Overcoming the Drawbacks of Small Scale Urban Homesteading: Trading and Outsourcing
So our neighbours don't produce food in their gardens like us, but we have found other little ways to trade and outsource things. It started when we had an excess of eggs.
The couple over the road noticed we had a wood burner and gave us some wood from some demolition work in their garden. So we took some eggs over as a thank you. They also offered us some tomatoes once that someone had given them from their excess, but we already had our own excess at that time! They seemed such a lovely generous couple who often offered help so we made it a habit to start taking them eggs whenever we had an over supply. They now bring us kitchen scraps for the chickens and insist on giving us what they would normally pay at the shops for the eggs. This helps pay for the chicken feed and the extra scraps help to cut down on the amount of commercial feed they need. Of course we take them other garden excesses too when we have them.
Then we also make similar trades with our neighbours on our left. We take them excesses, they enjoy the rabbits trimming their lawn when the doe doesn't have babies in the nest and now and again he will give us scraps from the cafe he works at and occasionally some of the lovely Turkish breads and pizzas left over at the end of the day. Sometimes they are old and recommended only for the chickens, but sometimes they're fresh and I get out of making dinner!
Occasionally I put chickens out under a cage on the front to do some weeding for me and a lovely lady from down the road one day decided to bring some veggies for the chickens. At first I thought it was something that had gone past its best, but it turned out she was buying things especially for them! I told her kitchen scraps were perfectly acceptable and very much enjoyed by them, so she brings scraps and leftovers instead now, but I still think she sneaks extra bits in. She loves animals, but is allergic to them so can only enjoy from a distance. I'm only taking them our excesses, but they seem to think I'm too generous. They even bought healthy rabbit treats one day! This family eats organic for their health and is very supportive of what we are trying to do in our own garden. They try to grow a bit themselves, but it's a small rental and I don't think they want to put their all into somewhere they don't own.
Our other neighbour we've had less contact with, but still occasionally take them some eggs when we're inundated. Apart from some extra egg boxes once, we haven't had much tangible from them, but it has allowed me to reach out and make a connection which can be just as important in this world where everyone is off working in different places and you may not even see your neighbour more than distantly. Also, keeping on good terms with neighbours will hopefully keep things running more smoothly.
In the summer the grass barely grows, so I go foraging a bit further afield to keep the rabbits fed, thus extending my small boundaries a little bit.
So although living in an urban area means we can't necessarily trade for all our needs we are able to come up with some things that our neighbours can help us out with and make use of things which might normally go to waste. Most pepole feel a need to be able to give something in return when you share things with them. So we make use of the free newspapers that many don't use, for lining the animal cages and starting the wood burner. We've been given old broken furniture, which we've either repurposed or used in the wood heater. In return we can share some of the good food we produce and we always get comments on the flavour of it. We might have even sparked a fire as one of the neighbours has now gotten some planters!
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Sounds like some great Christian fellowship!
Many more blessings to you and yours,
Melissa
Thank you for resteeming this! We should connect more with our neighbors, as well.
Love how neighbors and friends barter! Someone always has an item, product or service to offer up.
A lot of people here still like to trade rather than pay cash when they can. I think its a country thing as more people move to the city for work.
That is so nice! A good benefit of actually having neighbors to do these things for and with! I’d love to get closer to my neighbors but they’ve small children and I’m really not a kid person. Hahaha but I try to stay friendly! I shared my eggs with some close friends and family and they loved them! It felt so good to actually have some we could manage to share!
This is such a good message to be sharing with our homestead community as I believe that a vast majority of us like to keep to ourselves and we forget the value of neighborly friendship!
I struggle with social situations to be honest. So often my interactions are brief, but then everyone is busy anyway, so I think they're also happy to keep things brief. With one neighbour we often just drop things at one another's doors. They have a young child who keeps them busy, or they might be napping while they can!
Well you do a great job online! I would have never guessed! Haha
I want to interact more with one of our “neighbors” (I have like two and these ones are about 3 miles away). But they grow orchard grass hay and are so busy all growing season. We are friendly and did have lunch with them once earlier in the year and they good peoples! Haha it’s so nice tho.
Excellent. I do like swapping with friends and neighbours. We gave some friends eggs and courgettes last week and they turned up the next day with homemade Chilean empanadas - delicious 😊
Its great when these things can go back and forth!
Trading, giving, and actually interacting with your neighbors is becoming a lost artform. Nice to see you enjoying your community.
It is. I hear more about how people feud with their neighbours than communicate with them.
I believe this is the most exciting part of homesteading: connecting with your neighbors. Everyone produces something, even if they don't realize. (Actually what they most often fail to realize is the value of such things as old newspapers, compostables, old or even broken furniture and such things.) And yes, everyone is happy to return a favor, which is why people generally insist on paying. The alternative is to ask for a barter: "Will you give me your broken-down truck over there for a trailer-load of firewood?" Once people have gotten used to asking (non-binding) and saying no (once again, without any strings attached) both parties can find incredible bargains for both sides.
Agreed. We do have a lot of country people who've moved to this area and seem to be happy with trade. It shows how mentality has changed with city living.
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wish I had you as a neighbor - would motivate me to do more!
We could motivate each other! 😁
Nice post @minismallholding, and it's a great benefit to band together with your neighbors because you'll likely have to depend on each other if things ever go downhill!
So true. We have drifted so far away when it comes to connecting with our neighbours.
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