The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

61 Comments | |    Last Updated: November 23, 2020

Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe

*Slurp* *Plop!* Ah... the lovely sound that canned cranberry jelly makes as you delicately extract it from the can... Even back before my real food transformation, it always seemed out of place. I mean, you spent all day basting the turkey, and making the rolls, and mashing the 'taters, only to have the last item you put on the table be this bizarre ridged cylinder of store-bought cranberry jelly. But hey-- who was I ...Continue Reading

28 Comments | |    Last Updated: April 10, 2019

DIY Homemade Cough Drops

By Stacy Karen, contributing writer When a sore throat strikes, many of us reach for a throat lozenge to soothe the pain. As you may have noticed,  most store-bought throat lozenges or cough drops contain unpleasant ingredients, such as food colorings and preservatives. We don't want these chemicals in our system at the best of times, and most definitely not when we are sick. Thankfully, homemade cough drops are quite simple to make ...Continue Reading

64 Comments | |    Last Updated: June 13, 2023

Pumpkin Pie Recipe: Made with Honey

The Four Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and PUMPKIN. It's that time of year, where no matter what you are trying to buy, there is pumpkin-flavored something staring you in the face. Pumpkin candles, coffee, soap, bread, muffins, chewing gum, laundry detergent... OK, maybe not those last two, but you get the idea... Let's be honest, when the pumpkin-craze hits, we're really just trying to imitate one thing: The ...Continue Reading

81 Comments | |    Last Updated: March 17, 2018

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Get Goats

By Heather Jackson, contributing writer Don't get me wrong, I love my dairy goats, but today I'm going to tell you five reasons NOT to get goats... I usually consider goats to be gateway livestock. They are one of the first stops as we fall down the rabbit hole that is homesteading (Jill: that was definitely true for us!). Goats are less expensive than cows and their size makes them a little less intimidating to the novice ...Continue Reading

8 Comments | |    Last Updated: September 26, 2019

100+ Apple Recipes!

 By Renee Kohley, contributing writer Apple season is my favorite way to transition into fall, and apple recipes make it even better. We are literally surrounded by orchards to pick from, and always feel so blessed to bring home haul after haul, picking 2-3 times during the month of October. I always end up breaking up our apple picking in shifts. It gives me time to plow through whatever needs to be done with them. I am still ...Continue Reading

18 Comments | |    Last Updated: April 10, 2019

How to Make Fermented Rosehip Soda

By Ariana Mullins, contributing writer It's a great time of year to collect rosehips so we can make this fermented rosehip soda recipe. They are all over the place here in England, where my family is living at the moment. Rosehips are popular wild sources of vitamin C, have numerous herbal benefits, and they have a really nice flavor.   The problem with rosehips is that they can be a bit hard to work with, because they have ...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.
Read My Story