Winter has arrived—are you the type of person who embraces the quiet, cozy season, or do you immediately begin counting down to spring?
Whether you love it or hate it, winter gives us a great opportunity to slow down, hunker down at home, and work on practical homesteading skills that keep us busy and that can also feed our souls.
I used to love winter as a kid—the snow, the holidays, the lights, and staying home snuggled up in a blanket with a book. As I’ve gotten older, sometimes I dread the long cold, dark nights and not being able be out and about as much as I want to.
This year for the first time in many years, I’m actually welcoming the winter season. Even though I do miss going outside to garden and pick fresh vegetables and flowers, I’m looking forward to resting from gardening and traveling and to turning back to some of my seasonal winter activities of knitting, crocheting, reading, and baking.
In this article, I’ll list some of my favorite homesteading and simple living skills to work on in the winter. Maybe you’ll find an activity to try that you think will bring you peacefulness and joy this winter season.
10 Cozy Homesteading Skills to Level Up This Winter
Winter’s slower pace gives us a great opportunity to pause, reflect, and enjoy relaxing homesteading activities.
Being able to leisurely tinker with a new recipe or relax on the couch with a knitting project is such a gift in this season.
Here are the 10 winter homesteading skills to learn or improve this season.
- Baking
- Cooking from Scratch
- Keeping a Homestead Pantry
- Knitting and Crocheting
- Sewing and Mending
- Food Preservation: Canning & Fermenting
- Making Hot Drinks
- Indoor Gardening
- Journaling and Self-Reflection
- Simplicity Mindset
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1. Baking
This winter, learn to bake yeast or sourdough bread.
There’s nothing cozier in winter than a house warmed by the oven and the smell of baking bread. Homemade bread doesn’t just taste better than mass produced store-bought bread—it’s a way to be more self-reliant and embrace simple living, while at the same time nourishing yourself and your family.
Or if you already can bake basic bread, learn to make a new kind of bread or baked good and improve on your current baking skills.
I’m currently reading The Perfect Loaf by Maurizio Leo and really enjoying breaking out of my comfort zone and trying new bread recipes and techniques and working with different kinds of flours.
I’ve also really been getting into making crackers and baked snacks that the whole family enjoys. It feels great to get to bypass the snack aisle at the grocery store and know that we have plenty of homemade snacks at home that are made with better ingredients.
2. Cooking from Scratch
Every time we bake our own bread, or cook with ingredients that we grew or raised, we are developing a deeper connection with the food that eat and the land that we live on.
That’s why learning to cook from scratch is the next skill I think homesteaders should focus on in the wintertime.
You can develop that deep connection with your food and land, nourish your body with real food, and also become less dependent on pre-made meals by learning to cook from scratch.
Here are some cooking-from-scratch ideas to try no matter what level you are:
- cook without a recipe
- cook with only pantry/refrigerator/cellar ingredients—no shopping for new ingredients
- make a basic vegetable or cut of meat irresistibly delicious using a simple cooking technique like roasting or braising
- make your own pantry staples like broth or stock, spice blends, breadcrumbs, or vanilla extract
- try different ways to use up typical food “waste” like meat bones, stale bread, or unused vegetable scraps
- batch cook and freeze extra meals for busy nights
- try new flavor combinations or a new cuisine
- master cooking one of your favorite restaurant meals completely from scratch
There are so many different ways to level up your cooking game! And what better time to learn to cook from scratch than around the holiday season and in the middle of winter when you’re craving a cozy meal.
Shameless plug: be sure to check out some of my favorite Not Quite a Homestead recipes right here.
3. Keeping a Homestead Pantry
Keeping a well-stocked homestead pantry goes hand in hand with cooking from scratch. It’s difficult to cook a meal from scratch when you don’t have the right ingredients on hand.
At the same time, winter is an excellent season to work on keeping and managing a well-stocked pantry. Buying certain foods and household products in bulk and learning to store food properly can save you money and keep you from having to make so many trips out to the grocery store.
There are tons of food items that you can buy in bulk that will last a while on the shelves. When I first started bulk buying, I was nervous about keeping so much extra food in the house because I worried we wouldn’t be able to eat it all and it would be wasted.
But if you take look at the expiration dates on ingredients you use often, you’ll find that some ingredients can last a long time properly stored.
For example, dried beans, salt, and rice can last years. Flour and sugar can last a while. Even butter and blocks of cheese have a longer (refrigerated) shelf life than you might expect.
Tips for Keeping a Well-Stocked Pantry
If you’ve never kept more than a week’s worth of food in the house at one time, try some of these tips.
- Buy one extra of a shelf-stable ingredient you use often when it goes on sale
- Keep lettuce and salad greens fresher for longer in a box like this one (I’ve kept spinach fresh for 3 weeks!)
- Have a running list of foods you want to keep stocked
- Learn several meal recipes that use only ingredients you have in the pantry
These are just a few ideas to help you get started with keeping and managing your fully stocked homestead pantry this season.
4. Knitting and Crocheting
Knitting and crocheting are such cozy winter homesteading skills to work on when the weather is cold.
Can’t you just imagine sitting beside a crackling fire, knitting a scarf while watching the snow fall? Then maybe even putting on that very same scarf a few hours later to build snowmen in the backyard?
Knitting and crocheting are both useful and enjoyable simple living skills to have. You can make clothes, home decor, blankets, and even toys. Making beautiful and practical things with your own two hands is really something to take pride in.
I find both knitting and crocheting to be very soothing. Yes, it is repetitive, but in a way that is calming. Something about keeping my hands busy that really eases my mind, and maybe you’ll find it relaxing, too.
Last year, I knitted matching sets of hats and ear warmers for my extended family for Christmas while I watched Christmas movies with my kids. It was both fun and productive. Plus, the satisfaction of gifting something I made myself brought me so much joy.
For beginners, I would recommend making a simple, flat piece using a single type of stitch, like a dishcloth or scarf. Just to get a feel for the art. Let me know in the comments which one you try and what you thought about it!
5. Sewing and Mending
And if knitting and crocheting is not your thing, maybe sewing could be. Learning to sew, both by hand and with a machine, is extremely practical and a good skill to try to level up in the wintertime.
If you know how to sew, you can repair missing buttons or broken belt loops and extend the life of a piece of clothing. You could make your own aprons, pillowcases, and clothing, or hem curtains to fit your windows just right.
Sewing is the perfect skill to have if you’re looking to reduce your consumption of fast fashion and stop tossing clothes with minor imperfections.
I’m short, so I learned to sew as a teen so I could shorten all my pants and make them fit properly without spending money at the tailor’s. I’ll be honest, sewing is not my favorite activity, but I’m so grateful that I know how to use a sewing machine and needle and thread to hem, alter clothing, and sew buttons and zippers.
I have (somewhat begrudgingly!) used this skill time and time again as I’ve gotten married and had kids, and I’m sure I will still be sewing and mending clothing until I’m too old to do so!
6. Food Preservation: Canning & Fermenting
You may not think winter is the best time to level up your food preservation skills, but I would argue that it is the perfect time to practice canning and fermenting.
We aren’t growing a garden at the moment, but learning to can and ferment is vital for preserving your homegrown food.
Here are a few reasons why I think canning and fermenting are essential for homesteading and simple living:
- become more self-reliant
- have a well-stocked pantry
- fosters a connection to food and land
- be able to slow down and appreciate the work it takes to have food on your table
- offset the cost of food when the garden isn’t producing
- make the most of abundant fruit and vegetables
This winter, use on-sale, grocery store vegetables to practice canning and fermenting. These vegetables aren’t as precious as your own homegrown ones, so if you make a mistake or end up not liking what you made, you won’t have wasted your own fresh garden harvest.
And you’ll have learned what to do differently for next time.
Two winter food preservation projects I always do are making preserved lemons and canning cranberry jam. Lemons and fresh cranberries usually go on sale in November and December in my area, and both are great beginner recipes to begin with this season if you’re just starting out.
7. Making Hot Drinks
What hot drinks do you enjoy on a cold, wintry day? Tea? Hot Cocoa? Lattes?
Imagine chatting at the kitchen table with your friends and loved ones while sipping hot drinks that you just made moments ago.
Everyone can enjoy and benefit from a hot, cozy drink on a cold day. I think a homemade hot drink celebrates the simple, homesteading life because of the time and special ingredients making one requires.
As an added bonus, learning to make your own specialty brews will save you money by making them at home with quality ingredients rather than buying from a cafe.
I wrote a post on making pumpkin spice lattes and how to brew loose-leaf herbal tea if you need places to start.
This season, I encourage you to work on making your own teas from homegrown herbs, specialty coffees using milk from your animals, and from-scratch hot cocoa.
8. Indoor Gardening
Once the holidays are over, I find myself craving a little bit of fresh green. Thankfully, there are tons of ways to level up gardening skills in the middle of winter.
Choose from hydroponics, microgreens, seed sprouting, propagating herbs and houseplants, and seed starting.
Winter is also a great time for us to organize our seed collections and clean garden tools and seed starting supplies to be ready to go once spring is in full swing. I know I’m ready to hit the ground running by the time spring rolls around!
Lastly, we can read books on gardening, whether that’s different gardening methods or styles, or even learning all about growing a new kind of plant.
I have a round-up of some of my favorite gardening books here if you need book recommendations. The one by Huw Richards is such a good one for homesteaders looking to become more efficient and self-sufficient in the garden.
9. Journaling and Self-Reflection
Winter is a great time to journal and reflect on your growth and future as it coincides with our celebration of the new year.
You may not see journaling and self-reflection as a homesteading or simple living skill, but I think it’s very useful and healthy. Homesteading can lead to burnout very quickly. It can be lonely and hard to do so many things on your own or to not have friends or family that understand your lifestyle.
I encourage you, homesteader or not, to take time to reflect on the year and your life journey so far. Talk through it with a trusted friend or loved one. Write your reflections in a journal.
Here are some questions and prompts I came up with to help you get started.
Questions and Prompts for Journaling and Self-Reflection
- Think about the past year. What are three things you are most proud of accomplishing?
- What were you most disappointed by and why?
- What caused you the most stress in homesteading or simple living last year? Come up with two practical ways you can alleviate or eliminate that stress.
- What five things about your homestead or lifestyle brought you joy this last year? Can you incorporate more of these things into your life this coming year?
- Recall a failure from the past year. What can you do in the future to prevent this?
- Write your top five reasons for living a simple and slow life.
- Think about where you might want to be by this time next year. Set a goal or overall theme for the coming year to help you get there.
10. Simplicity Mindset
The last winter homesteading skill I want to highlight is having a simplicity mindset. It’s hard to homestead and still be chasing after the newest and latest thing.
Instead, we must change our mindset and learn to live more simply. We can learn to be grateful and content and to make do with what we have. We can learn to be resourceful and repurpose or make items that we need.
Simplicity is all about having a mindset of contentedness. What can you pare down or remove in order to live more simply and encourage contentment and gratefulness?
Recently, I decided to let go of several decor items I had been hanging onto from our old house. We’ve lived in our current home for nearly 8 years and didn’t ever put up these pieces because we didn’t have a place for it. It may seem kind of silly, but I couldn’t let the items go before, yet they were taking up space in our storage closet and keeping us from getting to the things we actually do use and want. After purging those items, I do feel more free and content with what I chose to keep.
I hope that practicing the simplicity mindset will lead you to a more content and grateful way of life.
Homesteading Skills Can Be Learned
Whether you’re in the thick of homesteading, or still dreaming of the day you’ll have your own homestead, you can start learning and leveling up your homesteading skills right now even in the middle of winter.
I encourage you to choose one skill to focus on (because doing all these things would probably not be restful!) and just take it slow and enjoy the learning process. You’ve got all winter to do so.
And as the snow continues to fall and bury our gardens beneath a blanket of wintry white, I hope you’ll find some joy in trying at least one of these cozy simple living skills. Whether you’re mastering sourdough bread, learning to ferment, or knitting up a slew of colorful hats, each step brings you closer to a simpler, more fulfilling lifestyle.
I hope you’ll share your progress down below so we can all cheer you on.
Have a happy and joyful winter!