Homegrown & Homemade
Old-Fashioned. Homemade. Duck Fat. Potato. Need I say more? You don’t have to use duck fat; lard or olive oil with also give you incredible results! We’re partial to duck fat here on the homestead, plus- duck fat was made for potatoes… What’s So Great About Homemade Baked Potato Chips? They are thick-cut and crispy, covered in a simple spice and salt blend, and baked in the oven …
Wondering how to repair and paint old, used bee equipment? This is for you! One thing at the top of our spring to-do list was a beehive overhaul. My dad raised bees when I was young, so we were lucky to inherit a lot of his old equipment, including some hive boxes that needed a lot of attention. For the past 15+ years, these hive boxes …
(gluten-free, grain-free, paleo, easily dairy-free) No live chickens were actually smothered in the making of this blog post. I don’t know if it’s because spring is almost here and our chicks will arrive soon, or because our ducks finally started laying eggs– but I just can’t stop making (bad) fowl-related jokes. Chicken is the quintessential homesteader’s meat. You can raise chickens just about anywhere, you …
What we mean by “protect yourself” is: Make a good investment. Know what you are getting yourself into. Prepare so that there are no surprises down the road. Get exactly what you want from your dream property, farm, or homestead. We bought our first house this past October. The perfect country property with outbuildings, acreage, and an old farmhouse. It took us over three years of …
Preserving the harvest really starts in spring time with garden planning. Which is what I am in the thick of right now! Roma style and paste tomatoes are a big part of our fall harvest every year. We can them, freeze them, eat our weight in them fresh, and even dehydrate them. Making tomato leather was a new tomato preservation method that I tried last …
First of all, you should know that this story ends happily! This information is for all you first-time duck owners, wondering just what temperature your flock can withstand, and not wanting to do any duck survivability studies in your own backyard. We were in the same position just a few short months ago… We acquired five Peking-Ancona ducks in November 2013. Neither of us had …
You’ve heard “busy as a bee;” you’ve probably even said it! But do you know how busy that really is? We will be first time bee-owners in just a few short weeks. I helped my dad raise bees when I was younger, but this is the first time I will be the head-beekeeper. The queen bee, if you will. I always knew that bees were pretty cool, …
(gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free, paleo-friendly) How’s that for a title? Homemade is always better, right? Well, I can think of just a few things that I actually prefer store-bought, and for a long time taco seasoning was one of them. Maybe it’s because I grew up on taco meat from a packet, or maybe I just loved the saltiness and the velvety, luxurious-textured meat …
We moved into our old farmhouse just four short months ago, and from day one it has just felt right being here. It suits us so well. (It should- we searched for three years before finding this place!) Our house was built sometime in the 1880s, but the couple who lived here for the past twenty years updated everything while maintaining a lot of the …
(gluten-free, grain-free, paleo, vegetarian, easily dairy-free and vegan) Is there anything better than a warm fruit cobbler? Not really… But this recipe, by definition, is not a cobbler. It is not a crisp, a betty, or a crumble. And definitely not a pandowdy. Or a clafouti. I can’t even say clafouti… This is simply fruit, with a little added spice and honey, that is baked in …
