The Christian Homesteading Movement
(Page 3 of 8)
March/April 1971
By Hal Smith
Anyone who wants to learn homesteading skills at the CHM farm will work under Richard's supervision. Ile's an ex-paratrooper and has expressed admiration for the Green Berets.
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"You should have an open mind only so you can find and close around something substantial," he says. If that doesn't sound like an attitude you can warm up to, perhaps a visit to the CHM farm isn't for you. You might better visit a different homesteading center. The Heathcote School of Living, Rt. 1, Box 129, Freeland, Md. 21053—for instance—has no religious affiliation and radicals and longhairs will be comfortable there.
But you don't have to accept the CHM philosophy nor visit the farm to gain valuable help from the movement. Nonmembers may borrow by mail from the CHM's thousand-volume homesteading library. For two 6-cent stamps you can get a list of the books available and there is no charge for the service except a $5 deposit that is returnable after a year. Correspondence courses are occasionally available on homesteading topics like herbalism and organic gardening, and there is no charge except postage.
In mid-summer the CHM hopes to sponsor its second Homesteader Training Week. This will probably include: Processing and spinning wool; predicting weather; horse shoeing; goats for the homestead; how to start a homestead; identification and uses (mainly medicinal) of wild plants; the care, harnessing and use of work horses; bees, honey and wax; skinning and tanning hides; primitive pottery making.
Again, there are no fees but participants must bring their own food and camping equipment and must be willing to accept work to insure the week's success. This work may include washing dishes, disposing of garbage or digging a latrine. Enclose a stamp with all inquiries.
Finally, the CHM's bi-monthly newsletter, The Homesteader, is available to anyone for $1 a year (renewals 50¢). It's a one or two-page mimeographed sheet of, quotations, recipes, CHM news, letters, poetry, and religious and psuedo-philosophical raps. And there are always how-to tips for homesteaders. Below is a scavenger's collection of the Best of The Homesteader, reprinted by permission, The Homesteader, RD 2, Oxford, N.Y., 1964-1970.
Visitors are welcome at the CHM farm, but be sure to make arrangements in advance. Otherwise you'll get an impromptu lesson in woodsmanship.
THE BEST OF THE HOMESTEADER
BARKING UP THE RIGHT TREE
The bark of trees, which can easily be stripped in the spring, has many uses. Hemlock, birch, maple and other barks make good temporary roofing material.
Both black birch and sassafras bark of either the root or trunk make pleasant-tasting teas. Slippery elm and basswood bark will boil up into thick nutritious soups. Basswood bark, when beaten and twisted, also provides rope.
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