Learning the skills to build a sustainable homestead is challenging on a good day. It can get overwhelming real fast.
The good news is that the magic of the interweb streams knowledge into our homes in real time around the clock. You just need to know where to look!
Whether it’s building a chicken coop, the minutiae of permaculture, or foraging and fermenting your own food, you can get up to speed quickly on your own terms with these handpicked online courses. No dorm rooms and cafeteria food… we promise.
Set your own pace and get educated! Start with any one of these top recommendations from our Homesteading team.
Permaculture Women’s Guide – Permaculture Design Certificate
This is a great value course, and the entire business is a female-led collective of 40 permaculture experts from around the globe.
It is quite expensive ($750-$950 with discounts based on household id income) but it is extremely comprehensive too.
There’s a wonderful range of learning materials supplied and they also help you to find a local mentor to put your homesteading skills into practice.
Homesteading classes don’t get much better than this online course and if self-sufficiency is high up on your list of priorities you should easily develop the practical skills such as food preservation to quickly have your one self-sufficient homestead with it.
Get more info here.
Udemy – Fermented Foods Mastery
If you’re looking for cheaper homesteading courses then you might want to try Udemy, this course can cost as little as $9.99 during a sale and we recommend waiting for a sale and saving money over the usual price of $59.99.
It’s only 1.5 hours long which makes it one of the shorter homesteading classes out there and you will learn all about the hand and power tools needed to ferment your own foods.
There’s not much in the way of reading materials associated with this course, instead, they opt to help you get self-sufficient with video lectures.
Get more info here.
Floranella – Summer Foraging Workshop
We loved this course which is run by two homesteading experts for other homesteaders to benefit from, their own homesteading skill is unparalleled and this summer foraging workshop is as useful to urban homesteaders as it is to those who practice self-sufficiency in a more natural setting.
There is a private Facebook group for those who take their homesteading classes and this means you can network with others as you explore your own garden and go farther afield for forageable items.
Get more info here.
Cornell Small Farms – Starting At Square One
This is more than one of those gardening courses that many homesteading courses end up as. They aim for you to get started running your own business by the end of this course and it’s a great introduction to running your own farm.
It costs between $195 and $295 which is very reasonable for a Cornell University course and the fee includes all reading materials, classes, and resources that you need to run your own farm.
Of course, it doesn’t include the land, and the seeds… but you wouldn’t expect it to, would you?
Get more info here.
Urban Farm U – Aquaponics Revealed
If you want to raise your own fish to eat, then stop waiting and sign up for these classes.
They are only $97 and by the end of this 7-week set of lessons, you will be able to grow plants or fish pretty much everywhere that you have access to water.
They teach you how to set up an aquaponics system in your own home and they provide all the tools, including e-books, to get moving once you’ve successfully joined this class.
Get more info here.
Corina Sahlin – Online Cheesemaking Workshop
We absolutely loved doing this reasonably priced course – it’s only $49 and you can do it in your own time, unlike some other courses, which means you don’t need to keep up with the other people in the class to benefit from it.
It’s full of awesome resources to teach you how to make your own cheese and you learn to make several different kinds of cheese (and some yogurt too) during the lessons.
If you want to make your own food for your family, then start learning cheesemaking from these videos, it’s more than just the basics and you will save money compared to buying cheese in the store.
Corina’s advice is invaluable in this field of study.
Wild Abundance – Online Hide Tanning Class
If you intend to hunt deer for food on the land of your homestead, then you should take this course.
It ensures that you don’t waste any scrap of the animal (and the learning can also be applied to livestock if you farm them too).
Buckskin makes fantastic leather and students can buy their deer hide from the website too if they want to get started today but don’t happen to have a deer handy.
The course is a very reasonable $297 and you can pursue it at your own pace, though if you new animal hide – you might want to do it quickly to prevent the hide from rotting.
Get more info here.
Farming My Backyard – Intro To Backyard Chickens
One thing we love to do in our garden is to keep chickens and this is one of the best free resources for learning about backyard chickens out there.
You need to join their subscriber list to pay for the course but if you’re interested in homesteading topics that’s a small price to pay.
Get more info here.
Farming My Backyard – Raising Goats In The City
Even if you don’t have a garden, you can keep goats, though they’re super handy for helping with the gardening (or at least keep the lawn on your garden trimmed).
This is also a free study option and you just sign up on the site to start the e-mail lessons.
Get more info here.
Farming My Backyard – Backyard Orchards
Backyard orchards have specific needs and you can start your dream orchard in your backyard, easily, after using this free study program.
Again, just sign up to their community and create an account and you can enjoy learning these homestead skills for free! There’s nothing better for a homestead than free, right?
Get more info here.