We Grew 75% of Our Family’s Food - Then Life Shifted
How Our Food Journey Sparked a Community Market
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Welcome to “The Sunny Side” where we’ll chat about all things homesteading! My name is Liz Threlkeld and I have been homesteading with my family in small forms or large fashions for most of my life. From growing gardens to DIY projects, to cooking and preserving, to raising and processing our own meat animals, we’ve learned a thing or two along the way. I’m excited to get to share some of this life with you. Ready? Let’s grow!
Hey Friends,
I want to take you on a short walk of our homesteading lives recently and peel back the curtains a bit. Between 2023 and 2024, after many years of scaling up, our family grew, hunted or fished 75% of what we ate on our homestead. This had been a long-term goal of mine for a couple reasons: a personal mission to feed my family healthier, nutrient-dense, whole foods and an effort to prove to myself and my family that we could feed ourselves should we ever need to.
Along that journey, as we grew more and more food, I realized just how much work it was to do all the things. I began to see that food may be one of the reasons that humans choose to cohabitate in communities. My mindset shifted from self-sufficient to community-sufficient. We started ramping up the food production that we did well, resulting in a surplus of produce, and bartered that with others for the food items that they produced better than us. This is where I began my “Hybrid Homesteader” model of thinking.
After a daily trip to my garden, I’d then move to the community for more food sourcing every week. I’d stop at the neighbor’s veggie stand, buy eggs from the other neighbor, go to the lake to grab some fresh fish, stop at the random veggie pile parked by the side of the road, drive to the opposite end of town to get my fresh, raw milk and chicken from RLC Farm, and hit up the “pecan lady” selling pecans on Facebook Marketplace.
However, two problems were consistently emerging: 1. Homesteaders, as well as myself, had products to sell but little to no time to chase customers because we were too busy chasing chickens, kids, or that dang cow that got out again. 2. As a customer of local food, my typical “grocery trip” around town to source it all was exhausting. After visiting with other local foodies, they reflected my plight. It was so laborious to do all the things.
The answer plopped into my mind one day. Kay County needed a centralized location in town where local, small-scale producers could take their products to be sold and where eager customers could find homegrown and community-made in one convenient location! Thus Sunny Creek Trading Post was born, at least in imaginative form.
Of course I had never started a business in my life, didn’t know the first thing, and capital was a real issue. However, that did not deter me from consulting Google for “help starting a business in Oklahoma”. Maybe I’d start super small…
Let me tell you the next few steps in fast forward mode (and note that when I say “I”, I really mean me and everyone involved who helped me):
that Google search led me to OKSBDC, which led me to the Biz Dept. at Pioneer Technology Center, who helped me start my LLC and then introduced me to the Ponca City Development Authority, who suggested I start a local produce subscription box, which I did, then I got into the commercial kitchen incubator space at PTC, which led to the Business Plan Pitch-Off at PCDA, which opened up conversations with Kat Long about the eventual “dream”, who, after our successful local food pop-ups suggested, “Why don’t you just open up your store right here, right now?” gesturing to the old, empty coffee shop location inside of City Central.
Fast forward mode - HALT!
Ummm, excuse me? ***me looking behind me to see who Kat must have been talking to - I see no one*** Did she just say that to ME? “I don’t think I’m qualified to run a business just yet,” I said to Kat as I began to utter all of my disqualifications. In true “Kat” form, she stopped my self-doubting mid-sentence and informed me that if I could run a household with children, I was more than qualified to run this business. Her beliefs and my self-doubt were creating a dichotomy within my mind. Of course there can only be one winner of this argument so I decided to give her ideals a try, because if it worked - it would mean a HUGE win for local food and our community!
Upon sharing my business idea with another friend, she lovingly told me, “Starting a business is a lot of work!” Now, I am not one to be afraid of hard work, or a lot of work, so I gently reassured her that ‘I knew’ and still wanted to do it. Well, let me tell you, I did NOT ‘know’ how much work it actually was. Does anyone know when they start their first business?
But my loving friend was absolutely right! In fact, this is where my business story meets my homesteading story. When I started my business, I was a producer. I produced everything from veggies, to canned goods, to tallow items, to herbal medicinal products, to beauty and cleaning supplies, plant starts, and lots of things in between. I happily thought that I could just work extra hard, still do all of the things AND run my business. After opening my storefront, I began to realize that juggling both was a myth if I wanted to really press into the business and still have a life with my family. I began to onboard producers that made the same items as me so that I could take a step back from producing to focus more and more on my growing business.
This year, my homestead has been the prime example of “out of balance”. My family somehow managed to get the plants planted in the garden with our busy schedule. But, between the hail storm that ripped my garden to shreds and the generous rain that brought it back to life, it produced food for several months purely from God and human neglect, only to be swallowed alive by volunteer snake gourd plants from last year’s seeds…and bugs. We gradually rehomed or butchered all of our homestead animals and in the fall we moved to a new, larger piece of land. One day we will be starting our favorite operations all over again on our new homestead.
Last month’s article talked about balance on the homestead and that’s my little secret of how I “balance” the homestead while running a business. I don’t, really, for the time being. I am still a homesteader, although not practicing at the moment. A musician who takes some time off doesn’t become “not a musician” - he doesn’t forget everything he knows. Will I be rusty when I get back in the saddle? Yep. However, I am still very much immersed in the homesteading world with my business. I talk to, teach and learn from homesteading producers and customers every time I open the doors of Sunny Creek Trading Post. I may not be growing plants and protein at home at the moment, but I am still growing - community, connection, and collective preparedness. The soil will be there waiting until I am finished.
For now, I invite you to our community market where you’ll find good, healthy, whole foods, community and connection, and a fun place to bring your friends and family to! See you at the Trading Post, Friends!
Grow with me!
Liz Threlkeld
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