The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

Leave a Comment | |    Last Updated: October 21, 2026

How to Make From-Scratch Cooking Easier with Flexible Recipes

You Don't Need Another Cookbook (You Need a Better Way to Cook From Scratch) You probably don’t need another cookbook. There. I said it. Most of us already have plenty. Whenever I’m thrift shopping (which is a LOT these days) I’m struck by the sheer volume of cookbooks for sale. Sometimes entire boxes of them. Often barely used.(And always a copious number of those Taste of Home compilation volumes. Remember those??) It's not ...Continue Reading

Leave a Comment | |    Last Updated: September 29, 2026

I’ve Been Too Chill About This

I am about to say something I’ve never said before: I have been too chill. Which is… not generally a problem I have. But between the major life changes, the new house, the soda fountain, kids, and 47 other things happening at any given moment, launching my new cookbook has taken a backseat. However, now pub day (October 6th!) is staring me in the face, and I realized: I have been way too casual about something I am ...Continue Reading

2 Comments | |    Last Updated: September 15, 2026

Homemade Chicken Nuggets (Easy Baked Recipe)

As I’ve matured in my cooking journey, I’ve developed some hard boundaries. I don't do fussy. I don't do tedious. And if I can't make it on a weeknight with minimal brainpower, it's probably not gonna happen. Surprisingly, these homemade chicken nuggets pass the test-- I just had to modify the typical technique a little. They’re made with simple pantry ingredients, baked instead of fried, and then breaded with a highly sophisticated ...Continue Reading

Leave a Comment | |    Last Updated: September 2, 2026

Homemade Vegetable Bouillon Powder Recipe

I used to think food preservation had to be big. Dozens of jars. Marathon canning days. Bushels upon bushels. But there’s nothing like having the rug pulled out from under you (plus an epically horrible garden year) to give you a different perspective. Little counts, too. Even though my garden is beyond dead, I still have random vegetables hanging around from my Azure box and various grocery purchases. My Mealcraft frameworks have ...Continue Reading

14 Comments | |    Last Updated: September 3, 2026

I’m Pickling One Beet

I have a beet. A single, solitary beet. I didn’t grow this beet. (Garden apocalypse this year, remember?) I got it in a produce box from Azure Standard. Because that’s what you do when your ground is poisoned and barren. (Okay, okay. I’ll stop being so dramatic about it.) Anyway. There was a time when August meant vegetables on every flat surface of my house. Tomatoes spilling out of bowls. Monster zucchini. Peppers ...Continue Reading

6 Comments | |    Last Updated: August 12, 2026

When the Ground Can No Longer Feed Us

What are we sacrificing in our race towards progress? It is a horribly helpless feeling to own land and realize you may not be able to grow food on it. As I’ve been sorting through my recent garden woes, my brain, doing what brains do, has jumped to the worst-case scenario several times: What if I can never grow a garden here? I usually spiral over that for a while before my rational side takes over and reminds me that ...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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