09/06/2026
The homesteading boom of 2020 is hitting a wall.
Remember how it started? Shutdowns, empty grocery shelves, and suddenly everyone wanted a garden. Seed companies sold out. People were renting chickens because they couldn't buy them. Backyard gardens produced over 1.6 BILLION pounds of food that year. It was about self-sufficiency and taking back a little control.
It felt good. It felt right.
And now in 2025 and 2026, a lot of those coops are for sale on Marketplace. Gardens are grown over. Animals are sold off. Quietly, a lot of people are walking away.
No shame in that. Because here is what the online version didn't show.
1. Social media made it look idealistic. The online version is slow mornings, perfect sourdough, clean barns, and everything working out. The real version is feed bills that doubled, predators at 6am, a garden full of weeds because the day job still has to get done, and canning at midnight in 90 degree heat.
2. Too much, too fast. When you try to go from zero to full farm in one spring - chickens, goats, a big garden, canning, compost, the whole thing - it's not sustainable. It becomes a second full-time job with no days off. That's burnout in work boots.
3. It's lonely and expensive. Those are the two things that have ended homesteads for 50 years. Fencing, vet bills, jars, lumber, feed, it all adds up. And it's hard to find help or take a break.
4. It doesn't always save money at first. A lot of people started to cut grocery costs, then realized the startup costs are real.
So how do people get back to it without burning out again?
Not by doing more. By doing less, better.
Start with one thing. One productive garden bed instead of ten. A small flock that you can actually manage instead of every animal at once. Learn one skill this season.
Build community before you build more beds. Old time homesteading was never done alone. Barter, borrow, share extra. That is the part that actually makes it work.
Let it be messy and real. A productive garden does not have to be photogenic to feed a family.
And remember the why. It was never about having a perfect little farm for the internet. It was about knowing where your food comes from, working with your hands, and being a little more self-sufficient.
If you stepped away, that makes sense.
If you want to get back to it, you don't have to start over with everything. Just start with one thing this weekend. One bed. One batch of eggs. One jar of something you grew.
That's how it comes back.
What did you start in 2020 that you kept? What did you let go?
