this one!
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