One of my favorite things about the modern homesteading movement is that it is flexible. I use to think that the only way a person could ever be considered a farmer or rancher was to have thousands upon thousands of acres and make a full-time living off of their land. But, definitions are changing... In the past, I've talked about the idea of being a modern-day homesteader, no matter where you may live, and in more recent ...Continue Reading
Eggs: To Wash or Not to Wash?
I'm pretty laid-back when it comes to my home-grown foods. I'll eat unwashed veggies from my garden (we're 100% organic, of course), raw milk straight from Oakley the cow, and raw eggs from our chickens. Buuut, some people aren't quite so, shall we say, accepting. And sometimes when you give people a carton of chicken eggs to take home that have bits of shavings and feathers stuck to them, it kinda grosses them out. But no big ...Continue Reading
How to Make Peach Pie Filling for the Freezer
The Great Dilemma: You are asked to bring a dessert to a potluck, BBQ, or dinner party. Do you stick to your real food convictions and bring something "healthy", or cave in and bring a standard dessert loaded with white sugar...? I will confess that I've done both. Depending on the crowd, sometimes it's not worth it to use all my expensive, healthy sweeteners when they won't eat it anyway. Thankfully, fruit pies are a great ...Continue Reading
If a Butter Mold Could Talk…
Now that we are milking our cow, instead of the goats, we have something I've been earnestly waiting for ever since we started our home dairy journey: CREAM. It's beautiful stuff, folks. And the fact that you can agitate it and make it turn into butter? Well, that's just magical. The first time I watched the thick cream turn into bits of yellow butter in my food processor, I may or may not have started doing an impromptu ...Continue Reading
The BEST Homemade Burgers
You know what makes me sad? Unseasoned burgers. There is SO much you can do to make a hamburger patty special, there is no reason to leave the poor little things plain. NO reason at all. Hubby has dubbed these "the best burgers ever" and I often serve them for company with rave reviews. Oftentimes, I just go through my spice cabinet and dump in whatever sounds good. So, feel free to substitute or add in any other ...Continue Reading