Homegrown & Homemade
Books are such a great gift, especially for the modern-day homesteader. With knowledge not being passed down like it used to, we have to get information from somewhere. And being the simple-life, back-to-your-roots, living-close-to-the-land type… we certainly all appreciate a real book in our hands! Click on any book cover for more information! General Homesteading Books for the homesteader of farmer about old-fashioned skills, how …
A great way to preserve the summer’s bounty is by turning into shelf-stable, ready-to-use vegetable stock powder! Also perfect for using up past-their-prime vegetables in the back of the fridge. This method doesn’t require a dehydrator and is simple and easy to do! Although you can make a larger quantity faster with a dehydrator —> I love this one dearly! In the instructions I have outline …
There are only a few things that Karl won’t eat- and much to my disappointment, one of those is things is winter squash. He acts like I’m offending him at even the mention of putting some on his plate. It’s become kind of a joke around the homestead now- where if he asks what’s for dinner I’ll often declare, “just squash.” And then a wave of …
Not only do they provide us with meat and eggs, but chickens are pure homestead entertainment! Spending even a few minutes out in the fresh air and sunshine with these birds will always put a smile on my face. I love just watching them- and actually, keeping an astute eye on them is part fun and part necessity. Knowing their normal behavior (and they’re all different!) is …
I am quickly becoming known as The Kale Lady. I hand out big bunches to family and friends, and make anyone who tours our garden eat a piece, especially if they’ve never had it before, and extra-especially if they try to tell me they don’t like it. I love cooking with it and try to put it in as many dishes as possible, much to …
A word with many different definitions: homestead. Simply put, to us it means a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It means growing, raising, and producing as much as we can for our own needs. But why? Oh why would someone want to live like this? We’ve asked ourselves this question on more than one occasion… like when we’re lugging buckets of water through two feet of snow and thirty below zero …
This is like autumn in a jar. It’s tart and tangy but sweet, complex and deep with notes of molasses and caramelized sugar. And there’s only one ingredient! Karl and I have dreams of pressing cider from our own apples from our antique apple trees (someday… just have to wait for them to grow) and I think this is a GREAT way to preserve the goodness …
I do it every year. I have all these varieties of cherry tomatoes that I love, just love and have to plant. “Well, I only really need one of each plant, but I’d better make it two so that I can give some away to friends and family. If I want two plants, I’d better start four seeds just to be on the safe side.” …
When we moved to our homestead a couple years ago, one of the first things we noticed was that over the years the resident squirrels had most graciously planted a black walnut grove in the yard. The entire yard. The trees would have to come down because they were taking up our outdoor living space. We hated the idea of having to cut down those little …
If necessity is the mother of invention, a trunk-load of blueberries is the mother of this blog post. We were fortunate enough to be invited to pick til our heart’s content at a local blueberry orchard. Located on tree-lined rolling hills in the countryside, on a perfect dewy morning- we picked over 70 pounds of berries in a couple hours. And then we got home, …
