Seattle's homesteading renaissance

Interest in homesteading in the Seattle-area has always been high, but it jumped during the pandemic and remains popular as people grapple with the stress of living in uncertain times, says Julie Stonefelt of Wildlife Homestead Living .

Why it matters: Concerns over climate change, wars, political upheaval and social reckonings have people leaning into more self-sufficient lifestyles in attempts to improve their health , make more eco-friendly choices and find more peace, Stonefelt told Axios.

What they're saying: "The modern homesteading movement is where people can turn that fear into hope, said Stonefelt, whose site offers information, guides and courses, including one on building a practical road map to your dream.

• "When you have your hands in the soil planting herbs or making bread, you experience calmness and people are craving that."

The big picture: In a 2022 Homesteaders of America survey, roughly 40% of homesteaders reported adopting the lifestyle within the last three years.

Zoom in: After experiencing PTSD from getting breast cancer as a young woman in 2015, Stonefelt said she couldn't return to her old life.

• A full-time park ranger in the Cascades, she and her husband Kevin Mack — an animal control officer in Seattle — started saving and bought a little less than two acres in the Snoqualmie Valley about two years later.
• Once they got there, Stonefelt realized that homesteading was a state of mind and that she and her husband had actually been doing it all along, even when living in rental apartments and duplexes.

How it works: Generally homesteading is when someone intentionally produces something (like food) for their own consumption.

• But the scale ranges from people who work full time at being self-sufficient — producing, raising and building their food, shelter, clothing, honey and soap — to people who simply grow sprouts in a windowsill, plant tomatoes on the balcony or buy eggs at the farmers' market, said Stonefelt.
• "You don't have to be Laura Ingalls Wilder to be a homesteader," Jason Strange , author of "Shelter From the Machine: Homesteaders in the Age of Capitalism," told Axios.

Between the lines: Strange said he isn't surprised by the renaissance. Throughout U.S. history, there's been an instinct to turn to back to the land in times of crisis or economic turbulence, he said.

The fine print: Some say the term homesteading comes from a time when settlers were moving west, displacing indigenous Native Americans from their land.