The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

55 Comments | |    Last Updated: August 29, 2023

How to Cook Beef Shank

I don't even remember the last time I bought a package of beef at the store. We usually butcher a steer every 12-18 months, which keeps our freezers filled to overflowing. But even though we've been doing this for years, the same thing happens every. single. time. The hamburger and steaks fly out of the freezer first, and I'm left with the same lingering packages of cuts I'm not entirely sure how to use. Ever had that ...Continue Reading

10 Comments | |    Last Updated: December 27, 2023

The BIGGEST Homestead Mistakes We’ve Made (so far)

Ten years in, and if there's a homestead mistake to be made, well, we've made it. From poisoning my garden, to rebuilding a certain fence line two separate times, to more kitchen disasters than I can count, our journey into this modern homesteading life hasn't been without a whole lot of mess ups. While I am a big believer in the power of failure, I also think sometimes it is nice to be able to learn from other folks' mistakes, ...Continue Reading

102 Comments | |    Last Updated: December 27, 2023

Because It’s Not About Canning and Chickens

I was a bored, pregnant newlywed 40 miles from civilization with not enough money to drive to activities in town. That's how it all started. Not the most epic beginning to this story, I know... Basically, the garden and kitchen projects gave me a way to pass the time without feeling like a total loser.  I figured out how to make tortillas, how to clean a chicken coop without bleach, how to milk a goat, and then a cow, and all ...Continue Reading

27 Comments | |    Last Updated: January 30, 2024

Fast Tomato Sauce Recipe

I spent most of yesterday making tomato sauce. There was washing, trimming, smashing into a food mill (I have this one and it's a life saver- affiliate link), simmering, stirring, seasoning, and thennnnnn, finally at 6:39pm, I started ladling the gallons of sauce into quart jars and lowering them into the boiling water canner. It was a long day. And I had to ask myself, WHY ON EARTH am I doing this? No really. I asked myself ...Continue Reading

21 Comments | |    Last Updated: August 18, 2023

Roasted Poblano Salsa

I'm feeling decidedly uncreative this year... ...as far as food preservation goes. Am I allowed to say that? There I go, losing my homesteader status points again... I'm going to blame the cookbook and the shall-not-yet-be-named undisclosed project for eating up all of my allotted creativity for the year. I got nuthin'.  I guess I did do some fermented pickled green beans, although that was more in the name of ...Continue Reading

22 Comments | |    Last Updated: April 10, 2019

Pickled Green Beans Recipe (lacto-fermented)

It happens every stinkin' time. I innocently check my green bean plants one day and don't see much, and then 24 hours later, BAM. They are loaded down with ALL THE BEANS that need to be picked like yesterday. Come to think of it, the cucumbers do the same thing. They must be in cahoots. (Also. I picking green beans feels so tedious to me. They're probably my least favorite thing in the garden to harvest just because it takes forever. ...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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