About Deanna Talerico
Deanna Talerico, also known as “DeannaCat” or @deannacat3, is the CEO and creator of Homestead and Chill. She is a garden educator with an MA in Environmental Studies, over 15 years of experience in organic gardening and food preservation, and 10 years experience raising backyard chickens.
Hi, I'm Deanna!
I’m the main person behind Homestead and Chill (it’s just my husband Aaron and I running things here). My goal is to help teach and inspire others to live more healthy, sustainable lives by sharing easy-to-follow, well-researched and experience-based gardening tips, recipes, and homesteading resources.
I am a passionate gardener, writer, crafter, and love to cook and fuel my body with organic homegrown food. I care deeply about the environment, clean toxin-free living, animals, and wildlife. I’m also a bit of a research nerd, have enjoyed photography since I was a little girl, and seem to have a natural knack for teaching. So, I started this website in 2019 to share those passions with the world!
You can learn more about my background, education, personal gardening journey, and other fun facts below, or learn more about Homestead and Chill here.
Thank you so much for stopping by!
FREE Garden Planner
& Planting Calendars
Stay connected and learn! Sign up for our weekly newsletter with the best seasonal gardening tips, recipes, crafts and more – and get a free 21-page printable gardening planning toolkit, complete with seed starting and planting calendars for every growing zone.
Fun Facts
- Aaron and I are happily child-free by choice.
- We currently have 5 cats, 4 mini donkeys, and a dozen chickens. I’ve been a crazy cat lady my whole life, hence the “DeannaCat” moniker.
- We live on the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo County. I’m originally from Santa Cruz CA (yes, I say “stoked” and “gnarly”) but also spent several years of my childhood in the greater Seattle area. Aaron is originally from Chico, where we met working at a natural food store together in college.
- I’ve had Type 1 Diabetes for over 22 years, and have been vegetarian for 17.
- We just started weighing and keeping track of how much food we grow, and we harvested 1,297 pounds of homegrown produce in 2023! And that’s only counting what made it inside.
- Beyond gardening, I love to read, do yoga, puzzles, play cribbage and board games (we love Wingspan), birdwatch, hike, and walk on the beach. I also love a good Netflix binge.
- Music is a HUGE part of our lives. It’s something Aaron and I bonded over right when we met, and going to concerts is still our main excuse for a “date night” now. See our playlists here.
My Gardening Journey
My mom had a garden while I was growing up, and while I don’t remember being particularly involved, I DO remember being enamored with the juicy homegrown melons, peaches, cherries and grapes! Fast forward to young adulthood: I started my very first garden in 2007. I was 21, had just lost my Dad to kidney cancer, and was struggling to find my path in college (more on that below). I grew just a couple tomato plants, zucchini, and honeydew melon, but the garden gave me a sense of purpose and hope! Aaron and I were dating at the time.
After college, we moved into a rental house and immediately asked the landlord if we could add a couple raised beds to the small backyard. Thankfully, they said yes… “as long as we returned it to same condition we found it”. So when we moved into our very first home the next year, we packed up the soil and bed frames and brought them with us! Lol.
In 2013, we bought our first home. During the house hunt, having a decent little yard and space for chickens was our top priority, even if that meant getting a smaller outdated home for our budget! We ended up with a 9000 square foot lot, and spent the next 8 years slowly DIY-ing and transforming every inch of it. We removed both the front and back lawns to put in raised garden beds, pollinator flowers, and fruit trees. We tucked a chicken coop, rainwater system and greenhouse in one side yard, and compost systems and tool sheds on the other. (You can see the before-and-after photos here.) There, we did and learned pretty much everything we’re doing at our larger property now, just on a smaller scale!
My Background & Education
You don’t need a degree related to gardening or agriculture to dig in, have fun, and be successful! However, my background certainly played a pivotal role in my journey to get here – both in gardening, and to start this business.
I graduated with my B.S. in Sustainability and Natural Resources from California State University, Chico in 2010. I spent 6 years in undergrad, bouncing around between nursing, physical therapy, and nutrition at first. I started to realize (and become increasingly frustrated with) the disconnect between traditional health sciences, natural health, and the environment. Then in 2007, I also lost my dad to kidney cancer. As a “daddy’s girl”, I was shattered. But it also changed the course of my life forever for the better. Sparked with a new healthy fear of toxins and passion for clean, natural living, I totally switched gears that year: I changed my major, started a job as a Sustainability Coordinator with the university, opened a farmer’s market booth to sell recycled crafts and art, and started my very first garden.
Next, I went on to pursue a MA in Environmental Studies at Brown University. Living on the East Coast for a couple years was a really neat life experience! We were living in an apartment in Providence, Rhode Island when I first read Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” and I was like THIS is what I want. To eat with the seasons, to raise backyard chickens, to trade in the excess for the cherished essentials, to keep it local… Even though we didn’t have a garden at the time, we started stocking up on fresh produce from the farmer’s market and practicing different preserving methods. And, we formulated a goal for the future.
Reader Favorites
Starting Homestead and Chill
After grad school, we moved back to California and I got a job as an Environmental Health Specialist with the county. I started out as a restaurant “health inspector” (oof, the stories I could share!) and quickly worked my way up to Senior specialist in the water systems and land use programs. Parts of that gig were fun and rewarding, but as the years went by and older folks retired, they piled more work on my desk rather than filling replacement positions. I was out in the field less and less, and could feel the burnout creeping in fast. I needed an exit strategy.
By 2018, I’d already been really active on Instagram for over 5 years. Sharing gardening tips, DIY projects, and backyard chicken shenanigans online had become my outlet from the grind of my job – especially since I didn’t have many “real life” friends with similar shared interests. Then a good friend gave me a hard shake and was like: “Helllloooo Deanna, you should start a blog!” At that time, I honestly had no idea how a blog could generate income – let alone become both our full-time jobs!
So with zero website experience, I started building this site in late 2018 and launched with just handful of articles in January 2019. The next few years were arguably the most intense and difficult of my life, but also some of the most rewarding! Between my “real job” and the blog, I worked like a crazy person, pulling 12-15 hour days 7 days a week for over 2.5 years. As the site grew, Aaron came on to help with more and more tasks too. Finally by the summer of 2021, we were able to both go full-time with Homestead and Chill! We were also able to move to our new larger homestead at that time. Now, we’re busy as ever and still work 7 days a week (ha!) but at least it’s for something we both love and take great pride in.
All in all, we are totally honored (and a bit mind-blown) that this little “side gig” of a website has evolved into what it is today – and that wouldn’t be possible without YOU, our valued readers and subscriber community. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being here and tuning in! Keep on growing. ✌️
Made with homegrown and certified organic ingredients, we offer a variety of natural skincare products including nourishing face oil, calendula and lavender salve, natural insect repellent, herbal bath salts and more! Browse our shop here.
173 Comments
Stumpy
Thanks for sharing. I have learned a lot from both of you and very much enjoy your content.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Thank you so much Stumpy!
Stacey
I’m in Marina on the Central Coast. Where are you? I’m glad I found you.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Stacey, we are located in southern SLO county, glad you found us as well and we hope you enjoy the site!
Deana (not Deanna)
I can’t believe I just found you today on Instagram, after I moved from Oceano, CA to Mississippi last October. I have an acre here, and I am planning to do most of what you have done with your property. I was taking screenshots of your reel, then decided to look deeper into your details. I am so inspired, and wish I knew you when I lived there. I can’t wait to dive in to allll the information. Oh, and all my life I have been called Deanna, and people have tried to tell me my name is spelled wrong, but I am ‘Dean with an a on the end’.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Deana, so glad you finally found us and too bad it was after you left the Central Coast! We were at least neighbors for a little while, haha. We also understand about the mix up in people calling you Deanna instead of Deana, when we lived in New England for a short time, Deanna was normally called Dean(a) if someone had to say her name after reading it. Anyway, it’s great to hear you have some space to work with in Mississippi and good luck on transforming your space!
Susie Stogsdill
Hi you two, found your site via that yummy pic of apple cider vinegar in a crock! I’m making a batch now, and have a question. After removing the apples, you say to cover the container. Are you meaning with the threaded lid? That’s what I did and now am in waiting mode. Lid screwed on, dish towel wrapped around jar to keep light out as much as possible. Is this correct?
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Susie, so glad you found our site! We don’t use a threaded lid for the jar or crock when making ACV, we use a thicker tea towel and rubber band. While it ferments, it creates gasses and needs oxygen during the process. You could just set the lid on the jar without threading it down but I wouldn’t want to risk fruit flies getting into the container either. Hope that helps and good luck!
Vicki Dempsey
Hi from Aus i was looking up pest management and found your site, just retired at 60 and starting my own little garden with raised beds 🙂 been washing off the aphids, picking off the cabbage butterfly eggs lol, and bought three worm bins on gumtree which I love and nuture so it was awesome to come across your site – love it – thanks so much – ps I have a cat called Elvis and a beagle called Zara 🙂
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Vicki, we are glad you found our site (at just the right time!) and congratulations on retirement! That’s great to hear you are starting your own garden as it is such a great activity and lifestyle for your health and wellness. Elvis and Zara are great name, thanks for sharing, and have fun growing!
C
have been trying to grow a passion vine for a few yrs now- bad cuttings, bad seeds, got 3 or 4 cuttings last year and only 1 survived indoors over the winter to go outside this spring. now it is late October in Zone 6 and the thing is growing like mad- outgrew a 10′ stake last week and was heading for my neighbor’s yard…. I am afraid to leave it outside…. guess it will be back in the upstairs shower with plant lights for the winter. I bought it as a maypop however a master gardener friend of mine says the leaves are so big it looks like one of the “tropical: kinds…. ug…the more time I invest in this plant, the more concerned I am that it will die and I will never see the blooms 🙁 wish me luck.
Mia
Loved this post. 3 years ago we bought 5 run down acres and have been trying to knock them into shape ever since. Hubs is building me a greenhouse out of pallet racks & old windows (yeah-he’s THAT awesome!), also putting in compost bin & 1/2 acre fish pond! After that, raised bed garden. Already keep bees, so have lots of helping hands! God bless your garden, and thanks for the inspiration!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Mia, it sounds like you have a lot of great stuff in the works for your property, good luck with the transformation and keep us updated on how it progresses. Good luck!
Deanna C
Hi there fellow Deanna!
This morning I was just looking up how I could safely move a monarch cocoon from a not-very-safe location and came across your post. Not only did it help me but then I saw on the sidebar that you are also a Deanna, which is pretty rare. Then I see here in this About Page how you lived in Providence, RI for a bit, which is where I live now!
Anyways, just a lot of similaries which is currently blowing my mind. So I thought I would say hi. Hope you’re doing well over in California!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Deanna, so glad you found us and that really is funny some of the similarities there! Thanks for saying hi and hopefully everything in Providence is going well!
Mar Linda Perez
Hi,
I noticed you’re in Pismo Beach! I grew up in Santa Maria, love Pismo. Turning 60 next year, living in Northern Ca, kinda fell into homesteading. Spent three years hating not being normal…LOL, and am just now getting into canning and preserving. Feel like a sponge, just can’t learn enough, fast enough. Don’t know how to make a future out of it, but Im just starting to make things. Going to try your Bath Salts, Sourdough Pumpkin and Lip Balm. I wish you all the best! I’m a home body too, wish I would have learned all this at your age. Well, good luck and I’ll follow your progress. Maybe I’ll find the perfect spot too.
Sincerely,
Mar Linda
p.s. I love kittens, got one down on the farm.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Mar Linda, thanks for sharing your story and good luck on all of the exciting things you have planned! Glad you found us and have fun growing!
Richard Turner
Hi guys, love your site and have been following for a couple years. I was an environmental health specialist also for 33 years and retired from the US Public Health Service a few years ago. Raised beds and a greenhouse (to be erected this year) keeps us busy. Love the tips you provide. Keep it up! thanks much for doing all the work and sharing it with us.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Richard, thanks for reaching out and sharing your story! Congratulations on your retirement and we are glad to hear that gardening keeps you so busy, having a greenhouse should be a lot of fun as well. Thanks for following along and we appreciate your support, have fun growing!
Anitha Chetan
Would love to know more about homesteading.
Ditte Petitti
Hello, I just read your article on making cannabis oil. Thank you for all the great info!
Can the oil be vaped as well?
Thank you!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Ditte, thanks for the kind words. The cannabis oil is to be only used in topical or edible applications as it’s not suitable or safe to use in a vaporizer. Hope that helps and good luck!