A homesteader grows 99 per cent of the produce she eats - only goes to the grocery store once a month and spends just $50 on tropical fruit, toilet roll and white vinegar.



Katie Krejci, 38, started trying to lead a self-sufficient lifestyle in 2008 when she planted her first vegetable garden - growing tomatoes, zucchini and peppers.

In June 2023, she and her husband, Ryan, 42, a mechanical engineer, purchased five acres of land and moved into a 960 square foot hunting shed in Minnesota, US.



The pair started to grow their own fruit and vegetables and kept chickens to produce eggs.



Katie now rears her own chickens for meat - taking them to the butcher in late summer - and hunts deer on local land in the winter months.

The homesteader said the couple could survive "indefinitely, but it wouldn't be pretty" from their produce - estimating with balanced meals and not compromising they could last a "solid year". "

She even barters with a neighbour - trading eggs for raw milk from the cow they own - and says it saves them hundreds of dollars a month as they don't need to do a weekly shop.



Katie quit her full-time job as a registered dietician in August 2023 and now earns three times more money as a content creator - sharing how to preserve food and harvest crops online.



Katie, from the north woods of Minnesota, US, said: "I've always loved the outdoors and nature."



"Never in a million years did I think it would lead me to where I am today."



"I started gardening, and then I thought 'I'll plant a few fruit trees' and then 'I'll learn how to can'."



"It just kept snowballing."



"We grow 99 per cent of the produce, poultry, venison, eggs and maple syrup we eat."



"We produce 65 per cent of our total food on our homestead. "

"Occasionally I'll buy mostly citrus fruits - like lemons, limes and bananas - because we can't grow that in Minnesota. "

"I haven't done a traditional weekly grocery store run in four years."



"I basically pop in for toilet roll and lemons and spend $50 per month."



It has taken Katie seven years to "grasp" the homesteading lifestyle and face the challenge of freezing temperatures in Minnesota which makes growing crops difficult."



"There is only a few months where we can grow and have fresh food," she said."



"Eight months of the year is eating preserved food."



"I do a lot of canning - they're good for one to two years."



"I have a large chest freezer so I freeze the berries I harvest in the summer, all of the meat, green beans, broccoli and tomatoes."



"I do a fair amount of fermenting - so I ferment green beans, pickles and sauerkraut."



"Two years ago I got a freeze dryer, so I can freeze dry eggs."



"Eggs are a tricky thing."



"We have 30 chickens and in winter time they don't lay much, maybe two eggs a day, where as in summer they lay a couple of dozen a day."



"I do water glassing for eggs which is a mixture of water and pickling lime."



"You submerge the eggs in there and they are good for a solid year. "

"A five gallon bucket of water glassed eggs typically gets the two of us through the winter."

Katie still bulk buys certain items from organic food site Azure Standard – spending on average $300 per month on items like rice, oats, olive oil, nuts, jarred olives, and cheese.

While the initial several thousand investment into homesteading made Katie "lose money" in the first year of developing her lifestyle - with big one-time purchases like seed trays - she has found over the time "it definitely has cost savings". "

"I put in a 1,300sqft garden for $200 at our newest homestead here. "

"I spent $100 to rent a tiller. "

"And I spent $100 on a trailer of compost cow manure from a local farm. "

"People can get started with a big garden for not a lot. "

"When I put in my very first garden when we lived in town I spent about $50. "

"It's very, very doable. "

"There are savings down the road in our health too."



"We have both noticed huge differences."



"We rarely ever eat out as a decent restaurant is over an hour away from us so we have no option but to cook for ourselves."



"When we do go out it's incredible, we feel crummy afterwards."



"If you cut that stuff out and go to clean eating it's incredible the change."



"Our gut health is better, we're sleeping better and our energy is great." "

Katie left her job as a registered hospital dietician behind after she "didn't really believe in the work I was doing anyway". "

She said: "I was providing band aid fixes for people."



"I was helping them survive not thrive."



"I didn't feel comfortable providing the products available at the hospital as I didn't like the ingredients that were in them." "

Having re-trained as an integrative and function nutrition certified practitioner credential (IFNCP) in 2021, which "heals at the root cause" by asking the question of why when it comes to health issues, Katie's social media was performing so well she was able to quit work completely."



She said: "I'm making three times the amount I was a dietician."



"The biggest thing for me working as a homesteading registered dietician rather than a dietician is I could make a much bigger impact." "

Now Katie and Ryan have plans to move completely off-grid in the next three years.



They will build their own house on their land and work with their already established solar panels and septic system to be fully self-sufficient.



Foods they grow or raise -


Eggs
Chickens
Apples
Berries
Vegetables


Corn
Potatoes
Butternut squash
Zucchini
Pumpkins
Carrots
Onions
Shallots
Garlic
Celery
Eggplant
Tomatoes (five different kinds)
Peppers (10 different kinds)
Cucumbers
Snap peas
Bush beans
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Romanesco
Cabbage
Brussel sprouts
Radishes
Pak choi
Kale
Arugula
Lettuce (six different kinds)
Green onion
Sage


Parsley
Oregano
Basil
Thai basil
Dill


Thyme


Lemon balm
Cilantro
Mushrooms
Maple syrup

Foods/items they need to buy - every four to six weeks for $50 -
Citrus fruits – lemons, limes and bananas
Toilet roll
White vinegar

Every month for average of $300 from Azure Standard -
Rice


Oats
Olive Oil
Nuts
Gluten free crackers
Buckwheat groats
Coconut milk
Jarred olives
Cheese