About our Homestead
The Half Baked Homestead was born from a conversation about how the COVID-19 pandemic changed our world. Sent home from our offices, we started transforming our small 1/3 acre yard into a tiny garden, complete with four chickens – Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia. As weeks turned into months our family realized how much we enjoyed raising our own food. With six beehives, five humans, four chickens, three cats, and two dogs, however, we began to feel quite cramped.
During a drive to my family’s farm, the idea of moving to a larger property and making a true go at homesteading was brought up. That idea lead to hours and hours of YouTube and Zillow research, and maybe it was pandemic stir-craziness, but we decided if the folks on YouTube could homestead, we could too. From that point on, our half-baked idea was born.
Our search for the perfect home extended throughout eastern Pennsylvania in a marathon weekend of viewings. Nearly every home had potential, but when we arrived at the eleventh home in two days, we knew it had to be ours, and the Half Baked Homestead was hatched.
The HBH is 32 acres in Dalton, PA, about 15 miles north of Scranton. It consists of a garden, food canning and processing area, greenhouse, egg-laying chickens, incubators, various farm animals, beehives, honey production, and space for any strays that may show up. A beautiful old-growth pine grove houses a camping area complete with kitchen, roasting pit, pizza oven, shower, stage, and lounge. Our one-acre lake boasts bass, sunnies, dozens of frogs, and enough space to kayak or simply float the afternoon away. Approximately 23 acres of forest provides hiking and secluded camping, and Beaver Creek running through the HBH is the perfect place to cool your feet.
The owners of the HBH are Amy and Brian. Amy is a nurse and vet tech born and raised as a country girl with three generations of farm ownership in her family. She grew up in the NEPA woods, spending summers at Girl Scout camp and tubing rivers.
Brian, an amateur naturalist since early childhood, grew up in eastern New York roaming the wilderness. He eventually became an outdoor educator and science teacher focused on environmental conservation and field biology. Avid campers, hikers, ex-theatre kids, and ADHD crafting tornadoes, we can be found nearly every free moment building, planting, painting, or sewing. We are naturists, beer nerds, medieval reenactors, mead brewers, and concert goers. We share the homestead with our tenants, and a varying array of our teenager’s random friends. Our English bulldog, Carter, French bulldog mix, Chidi, and three cats, Chicken, Caesar, and Rapunzel, round out our furry family.
The HBH is 32 acres in Dalton, PA, about 15 miles north of Scranton. It consists of a garden, food canning and processing area, greenhouse, egg-laying chickens, incubators, various farm animals, beehives, honey production, and space for any strays that may show up. A beautiful old-growth pine grove houses a camping area complete with kitchen, roasting pit, pizza oven, shower, stage, and lounge. Our one-acre lake boasts bass, sunnies, dozens of frogs, and enough space to kayak or simply float the afternoon away. Approximately 23 acres of forest provides hiking and secluded camping, and Beaver Creek running through the HBH is the perfect place to cool your feet.
The owners of the HBH are Amy and Brian. Amy is a nurse and vet tech born and raised as a country girl with three generations of farm ownership in her family. She grew up in the NEPA woods, spending summers at Girl Scout camp and tubing rivers.
Brian, an amateur naturalist since early childhood, grew up in eastern New York roaming the wilderness. He eventually became an outdoor educator and science teacher focused on environmental conservation and field biology. Avid campers, hikers, ex-theatre kids, and ADHD crafting tornadoes, we can be found nearly every free moment building, planting, painting, or sewing. We are naturists, beer nerds, medieval reenactors, mead brewers, and concert goers. We share the homestead with our tenants, and a varying array of our teenager’s random friends. Our English bulldog, Carter, French bulldog mix, Chidi, and three cats, Chicken, Caesar, and Rapunzel, round out our furry family.
