Must-Have Kitchen Items for the Homestead Kitchen

There’s nothing worse than trying to trying to make something and struggling to find it in a kitchen filled with gadgets, or to buy a bunch of items and never using them.

I’ve totally been the one for shiny kitchen gadgets and I’m sad to say I rarely use the ones I saved up for.

I make a lot of homecooked goods and do my share of canning (water-bath).  I’ve detailed my must-have list for items I use all the time! They’ve made my life so much easier and quite frankly, many of them are fairly basic with just a few modern conveniences.

Must-Have Items

• Vitamix with Dry Container
  • This is worth it’s weight in gold. We use our Vitamix almost daily and I use the dry container to make all different kinds of flours within moments. From chickpea to almonds, to buckwheat and oat flour. 
• Large cookie sheets
  • A friend made custom stainless-steel cookie sheets which we use for everything. I highly recommend sourcing some large cookie sheets, or if you can’t, getting smaller stainless-steel ones. Not aluminum because aluminum leeches into your food when it heats up. Switch out all of your aluminum cookware.
• Instant Pot
  • Another brilliant buy. I’m not one for planning ahead so I love being able to cook a meal from frozen in under 2 hours. Perfect for cooking beans from dry too for cheap meals. I still have two crockpots for harvest season but my Instant Pot gets almost daily use.
• Mason jars or glass jars of all sizes
  • Glass jars are great for storing things like food from the bulk bins, fresh foods like salads, salad dressing, chopped carrots and celery. We even use them to freeze items like soups and stocks. We save any glass jars we get!
• Strainer
  • I feel like this is a no brainer but just in case you wanted to get rid of it, don’t! I have three and wish I had more. They’re most used for straining stocks and cooked veggies and I save the water from the veggies to use in stocks or in anything that calls for stock if I don’t have some handy.
• Large stock pot
  • Perfect for water bath canning!  Also really great for batch cooking soups or socks and for harvest season making giant pots of sauce.
• Good set of pots and pans – stainless steel
  • You cannot go wrong with a good set of pots and pans. I always make sure mine are stainless steel. NO non-stick coatings or aluminum.  You do NOT want that in your cooking. Cleaning them isn’t really that hard, nor is getting things to not stick. Basically, you’ve been lied to.
• Dehydrator
  • You can get them for $30 at Canadian Tire. They are wonderful for harvest time or for making things year round like apple chips, kale chips, fruit leather, herbs, all sorts of delicious things!
• Good set of knives
  • No brainer, right?  And keep them sharp!
• Good peeler
  • I love mine from Superstore. It looks like a Y and is nice and weighty in my hand so it doesn’t slip.
• Large wooden or bamboo cutting boards
  • Lots of them. Again, get rid of the plastic because as you cut, little pieces of plastic are getting into your food. Wooden or bamboo ones are easy to take care of and they are more sustainable. Bamboo can be harvested very quickly. Don’t leave either in standing water and wash by hand. Oil them with Tung Oil when you think of it (maybe once a year) and they’ll last forever. I have some from my grandmother!
• Parchment paper
  • Very handy! Helps things not stick and you can bake with it. We use it all the time. I wish you could compost it in your own compost but it needs a little bit more help to be completely biodegradable.
• Wooden rolling pin
  • Again, switch out the plastic, take care of it (so minimal) and it will last.
• Good measuring cups + spoons (large measuring glass)
  • Wooden, stainless steel. They’ll last and are worth it.
• Wooden spoons, etc.
  • More wood! Again, switch out the plastic. Wood will last so much longer and it’s much safer.
• Stainless steel bowls + bigger utensils (ie. ladles)
  • Lots and lots of mixing bowls. Stainless steel, ceramic, glass – whichever you choose. I love the stainless steel because they’re light weight. Most of our ceramic bowls hold our fruits and veggies on the counter now!
• Cast iron pans
  • Yes, yes, yes! The flavour is so nice, the cook is so fast, and they’re so versatile. I use them on our glass top stove with no problem. Clean up is super easy and you’re getting added iron into your diet just by cooking in them. They can go from the stove top to the oven easily which is a huge bonus for one pan meals. Be mindful of where you source them from because some companies coat aluminum pans in cast iron. You want solid cast iron.
• Cast iron Dutch oven
  • Same deal. Quality cookware will stand the test of time. I have a cast iron Dutch oven from one of my mom’s friend’s mom and it is one of my most used pots. It cooks bread beautifully too!
• Glass containers
  • Yes, get rid of the Tubberware. Anything aluminum or plastic. Work through your cabinets and start switching it out. We love the Glasslock containers but there are many others now you can get. You can also get stainless steel containers for school lunches for kids. We also love Colibri bags which are so handy for everything.

The Smart Way to Source Them

The best thing about most of these items?  You can find them at the thrift store or garage sales, or source them from people you know that are moving or elderly. Even antique sales.

There are also wonderful crafts people who make wooden and ceramic items that would love your support. My family has gotten numerous wooden utensils (including the best baby spoons!) from Carson Hill, a local craftsman that truly loves what he does. His work is outstanding, made from salvaged materials and well worth it.

Timeless Will Never Go Out of Style

I like to think of our kitchen as a ‘working farm kitchen’ even though we don’t have the animals yet. It may look modern but the tools are all good, solid old-fashioned items my grandparents and great-grandparents used. There’s nothing better and they LAST.

You don’t need much to make delicious and nutritious food and let me tell you from first-hand experience, anything you *think* you need that gadget for, chances are darn good you can already do it with what you have and it’ll be much easier to figure out and clean up.

“Convenience” is a marketer’s dream of getting you to buy things you really don’t need.

Have a happy time creating your working homestead kitchen!

Get my guide: 3 Ways Being “Unconventional” and “Crunchy” Can Give You Freedom, and learn how you can put this lifestyle to work for you. (…#3 had me feeling 10 years younger in a matter of months!)