We Don’t Just Review Self-Reliance. We Practice It.
Homesteading Reviews grew out of a simple realization: people trying to become more self-reliant buy a lot of products, and some work much better than others.
Our roots are at Riverbed Ranch, an off-grid community in Utah’s West Desert where families are building homes, growing food, raising animals, developing practical skills, and learning firsthand what works and what doesn’t.
Living this way has a habit of making you practical.
A product doesn’t earn our respect because it has clever packaging or thousands of glowing reviews. It earns our respect by solving a real problem.
Real Products. Real Experience.
We believe the most useful product review comes from someone who has actually used the product.
That’s why our reviews focus on questions such as:
- What did we actually use it for?
- How well did it perform?
- What did we like?
- What frustrated us?
- Did it hold up?
- Who would benefit from it?
- Would we buy it again?
Sometimes we’ll love a product. Sometimes we’ll find shortcomings. Occasionally we’ll discover that the inexpensive solution works just as well as the expensive one.
We’ll tell you.
A Pretty Good Testing Ground
The Utah West Desert isn’t particularly forgiving.
We deal with intense sun, wind, dust, freezing winters, hot summers, limited rainfall, and the practical realities of living farther from many of the conveniences most households take for granted.
That makes this a surprisingly useful place to find out whether things work.
Our contributors have experience with gardening, greenhouses, food preservation, tools, home construction and maintenance, solar power, backup systems, outdoor equipment, household products, and many other parts of a more self-reliant life.
We don’t claim to be experts at everything.
We do promise to tell you what we’ve actually experienced.
Why Homesteading Reviews Exists
There are already millions of product reviews online. We don’t need to add more noise.
We want to add useful experience.
Our goal is to help you make better purchasing decisions by sharing what we’ve learned from products we actually use and the problems we’re actually trying to solve.
Along the way, we’ll also share practical lessons about growing food, maintaining a home, using tools, conserving resources, preparing for disruptions, and becoming more capable.
You don’t need acreage, livestock, or an off-grid home to become more self-reliant.
You can start where you are.
Our Standard Is Simple
Before recommending something, we ask:
Would we recommend this product to a friend or neighbor who was spending their own money?
If the answer is yes, we’ll explain why.
If there are drawbacks, we’ll tell you about those too.
And if we wouldn’t buy it again, that’s worth knowing as well.
That’s what we want Homesteading Reviews to be: practical information from people learning, building, growing, repairing, experimenting, and becoming a little more self-reliant every day.
Meet Our Reviewers
The best reviews come from people who have actually used the products they’re talking about. Our reviewers bring different skills, interests, and experiences to Homesteading Reviews, but they share one goal: helping you decide whether a product is genuinely worth your time and money.
We’re starting small, but we have bigger plans. As Homesteading Reviews grows, you’ll meet more people here who bring their own experience with gardening, food production, tools, home maintenance, off-grid systems, preparedness, and the everyday work of becoming more self-reliant.
Jesse Fisher
Off-Grid Living • Gardening • Greenhouses • Tools • Home & Kitchen
Jesse lives with his wife at Riverbed Ranch in Utah’s West Desert, where they are building a more self-reliant life on their two-acre homestead. Their home operates on solar power with battery storage and backup generation, while their property includes gardens, two greenhouses, an orchard, a well, water-storage systems, and the assortment of tools and equipment that comes with maintaining it all.
Jesse has spent much of his life exploring practical approaches to greater self-reliance. His reviews aren’t laboratory tests. They come from using products to solve everyday problems and asking straightforward questions: Does it work? What are its shortcomings? Is there a better way to accomplish the same thing? And, most importantly, would he spend his own money on it again?
More Reviewers Coming
One of the strengths we hope to develop at Homesteading Reviews is a variety of perspectives. No single person knows everything about homesteading or self-reliance.
As additional reviewers join us, we’ll introduce them here along with the areas where they have real experience. That way, when you read or watch one of our reviews, you’ll know a little about the person behind it and why their experience with that particular product may be useful to you.
Real people. Real experience. Practical reviews.