Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land
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
Homemade BBQ sauce intimidated me for the longest time. Crazy, I know... Especially considering how slow-rise artisan pizza and traditional mozzarella cheese hardly make me blink. I didn't develop a liking for BBQ sauce until later in life so I felt unqualified to make the stuff... Not to mention everyone has a vastly different idea of what homemade BBQ sauce should be. But I love you guys, so I decided to dive into the saucy ...Continue Reading
WHAAAAT...? That's my response every time I get an email from someone who wants to know why I talk about essential oils on a homesteading blog. Okay, okay... to be fair, there was a time when I didn't get the connection either. I thought essential oils were just expensive little brown bottles surrounded by a bunch of hype. I still use herbs too, but I've found essential oils to be much easier to use as they are more "grab and ...Continue Reading
It's a blessing and a curse... Ok, so maybe "curse" is a strong word, but when you raise your own animals for meat, you have to get really creative, really fast about cooking meat. LOTS of meat. Because after about the tenth roast tasting exactly the same, the family tends to get a little whiney about supper. We have two freezers down in our barn jam-packed full of homegrown pork and beef. (A whole steer takes up a ...Continue Reading
I was so thrilled when Craig Fear from Fearless Eating said he'd write a post on making pork broth. I feel like I've pretty much mastered making poultry and beef broth, but have yet to venture into homemade pork broth. I'm ready to give it a try after reading Craig's advice, though! With the resurgence of interest in making real homemade bone broth from actual bones, pork broth is an option few people consider. In fact, I ...Continue Reading
