Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe (with Pasture-Raised Organic A2/A2 Milk Powder)

Living in the cold North means we’re no strangers to a steaming cup of hot cocoa! Shoveling snow, tending the animals in frigid weather, chipping ice off the sidewalks… all deserves hot chocolate! What do you call it– hot chocolate or hot cocoa? There’s probably a technical difference, but I use the terms interchangeably! I love hot cocoa, but I don’t like most packaged mixes …

Cucumber Lemonade Sweetened with Honey

This Cucumber Lemonade is summertime in a glass! It’s the perfect refreshment to cool down with after a long day spent in the garden or doing outdoor chores in the hot sun. Trust me, we have a lot of those around here! It’s incredibly refreshing. Even Karl likes it, and he doesn’t especially care for cucumber, or anyone else in the cucurbit family for that …

Maple Bourbon Wassail Recipe + How to Wassail an Orchard

Wassailing- you did what?! This is something I think is so cool. And something that also makes me feel like a huge dork, if I’m being perfectly honest. At least the Maple Bourbon Wassail recipe turned out AWESOME! There are two parts to this: the act of Wassailing, and the drink Wassail. Wassailing is a medieval Christmastide ritual that used to be (and actually still …

How to Make Fire Cider (Recipe + How to Use)

It doesn’t happen often, but when I get the sniffles I turn into a big whiney baby. I’m useless. No pushing through and carrying on with the day here, nope. I’m in bed, on the couch, taking it easy- and almost always with a pile of used tissues on the floor… yes mom, I still do that! You tried hard to break the habit, but …

Homemade Maple Cream Soda

For some reason I keep picturing a group of big burly men- wearing red flannel shirts and dark denim jeans held up by suspenders, and all sporting the type of beard that birds try to nest in… returning from a day filled with chopping wood in the dense and misty old-growth forrest, they sit around a crackling fire eating spit-roasted pork and drinking out of …

Wild Berry & Honey Mojitos

I planted two little mint plants last year, in a crappy spot with poor soil and partial sun, hoping that they would spread and hide an ugly rock foundation wall on our house. I watched and watched this spring, and was ultimately disappointed that there was nothing coming up where I planted them the year before. Until one day I was walking by and spotted …