David, here are my suggestions. I apologize in advance in case they aren't very glamorous.
Start gardening where you are. Wherever you are. Even if it's just some salad mix and herbs in a couple of buckets on your back porch. It's incredibly satisfying to grow your own food, even just a little, and it will provide you with invaluable experience.
Here's some info from the state Extension Service -
http://gardening.ces.ncsu.edu/gardening-2/how-to/ - the Extension Service is a taxpayer funded repository of agricultural knowledge and ongoing research. They're an excellent resource to tap into. At the county level you can call them up and pester the Master Gardeners with gardening related questions. Good folks.
There's also the fabulous permaculture gardening series by Will Hooker out of NCSU. I think there's links on this website to his entire semester of lectures. Some lectures are slower than others, but personally I watched them all this winter and found them informative. So I recommend seeking those out. What I found particularly interesting were the field trips that he took the students on. There's some really amazing stuff going on in NC.
Also the super-boring stuff: homesteading is a lot of skills. I recommend having some skills before throwing yourself out into the wilderness, hence to start gardening now. I do recommend dealing with any debt you may have, and start using those smarts to save up money for land. Start thinking about how you're going to support yourself while homesteading. Can you bring your job with you / telecommute? Then you'll want to be sure than the land you pick has good internet access (oh and check this if you haven't -
http://www.rsttv.com/fiber - big changes coming to NC soon on this front!!). If you can't bring your job with you, then can you find a new one? It is hard as hell to make a homestead financially solvent, to grow enough of something that you can sell it at enough of a profit to pay the bills. I'm not trying to discourage you, just don't want to sugarcoat it. Some people do the WWOOFing thing to gain skills, but it's tricky, you're only going to learn whatever you hosts happen to know. Another option is to become a farm hand, where you actually get paid for your labor. Not great pay, but pay nonetheless. Both of these will give you experience that will give you an idea of what you might want to do - and more importantly what NOT do - on your own land/setup.
Hope this helps and good luck.
