The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

2 Comments | |    Last Updated: December 27, 2023

Three Homestead Deals for Black Friday 2023

I have a love/hate relationship with Black Friday. Being a consumer has never been my end goal. Sure, I buy things and yes, I even sell stuff.  But I’m more drawn to wide open prairies than crowded malls. I’d rather spend a day baking bread and riding horses than shopping for the latest styles. I’m more interested in stocking my long-term pantry than filling my house with random, trendy gadgets. Yet... while I avoid ...Continue Reading

5 Comments | |    Last Updated: November 1, 2023

The Best Garden Salsa

My tomato crop has been out of this world this year... I've had bigger yields, earlier ripening, and sweeter tomato fruit than any year prior. Maybe it's the rye cover crop I planted in the beds last fall... Or maybe it's sheer luck? But regardless, it's October and I'm still drowning in tomatoes. It's been an exercise in finding how many creative ways to eat and preserve tomatoes... We’ve been making ...Continue Reading

8 Comments | |    Last Updated: December 27, 2023

Old-Fashioned on Purpose is HERE!

85,000 words, 6 months writing the manuscript, 4+ months of pulling my hair out over edits, 2 photo shoots, 3 days recording the audio book, 56 podcast interviews discussing the content. This project has changed me forever. And today Old-Fashioned on Purpose FINALLY makes its way into the world! To celebrate, I want to share a few of my favorite quotes from the book: “The more I turned to these old-fashioned practices, the ...Continue Reading

19 Comments | |    Last Updated: December 27, 2023

The Best Canning Lids? A Review

My pile of empty jars is growing... The larder is emptying... It can only mean one thing: Canning season is right around the corner. As the tomatoes ripen and the cucumbers grow, it's wise to take a quick inventory of your canning supplies. (Because there's nothing worse than being mid-canning project, only to realize you're missing jars or lids!) I've had a lot of questions about canning lids lately. After the Great Lid ...Continue Reading

3 Comments | |    Last Updated: May 7, 2025

Top 10 Tips for Building a Chicken Tractor

I've become a huge fan of chicken tractors in recent years. A few years ago, I shared about how I've been changing my relationship with our chickens on the homestead. I've been shifting my viewpoint from seeing chickens as a chore and instead thinking about various ways to use the natural inclinations of a chicken to minimize our work load. One of the ways to use a chicken to minimize the work on a homestead is to use them as part ...Continue Reading

3 Comments | |    Last Updated: July 3, 2023

The Best Garden Trio for Building Healthy Soil

Stillness. As I sat down to write this, I was trying to think of a word to sum up the hours I spent in my greenhouse and garden over the weekend. That was all that came to mind. No grand revelations. No long-winded observations. Just blissful quiet. A peaceful, settled brain. It’s taken me a long time to get to this point with my garden. In years past, my growing seasons were defined by stress. Overwhelm. Never feeling ...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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