Homesteading with the Prewitts: growing community through food

By LeeAnna Tatum

Brian and Noel Prewitt are enthusiastic homesteaders who have transformed their ¼ acre lot in Pooler into a productive space for growing, raising and producing much of their own food as well as creating value-added items for their own use and to sell to others.

Married for a little less than three years, the pair have both gardened in the past (with varying degrees of success). But as a couple they have taken things up to a different level - expanding the growing space to include the front yard and adding chickens for egg production and they also raise meat chickens twice a year which they process themselves.

In addition to growing up to 80% of the produce they eat, they also grow an assortment of herbs for culinary and medicinal purposes.

As with many local food producers, COVID and the ensuing shutdowns prompted a shift in how the Prewitts were operating. Having grown a large number of tomato starts intended for an upcoming market, they were left with a lot of plants on their hands when the event was canceled.

“We had a bunch of tomato plants and I had two choices,” Brian explained, “I could throw them in the trash or I could set them up in the front yard and grow a bunch of tomatoes. So, that was the beginning of the front yard set up and that was just this past March.”

“We discovered there was a group of people out there looking to buy home based products,” he continued. “We had been selling honey and elderberry syrup already and people were looking for that type of stuff, so we thought… what else can we do?”

Noel began creating more and more health-focused products like tea blends, oil infusions, lotions, kombucha and fire cider. While Brian expanded his line of things like salsas, hot sauce and pickles.

The past year saw their homestead transition into a business. But the bottom line for this couple is not only to continue to break free from the industrialized system for themselves, but to help others do so as well.

“Our focus is an urban homestead,” Brian said. “It is part of our mission statement, our purpose. It’s not just making hot sauce and selling it, it’s to help you understand how to make hot sauce to provide for your family. Whether it be financial provision or a sustinance provision - we’re escaping the slavery that has been created in this industrial system.”

Using hot sauce as example, what Brian and Noel are passionate about doing is providing an alternative for people beyond the box stores, the supermarket and other aspects of the industrialized, globalized consumer marketplace.

Why buy a product that was made who-knowswhere, using who-knows-what ingredients, while supporting corporations; when you can choose to buy (or produce your own) product that’s made with ingredients you know you can trust, it’s produced locally, and it will either directly benefit you financially by saving you costs (if you produce it yourself) or will benefit someone financially who produces it for you and lives in your community.

The Prewitts recognize the importance of selfsufficiency, especially as inflation spikes, the climate changes and uncertainties (like the one caused by the pandemic) in supply lines. However, they aren’t seeking to become 100% self-sufficient, what they are seeking to do is develop the relationships necessary within their community to meet the majority of their needs.

“We’re not totally self-sufficient and we understand the odds of us becoming 100% - it’s not going to happen - there’s things in our life that we just can’t do,” Brian explained. “We can’t grow our own grain, we don’t have the property for it, nor do we have the knowledge or the desire. There’s other people in this world who do it and do it really well. But we can change the way we make our bread. We can get the wheat berries and grind our own flour.”

“When we buy beef, we get the whole cow which we split with somebody,” he continued. “But we know the farmer that raised that beef and we trust the farmer in the decision of the processor that he uses. So we know that our beef didn’t go to China to be processed and put into a pretty package and ground up with whatever else might have been on the grinder.”

It’s all about making lifestyle changes in lots of small ways that add up to big shifts in purchasing habits.

“As we grow, we’re really intentional about finding those people to change patterns in my life,” Brian said. “If I can take something away from the industrialized system for my family and show someone else how to do that, I feel like I’m getting a foothold on my personal selfsufficiency. Even though I don’t raise the cow, I am getting a foothold on self-sufficiency because of that relationship.”

Beyond growing for their personal use and the products they sell in their business, Brian and Noel are passionate about sharing their knowledge and experience with others. A big part of their mission statement is about inspiring and encouraging others to take steps toward self-sufficiency.

“We saw an increase of people buying seeds and growing gardens during the quarantine last year. And people really said, ‘I’m going to go for this!’ And that was amazing,” Brian said. “I think we went through that period and then we went back to normal life and started thinking ‘well, maybe I don’t need to live that way’. And now, we’re seeing the prices go up which we didn’t see last year. And we’re seeing the end of the month come up and being short and people are starting to realize this needs to be a lifestyle change. And that’s what we hope to encourage people with. It’s not just one season in your life, it’s a lifestyle change.”

To that end, the couple hosts a weekly live event on their Facebook page where they take on topics related to homesteading; sharing their experiences, faith, and knowledge to help encourage others on their own journeys to become more connected to their food.

As Brian can attest, sometimes getting someone started down the path of growing their own food is as simple as wanting a good tomato!

“It started at the tomato bin. I wanted a really good tomato sandwich, I was craving it. And I was standing at the tomato bin, looking at those horrible, nasty tomatoes. And I told myself ‘it’s not going to be good. Why are you spending your money you worked so hard for on that garbage?’ And I turned around and left and went and bought a tomato plant instead. And I started growing tomatoes. And it was the best tomato sandwich I had eaten in years!”

“That was around 2014,” he continued. “That’s where it all sort of grew from there. That’s where passion planted its seed. And then I just started adding and adding and adding. And slowly but surely becoming more and more self-sufficient.”

To learn more about Prewitt Homestead, please check out their website www.prewitthomestead.com and social media sites under the same name. There is also a Prewitt Homestead Youtube channel devoted to practical “how-to’s” on everything from building raised beds to making kombucha. And you can join them live on their Facebook page every Sunday evening.