The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

17 Comments | |    Last Updated: April 1, 2024

How to Make Dehydrated Vegetable Powders

There has been a dehydrator in my home for years, but until recently it sat quietly on a shelf collecting dust. Canning has always been my go-to vegetable preservation method, but lately, I have been in love with dehydrating my food and even MORE obsessed with making homemade dehydrated vegetable powders. Dehydrating vegetables and fruits isn’t difficult or a new form of food storage. In fact, it was one of the first forms of ...Continue Reading

4 Comments | |    Last Updated: November 18, 2021

Homemade Sourdough Donuts

Confession: baking with sourdough hasn't always been easy for me. But I loved the challenge and I kept at it until I found my sourdough rhythm.  I am not ashamed to admit that sourdough and I started out with more of a love-hate relationship. We are talking bricks instead of loaves and constantly bringing a sourdough starter back from the brink of death (due to my neglect...), and it took a lot of time and practice to really ...Continue Reading

Leave a Comment | |    Last Updated: November 8, 2021

How to Create and Maintain Pasture Land

  Raising our own grass-fed beef herd, having horses, and owning other grazing animals has really brought to light the importance of having a well-maintained pasture on our homestead. These days, it seems like more and more folks are choosing the homesteading life as a way to become more self-sustaining and also to become producers and not consumers. And one of the keys to becoming more self-sustaining is to create and maintain ...Continue Reading

29 Comments | |    Last Updated: September 17, 2026

How to Organize Your Homestead with a Planner

  One of the biggest struggles for Modern Homesteaders is figuring out good time-management strategies. One of the questions that I get frequently asked is: "How do you do it all? or How do you juggle all these things?" At the end of the day, I don't claim to have it all figured out, and there are a lot of things I opt-out of and things I say no to. There are a lot of different things that I do in my life to maintain good ...Continue Reading

1 Comment | |    Last Updated: October 13, 2021

How to Start a Homestead From Scratch

We were newlyweds, staring at our newly purchased home and property. The house was tiny, the outbuildings were trashed, the fence lines were destroyed, and it was miles and miles from the nearest grocery store... Our property was a disaster when we purchased it– falling down fence, a washing machine in the back pasture, and waist-deep trash piles in the barn and shop. BUT- we knew it just needed some sweat-equity to bring it ...Continue Reading

8 Comments | |    Last Updated: April 23, 2026

How to Store and Use Bulk Pantry Goods

  I have talked about how to be more prepared and resilient in terms of growing your own meats, milk, eggs, and vegetables. But what about the things that you can't grow yourself on your homestead or in your backyard? I'm talking, of course, about how to keep a well-stock pantry, full of flour, bulk goods, etc. Keeping a well-stocked pantry and buying in bulk is a major key to your family’s food security. And keep in ...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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