About Jill Winger

Jill is a homesteading wife and mama with a passion for encouraging others to return to their roots, regardless of where they may live. She is the author of Your Custom Homestead, a 21-day guide to awakening a fresh vision of homesteading in our generation. When she's not blogging, you'll find her on her windy homestead, riding horses, milking her cow, trying to make things grow, and playing with essential oils.
You can also keep up with her on Facebook and Google +
To God be the glory...

Homestead Barn Hop #112

May 20, 2013 By

“Cultivating the Homestead Community”

It’s been a productive week! Hubby took the week off and we spent it doing the final teardown of a project that we’ve been working on for 5 years. Our property was a pheasant farm when we purchased it, and it was full of pens made of logs and chicken wire. Unfortunately, the pens were falling apart and needed to be taken down, which has been a perpetual project for the last 5 years.

I’m thrilled to say that I rolled my last piece of chicken wire this past week, and we are getting very close to being able to start construction of a new corral for the cows and horses… Now I just need to find some time to plant my garden! ;)

What happened on your homestead this week? Ready to share those links?

This hop is hosted by The Prairie Homestead and New Life on a Homestead.

Did you share any homesteading related posts on your blog this week? If so, we’d love to have you link up below! Even if you don’t have a blog, we always welcome your comments!

Some Simple Guidelines:

1. Please remember that the Homestead Barn Hop is meant to be a place to share homesteading related encouragement and inspiring ideas specfically related to homesteading. In an effort to keep our weekly round-up clutter free, links which are not specifically homestead related, and any promotions such as giveaways, contests, carnivals, etc, will be deleted in order to maintain the integrity of the Barn Hop.

2. Please remember this is a family-friendly link up. Any pictures or posts linked to the hop which aren’t appropriate for our children to view or read will also be deleted immediately. We’re pretty conservative, so we ask that you use good judgment and err on the side of caution.… [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: The Homestead Barn Hop 50 Comments

How to Make Yogurt in a Mason Jar

May 17, 2013 By

how to make yogurt

There are lots of reasons to make your own yogurt. But the most important?

It’ll make you feel like a homesteading rockstar.

Oh yeah.

Okay… so maybe that isn’t the *most* important reason, but it sure is fun.

And besides the rockstar-thing, homemade yogurt is super nutritious (hello probiotic-goodness without all the flavorings and additives…) and pretty darn frugal, too.

There are a million-and-one ways to make yogurt, and everyone seems to have their favorite method–Crockpot, yogurt maker, etc

I’ve tried a bunch of different methods, but I’ve settled on the one I’m sharing today. It’s the simplest one I’ve found (in my opinion), and I like that I don’t have to wash out my big ol’ stockpot or Crockpot when I’m done.

I like to make a gallon of yogurt (4 quarts) at a time since it stores for a long, long time without going bad. If you don’t want to make quite that much, the recipe can easily be halved or quartered.

How to Make Yogurt in Mason Jars

Supplies:

  • Large stockpot
  • Four quart-sized glass canning jars with lids
  • A thermometer (optional- see note below)
  • A small cooler

Ingredients:

  • 1 gallon milk* (see note below)
  • 8 Tablespoons of plain yogurt containing live, active cultures

Instructions:

Fill all four jars with milk, leaving a little room at the top– (around 2 inches). If you don’t have canning jars, you can use other repurposed glass jars instead. (It has to be glass- no plastic allowed!)

how to make homemade yogurt

Place all four jars in the stockpot, and fill the pot with water. I usually shut it off when the water is about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the jars. If you are concerned about the jars rattling and breaking, you can place a small dishrag in the bottom of the pot before you set the jars inside.… [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Real Food Recipes & Tutorials 48 Comments

20 Ways to Use Sour Raw Milk

May 15, 2013 By

sour milk clabber

I wasn’t very far into my real food journey the first time I heard the term “clabber.”

My initial thought was, “What the heck is that?” So I promptly headed to Google to check it out.

It’s amazing how something that was so common a hundred years ago is so unheard of today…

Clabber is basically thickened, sour, raw milk. Part of the reason that we don’t use the term anymore is because store-bought, pasteurized milk doesn’t clabber. It just putrefies and turns nasty. So, clabber is definitely an old-fashioned concept for most folks.

If the word sounds familiar to you, it might be because it’s the name of a popular brand of baking powder. Back in the day, women would keep clabbered milk as a natural leavening agent for baked goods. Clabber is acidic, like buttermilk, so it reacts with baking soda to produce fluffy cakes and quick breads.

However, once baking powder was introduced, clabber wasn’t as necessary. But one manufacturer of baking powder, Hulman & Company, chose to name their product Clabber Baking Powder (Clabber Girl) to help consumers understand how to use it.

So there is your history lesson for the day. ;)

As you know, I’m a big fan of raw milk for many reasons, but I especially love the fact that it doesn’t go “bad” like pasteurized milk does. Once raw milk sours, it can still be used for a whole bunch of different things, unlike the cooked stuff which must be thrown out once it turns sour.

Raw milk goes through varying stages as it sours. It starts off by slowly decreasing in sweetness each day it sits in the fridge, and if you leave it long enough, it will eventually separate into curds and whey.

Soured raw milk will maintain a “pleasantly” sour taste and smell.… [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Real Food Recipes & Tutorials 21 Comments

Homestead Barn Hop #111

May 13, 2013 By

“Cultivating the Homestead Community”

Spring has sprung in our corner of Wyoming! The Prairie Kids and I enjoyed a wonderful week outside doing yard clean up and refinishing an old table. I planted a few things in my new hugelkultur bed, and Prairie Girl discovered worms for the first time, much to her delight. I also worked on my raspberry bed and raked up all the bark so I could put down a layer of newspaper underneath. I’m *hoping* that helps with weed control this year… we shall see!

What happened on your homestead this week? Ready to share those links?

This hop is hosted by The Prairie Homestead and New Life on a Homestead.

Did you share any homesteading related posts on your blog this week? If so, we’d love to have you link up below! Even if you don’t have a blog, we always welcome your comments!

Some Simple Guidelines:

1. Please remember that the Homestead Barn Hop is meant to be a place to share homesteading related encouragement and inspiring ideas specfically related to homesteading. In an effort to keep our weekly round-up clutter free, links which are not specifically homestead related, and any promotions such as giveaways, contests, carnivals, etc, will be deleted in order to maintain the integrity of the Barn Hop.

2. Please remember this is a family-friendly link up. Any pictures or posts linked to the hop which aren’t appropriate for our children to view or read will also be deleted immediately. We’re pretty conservative, so we ask that you use good judgment and err on the side of caution.

3. Make sure that you link to your Barn Hop post, not your blog’s main page, so your guests won’t have any trouble finding your great tips.

4. Please link back to the Homestead Barn Hop in the post that you share!… [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: The Homestead Barn Hop 40 Comments
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