Yearly Food Planning for Your Family

Planning a year's supply of food for each member of your family can seem a daunting task.  Want to grow a large garden, have an orchard and vineyard, grow your own crops, and produce your own oil and sugar?  How much meat, vegetables, fruit, sugar, oil, flour do we each consume per year?  What if …

Forest Permaculture

Forest Permaculture is an integrated three dimensional design of permanent agricultural layers combining tall trees, small trees and shrubs, vines, perennial and self-seeding ground covers, and livestock to sustainability and permanently provide nutrients. Okay, that sounds so serious and professional.  Permaculture is a method of farming management where the environment provides food for your livestock.  …

Preserve Your Harvest : Freezer Friendly Fruit & Veggies

Because we are homesteaders, we are always looking for: 1. Ways to Preserve Food and 2. Meal Time Savers! Here is a how to properly freeze your fruit and vegetables for use during the winter and when you are just to busy to do all that prep work. Freezer Friendly Fruit Prepare, peel and slice …

How BIG a Backyard Do You Need?

Interesting... When Summer turns to Fall and the air is crisp, my mind drifts to the planning stage.  For those at the exciting beginning stage of homesteading, this is for you! Here is a fun graphic to illustrate how much land you need to live off and be self sufficient.

Seed Saving Primer : Part One : Seed Biology 101

For those of us who pour over seed catalogs come January, this is for you! In full disclosure, I need to confess something... I am a HEIRLOOM SEED FREAK!!!  Seriously... no lie, it is sort of an obsession.  I love their names: Di Cicco Broccoli, Minnesota Midget Melon, Tom Thumb Popcorn, French Breakfast Radish (Have …

Top 40 Powerhouse Fruit and Vegetables

These nutrient dense fruit and vegetables provide 10% or more of the daily value of seventeen nutrients such as: potassium, fiber, protein, calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, zinc, and vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, and K.  These nutrients reduce the risk of chronic disease.  Cook some up or eat raw today! (most …

Panna Cotta ~ For the Love of All that is Holy

Panna Cotta... Ahhh... Panna Cotta.  I'm not suggesting that it is holy, mind you.  But I do thank God for this glorious dessert.  Seriously, it may just be my downfall.  Lightly sweet, vanilla scented, lemony, creamy (to the nth degree), tangy, rich, thick, luscious... and oh, so good!!!  I mean, fuggedaboutit... Like any custard, you …

Growing Strawberries

Who doesn't love strawberries?  With grocery store berries costing between $3-$5 per pound and chocked full of 13 nasty pesticides, it is time to grow your own.  Growing strawberries, while it takes a little time to get them established, your strawberry plants and it's runners continue to produce for years to come.  Let's get started! …

9 Essential Foods You Should Grow

Written by: Angela Counter Are you ready to feed your family by what you grow and raise? If you want to reduce your dependency on the commercial food supply, you better start now. It is important to develop a functional homestead capable of producing enough food to live on before you need it. [repost: http://www.offthegridnews.com/off-grid-foods/completely-100-percent-off-grid-9-essential-foods-you-should-grow/ ] …

Your Spring Harvest Garden

It is time to plan, prepare for and plant your spring harvest garden. Yes, I know, it’s January… I already feel behind the times so let’s get started! Plan Your Spring Harvest Garden There are 37 kinds of fruit, vegetables and mushroom to utilize when sunlight is increasing, snow, rain and frost is frequent, temperatures …