Shawn and Beth Dougherty own 25 acres of a home-farm called Sow’s Ear in eastern Ohio, where they raise cows, pigs and poultry and grow their own vegetables.
The Doughertys aim to run an entirely self-sustainable farm — one that does not depend on imported inputs like pesticides, fertilizers or commercial feed, and instead relies on its own sunlight and rainfall. A healthy farm, the Doughertys say, has everything it needs.
“We knew that what we were after was figuring out, how does a piece of land as an ecosystem maintain its integrity and its health, and add human food production to what it’s already doing?” Beth said.
The Doughertys aren’t alone — modern homesteading has become a movement in the Midwest and beyond.
home·stead·ing
/ˈhōm-ˌste-diŋ/
noun
- the act or practice of living frugally or self-sufficiently (as on a homestead) especially by growing and preserving food
The practice of homesteading in the U.S. dates back to the Civil War era, when Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted 160 acres of government-owned land to any citizen willing to pay a small filing fee. In total, it distributed 270 million acres, or 10% of U.S. territory, to individual homesteaders (simultaneously devastating indigenous nations who faced the loss of ancestral land and forced relocation onto reservations).
Today, homesteading is less about government-sponsored settlement and more about the individual choice to return to the land. Homesteading conferences and festivals host workshops on everything from gardening to beekeeping to farming on a budget, and draw in attendees from all over the country. For some, the COVID-19 pandemic has only strengthened the desire to live sustainably.
For the Doughertys, sustainability means that an ecosystem should be able to run on its own — without human interference.
“When we bring in significant inputs, inputs upon which we depend … we shift the ecosystem off of its stable foundation and throw it off balance,” Beth said.
In line with this goal, they have employed a variety of sustainable farming practices, one of which is grazing ruminants.
Ruminants — like cows, goats and sheep — are animals with a four-chambered stomach, a unique anatomical structure which allows them to digest cellulose, or plant fiber. Since cellulose is indigestible by humans, ruminants form a crucial link between the nutrients we need but cannot consume. Through grazing, they transform non-digestible energy from plants into forms we can access, like meat, milk and manure.
“Life is sunlight,” Beth said. “It’s harvested by plants … Grass is harvestable year round. Ruminants turn it into food for humans, food for animals and food for the soil. Good grazing builds soil and grows more grass.”
Declining soil health is a significant concern in agricultural circles. The Midwest, which has long been known for its rich soil — think of Iowa, with soil so productive that it was named “black gold” — is now losing it about 100 times faster than it forms.
According to a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts, the rate of soil erosion in the Midwest is 10 to 1,000 times greater than it was before the advent of modern agriculture. Since the settlement of the region in the 1860s, agricultural fields in the Midwest have lost two millimeters of soil per year on average, almost double the erosion rate deemed sustainable by the USDA.
Tilling is one of the practices contributing to the problem: it breaks up the soil, exacerbating erosion and runoff. The use of farm vehicles, which further disturb the soil and allow it to be carried away by wind or water, only makes matters worse.
Maintaining soil health on a micro-scale is also a difficult task. External inputs like synthetic fertilizer, which provide plants with macronutrients, only decrease microbial diversity and damage soil health in the long run, especially when overused. Homesteads like the Doughertys’ aim to be sustainable ecosystems that run without external inputs.
That’s not to say it’s easy. The two homesteaders say it took them years to get where they are today. When they first bought Sow’s Ear, it was labeled by the state of Ohio as “not suitable for agriculture.”
“We learned through 20 years of working in the dark,” Beth said.
Meanwhile, a few states away, Wisconsin native Mike Haasl runs his own homestead, where he lives off the land in more ways than one.
Based in the small town of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, Haasl grows fruits and vegetables, raises chickens and produces maple syrup in the spring. He also forages for wild rice, woodshops, blacksmiths and experiments in permaculture.
Haasl singles out practicality and health as the key benefits of a homesteading lifestyle.
“I like the cost savings and the healthy food element of it,” he said. “So my grocery bill is really low because I grow a lot of stuff. All the food I have is better than organic.”
Haasl has also taken the lead in creating a homesteading community in Rhinelander. In 2017, he established a homesteading club; in 2022, he co-created SKIP, a merit badge program to connect young, aspiring homesteaders with older generations looking for someone to take over their land.
In an attempt to find fellow homesteaders when he arrived in Rhinelander, he set up a stand at the Earth Day fair at a local college and put up a sign. That day, he collected 35 email addresses, a number which has now grown to 250.
The club gets together once a month and spreads word of classes or events happening in the area. Haasl says they all learn from one another and share resources through seed swaps and other activities.
“If I have a question about a bug-eating something, somebody there will know it,” he said. “If you [ask], ‘Hey, does anybody have slab wood from a sawmill?’ ‘Sure, come on over and grab it.’ Or, ‘Hey, they don’t know how to make wine.’ ‘Yep, I got some extra gear you can borrow.’”
Like Haasl, the Doughertys are working to spread the word about homesteading.
In 2016, the Doughertys published a book on homesteading practices called The Independent Homestead, and have spoken at homesteading conferences and festivals.
“We did a lot of stumbling into what we do,” Shawn said. “That whole process has enabled us to be able to talk now. We talk all over the country about sustainable agriculture.”
Homesteaders like the Doughertys and Haasl are involved in their communities because they believe in the future of growing their own food, connecting with the land and living sustainably.
“This trajectory of individuals on a human scale taking hold of their piece of property and making it beautiful and making it abundant and making it serve them and their community — that’s the way forward,” Beth said. “Not the way of corporate farming.”
“We need a million … little tiny farms like ours,” Shawn said.
Haasl also believes in a future where more people grow their own food, but says that homesteading doesn’t have to be all or nothing. He advocates for a world of “easier homesteading,” or doing as much as you can without overwhelming yourself into quitting.
Part of that philosophy, Haasl said, means homesteading doesn’t have to be your sole source of income, or even a moneymaker at all — as long as you do something, it counts.
“Every calorie that you grow yourself is one less tree that gets burned down,” Haasl said. “So the more imperfect, hopefully organic and clean homesteading we all do on a smaller, medium scale, the better everything will be.”
