If you are like many homesteaders, a dairy animal is often a long-awaited addition to the farm. After all, your own milk made from fresh grass and sunshine can help meet the protein needs of the entire homestead. This is why I consider my cows the queens of the homestead! Growing up, I never considered…
Canning is a great way to produce quality convenience food right at home. Whether in an apartment or on a large homestead, preserving your food at home ensures only the best quality ingredients enter your pantry. While making homemade meals can be time-consuming, using home-preserved canned goods can make meal prep easier! Canning kidney beans…
When you begin your home food preservation journey, you may find yourself baffled by the many types of salt. Canning salt vs table salt, rock salt, pickling salt, and sea salt are just a few of the varieties you may encounter. How does one choose which is best? While the choices may seem overwhelming, let’s…
Making homemade fruit leather in a dehydrator might seem a bit intimidating, but it’s simpler than you think! This healthy snack uses only a handful of ingredients. The best part is knowing that your homemade fruit roll ups are free from preservatives, excess sugar, and artificial dyes! While there are several methods of drying the…
Being good stewards of the land and our resources is an important part of our off-grid lifestyle. As an avid hunter, Philip works hard to provide meat for our family each year. Before our move to the homestead, we were limited not only by space of what we could transport for processing but also limited…
Wild game is a great way to add high quality meat to our diet. Philip is an avid hunter, who dedicates himself to providing our family with plenty of venison to last the entire year. By definition, venison refers to the meat of all antlered animals: including deer, moose, caribou, antelope, and elk. However here…
As you begin your home canning journey it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the necessary equipment and canning jargon. Not to mention, so many home cooks like gadgets! It’s hard to tell what equipment you really need, what will make your job easier, and what is simply extra. Whether you are looking at ways to…
Keeping quality pantry staples on hand makes preparing homemade meals from scratch at home so much easier. While the grocery store is full of convenience food items that make home cooking fast, these prepared foods contain preservatives or ingredients that you may find questionable. Not to mention, the cost of convenience foods adds up. Pressure…
As a new chicken owner, one of the most exciting moments is when you find the very first farm-fresh eggs in your backyard chicken coop! If you live in the United States, instinctually you will likely want to wash the eggs and put them in the refrigerator. In the US, we typically encounter washed, store-bought…
There is nothing better than soft butter melting into a hot biscuit. The creamy butter spreads smoothly over the biscuit and melts evenly over the entire biscuit. We’ve been spoiled on spreadable margarine, that spreads smoothly every time. If you are lucky enough to live in a climate that allows for keeping a butter dish…
