LAFAYETTE, La. — From gardening to raising chickens, the LSU AgCenter hosted a hands-on homesteading workshop Friday at Blackham Coliseum, offering Lafayette residents demonstrations in poultry, beekeeping and gardening.
“Homesteading is being able to grow your own products and see the whole production side of it,” said Lanie Richard with the LSU AgCenter. “To be able to have bees and then harvest the honey and make your own honey to sell or keep.”
Richard said rising food prices are pushing more people to consider producing their own food.
“With the economy, sometimes people may not want to pay for the price of eggs or other products you see in stores,” she said. “It can be cheaper to grow it yourself. There’s a different essence when you can do it yourself.”
Attendees ranged from beginners to experienced gardeners. Vanessa Sam, already a master gardener, said she joined the workshop to expand her skills.
“I was interested in learning beekeeping,” she said, adding that more people want to rely less on companies and more on themselves. “I think the more people are able to be dependent on themselves and learn where their food comes from, it makes it better for everyone.”
Others at the workshop said they’re glad to see homesteading gaining traction.
“Right now my homesteading is backyard chickens, and I just started with rabbits for meat, and I’ve got two goats,” said Angelle Boudreaux.
They added that the lifestyle offers benefits far beyond the food it provides.
“Homesteading can be fun and educational. It can build life skills for adults and kids. You can control what you get, what you eat and what you produce.”
For a retired dairy farmer attending the workshop, the lessons stirred memories of a way of life that once defined rural Louisiana.
“Everybody had dairies in the old days,” Mark Simon tells KATC. “In the 1960s, when I was born, they had 100 dairies in Lafayette Parish. Now they don’t have any, maybe 50 in Louisiana. I grew up in the dairy business, and I knew the importance of feeding my family and providing a wholesome product to the public.”
The LSU AgCenter says it hopes to host more workshops like this in the future. Click here to learn more about them.
