HerbWoman™ Homesteading and Prepping
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HerbWoman™ Homesteading and Prepping
A practical, joy-filled course on growing food, preserving the harvest, building a resilient pantry, and creating a home system that supports real life. This is plant-forward homesteading without livestock keeping — with one exception: pollinators. Bees belong here.
Pace
Garden to pantry, step-by-step
We build a complete system: plan the garden, grow well, preserve safely, and store food calmly.
Focus
Preservation, preparedness, and health
Canning, drying, freezing, fermentation basics, pantry rotation, and “what to cook when life happens.”
Outcome
A resilient home food system
You leave with a plan, a pantry method, and a seasonal rhythm you can actually maintain.
Best for: people who want the magic of homesteading and the power of prepping without fear-based messaging — focused on food, plants, and practical household resilience. Dogs are welcome as companions in the homestead rhythm, but this course does not teach animal husbandry.
Important scope note: This course focuses on plant-based homesteading, preservation, and preparedness education. Food safety matters. Always follow your local, official guidance for canning, storage temperatures, and hygiene. Beekeeping involves stings and allergy risk, and may be regulated locally. If you have a history of severe reactions, consult a clinician and a local beekeeping association before starting.
This course is actively maintained and updated. Enrolled students automatically benefit from improvements as the school evolves.
Course identity
This is the art of taking care of yourself through food systems. The goal is a home that feeds you with less stress: a garden that is planned realistically, a pantry that supports busy weeks, and a preparedness mindset that feels calm, not obsessive.
What this course is
A structured training in plant-based homesteading and prepping: garden planning, soil and compost, seasonal growing, pollinator stewardship with bees, preservation methods, pantry organisation, emergency readiness for food and water, and simple home systems that make it all sustainable.
What we intentionally do not cover
- Raising livestock such as chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, or similar.
- Butchering, hunting, or animal-based processing.
- Anything that pushes people toward unnecessary animal consumption.
Protein philosophy inside this course
This course supports a plant-forward, mindful approach: choose protein with intention, buy only what you need, and build the rest of the plate from plants. We focus on planning, budgeting, and cooking in ways that reduce waste and increase health.
Who it is for
- Gardeners who want to preserve what they grow and create a real pantry system.
- People who want healthier food, less waste, and more independence from constant shopping.
- Preppers who want skills and beauty, not fear and chaos.
- Anyone who loves plants, seasonal rhythm, and the feeling of a home that is ready.
- Bee lovers who want to support pollinators and understand honey and wax as part of the homestead ecosystem.
Who it is not for
- People looking for livestock keeping training.
- Anyone wanting extreme prepping that increases anxiety.
- Students who want shortcuts without learning food safety and basic skills.
Entry expectations
- No prior homesteading experience required.
- Willingness to start small and build the system gradually.
- Respect for hygiene, seasonal reality, and practical limitations.
Competency promise
By completing the course, the student can:
- Plan a realistic home garden that matches time, climate, and space.
- Grow and harvest with better timing, less waste, and healthier soil.
- Preserve food safely through the right method for the right ingredient.
- Build a pantry system with rotation, labelling, and meal planning logic.
- Create a calm preparedness plan for busy weeks and unexpected disruptions.
- Support pollinators and understand beginner-friendly beekeeping pathways.
Course learning outcomes
Outcomes are stable even when lesson content evolves.
Garden outcomes
- Create a seasonal plan: what to grow, where, and when.
- Improve soil using compost, mulching, and simple ecology.
- Use low-stress methods: raised beds, containers, and no-dig options.
- Reduce pest pressure through habitat, timing, and healthy plant systems.
Preservation outcomes
- Choose the right method: canning, drying, freezing, fermentation basics where appropriate.
- Apply hygiene and storage logic consistently.
- Build a personal preservation calendar that fits your harvest and your time.
Pantry and prep outcomes
- Build a pantry that supports healthy meals with fewer shopping trips.
- Create rotation and “use-first” systems to reduce waste.
- Plan calm readiness: water basics, blackout cooking options, and emergency meals.
Bees and pollinator outcomes
- Design a pollinator-friendly garden that supports bees and beneficial insects.
- Understand honey, wax, and seasonal bee cycles at a beginner level.
- Explore ethical pathways: supporting local beekeepers, pollinator habitats, and responsible bee stewardship.
Curriculum map (stable spine)
Below is the “contents page” version of the course, inspired by classic homesteading books — adapted to plant-based systems, pantry work, and bees.
The home garden
- Planning a garden that matches your life
- Improving your soil: compost, mulch, and no-dig options
- Container gardening and small-space growing
- Organic garden rhythm and seasonal timing
- Kitchen garden: herbs, greens, and everyday staples
- Planting trees, berries, and perennial food plants
- Root crops, raised beds, and resilient harvests
- Pest management through ecology and prevention
- Attracting birds, butterflies, and bees to your garden
- Harvesting, storing fresh produce, and using it well
- Community resources: markets, co-ops, and sharing systems
The pantry
- Eating well from simple ingredients
- Food co-ops and smart sourcing
- Preserving safely: method selection and hygiene
- Canning basics, drying and freezing workflows
- Fermentation foundations where appropriate
- Wild foods: edible plants and mushrooms, with strong safety boundaries
- Make your own foods: staples, broths, sauces, dressings, condiments
- Sharing your bounty and building a seasonal rhythm
Bees and pollinator stewardship
- Why bees matter: pollination, biodiversity, and food security
- Creating bee habitat through planting and “no poison” practices
- Beginner beekeeping pathways and ethics
- Seasonal cycles and what to expect through the year
- Honey harvest, wax use, and safe handling basics
- Supporting bees without owning hives: local action that matters
Simple structures and home systems
- Cold frames, simple greenhouses, and extending the season
- Garden fences, gates, trellises, and supports
- Tool sheds and workshops for small-scale work
- Root cellars and cool storage (modern versions included)
- Rain capture logic and water awareness for the garden
- Dog-friendly homesteading: routines, boundaries, and safe garden zones
Energy, resilience, and self-reliance
- Basic solar, backup lighting, and low-tech solutions
- Blackout cooking options and meal planning without stress
- Composting toilets and other practical systems, where relevant
- Preparedness without panic: water, pantry, and household calm
Craft, home care, and well-being
- Homemade soap, cleaning basics, and low-waste home routines
- Beeswax projects: wraps, candles, simple home care
- Herbal home support: teas, pantry herbs, and seasonal self-care
- First aid foundations and household readiness
- Intentional community: sharing resources and building resilience together
Learning design
Projects that feel real
You build your system through practical projects: garden plan, pantry rotation, preservation calendar, and readiness kit.
Cooking that supports health
We focus on meal foundations, smart prep, and simple flavor logic so preserved food becomes something you actually want to eat.
Seasonal rhythm
The course is organised around the year: planting, tending, harvesting, preserving, and winter cooking from your stores.
Assessment approach
Competence is proven through planning, execution, and clear documentation of what you built.
Formative assessments
- Your personal garden plan and seasonal timeline.
- Your pantry map: categories, rotation method, and shopping rhythm.
- Your preservation practice logs: method, hygiene, storage, notes.
- Your preparedness plan: “busy week” meals, blackout plan, water basics.
Summative assessments
- A complete “home system” portfolio: garden, pantry, preservation, and preparedness.
- A seasonal menu rotation built around what you grow and store.
- A pollinator plan with specific actions you will maintain over time.
Capstone project
Your Resilient Home Food System
A strong capstone can include:
- A realistic garden plan with a small set of high-impact crops and herbs.
- A preservation calendar and a pantry rotation system that reduces waste.
- A “calm readiness” plan: emergency meals, water basics, and blackout cooking.
- A pollinator stewardship plan, including bees and pesticide avoidance.
- A final reflection on what made the system sustainable for your life.
Portfolio signal: This capstone becomes proof that you can feed yourself more reliably, waste less, and feel calmer through the seasons.
Update policy
Living curriculum, stable outcomes: Lesson titles, sequencing, and resources may evolve as the course improves. The curriculum spine and learning outcomes remain stable so students always know what they are building toward.
HerbWoman™ Homesteading and Prepping
Plant-based homesteading + calm preparedness (with bees/pollinators). No livestock modules included.
Welcome into the HerbWoman™ homestead rhythm
- How the course works: garden → pantry → calm preparedness
- Your context: time, energy, space, climate
- Calm preparedness: readiness without fear
- Tools and setup: what you need, what you don’t
- Kitchen, pantry, garden as one connected system
- Your first week: small steps with big impact
- Safety boundaries: food safety, hygiene, local rules
- Project: your personal Home System Map
Planning that makes everything easier later
- Choosing goals: health, budget, resilience, stress reduction
- Realistic production: grow what you will actually eat
- The seasonal year wheel: timing and workflow
- Zones and proximity: design around your kitchen
- “Good enough” standards: consistency over perfection
- Storage logic: cool, dark, dry, airtight
- Waste to resource: core principles
- Project: your simple seasonal plan
Soil, compost, and natural fertility
- Soil as an ecosystem: structure, life, nutrients
- Compost systems that are easy to maintain
- Mulch, ground cover, and soil protection
- No-dig methods and low-effort growing
- Natural inputs: kitchen scraps, seaweed, plant teas
- Simple home soil tests
- Reading plant signals
- Project: a soil upgrade plan for one bed
Garden setup without stress
- Raised beds, in-ground beds, and containers
- Small-space growing strategies
- Sun, wind, shade, and microclimates
- Water strategy: efficiency and drought resilience
- Supports: trellises, strings, arches
- Weeds as information
- Season extension: simple, affordable methods
- Project: your minimum viable garden
High-impact crops for the home system
- Best beginner crops with high return
- Root vegetables and storage crops
- Leafy greens and fast harvests
- Onions, brassicas, and foundational staples
- Berries and perennial edibles
- Edible flowers and pollinator aesthetics
- Crop rotation and soil health
- Project: your “core crops” list
Kitchen garden herbs for flavor and wellbeing
- Herbs that turn simple food into gourmet
- Drying herbs for quality
- Herb salts, herb butters, oils, and vinegars
- Pesto logic: build your own without recipes
- Herbs in soups, broths, sauces, dressings
- Finishing herbs and flavor layering
- Gentle everyday herbal self-care through food
- Project: build your herb pantry
Pests and plant problems without drama
- Prevention first: soil health + placement
- Physical barriers: nets, fleece, collars
- Timing and companion planting principles
- Beneficial insects and habitat
- Gentle plant care and observation
- What to do when things go wrong (without poisons)
- Disease logic: moisture, airflow, spacing
- Project: your garden protection checklist
Harvesting, fresh storage, and pre-preservation workflow
- Harvest timing: flavor vs storage
- Handling: temperature, moisture, bruising
- Root cellar principles without a root cellar
- Fridge, shed, cellar: what goes where
- “Use first” systems and sorting
- Washing, blanching, and prep basics
- The harvest week plan: from chaos to flow
- Project: your harvest workflow
Food safety and preservation foundations
- Hygiene, temperature, and the basics of spoilage
- Choosing the right method: freeze, dry, ferment, can
- Acid, salt, sugar, water activity: why it works
- Equipment: minimum setup vs upgrades
- Jars, lids, labeling, dating
- Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- Storage checks and quality control
- Project: your preservation decision tree
Freezing as a professional system
- What freezes best and how to prep it
- Batch prep: vegetables, herbs, sauces
- Portioning for real life
- Soups, broths, and meal components
- Preventing texture loss and freezer burn
- Labeling and rotation
- Freezer menus: fast meals from stored components
- Project: build a two-week freezer bank
Drying and building shelf-stable ingredients
- Dehydrating: temperature, time, quality
- Dry herbs, mushrooms, vegetables
- Powders: greens, mushrooms, onions
- Healthy snacks without ultra-processing
- Storage: air, light, humidity
- Combining methods: dry + freeze + ferment
- Making dried food taste amazing
- Project: build one “dry pantry” shelf
Fermentation the simple and safe way
- The principles: salt, time, temperature
- Everyday fermented vegetables
- Flavor-building: herbs, garlic, spices
- Safety rules and red flags
- Ferments as prep: instant sides and toppings
- Storage and rotation
- A fermentation routine you can maintain
- Project: three ferments for your weekly rhythm
Pantry design that sets you free
- Pantry categories: basics, flavor, emergency, quick meals
- Zones: “use first,” “restock,” “grab-and-go”
- Labeling that actually works
- Containers: glass, bins, vacuum options
- Storage needs: cool, dark, dry
- Pantry budgeting and smart sourcing
- Building gradually: a 4-week pantry plan
- Project: your pantry map
Prepping without panic
- Common scenarios: power outage, illness, storms, finances
- Water: storage, filtration, realistic amounts
- Food: nutrient density and simple cooking
- Light and heat: minimal solutions
- Documents, communication, and essentials
- Hygiene when systems are stressed
- Psychological readiness: calm routines and rituals
- Project: your calm preparedness binder
Cooking that makes it sustainable and fun
- Meal architecture: build meals without recipes
- Flavor logic: salt, acid, fat, heat, herbs, crunch
- Sauces and dressings that elevate pantry food
- Soups, stews, trays, and rotation-friendly meals
- Pantry gourmet: 15-minute high-quality meals
- Busy-day systems: structure over motivation
- Waste-free cooking with style
- Project: your 10-meal rotation
Protein strategy without livestock keeping
- Buy only what you need: practical philosophy
- Quality vs quantity: choosing protein intentionally
- Protein as a component, not a mindset
- Plant proteins: making them satisfying
- Fish and meat as mindful choices (optional)
- Budget protein: smart shopping and use
- Satiety without overconsumption
- Project: your personal 4-week protein plan
Pollinator homestead and bees
- Why bees matter: ecology and food security
- No-poison practices that protect pollinators
- Planting for bees: continuous bloom through seasons
- Supporting bees without owning hives
- Beginner beekeeping: ethical starting points and local rules
- Honey and wax: handling and storage basics
- Bee water sources and safe garden zones
- Project: your pollinator plan
Beeswax and practical home crafts
- Beeswax basics: cleaning, melting, storage
- Wax wraps and low-waste packaging
- Candles and home comfort
- Simple salves and household skincare basics
- Shelf life and storage
- Gifts, swapping, and community
- A minimalist “craft pantry”
- Project: make two items you will truly use
Low-waste home systems and seasonal resets
- Kitchen hygiene routines that last
- Natural cleaning without obsession
- Waste to resource: compost, reuse, repair
- Storage systems that reduce chaos
- Seasonal resets: four times a year
- Fewer shopping trips, better meals
- Project: your weekly home rhythm
Dogs in the homestead lifestyle
- Dog-safe zones in garden and pantry
- Toxic vs safe plants and foods
- Routines that create calm
- Hygiene around harvest and storage
- Dogs as companions for foraging and outdoor rhythm
- Preventing conflict between beds and paws
- Project: your dog-friendly plan
Wild foods with strong safety boundaries
- Ethical foraging: ecology and local rules
- Identification: never guess
- Beginner plants to learn safely
- Mushrooms: how to learn step-by-step responsibly
- Drying and storing wild foods
- Using wild foods in everyday meals (small amounts, big impact)
- Project: your personal wild food safety protocol
Capstone: your complete Resilient Home Food System
- Assemble your full system: garden, pantry, preservation, readiness
- Water, food, light, heat, hygiene basics
- Your pollinator and bee-support plan
- Your 10-meal rotation and weekly rhythm
- Your seasonal year wheel: what happens when
- Documentation so you never start over
- Final project: present your system
- Next steps: how to expand without stress
A clean time model that works for homesteading + prepping
We separate time into three buckets:
- Study time (video + reading + checklists)
- Active build time (hands-on work at home)
- Portfolio time (documenting what they built: templates, maps, photos, logs)
Important: some tasks have passive time (fermentation days, garden growth, cooling jars). I do not count passive time as “hours,” but you can note it in each project so expectations feel clear.
Recommended course length
Best “cohort” format
About 22 weeks total
- One module per week
- Built-in buffer weeks (catch-up) after every few modules
- Final capstone weeks to assemble the full system
Typical weekly workload:
- Standard track: 5–7 hours/week (sustainable for most adults)
- Mini track: 3–4 hours/week (small-space, low-energy, minimal equipment)
- Expansion track: 8–10 hours/week (bigger garden, bigger pantry, deeper projects)
Self-paced equivalent
About 5–6 months for the standard track.
Lesson length that feels modern and easy to follow
For this topic, students do best with short lessons + strong projects.
Typical lesson format
- Video: 12–18 minutes
- Notes/worksheet: 5–10 minutes
- Action step: 30–90 minutes (some lessons: 2–4 hours if it’s a lab)
Per module (average)
- Study: 1.25–2.0 hours
- Active build: 2.0–5.0 hours
- Portfolio: 0.5–1.0 hour
- Total: about 4–7 hours/module
A complete “standard track” hour plan across the course
This is a strong baseline for a best-in-class course, without becoming overwhelming.
Totals (standard track, active hours):
- Study: about 28 hours
- Active build: about 60 hours
- Portfolio/documentation: about 12.5 hours
- Total active time: about 100 hours (plus passive waiting time where relevant)
Module-by-module time budget (standard track)
| Module | Study | Active build | Portfolio | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome & rhythm | 1.0h | 1.5h | 0.5h | 3.0h |
| Planning studio | 1.5h | 2.5h | 1.0h | 5.0h |
| Soil & compost | 1.5h | 3.0h | 0.5h | 5.0h |
| Garden setup | 1.5h | 3.5h | 0.5h | 5.5h |
| High-impact crops | 1.25h | 2.5h | 0.5h | 4.25h |
| Kitchen herbs | 1.25h | 2.5h | 0.5h | 4.25h |
| Pests & problems | 1.25h | 2.0h | 0.5h | 3.75h |
| Harvest workflow | 1.25h | 2.5h | 0.5h | 4.25h |
| Food safety & preservation logic | 2.0h | 2.0h | 0.5h | 4.5h |
| Freezing system | 1.25h | 3.0h | 0.5h | 4.75h |
| Drying system | 1.25h | 3.0h | 0.5h | 4.75h |
| Fermentation basics | 1.5h | 3.0h | 0.5h | 5.0h |
| Pantry design & rotation | 1.5h | 3.0h | 0.75h | 5.25h |
| Prepping without panic | 1.5h | 2.5h | 0.75h | 4.75h |
| Cooking that sustains | 1.75h | 4.0h | 0.5h | 6.25h |
| Protein strategy | 1.25h | 2.0h | 0.5h | 3.75h |
| Pollinators & bees | 1.5h | 2.5h | 0.5h | 4.5h |
| Beeswax + low-waste home systems | 1.5h | 4.0h | 0.5h | 6.0h |
| Dogs + wild foods safety | 1.5h | 3.0h | 0.5h | 5.0h |
| Capstone | 1.0h | 8.0h | 2.0h | 11.0h |
How to make the projects feel abundant but not exhausting
Use three project levels every module (students pick one):
- Mini (small apartment/balcony): 45–90 min build
- Standard (normal home): 2–4 hours build
- Expansion (bigger systems): 5–10 hours build
This single design choice makes the course feel inclusive and globally scalable, without you having to create separate courses.
