The #1 Rule to Make Your Woodstove Use Less Wood
If you heat with wood, you know how much wood goes into keeping the stove fed. You’re paying for every log, and in the end you might end up with no...
The “Lazy Homestead” Setup (From Start to Finish)
I want to start this article by telling you that this is not about being lazy. This is about being efficient and using your time in better ways. ...
What is a Public Cannery – Visit One ASAP
Canning is by far one of the staples when it comes to homesteading. Let’s say you have a beautiful garden and you had a great harvest this year....
How to Build a Pioneer Potato Clamp
The root cellar isn't your only option! Everybody talks about root cellars. And I get it, because a good root cellar is a wonderful thing to have...
Always Drown Your Fresh Butter in Saltwater!
A couple of years back, a farmer in Donegal, Ireland, was cutting into a patch of bog and hit something solid. Guess what it was? He found butter. ...
Why You Should Pack Your Apples in Sawdust
This is a problem that’s pretty common on most homesteads in the fall. It goes like this: you pick more apples than you were expecting, then your...
The Best Pumpkin Pie You’ll Ever Eat!
The Pie I Make Every Halloween and Thanksgiving! There are two days a year when my kitchen smells like baked pumpkin, and those two days are...
7 Garden Problems Baking Soda Solves Instantly
You already know what baking soda does in the kitchen. It lifts your biscuits and it takes the smell out of the fridge, and if you've ever scorched...
7 Old-School Homesteading Hacks That Actually Waste Money
Every winter, I used to carry a bucket of ash out of the woodstove and dump it on the garden. My grandmother did it, my mother did it, and I did it...
How to Build a 3-Day Autonomous Chicken Coop
Taking care of a homestead is not an easy job for sure. But something no one prepared me for is how demanding my chickens are. When you think about...
12 Things You Should Never (Ever!) Store in Your Shed
The day you put up a shed feels great. All of a sudden, you have a place for the stuff that's been living in your kitchen corner, the hallway, the...
Head Cheese: How I Turn a Hog’s Head Into a Sliceable Homestead Staple
The first time someone handed me a hog's head on butchering day, I honestly did not know what to do with it. It sat in a cooler on the porch while I...
How to Actually Make $50k/Year on a Quarter Acre
I wouldn’t call myself a businesswoman at all, but from time to time, while I’m looking at my garden, a single thing comes to my mind: If a quarter...
The Free Seed Program Most Americans Have No Idea About
Today I want to share with you something I find really exciting. This is the kind of news any homesteader and gardener would go crazy about. Did you...
Chicken Treats – What to Feed, What to Avoid, and 7 Easy DIY Treats From the Homestead
Walk out to the run with a bowl in your hand and watch what happens. Every hen in the yard comes sprinting, wings out, like you are carrying gold....
2027 Homestead Upgrades to Secure Your Water, Power, and Food
Last year my homestead went two days without power. A storm came through, a line went down somewhere up the road, and that was that. That was the...
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies – A From-Scratch Homestead Recipe With a DIY Flour Blend
A good chocolate chip cookie is one of those small comforts every kitchen should be able to turn out, even when someone at the table cannot eat...
Worm Castings – How I Use This Homestead Black Gold in Beds, Pots, and Seed Trays
The first time I harvested a worm bin, I had a bucket of dark, crumbly castings and no real plan for them. I dumped most of it around one tomato...
Why Buying Honey in Bulk is the Ultimate Homesteading Move
Yesterday, I was standing in the pantry trying to remember what I had gone in there for when I noticed a jar sitting on the shelf. I picked it up...
Airtight Container for Seed Storage: How I Keep My Seeds Alive for Years
The first time I lost a whole year of saved seed, it was not to mice or mold I could see. It was a shoebox of paper envelopes on a shelf in a...
7 Amish Greenhouse Hacks That Will Save You Money
Something I've noticed over the years is that when homesteaders get stuck on a problem, sooner or later somebody starts looking at how the Amish do...
How to Turn Your Backyard Into a Nature Discovery Area for Kids
A backyard doesn't need to be large, perfectly landscaped, or filled with expensive equipment to become an exciting place for children. Even a...
Canning Jalapeños: Safe, Tested Ways to Preserve Your Pepper Harvest
Every August, my jalapeño plants go from a handful of peppers a week to more than I can give away. The neighbors start avoiding eye contact when...
Why Homesteaders Are Hanging Garlic in Their Chicken Coops
Each time I visited a fellow homesteader, I started noticing something: they all had garlic in their chicken coops. I also braid garlic and keep it...
Outdoor Electric Cooker: Why I Moved My Summer Cooking Outside
Every July, my kitchen turns into a sauna. Between canning tomatoes, simmering beans, and roasting whatever the garden throws at me, the stove runs...
7 “Must-Have” Kitchen Tools That Are a Waste of Money
If you cook from scratch or put up jars of what comes out of the garden, you know how this goes. There’s always a new and miraculous kitchen gadget...
Dehydrated Lemon: How I Dry, Store, and Use Lemons All Year
There's a point every winter when the lemons pile up faster than I can use them. A neighbor drops off a grocery bag full from her tree, the store...
Planting a Bottle Brush Tree: How I Get Mine in the Ground and Blooming
The first time I saw a bottle brush tree in full bloom, I honestly thought someone had wired red pipe cleaners to the branches. Then a hummingbird...
60 Ways to Save Money When Everything Gets More Expesive
Few people aren’t feeling the pinch of rising costs. More and more, the money that helped us make it through the month isn’t enough. The result is...
Soil Exam – How to Test Your Garden Soil and Actually Understand the Results
For years I fed my garden the way most people do, a bag of all-purpose fertilizer every spring and a hope that it was the right call. Some crops...
Why Burying Carrots in Sand Is the Best Thing You Can Do This Fall
You pull a good crop of carrots in the fall, more than you could eat in a month, and then you ask yourself: What can I do with all of them? Doing...
When Are Onions Ready to Harvest? How to Read the Signs and Save Your Crop
Every summer I get the same question from neighbors leaning over the garden fence: "Are those onions done yet?" It is a fair question, because...
