The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

5 Comments | |    Last Updated: July 23, 2024

How to Cook for a Crowd (Without Losing Your Mind)

It would appear that feeding people is my destiny. From dinner parties at the homestead, to branding calves, to owning the soda fountain, to hosting our annual horsemanship clinics, to helping with group functions in Chugwater, I'm continually in the kitchen. The funniest part? Once upon a time, cooking for a lot of people threw me into an absolute tizzy. Now, I regularly feed crowds of 20+ plus without blinking. So what ...Continue Reading

6 Comments | |    Last Updated: July 17, 2024

Haymaker’s Punch Recipe

I feel like I've been living in an alternate universe for the last 9 days. And it's been glorious. We just wrapped up our annual horsemanship clinic with clinician Cal Middleton and it was a whirlwind of colt starting, roping practice, 5am gathers, and people camped out at our homestead. I loved every minute of it. It was also blazing hot and since we were outside or horseback nearly all day, we chugged water like ...Continue Reading

5 Comments | |    Last Updated: July 8, 2024

If the Internet Never Existed…

"Is social media even worth it these days?"  The question came during a conversation at a recent homestead event. Naturally, I replied with a very helpful, "Eh... well... it depends." Probably not the answer you'd expect from someone who has made a living online for the last 10+ years. But I'm wrestling with the Internet lately. The online world feels different these days. Maybe you've felt it too? People are ...Continue Reading

Leave a Comment | |    Last Updated: June 25, 2024

How to Make 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

It's the ultimate in home baking—the holy grail, the perfect standard.... I'm talking about 100% whole wheat sourdough bread, of course. This is the kind of bread Ma Ingalls would have made. It sustained the pioneers. It's the quintessential old-fashioned loaf. Yet, it can feel stupidly hard to replicate in our modern home kitchens. In fact, whole grain sourdough bread stumped me for years, so much so that I gave up on it completely ...Continue Reading

6 Comments | |    Last Updated: May 28, 2024

The Best Homemade Queso Recipe (Easy Mexican Cheese Dip)

I'm about to say something heretical. Prepare your hearts. Sometimes the homemade versions of certain foods aren't as tasty as the industrial, processed versions. There. I said it. Now of course... that's not ALWAYS the case. And homemade versions are certainly healthier.  (And yes, we can train our palates over time, etc, etc, etc....) But industrial food manufactures sink MILLIONS into making their products ...Continue Reading

10 Comments | |    Last Updated: May 15, 2024

The Best Dual-Purpose Chicken Breeds

How can we close our chicken loop? It's a question that's been rattling around in my brain since a long-ago podcast conversation with Kate from Venison for Dinner. In that episode, we talked about reducing outside inputs in our home food production. And I've been working towards it in small ways for a while by: Saving more seeds Shuttling volunteer seedlings around the homestead to eliminate buying certain plants Using ...Continue Reading

Nice to Meet You

I’m Jill. I’ve never been very good at following prescribed paths.

For the last 15 years, that instinct has led me through homesteading, entrepreneurship, and creating a life my younger self could have only dreamed of.

These days, I’m less interested in living the perfect "old-fashioned life" and more interested in knowing which ideas are worth carrying forward. The first half of this story was about building a homestead. The next part is about building a life that actually fits.
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