A Tiny Homestead Podcast By Mary E Lewis cover art

A Tiny Homestead

A Tiny Homestead

By: Mary E Lewis
Listen for free

We became homesteaders three years ago when we moved to our new home on a little over three acres. But, we were learning and practicing homesteading skills long before that. This podcast is about all kinds of homesteaders, and farmers, and bakers - what they do and why they do it. I’ll be interviewing people from all walks of life, different ages and stages, about their passion for doing old fashioned things in a newfangled way. https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryesCopyright 2023 All rights reserved. Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Three Birch Homestead

    Three Birch Homestead
    Mar 20 2026
    Today I'm talking with Andrea at Three Birch Homestead. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Andrea at Three Birch Homestead in Canada. Good morning, Andrea. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Canada this morning? um It's a little bit cold. We had like a really warm spell and now it's kind of freezing again. 00:30 Yeah, I'm in Minnesota and we've had a couple of really beautiful days and they're saying we're going to get snow tomorrow, a little bit of snow Thursday, and then they're kind of hyping up a bigger storm over the weekend. And I'm like, it's March. Could we please put it to bed now? Please. Yeah, I'm ready for spring. There was actually a really like heavy windstorm here the last couple of days and the power's been out, I guess, like all over the place. 01:00 um But because we're off grid, we like don't even notice. We just hear about it from other people. Uh-huh. It's one of the benefits of living off grid. You've got that covered. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself, please. um We live in northern BC, Canada, off grid um on a property, like a rural property. We're about 45 minutes from the closest town. 01:30 an hour and a half from like a bigger center. So it's a bit of a drive. There is like a small community about half an hour from here. um But there's just like a general store and a post office. It's not, there's not a whole lot going on there. Yeah. So and we raise animals for meat and we um have kids and 01:59 homeschool and yeah, just sort of try to do as much as we can on our own and provide as much food as we can for ourselves. 02:11 Okay, I have a question. You have kids. How many kids do you have? um I have five kids. Two of them are adults, so they don't live with me anymore. And then I have a 14 year old son and then a two year old and an eight month old. 02:29 Okay, having raised four kids without a whole lot of family around, because my family lives in Maine, uh how has it been for you? Do you have family at all in the area that can help out or is it just you? um When my other kids were little, I lived in a different area and I did have family around, so that was very helpful. Here, we didn't have much family around, but my husband's parents recently moved to the area. 02:59 They live uh here half the time and then in Ontario half the time because they wanted to be closer to their grandkids. So, um because the two boys are their only grandchildren, so they wanted to be close. And so that's been really helpful. 03:16 good because when I hear moms having more than a couple of kids and I don't hear anything about extended family being able to kind of help out here and there, I worry because I did a lot of the raising of my four kids myself and it is a lot of stress and a lot of energy and I loved every minute of it but it would have been helpful to have extended family to step in. Yeah, it's definitely nice to have somebody. So I thought I 03:48 Yeah, I thought I would ask because I don't recommend anyone do homesteading or off-grid living or anything else like that if you don't have some form of community to call on if you do need help. It's definitely nice. Yeah. you you disagree? Yeah, I agree. It can be really isolating. When I first moved out here, 04:12 Like where I had lived before, I did live out of town, but I only lived a couple minutes out of town and I had lots of friends around. And so when I moved out here to live with my husband, like my now husband, I didn't really have that anymore. it definitely, I didn't realize how much it was going to affect me until I got out here. And then I was like, wow, like I don't have anybody. And so I was pretty lonely. And then my son joined Taekwondo. 04:42 which helped us to meet people. And so now I do have some friends around, but they're definitely not as close. they're, you know, a good 45 minute to an hour drive away. So I don't get to see people as often as I used to, but I've kind of learned to adapt. It's given me a lot more time to do stuff at home, which is nice. I spend less time socializing and more time making bread and doing other things that I wanted to do before too, but didn't have time for because I would be out and about. 05:17 Absolutely. I am an extreme introvert and I spend most of my weekdays from about 730 in the morning until about 430. Just me. And I love it because I get so much done and I can pursue the things that I'm ...
    Show more Show less
    29 mins
  • Greenbush Twins & Company

    Greenbush Twins & Company
    Mar 16 2026
    Today I'm talking with Sidney at Greenbush Twins & Company. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Sydney Greenbush at Greenbush Twins and Company in California. And is it 11 o'clock there? Yes. We just had daylight savings times, you know, so that it would normally be 10, but now it's 11. 00:25 Yeah, so I would say, well, I'm in Minnesota, so I'm two hours ahead of you. So good morning to you and good afternoon to me. Good morning. I am so happy to have you as a guest. I saw you on Facebook, your page, and I was like, hmm, there's a story there. I've got to talk to her. But before we get into it, I always say, how is the weather wherever my guest is? So how's the weather in California today? Oh, it's really windy today, but the winds are supposed to... 00:54 die down. So we have the Santa Ana winds, which are the winds that come from the inland and blow out to the ocean. And they get very strong. You get gassed up to, you know, 60 to 100 miles an hour. So we're all like really ready for them to die down today. I feel like 50 to 60 miles our mile hour and a winds. I can't say it. I feel like 50 to 60 mile per hour winds. 01:23 are a weekly occurrence where we live in Minnesota. So I'm used to it. Yeah. We, and for us, the winds aren't the bad part of it. The bad part of it is when we have obviously the wildfires on top of it. So everybody kind of gets a little anxious because you never know when one's going to pop up or where. Um, and so you're always kind of like got that little bit of guard going. Yeah. Especially after last year, I'm sure you guys are on a swivel. 01:52 Yeah, and so for us that live in this area, we've had a few really bad fires. The last one was obviously the Palisades and the Altadena fire. But years before that, we had the Woolsey and we've had um really bad fires in the 80s and stuff. One year, actually burnt down part of Johnny Carson's home. So it almost becomes a way of life here on the coastline around by Los Angeles because 02:20 It's not if you're going to have a fire, it's when are you going to have another fire? Because it's just the way that eh the vegetation and the habitat kind of the ecosystem is. Well, I'm always astounded at people who want to live in California. My daughter lived there for a few years and she loved it. She loved everything about it. And then she fell in love and moved to New York and now she's in Florida with her husband. So. uh 02:49 Yeah, it's amazing where you'll move for the person you love. So let's just address the elephant in the room. If Sydney's name sounds familiar, it's because she played along with her sister, Carrie on Little House on the Prairie. Right. And Sydney is way more than just that. She has started a new project and I think it's fairly recent, like in the last year. Yeah. 03:18 Well, the, really started in December was the official launch of the website and the ramp up for the book, the seven sisters, lantern of humanity. And so it's all just very fresh for, for me. And it's been an amazing trip so far and I can only imagine what the future holds, you know. Yeah. Are you still riding the new energy high of a new project? 03:46 I am because I keep thinking at some point, you you try and build your audience and I keep thinking at some point, okay, it's going to taper down because it's not quite so new anymore. And it's been about six months that we've been, we've been talking about it. But every day I'm so surprised because I, I log in and then the number has increased and sometimes it's not like a major increase, but it's still that momentum going forward and it hasn't tapered off yet. 04:16 And then I start to get excited and I start thinking, oh, I could do this and I could do that and I could do that. And I'm like, OK, slow down. You got to focus like one one thing at a time. Let's get through the first one first. You know, so. Oh, yes, I woke up this morning and I know I was going to be talking with you. I knew I had to get two podcasts ready to go out for tomorrow. I also have a course that I'm supposed to be taking that someone gifted me about raising quail that I need to sit down and look at. 04:44 And I was like, I can't do all three of these things at the same time this morning. So one thing and then the next thing and then the next thing. And if I don't get them all done, it's OK. Right. Yeah. And see, I'm, you know, I'm ...
    Show more Show less
    33 mins
  • Small Scale Rebellion

    Small Scale Rebellion
    Mar 13 2026
    Today I'm talking with Emily and Nathan at Small Scale Rebellion. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 If you're a homesteader who wants to get paid for your content without living on social media, check out SteelSpoonFarm.com. Founder Jen Kibler teaches you how to build a real blog or your email list and use Pinterest for sustainable marketing. Inside her coaching group, Content Seeds Collective, you'll get weekly live coaching, a private community, and access to her Root Seller Resource Library full of tutorials and templates. Join today for just $37 a month and start building a business that doesn't depend on the algorithm. 00:26 A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Seals Spoon Farm. You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Nathan and Emily at Small Scale Rebellion in Canada, and Emily told me, where in Canada? Where in Canada are you, Emily? We're in the West Kootenays of BC. Okay, thank you. Welcome, you guys. Good afternoon. How are you? 00:56 We're good. Thanks for having us. Thank you. I always start every podcast with how's the weather? How's the weather where you are? That's a little gloomy. Yeah, we're over winter. It's just dragging on. But the words are coming back and you can kind of tell that spring is just around the corner. So it's like the final stretch. Yeah, I stepped out on my porch about two hours ago, maybe three hours ago now. 01:25 and I could hear birds singing and I was like, oh, the blackbirds are back. have a, um there's a word. Can't think of it. We're in a flight pattern for these blackbirds. They come back every spring. Migration pattern. There we go. And this is the earliest they've come through in the five years that we've been here. So I think we're looking at an early spring. Yeah, for sure. It was like a really mild winter, all things considered here. 01:55 So we are looking forward to hopefully an early spring, but also a moderate fire season because normally if the snowpack isn't very good in the winter here, we have like horrible fires. So fingers crossed that doesn't happen. I'll cross everything I have for you because wildfires are a terrible thing. And that does not mean that burns are a terrible thing. 02:22 Burns are important for agriculture and for growing things, but they need to be not taking down structures that people live in or killing people. So that's my caveat there. All right. So I was very excited to stumble across you guys on Instagram. Tell me about yourselves and what you do at Small Scale Rebellion. So we're farmers first and foremost. um Our farm is called Confluence Farms. 02:49 And we started Small Scale Rebellion as a way to teach other farmers how to have profitable farm hubs. a farm hub is composed of four components. It's online ordering, a, help me out here. Home delivery, a collaborative. 03:13 a full diet offering. we do local food aggregation. So we've become like a one-stop shop for all things local. And then we also do free choice ordering exclusively. And so people can order what they want, when they want. And then we even have like a credit-based CSA. So people buy credits to our store. And then that way we get money upfront, very similar to a CSA, except you don't have to commit to like a weekly CSA box for 20 weeks. You can just pay us. uh 03:43 for credits and then use them whenever you like. And what we discovered is that when you make eating local easier, a lot more people will start doing it. Yes, because humans love convenience. And instead of fighting that, I think it's important to, you know, just embrace it because if you don't, it's really hard to make it as a farmer. Oh. 04:11 Absolutely. And what you're doing is amazing. So what made you decide to do this? 04:19 Um, well, it kind of happened by accident. We actually started, um, we had this kind of goal of just growing all of our own food for a year. And when you start growing food, you always end up having too much food. And so you end up giving it away to friends and neighbors. And we were doing that for a few years and then COVID happened and we didn't really have, uh, 04:48 That kind of affected our income. And we were getting ready to grow like a half acre worth of food, which thinking back now for two people is like an insane amount of food. Like it shouldn't have been growing that much, but we, didn't know what we were doing. We're just like, Oh, let's just grow a little bit of everything. And then COVID ...
    Show more Show less
    31 mins
No reviews yet