Snow-Covered Herb Garden In the foreground is our culinary and medicinal garden. In the background is the food forest on terrace. We are excited about adding many different medicinal herbs this year to our established garden: yarrow, chaste tree, calendula and plantain just to name a few. In the food forest we will adding more […]
Gardening
Starter Book on Herbs
Medical care, even on a small scale, is something no household can avoid. Knowing how to care for your family with herbs you have on hand is a skill that will lead to great self-reliance. I do believe that western medical care has a vital place, life-saving care is their specialty and they are great […]
Podcast Episode 125 – Blake Akers – Agritrue
On today’s program we interview Blake Akers, one of the partners, designers and promoters of Agritrue, which is a private alternative food Certification to USDA Organic Certification. Blake explains what Agritrue is and what it is trying to accomplish. Agritrue is a community policed, beyond organic food certification and labeling program. He talks about the […]
Podcast Episode 124 – What is the Prepared Homestead
On today’s program, Monica and I discuss the purpose of The Prepared Homestead. We talk about several aspects of our operation and what they mean. We discuss what preparedness means and our approach to the concept. We talk about what it means to homestead. A lot of these terms have a wide array of meaning […]
Podcast Episode 123 – Growing Food Simply
On today’s podcast Monica and I discuss some considerations for growing food without getting complicated or spending a lot of time working on the property. Set good goals – most people either don’t set goals at all or they say say, “I want to live off the land.” That’s a dream or a vision without […]
Putting Your Gardens to Bed
This is a beautiful time of year – leaves falling to the ground in colors of orange, red, and yellow. Birds and other little critters running around doing their last minute preparations for winter, and life begins to slow down just a little. One of the main activities we’ve been engaged in on the homestead […]
Taming Your Tomatoes
We have an abundance of tomatoes, and I mean abundance. This was by design. If there is anything we use on a continual basis (almost daily) it’s tomatoes. I use them in stews, soups, sauces, casseroles, and so on. A big goal this year was to try to preserve enough tomatoes so I wouldn’t have […]
Sun Dried Tomatoes in the Sun Oven (day 5)
We are finally in the tomato harvest season and holy cow, we have a lot of tomatoes. We are going to be working full time to get these preserved in the coming weeks. One benefit of having a Sun Oven is the ability to utilize it as a dehydrator when our Excalibur is occupied. The […]
The What and How of Hydrosols
Products I use and recommend: Copper Distiller and Hydrosol Book Hydrosols used to be quite a popular item, even more than essential oils, if you can believe it! You’ve probably heard of rose water, lilac water, lavender water; these are all hydrosols (if done through […]
Canning Season and the Rocket Stove
So, we’ve lived on our homestead for two years now. This year we are actually producing a lot more food than last year and that means one thing – canning, and lots of it. Normally I would attempt to freeze some things instead because, let’s face it, it’s just easier! However, we recently butchered our […]
