50 Early Spring Vegetables
Ah, do you feel that? The sun shining down on your face and a brisk breeze in the air? Spring is coming and we're ready for it! Early spring in Northern America offers a variety of vegetables that thrive in cooler temperatures. Here are fifty early spring vegetables...
What Happens If You Spray Garlic On Your Plants
Garlic has a rich and delightful flavor. One clove can turn the blandest meal into a gourmet dinner. It also has several health benefits, and research suggests that it helps prevent conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders. Another awesome use...
How To Grow An Emergency Garden
Life is unpredictable; therefore, it is essential that you are always prepared for the worst. One of the most effective ways to prepare for an emergency is to ensure that you are self-sufficient and always have your own food source. An emergency garden is a lifeline...
25 Crops You Can Grow In Buckets All Year Round
You don’t need fields to farm. In fact, there are many of the best crops to grow in buckets that allow you to access fresh farm food no matter where you live. Container gardening has become popular as urban areas replace farming land with concrete. Even in an...
Cucamelon
Cucamelons, also known as, ‘mini watermelons,’ ‘mouse melons’ and ‘Mexican sour gherkins,’ have been gaining recognition of late because of their cute look and delightful taste. However, they are much more than an adorable, tasty fruit. Due to their high nutritional...
Square Foot Gardening 101
If you've been looking at various gardening techniques for small areas, you've probably run across the term Square Foot Gardening. Here, we'll explore the concept and consider the best ways to do it; and a couple of pitfalls to avoid. Let's get started. What is Square...
Read This Before Starting An Indoor Garden
Oh, the weather outside may be frightful and we're yearning for our beautiful greenery and our sunny days already! The thing is, many of us will turn to indoor garden for this time of the year. While some of us may have had success with indoor gardening, it can be...
Carrots
Amongst the many vegetables that thrive in a homesteader's garden are carrots. They are delicious and versatile, allowing you to make many satisfying dishes. Carrots come in several varieties including purple, yellow, red, and orange. They don’t take up much space in...
Pig In A Jar
Maybe you've just gotten a new canner or you're excited to see what your pressure cooker can do. I'm the same way when I get a new kitchen gadget: I just have to see what it's up for! Today, I'll be looking at canning pork. I've covered beef and chicken and it's time...
What The Amish Ate During The Great Depression
The Amish people were known for their resourcefulness and ability to make do with what they had. During the Great Depression, when many families struggled to put food on the table, the Amish found ways to stretch their resources and use unconventional ingredients to...
Haybox Cooking
Cooking can be an energy-intensive and time-consuming activity. Whether homesteading, or living off the grid, you always look for ways to save time and money. This article introduces a simple solution to that problem: haybox cooking. It is a cooking technique that is...
How To Make The Hoover Stew Of The Great Depression
Feeding a family in tough times can be a difficult task. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, people had to get creative to put food on the table. One of my favorite dishes from the Great Depression era is Hoover stew. Back then, people devised clever ways to...
How To Preserve Foods In Honey
Honey has been used in food preservation for centuries for its many microbial-fighting properties that keep food from spoiling. Many people believe that the high sugar content or high acidity in honey is the reason for its preservative properties. Sugar draws out...
23 Overlooked Survival Foods You Need To Add To Your Pantry
Most pantries have a variety of foods, and many of these are common. Why are some of these foods recommended for an emergency pantry? First off, they have a long shelf life. In addition, these foods offer convenience and nutrition. So, let’s look at 23 survival foods...
20 Ways To Preserve Eggs
Eggs are a relatively cheap and highly nutritious meal. They are also fresh foods that may be difficult to acquire in a crisis unless you happen to own a chicken. While eggs are usually not what we think of when discussing stockpiles, there are various ways to...
Strange Meals People Ate During The Great Depression
Mealtime is an often-unappreciated time that we take for granted. Today, food is plentiful and readily available on a whim. But can you imagine eating the same thing every day? Some people had to do just that during the Great Depression – and even when they weren’t...
What Looters Will Take First From Your Property
When public order breaks down due to events like government collapse, EMP strikes, natural disasters, or rebellion, looting often happens. Looting can start right away or take some time to begin. In any case, looters take advantage of the situation to get what they...
These Items Disappear First In A Crisis
Stockpiling survival items before a crisis will prevent you from being among the panicked hordes of the unprepared. Waiting in line to pay price-gouging amounts for both common everyday items and crucial supplies would not only be costly and time-consuming but also...
How To Communicate After The Grid Goes Down
We live in a connected world where it's easy to communicate with friends and family, even over long distances. However, when the grid goes down, our usual ways of staying in touch will disappear. This will create a major communication gap, which could be very...
$0 Alternatives to OTC Meds
You want to have a toolkit handy to treat everyday illnesses such as a sore throat, cough, cold, flu, headaches, skin irritations, and stomach bugs that come along from time to time, especially when you do not have access to your doctor or chemist. Fortunately, nature...
Do THIS To Extend The Life Of Your Batteries
We've all been there - your phone's battery dies in the middle of an important call, or your car refuses to start due to a dead battery. But what happens when you're in the middle of a crisis and you run out of electricity for your whole homestead because your...
How to Looter Proof Your Stockpile
When disasters strike, one of the most concerning issues often stems from those with ill intent. Looting and theft tend to become prevalent as societal structures break down, posing a significant risk to prepared individuals and groups. In today’s article, I will...
8 Things Our Grandparents Did Better Than Us
Our culture of convenience has caused many to undervalue self-sufficiency and hands-on skills. But rewind to your grandparents' generation who weathered the Great Depression and wars, resourcefulness wasn't a choice - it was key to survival. They didn't call...
Hiding Spots In Your House Where Looters Always Look First
When stockpiling supplies, it’s vitally important to hide as much of your stockpile as you can. Hiding spots in house become essential in these scenarios. If the grid goes down, desperate people may turn into thieves, raiders, and looters, stealing to survive. They’ll...
Why My Grandfather Buried a Coffee Can Under Every Fence Post
I was maybe ten years old the first time I saw my grandfather put a coffee can into a fence post hole. He didn't explain what he was doing. He just did it, tapped the post down on top and moved on to the next one. I remember thinking this was one of his weird habits,...
Turn Your Kitchen Scraps Into Medicine (It’s Easier Than You Think)
When you are living on a homestead, most kitchen scraps end up in the compost bin, or, even worse, straight in the trash can. But some of the scraps you throw away so carelessly can help you save some cash you would have otherwise spent on your pharmacy bill. For...
How to Make Garlic Cheese from Scratch: Spreads, Hard Cheese, Garlic Butter, and Homemade Garlic Cheese Bread
Store-bought garlic cheese is fine. Homemade garlic cheese is something else entirely. When you control every ingredient, you decide how much garlic goes in, which herbs you add, how long it ages, and what kind of milk you start with. The result is a product that is...
NEVER Throw Away These Items! (Do This Instead)
If you're anything like me, you've got a corner of the garage or barn where random stuff just piles up. Old jars, bent screws, a cracked garden hose, that washing machine drum you swore you'd do something with. Most people look at that pile and see junk. On a...
Valais Blacknose Sheep: The Complete Ownership Guide for Homesteaders
If you have spent any time in farming circles online, you have seen the photos. A round-faced sheep with a black nose, black knees, and black feet, covered in thick spiraling wool that makes it look more like a stuffed animal than livestock. The Valais Blacknose is,...
Easy Pruning Techniques for Flowering Shrubs
While on my self-sufficiency journey, I realized that I can use my yard as efficiently as possible and I decided that I will not just plant shrubs that look pretty, but plant shrubs that are functional and that offer me fruits I can use later. Blueberries,...
How To Keep Butter Fresh For 5+ Years
I found a jar of butter in my grandmother’s pantry six months after she passed away. The label said she’d canned it three years earlier. I nearly threw it out. My aunt stopped me. “Open it first.” The butter had separated, but after gently warming and stirring it, it...
Why Raising Rabbits Is the No. 1 Investment in 2026
Everything costs more than it used to, and you feel it every time you open your wallet. Groceries, utilities, gas, and the prescription refills that somehow cost more every single time. If you're running a homestead right now, you know it very well. I felt it too, and...
