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Let’s cook with our abundant harvest and learn to go WEEKS without the Grocery Store!Featuring the FROM SCRATCH FARMSTEAD YouTube Channel Please note that this event has moved to August 27! “The cost to feed a family has gone up exponentially over the last several years. People everywhere are trying to really stretch a dollar and watch that grocery budget. What if you knew better how to cook with what you have? Your garden is overflowing with produce, but you still feel the need to go to the grocery store and continue the ‘routine grocery haul. ’ I challenge you to learn what you have available and reverse meal plan. Let’s do with what we have! A few years ago, I took an interest in buying staple ingredients in bulk to have on hand for months at a time. I would pair that with the large produce harvest I stored from my garden to really decrease the grocery spend, waste less and create a secure food supply for my family. I watched several Vlogs on Youtube to learn to master this ‘meal planning in reverse’ idea – one of which is the From Scratch Farmstead. Jim and Joelle have created quite a following by showing others how to do for themselves and make the grocery budget less stressful and at the same time, pack the nutrient rich foods into daily life. Join us for our next webinar as we learn to meal-plan in reverse and cook with what we have, developing the muscle to go weeks or months at a time without the grocery store. ” -Mary Fischer, Homesteading Series Coordinator This is a free online event. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. Jim & Joelle Kurczodyna of From Scratch Farmstead live on a 5 acre homestead in northern Illinois with their 4 kids (and baby #5 due this fall) . They grow and raise enough meat, eggs, dairy, and produce to feed their family year round, while relying on the grocery store for a few staples. In the field, you’ll find them milking cows, raising chickens for meat and eggs, tending gardens with a focus on storage crops, establishing an orchard, and always honing their skills and improving their land. In the kitchen, you’ll find foods fermenting, fresh dairy products like butter, yogurt, and cheese, whole chickens slow cooking, and sweet treats made with wholesome ingredients. And around their home, you’ll find natural products, like the homemade soaps they teach others how to make. But it didn’t always look this way. Around 2012 they began their real food journey to reverse some health issues, namely infertility. Four children later, they are firm believers in the healing power of real foods. This journey began with first cutting out processed foods, then supporting local farmers, then learning to grow their own food. They transformed their 1/3 acre lot into a suburban homestead with gardens, chickens, bees, fruit trees, and more. In 2020 they left suburbia and purchased their current property, a run-down foreclosure, and it has been a labor of love to bring it back to life. Joelle combines her background in nutrition and passion for feeding her family from scratch meals to come up with simple and nourishing recipes. Jim uses his construction background and love for working with his hands to create small-scale, regenerative farming systems for their land. Both are convinced that homesteading is a mindset and lifestyle rather than a land base—this can be achieved in a high-rise kitchen just the same as a country farmhouse. Through their blog and YouTube channel, they aim to inspire and provide practical steps on how this way of life is within reach regardless of your budget or circumstances and to help busy families put nourishing foods on the table. This event is part of SFA’s Homesteading Series. Explore more events in the series on the Minnesota River Chapter page!
