way of life

Tristan Jensen

editorial assistant

Homestead is Christa Wadekamper’s full-time job in the New Richland area. As part of that, she sells eggs and sourdough bread and runs her online store of her handcrafted goods at barefootlanemn.com.

Wadekamper spoke about her experience and the rationale behind it at an event at the New Richland Public Library on March 16.

Barefoot Lane is the name of a homestead in Wadekampah, about five miles south of Waseka. To the amazement of her moderate audience, the homestead is just under three acres in her size, which is directly related to the main theme of her speech. Wadekamper says she’s a “type of person” who decided to have 10 turkeys for Christmas because she realized a year ago that she wanted to eat turkey legs for dinner. Prevent them from living some or all of the self-made lifestyle if it suits them. For her, a homestead is not just about the land, but about living with it, cooking and baking from scratch as much as possible, growing and growing personal food sources, and making items that homes can’t produce. That means even people who live in apartments can go home, she says. Wadekampah did it himself. She used “container gardening”, growing edible plants indoors in free-standing containers and community garden spaces. She also recommends Farmers at her Market. She reminded the assembled audience that a person can hunt, fish, and forage on land owned by a country or family. And homesteading can mean using practical skills. Craft items or repair damaged or outdated equipment and purchase replacements.

Wadekamper grew up on the family farm outside Faribault. She graduated from Faribault High School. She is the daughter of Tim Weidekamper and Sharon Becker, and has two sisters, Kathy Jensen and Amy Weidekamper, and two half-brothers, Ben and Jessica Anderson. He is married to Le Groden and has a son, Oliver.

“Community is key,” Weadekamper said of the part of Homestead that people don’t want or can’t do themselves. “Never” is the key word. She says her biggest regret in life is getting an accounting degree. “When I started the class, I knew I didn’t want to be an accountant, but I was afraid to change to something else,” she explained. Do what drives you, brings you joy, and fulfills you. ’” This philosophy also extends to her life as a colonist. Wadekamper told the audience that she tried making a homemade household cleaner, but found it wasn’t for her, so she bought it. One piece of advice is don’t be afraid to fail. She also encouraged us to face failure with open honesty and help others learn from it and share our knowledge to help them bounce back. “There is no reason not to learn things today,” she said. “‘Google it’ is one of my favorite phrases.” I propose to contact you about the field.

Wadekamper says her family knows where their food comes from, that the animals were treated well while they were alive, and that they are trying to keep their carbon footprint as low as possible. She says she’s going home because it’s important to her to be sure that she’s there. Wadekamper is her fourth generation to live on her family farm, which had shrunk to her hobby farm by the time she was there, but she learned hunting and fishing from her father and her mother I learned gardening and canning from When she was a child, she remembers duck hunting with her father in the mornings before he took her to daycare in his four-wheeler. Her family also sold strawberries from their own fields, so Wadekampah said she was always used to feeding others.