After more than a decade of quiet determination and a growing passion for self-sufficiency, one Kansas City mother now feeds her family of six almost entirely from food grown on their own land — enough to last them two years at a time.

Sunny Haven, 39, began her homesteading journey in 2010, the same year she and her husband welcomed their first child. At the time, they were living in a small suburban home in Seattle with a modest backyard garden.

“We lived in a little suburban house with a tiny backyard, and we started growing vegetables here and there,” Sunny said. “Neither of us knew what we were doing; we relied heavily on the internet.”

The couple’s early harvests included humble crops like carrots, potatoes, lettuce and pumpkins. But what began as a few raised beds quickly grew into something much bigger — both in scope and lifestyle.

“If you had asked me 20 years ago if I would be living this way, I would have said it is insane,” Sunny said. “But here we are, we are thriving and we love it. I feel like this is something we were always meant to do.”

From Suburbia to Self-Sufficiency

In 2012, four years after they began experimenting with growing their own food, Sunny and her husband took a leap of faith. They purchased a three-acre homestead just outside Seattle.

There, the family cultivated a thriving garden, planted 30 fruit trees and 40 berry bushes, and began raising turkeys and chickens.

Then in 2024, now a family of six, they made their boldest move yet — relocating more than 1,800 miles to Kansas City, Missouri, in search of more land and a slower pace of life.

“We lived in a really expensive area; we needed more room to grow and cheaper land,” Sunny explained. “We were looking for a cheaper lifestyle at a slower pace than the one we were used to living.”

They found what they were looking for on a seven-acre farm, where they now maintain a 5,000-square-foot vegetable patch and keep their own chickens. Their neighbors even pasture cows on their land.

Enough to Feed a Family for Two Years

Today, the Haven family grows nearly all their fruits and vegetables — with just a few exceptions.

“We grow most of our fruit and vegetables apart from things that don't grow well in the Midwest,” Sunny said.

Sunny and her husband use a combination of freezing and canning to store food — enough, she says, to feed the family for two years at any given time.

“Whatever I am going to grow, I will grow enough to preserve it for our family to eat for two years,” she said. “We store all our produce in our basement.”

“Some years I will grow 30 tomato plants and will use those tomatoes over a two-year period.”

Her preferred method of preservation is canning. “It is safe and cheap and costs almost nothing,” she said. “You just need to find yourself a good recipe, and what we don't can we will freeze.”

“We freeze a lot of fruit to make ice cream and smoothies later. We also freeze a lot of meat. We have a large storage room in our basement where we keep all the foods.”

Although their pantry is nearly self-sustaining, they still make occasional store trips. “We will still go to the shop now and again, twice a month, for items they can't grow — like shampoo or the occasional bag of chips,” she said with a laugh.

Raising Grounded, Capable Kids

For Sunny, one of the most rewarding aspects of homesteading is the impact it’s had on her children.

“My children are growing up connected to the land, knowing where their food comes from, knowing the meaning of work,” she said. “They know the names of all the species of trees, they know how to tell which way is north, they know how to forage.”

But even with their nature-driven upbringing, her kids strike a balance between old-fashioned know-how and modern-day fun.

“They're brave, inquisitive and adventurous,” Sunny said. “But they also play Minecraft because they're still normal kids.”

Though Sunny didn’t grow up living off the land, she says she wouldn’t trade her life now for anything.

“It was difficult at first. I didn’t grow up like this; I had to learn everything from the internet,” she reflected. “But here we are.”