(First off, to answer the question in the title, I don't think anyone EVER really needs reality TV, but especially not when you live on a homestead. ;)) Each week, I generally try to post clever DIY tips, tasty recipes, or tips for farm life. But today, I'm deviating ever-so-slightly from my usual content. I've had several requests to write up a "day in my life" style of post. and although this past Saturday was far from a regular ...Continue Reading
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Best Tips for Growing Tomatoes
I've gathered together a list of the best tips for growing tomatoes. In this article, you'll find tips for growing tomatoes from seed, how to transplant them into your garden, how to prevent diseases, tips for saving tomato seeds, and more. Tomatoes are an anomaly... Some years they're one of the easiest things to grow, and you have juicy red fruit coming out of your ears. And then there's those other years that leave ...Continue Reading
How to Can Dry Beans
For me, one of the keys to cooking real food is to have a pantry stocked with real food 'building blocks' that I have prepared ahead of time. I always have a supply of homemade broth/stock, home-canned tomato sauce, applesauce, pickles, and multiple other items. It makes it easy to put together a real-food meal without spending 6 hours in the kitchen each and every day. I love cooking with dried beans (black beans, red beans, ...Continue Reading
Five Ways to Preserve Your Carrot Harvest
This year's season of food preservation has been a whirlwind, let me tell ya... I suppose being hugely pregnant probably contributed to my "overwhelmed" feeling, but I plugged long anyway... I've had an insatiable urge to preserve everything I can get my hands on... I've dried fruit leather, pears, peaches, and tomatoes... Canned salsa, pickles, tomato sauce, applesauce, pearsauce, chokecherry jelly, beets, and beans... Frozen ...Continue Reading
How to Use a Pressure Canner
PRESSURE CANNING. It's the #1 thing that strikes fear into the heart of new homesteaders... Stories of Great Aunt Wanda blowing up her kitchen with a pressure canner abound... which has resulted in a whole lot of us who are slightly petrified at the thought of using a hissing, pressurizing "bomb" to preserve food in our kitchens. And it's understandable-- if used incorrectly, pressure canners can indeed malfunction. And the ...Continue Reading