Often times, we run headlong into Lent without giving too much thought to what we’ll do throughout the season, and many never give a second thought to how they are preparing for Lent. Catholics throughout the world have many traditions particularly associated with the final week leading up to Lent: Carnival- the last week before Lent where historically, the last of the meat in a household was consumed, Fat Thursday in Poland (where Paczki is the favored food to eat) and Fat Tuesday elsewhere (also known as Mardi Gras, and known as Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday in other parts of Europe where the purpose was to consume the last of the fats and other products that were traditionally given up throughout the Lenten season, such as dairy products and eggs.

The concept behind all of these traditions was that one would remove what was not to be consumed during Lent, without having to waste anything. Some of these traditions have become fairly secularized, and because of the feast-like nature of this period of time, it could actually present a challenge to some who intended to faithfully observe the rules of fasting and abstinence at the time. Shrovetide or Shrove Tuesday were less about feasting and more about the final work of preparing for Ash Wednesday. The faithful would have their palms from the previous Palm Sunday burned to make the ashes for the following day, they would often go to confession, they would make any final plans or arrangements for Lent, and yes, they would eat pancakes and maybe some sweets.

Septuagesima, on the other hand was not about feasting (though it did inherently include it), but about preparing for Lent. The goal wasn’t to feast and over-indulge or party, but to gradual reduce and remove things from day-to-day life as a transition into the season to come. Fasting and abstinence are a little less challenging if we don’t go into them abruptly. Now, one might think that it’d be more sacrificial to stop suddenly, but the truth is that our minds and bodies don’t usually work that way. If we are indulgent the whole week leading up to Lent, we may find that the fast we are to observe on Ash Wednesday feels impossible. During the final days and weeks leading up to Lent, the faithful were encouraged to do a thorough examination of conscience and to go to the sacrament of confession. This would be helpful in determining what one needed to focus on during Lent. Has your temper been short? Have you been neglecting prayer? Have you been prideful? We can look at these things and mediate on how we offend Christ and His great sacrifice through our indifference and bad behavior. It makes a big difference to enter the season of Lent knowing what areas of my life are in especial need of sanctification.

“This is all good and well,” you might think, “but what has this got to do with homesteading?” Well, in terms of the food and feasting prior to Lent, quite a lot for some. Homesteading for many largely focuses on the production of food: we grow gardens and orchards for produce, and we raise animals for the things they can produce (eggs, milk, honey) or for meat, just to name a few of the ways we produce food. Practices like Carnival and Mardi Gras in addition to the lack of consumption of particular products throughout Lent should be thoughtfully considered in light of the current requirements, what is practical for your family, and the differences between the historical needs vs. today.

Carnival began as a way for people to use up the meat that was in their households prior to the great Lenten fast. This would be particularly necessary in an age prior to refrigeration. Butchering was typically done throughout the year as needed, and not in bulk like we tend to do today. The difference in practice has almost everything to do with refrigeration and our ability to freeze food. One does not need to remove meat from their home if the meat won’t spoil throughout the 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. (Yes, Lent itself is 40 days, but there are Sundays within that period of time, during which we do not need to fast.) Today, Lacticinia, the practice of abstaining from all dairy and eggs is no longer required and is observed by few, at least in the Roman Rite in the United States. That’s not to say we can’t still observe these practices and traditions either prior to or throughout Lent but rather assess how we observe them.

For most modern homesteaders, we rely on freezing to preserve bulk quantities of meat to be used throughout the year. Personally, I also like to can some of our meat, so we have that on shelves. And I’ve been learning about dry-curing meats like bacon, ham, and prosciutto, which means these meats don’t require refrigeration (given the right environment… not possible everywhere). A fellow parishioner once told me how her grandmother stored her pork in barrels of fat in the basement- no refrigeration or freezing used. I assume the hot lard was poured in and meat added in layers to seal it in the fat. (Honestly, I won’t be giving this method a try.) But raw meat could also be packed in salt, and produced a product similar to dry-aged meats. The meat was incredibly salty and would have to be soaked to remove some of the salt prior to consuming, but this way of preservation kept meat for a long time without the need of refrigeration. With so many methods of preservation available to us today, it’s no longer necessary to purge the house of meat, though we may have food in the refrigerator that needs to be consumed prior to Lent. Also, though meat was given up for the entirety of Lent historically, rather than Fridays only, it is no longer the norm today, which means there is less of a need to worry about the removal of meat. This will be entirely personal, from family to family.

And the idea of practicing lacticinia would be of great consideration for anyone who raises chickens for eggs, or has dairy animals in production. Do you have a method of preservation for any of the products that would be produced throughout Lent? Eggs keep for weeks without refrigeration, so that wouldn’t be a problem for most people. Most of the eggs could be saved and used in the feasting of the Easter season, and water-glassing has long served as a method of preserving raw eggs for extended periods of time. Dairy, if processed properly could produce much cheese and butter, which just require the right conditions for storage. That being said, many chicken-keepers know that older hens may not produce eggs all year, and so the production of eggs may have slowed or stopped throughout the winter, and those who keep dairy animals may just be ready to dry off their animals in preparation for the baby animals to come. Careful planning and calculations earlier in the year could help to line up these times of lack with the season of Lent.

But Lenten preparations don’t just have to begin with Septuagesima… This may take years of experience to master, but if we know what we will eat throughout the year, how much, and how often, we can actually plan a year or more in advance for the various times of fasting and abstinence: Ember days, Advent, all Fridays throughout the year (and depending on your observances, potentially Wednesdays and/or Saturdays), are just some of the days we might observe. Calculating such observances into our planning is just one of the ways we can intentionally incorporate our faith into what we do year-round.

Incredibly important for us to remember, however, is why we fast and abstain in the first place. We learn to temper our senses, our appetites, and determine where we are substituting things for God. The discomfort of fasting and abstinence should lead us to prayer as we struggle with the discomfort, inconvenience, or annoyance we experience. It helps us to better understand what things of this world and how often we cling to things that are not Christ. We do this to walk with Jesus in the desert, and to learn how to better carry our crosses.

Fasting and abstinence are only one part of the equation of Lent. The tenants, if you will, of Lent are prayer, penance, and almsgiving. Fasting and abstinence are only one form of penance. But as we prepare in these final days before Lent, we may want to consider all of the other ways in which we can live out the Lenten season. Almsgiving doesn’t strictly refer to giving money to those in need. It can include acts of service or the donation of other goods. This might actually be a great time to go through our freezers and pantry shelves and donate some of our abundance of meat or produce to the local food pantry. We could do this in the days and weeks leading up to Lent or in the midst of it.

Our penance may include a thorough cleaning or assessment of our homestead. The cleaning might be needed due to neglect, but it can also be a form of stewardship. God has given us gifts… are we taking care of them as we ought to? Are we looking at our motives for homesteading? Do we understand why we do what we do? Are we led by our own desires alone or by what God is calling us to? As for prayer, perhaps we start to pray more in order to better discern what God is asking of us. Maybe we add a rosary walk to our property, start a prayer garden, or build stations of the cross throughout, and pray with and through those devotions as we build them.

A few years ago, we built a makeshift Way of the Cross on our property. I intended to pray it significantly more often, but to be honest, I’ve only prayed it a few times since then. This would be a good year to be more intentional about it. I would like to make something more substantial for each of the stations to look at. Right now, our stations consist of a pole in the ground with wooded crosses nailed to them, and the number of the station burned in the wood. I would also like to build a shrine for our Rogation Day observations this year, and Lent would be a good time to work on such a project. We have a small prayer garden area on our property as well, and perhaps I will do a little work on that, or even just spend a bit of time there in prayer. One of the great blessings of taking our prayer and worship of God out into Creation is that it helps us to remember what a gift we’ve been given from God.

Perhaps above all of these other things, it would be good for us to enter the Lenten season with a mindset of discernment for our homesteads. Our homesteads are a place of evangelization, whether we realize it or not. Do we recognize that or live it out? We will continue to pray for God’s guidance as to how we should steward our land and live out our faith here, because what we do has an impact on those who visit, live nearby, or even simply read about our homestead. May the Holy Spirit guide you throughout this season, the Father comfort you, and the Son be your constant companion!

In Christ,
Danielle

P.S. If you know of other common traditions leading up to Lent that would pertain to food production and consumption, or otherwise affect the homestead, let me know!