I met Katie Brandt on Instagram last year, and I was amazed by her bravery in regards to backyard beekeeping! Katie is the reason I decided to try beekeeping, even while pregnant, this year, and I have learned so much from her not only about backyard beekeeping but also about how to homestead in a small space.
Tell me about yourself and your family.
My name is Katie Brandt, and I am 32 years old. My husband Mike and I celebrated five years of marriage this past year, and we have two little girls, ages 3 and 1.
I’m originally from Pittsburgh, PA, and he’s from Chicago, IL. We were both raised in the suburbs, and had pretty much no exposure to farm life/ homesteading until about eight years ago.
What are you passionate about and why?
I am passionate about teaching other people how to source the best quality food they can for their family.
Whether they grow it themselves or source it locally and organically, I wholeheartedly believe food is medicine, and if we don’t pay for the quality of food now, we’ll pay for it later in medical bills.
I love teaching others how to source the best food possible even if they aren’t living in ideal circumstances. Suburban homesteading is where it’s at!
What are your top 5 values?
This is a tough one! Off the top of my head, my top 5 values have to be:
Honesty: I always want to know the truth. Even if it hurts. Knowing the facts and what’s really going on in a situation just helps me tackle it better.
Loyalty: I am a HUGE family person. I will do anything for my family, and my friends who are like family. I think that being loyal to those who came before you is important in keeping strong roots to your origins.
Authenticity: I can’t be anyone other than myself. This can sometimes be a fault, when I don’t necessarily blend into a situation well, but it’s also a strength in my opinion because you always know what you’re going to get! I read people pretty well and can pick up quickly if they’re not being genuine.
Self-Discipline: I always feel the need to be productive in some way or another, and while that’s probably a little bit of a fault too, I think the drive to finish the tasks I start is a good quality to have. Working with other people with the same drive and follow through is really motivating for me!
FUN: I don’t think you should ever take yourself too seriously! Learn to find joy in whatever you’re doing, and let it be contagious!
Did you grow up homesteading or farming?
NOPE! I’m a total newb!
What sparked your desire to start homesteading?
It all started when I was in graduate school in Georgia. My husband started getting into prepping.
I thought he was crazy at the time, but we had been on a health journey for quite some time and the idea of knowing exactly where my food came from was VERY appealing!
What are some misconceptions people have about homesteading in the suburbs?
Hmmm… Well, I think the biggest one is that you can’t do it. I know I thought that!
I thought I was some sort of poser until I took a step back and realized we were producing fruit, veggies, meat, and honey all in our backyard!
While you might not be able to homestead on as large of a scale as other farms, I think any way you can produce some of your own food (even baking your own bread!) counts as homesteading.
Describe your dream homestead and future goals.
Ok, I hope it’s ok if I ramble a bit here, because my dreams are elaborate, lol.
My dream homestead is a piece of land with 15-20 acres, a stream, ponds, pasture, and woods so my husband can hunt. I would love an old house circa 1900s, but being a homeowner now I know that old homes can have a lot of problems… so I’m not stuck on that part haha.
We’ve actually considered building a yurt and living in that, which I think would be awesome! But off grid laws are weird in Indiana, so that might be a bit hard.
In terms of new animals, I would love chickens, ducks, and pigs for sure. My husband is interested in beef cattle, and I would love some dairy goats.
My oldest daughter is allergic to dairy, and I’ve heard goat’s milk can be easier digested than cow’s milk, so my hope is that she would be able to enjoy yogurt, cheese, and milk again!
We would obviously still keep our bees, and expand for sure if we had more land. And now that I have my bunnies, I don’t think I could ever get rid of them. I don’t know if we’d breed them as often, but I’ve come to love them so much! There’s something to be said about staying connected to your beginnings.
Last but not least… In my ideal world, I will one day have some babydoll sheep I can get my own wool from for spinning yarn and knitting/crocheting!
Our future goals for now are adding quail to our backyard homestead, and continuing to improve our soil for gardening.
In the next couple of years we hope to find some land as our family continues to grow, and start on those big homestead dreams!
What all do you do on your suburban homestead?
Right now we have a garden that is almost 1,000 square feet. We plug plants in pretty much anywhere they’ll fit though, so we use more space than just that!
We also have a trio of rabbits we breed for meat. Last but certainly not least, we are backyard beekeepers!
I bake all of our own bread, and I’ve just entered into the world of fresh milled flour which I absolutely LOVE! We cook almost all our meals from scratch, and can, freeze, and dehydrate our harvests.
How did you get started with backyard beekeeping?
Out of necessity, really. We wanted backyard chickens more than anything, but our HOA and our city don’t allow them. Letting our dreams get squashed is just not our personality, so we pivoted and found something they can’t prohibit us from doing!
Turns out beekeeping is protected by law in Indiana (and a lot of other states), so we can keep our backyard hives without worrying about getting in trouble.
How much time does backyard beekeeping take?
Beekeeping is a seasonal hobby. There are times when it requires more of you, and times (like winter) when you are rarely checking in on your bees.
Over all, throughout the season I would say you need to be inspecting your bees once every 7-10 days. During April/ May, that might look more like every 5-7 days because you’re checking on brood and potential swarming that could happen.
Each inspection can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Depends on what you find, the temperament of the bees, and if you have to do any treatments.
Best thing about backyard beekeeping? Hardest challenge you’ve faced beekeeping?
The best thing about beekeeping is the honey! It’s seriously magical the first time you harvest, and see just loads of liquid gold come pouring out. Makes the wait all worth it!
Hardest challenge is losing our hive and just feeling intimidated! Beekeeping can have a steep learning curve, but what I’ve learned is that your brain can be one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to beekeeping. Just go into it knowing that you know nothing, and you’ll be fine.
What advice do you have for people who want to get started with backyard beekeeping?
Get educated! Like I just said, there is so much to know, and there is so much that even the experts still don’t know about bees.
But while it’s important to get educated, it’s also important to keep a curious, relaxed outlook on the whole thing. You’re going to make mistakes. But the more you get in the hive, the more you’ll learn.
Have fun, take it step by step, and before you know it you’ll be enjoying the sweet rewards of your work!
What is your favorite recipe that uses honey?
Right now my favorite recipe is one of three of my recipes in my cookbook. Granola, Graham Crackers, or Wheat Thins. They are all SO good!
Tell me about your recipe book!
I’m wrote a cookbook called Using Honey on the Homestead: A Cooking Companion for the Natural-Minded Mama.
I’m so excited to share over fifty different recipes families can use for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks, and more to help them ditch refined sugar and incorporate more natural sweeteners into their diet!
Get Katie’s honey cookbook here!
How did you learn to cook/make your own recipes?
I learned to cook from my Dad! Growing up cooking together was one of our favorite things to do, and I was his sous chef. I carried that love of cooking into my adult life.
Also, I’m a very frugal person, so it just always made more sense to me to cook my own food rather than buy it. I know what’s in it, I can save money, and I learn a skill. All good things!
When I started cooking I was VERY attached to recipes. I didn’t think I could cook anything unless I followed the recipe to a T.
But, as I grew older, we had our first daughter, and life got crazier, I realized my palette was better than I thought, and I just didn’t have the time to read through a recipe.
I started throwing things in and throwing meals together and I was pretty good at it! So I decided to start writing some of them down!
What are homesteading skills you want to learn this next year?
This year I would love to focus on improving consistency and succession planting in my garden. I start out so strong, but by the middle /end of the season I’m tired out and have trouble taking all the extra measures to follow through and make sure crops are protected from weather/pests.
Also, we are hoping to introduce quail on our homestead this year, so I would love to learn how to keep them, use their eggs, and also process their meat!
Most of all, I’m looking forward to learning more from my bees this year. There is literally no end to the learning curve when it comes to bees because they are basically a giant puzzle. Which is awesome! So I’m excited to see what our hive brings us this year!
What are some homesteading skills you can do in the suburbs in addition to backyard beekeeping?
Oh gosh, pretty much all of them I’d say! Here’s a list off the top of my head:
- Bake bread
- Cook from scratch
- Can, freeze, dehydrate food (from your garden or the Farmer’s Market or store)
- Hunt
- Knit and crochet
- Sew
- Garden
- Keep chickens if they’re allowed
- Keep meat rabbits
- Keep quail
- Hydroponics
I know there are tons more, but that’s just the start!
Advice for SAHM’s moms with young kids who want to homestead?
Ok, this is advice I need to give myself too. IT’S OK IF YOU CAN’T GET EVERYTHING DONE!
I feel so much pressure from myself to get a certain amount of tasks done in a given day/week/month. And inevitably I fail. Every time. Not because I don’t try, but because life gets in the way!
And when you have a three year old and a one year old, they take precedence. So maybe you don’t get everything canned you’d like to, or maybe some tomatoes go bad before you can pick them. Or maybe everyone has oatmeal for dinner one night. IT’S OK.
You are working towards a HUGE goal of self-sufficiency during one of the most challenging seasons in your life. So don’t expect perfection.
And what’s more, make sure you enjoy your kiddos! Include them in your tasks (as much as your sanity can handle, lol), and make sure you are keeping them number one.
Because even though it might feel like they are holding you back from make a homestead, just remember, the homestead would be nothing without them!
Why are you passionate about homesteading? What keeps you going when it gets tough?
I’m passionate about homesteading for several reasons. First, I believe wholeheartedly that our food system is completely broken, and people need to find a way back to what food REALLY is.
People need to learn to use ingredients and make nourishing meals for themselves, rather than relying on processed food filled with things we can’t even pronounce.
Additionally, homesteading has such a positive affect on your self worth and fulfillment because you are working hard and getting your hands dirty (literally) to keep skills alive that have been a part of our society for generations.
There is something so valuable in knowing a skill that can keep you fed, clothed, or even make you money when times get tough.
When homesteading gets tough the thing that keeps me going is that I really don’t feel like I have a choice. That may seem dramatic, and of course we are NOT doing everything we’d like, but if I want to feed my family food that is grown right, sourced locally, and not full of additives, we really have to do it ourself.
Additionally, I’ve always felt a strong connection to doing things the “old way” and honoring traditions, so that lights my fire when I get frustrated or burnt out.
Where can we find your backyard beekeeping resources + recipe book?
You can follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration and tips, and you can find all my resources including my guide, The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Beekeeping, right here!
You can also get Katie’s new cookbook right here!
Ready to try backyard beekeeping?
If you too are feeling inspired by Katie, I highly recommend checking out her beekeeping guide and reading this post that I wrote about what you’ll need to get started as a backyard beekeeper.
And whether you have bees or not, her new honey cookbook is an incredible resource for learning how to cook nutritious meals at home!
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