How Many Of These Vintage Skills Do You Know?

How many of these vintage skills do you know? Could you teach your family members or neighbors how to use those skills? This list is brief, but it’s crucial to ensure that these skills are not lost or forgotten. Some people may refer to them as pioneer skills, while others call them vintage skills.

It’s kind of like the phrase’ homesteading’ or a farm; is there a difference? I have never raised animals to eat on my homestead or plot of land. But I have raised a garden, sewn all of our clothes, lived on a budget, pressure canned food, dehydrated food, and water-bathed foods.

I’ve cooked from scratch my whole life. The most considerable lot we have ever owned was a 1/2 acre, but we produced enough fruits and vegetables to preserve for our family of six for a year. It taught my girls how to snap beans, peel peaches, peel tomatoes, and make grape juice from our own fruit and vegetables.

The girls made apple sauce and apple pie filling. The list goes on and on. You get the picture. They learned how to work, literally. We needed that food to survive as a family.

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Biggest Garden On The Street

I can still remember hearing people tell us we had the biggest garden on the street in every neighborhood we have lived in. It wasn’t for competition, it was for survival and to teach my girls to learn to work. And work, they did. I could not have canned 4-5 bushels of peaches, pears, apples, apricots, spaghetti sauce, and salsa without Mark and the girls’ help.

I also couldn’t have snapped that many green beans or made all that delicious purple grape juice. We made apple pie filling. Don’t you love apple pie? These are just a few of the items we preserved to feed our family of six. I suppose what I am trying to say is that you don’t need 15 acres to be self-reliant; you can do it on much less land.

Homesteading And Vintage Skills

I know the word ‘homesteading’ has become increasingly popular in recent years, but people my age have been practicing these vintage or pioneer skills for a long time.

It is not new to some of us; it was a necessity as we raised our families. We didn’t have food drive-thrus to pick up dinner. We made dinner at home. We didn’t have access to all the processed food available to families today. I hope to help a few families realize that they don’t need a lot of property to be self-reliant. We did it with a half-acre property and sometimes less.

We made pancakes from scratch and homemade cookies ready for the kids when they came home from school. We wanted to pay off our house instead of getting a soda every day from the store around the corner.

So, my question today is, how can we encourage people to return to what we have been doing for years? Here are just a few vintage skills we must teach our kids and grandkids. Ten acres aren’t going to help you much if you don’t know how to use these few limited skills.

Vintage Skills

Gardening:

If you can learn how to save seeds, plant seeds, and balance your soil with good organic products, you can grow anything, anywhere. Learning how to utilize the various soils found in your specific neighborhood is crucial to success when growing a garden.

I have had many good years and very few years that I couldn’t grow some vegetables in the desert where we lived. We had better soil up north (now we have moved back up north), and it took a few years to get that soil where I wanted it to be. Learn to save seeds; you will be glad you did.

Bread Making:

I know there are many people with gluten issues, but try making sourdough bread or natural yeast bread. Sometimes it’s not the wheat at all, but the commercial yeast. Very few people in Europe have gluten issues because they use only natural yeast, not commercial yeast.

It’s your gut, and you must follow what is right for you, but I have families come to my house to get natural yeast, and their gluten issues have disappeared.

Sewing/Mending:

I grew up making my own clothes, so a sewing machine has always been a mainstay in my home. I recall dreaming of owning a Bernina sewing machine one day, after working at a Bernina shop in Logan, Utah. It took almost 50 years, but I finally got one, thanks to the money my mom left me after she died.

I will never part with that machine; it means too much to me. My first sewing machine was a Singer, then a BabyLock. My grandmother even gave me a Singer Treadle machine. They were great machines and served me and my family well for many years.

I really should add knitting to this section. We can knit better items compared to some that we can buy at the store.

Cooking From Scratch:

If we can teach our kids that a tube that snaps on the counter with premade biscuits is not cooking from scratch, we will win! If we can teach them that vegetables and fruits really are more filling and healthy than a drive-through hamburger or chicken nuggets, we will win, too!

I know, I can hear some of you say, “But that’s why I use coupons, they save me money.” In the short term, this may be true, but our health is at stake, I promise. I confess I eat way too much. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is my favorite. Is my cholesterol high? Of course, it is, and I know better. It’s an addiction, I’m trying to stop, including eating unhealthy food.

Please tell me I’m not alone. How can we teach our kids and grandkids how to make things like a white sauce or a homemade pizza crust? I’m thinking it’s by example, maybe or maybe not?

Budgets:

I genuinely believe we need to teach people to budget their money. If they write down what the net is that they bring in and then create a list of expenses that need to be paid, they are well on their way to forming a family budget. If you have to cut down on those daily sodas, then stop.

I love Starbucks, but I also want to purchase another car within the next year or two. Mark and I live on less than we make; if we can do it, so can others. Is it hard, yes it is? However, it has been a way of life for us. I would rather eat at home, but I also realize I need to splurge to go on a date with Mark from time to time. However, I try to use a coupon for a two-for-one deal. I tip on the REAL full amount because I know how hard those servers work.

Get out of debt, and live on less than you make. You can do this!

We Can’t Depend On The Government

These are simple vintage or pioneer skills anyone can accomplish. We can’t depend on the government to take care of our families. We are responsible for feeding and clothing our families, not the government. I have known families over the years that have been on food stamps for over 15 years now, and some still live in low-income housing.

They have strong, healthy bodies and could raise a garden or find more gainful employment; this needs to stop. I understand if they are going to school or have been out of work for 3-4 months, have had some health issues, etc., but not 15 years. It has become a way of life for them, and they are also teaching their kids that this is acceptable. In my opinion, it is not. Okay, I will get off my soapbox.

Final Word

We should at the very least teach people these vintage skills. Please teach these skills or have someone introduce you; we will be a better world, I promise! Thanks for being prepared for the unexpected. May God bless this world, Linda

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