My neighbor has a fig bush. This bush doesn’t look that big but let me tell you about how many figs this thing pumps out!! Whew! I can barely keep up. There is an elderly couple who lives there and they like to enjoy a few figs from it but tell me to pick all I can. They say they hate to just see the birds get to them all. One day while I was filling up buckets of them, the man came out and asked me what I do with all the figs. I told him I had grand plans of making all kinds of things with them but that I mostly just stand at the kitchen counter eating them by the handful until I feel sick. He laughed and said I sounded just like his wife! Even after sharing with friends I still managed to freeze a lot of them in vacuum sealed bags and am using them here and there. In an attempt to figure out what in the world to do with ALL THESE JALAPENOS, I decided that fig jalapeño jam sounded like the perfect treat. This stuff is delicious! If you resist just eating it will a spoon out of the jar, you can put them on a cracker with cream cheese, add it to a turkey sandwich, make a marinade out of it or pour it over pork chops or chicken. If you mixed some in some olive oil, you’d have a zippy salad dressing with a nice kick! I was thinking I might even add a table spoon of it to some cranberry sauce and see how that goes! Let me know if you come up with other creative ways to use it!
If you are new to canning, please consult a trusted source for safe canning procedures.
This is a water bath canning recipe.
Fig Jalapeno Pepper Jam
Delicious on cracker with cream cheese, make into a marinade, spoon over pork chops, add to salad dressings.
2 cups bell peppers red, green, yellow, or orange will do
1 cupjalapeños dicedseeded if you want them less spicy
1pkg Sure-Jell
1tspbutter
7 cups sugar
Instructions
In a food processor add the figs, bell peppers, and jalapeño peppers and pulse until desired consistency. I like to leave mine kind of chunky.
Pour the mixture to a large pot and add the vinegar, Sure-Jell and butter.
Bring to a boil for a couple of minutes
Add the sugar, stir, and bring back to a rolling boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and ladle into sterilized jars.
Wipe rim of jar, add lids and rings, and place in water bath canner.
Process 10 minutes for 1/2 pints and 15 min for pints.
Remove from canner and allow to cool.
Once the lids are sealed, occasionally gently shake jars to make sure your the pieces are distributed throughout the jar instead of all staying at the top.If you miss this step that isn't a problem. Just mix the jar with a spoon when you open it.
Are you drooling over homesteading and gardening themed instagram posts and YouTube channels, dreaming of living the farm life, away from the hustle and bustle of the world but it’s just not in the cards right now? There’s no need to hold off on the dream. There are things you can do right now, in your current situation, that can help you become more self sufficient and start to take charge of your own food freedom. If you are serious about wanting to be connected to your food source and provide food security to your family, you may need to get creative. Every homestead isn’t the same and practically none of them “do it all.” The homesteading community is… about COMMUNITY. Don’t get wrapped up in the idea that you have to do all of the things. Just because you don’t have 100 acres, doesn’t mean you can’t make some grand leaps toward achieving your goals and working with others to make things happen!
Below is a list of different ways you can incorporate outside sources in achieving your dreams of providing fresh, homegrown, healthy, local food and other products to your family.
CSA
Community Supported Agriculture is an amazing way the community comes together to support a local farmer. The community comes together before the growing season starts for the year with upfront payment to the farmer. This allows the farmer to run his/her farm for the year. In return, you go and pick up a box of goodies every week. We have been apart of CSAs in the past and it is an amazing supplement to your garden, especially if your garden is small. With a CSA, you often get incredible amounts of produce, eggs etc. that would retail for more than you paid. Many provide weekly recipes and suggestions as well as pick-your-own opportunities not available to the public. One of our favorite CSAs we have done in the past provided hundreds, if not close to a thousands dollars more worth of produce than the share originally cost. This is incredible! Buy a full share and get to preserving, spilt with a friend or buy a half share for a smaller family.
This is an example of a weekly box from a CSA. Check out the bottom left for the total $ info. That CSA share originally cost $800 up front and the total value of goods distributed that year was 1,934.50!
Using land owned by someone else.
If you’ve reached the limitations of your current space, look next door. Do you have a neighbor willing to let you use their space? A friend or relative close by who would be ok with you planting or raising something on their land? Bees are a good one for this. They don’t need daily attention from you so having them “down the road” isn’t the daily inconvenience that other livestock would bring. It is somewhat of an inconvenience to hop in a vehicle and go check on your crops or animals. That being said.. We make time for what is important enough to us. If it’s not, we make excuses. Read that again. Farmers do this all the time. Many farmers in America rent land to do their farming. You may get lucky and be able to find free land to use but if not bartering is a good option. Are you keeping bees on their land? Offer a specific amount of honey to them per year and possibly wax products like candles etc. Do you have a fruit tree or garden planted there? Offering them a portion of that may keep everyone happy. Possibly offering a service to them such as taking over mowing their lawn in exchange for using their land. Renting land is a valid possibility. Get creative!
These jalapeños are grown on my neighbors property. This gives me more room in my garden to grow other things.
Cow share/pig shares and milk shares
I see more and more of this and I simply love it. This is a similar concept as the CSA. The farmer gets up front payment (or sometimes a deposit or monthly payment) ensuring him/her that their product will be sold and allows them to focus on farming. Often you can buy a whole animal, half, or quarter of an animal. With milk shares, you pay a certain amount for a weekly pickup. Raw milk is not legal in many areas and this is one way that people get around it. It is legal for you to drink raw milk from your own animal so in owning a share, you own part of that animal. Not all homesteaders can have large livestock and this is a wonderful way for communities to help take care of each other. By participating in this you help your local community, your local economy and are able to provide your family with farm fresh, healthy, local food!
Local Farm Markets and Local Farms
If you are unable to have a large garden, orchard, bees, or livestock, and you aren’t shopping from your local farms and farm markets, you are seriously missing the boat! I’m going to say the word COMMUNITY again! Catching the theme?! Relying solely on mono-crops shipped all over the world to grocery store chains by faceless farmers is not good for the land and it’s not good for community. It’s not great for the local economy. It is what it is, we don’t live in a perfect world and we love our farmers for feeding America but if you aren’t supporting your local agriculture, you need to! It is important to eat fresh, in season produce and locally raised meat and eggs, where you can meet the farmer and shake hands with the very person raising your food. People were meant to work together.
Community Gardens
Community gardens are all over the world and are a great way for people, especially in more urban areas, to come together and grow food. At a community garden, you will rent a space that is yours to grow in. There are typically volunteer days to maintain the grounds and manage mulching paths and compost etc. They often have community outreach days and fundraisers as well. Again.. community. Connect with your food and your community. Find your local community garden and see how you can get involved. Can’t find one? Start one. Don’t wait for someone to do the work for you!
Purchasing Land
Maybe you’re happy where you live but wish it had more land. Consider buying land close by. If you’re willing to hop in the car and go, you can raise and grow all your food down the road.
But I’m not done talking about your own current situation. You may think your space is too small. You may think your home isn’t cut out for providing food to your family but I would like to challenge you to dig deep and be honest with yourself. Your current situation is likely capable of more than you are giving it credit for. When I lived in Hawaii, I noticed how small everyones property was. So many apartments and homes with small yards. Their balconies were overflowing with plants. Many of them were edible some even had cages with quail or rabbits. You don’t need a huge plot of land to grow your own food! Balcony gardens can still rock. Look into hydroponics indoors and micro greens! Have an HOA? Quail could be the answer. Go to Pinterest and look for ideas on how to “hide” veggie plants in your landscaping if your HOA prohibits vegetable gardens (and then petition your neighbors to help change that ridiculous policy). Also, many medicinal herbs are beautiful and would fit in those flower beds nicely.
Someone recently gave me some advice.
He told me to make a list of everything I would love to do. Everything, no matter how unachievable I thought it might be. Just write it all down. Then make two categories. The first one is things that I can immediately do without having to ruffle my life too much. An example for me might be micro greens. I have room here for that. I cold do that. Just a little money to set up and it could be done. Then in the next category you put the things that you would really have to work around some obstacles to achieve. Instead of marking these things off the list because of the obstacles in the way, you go down the line and work out what it would take to make each of those things happen. Not everything on your list is going to come to fruition. You have to prioritize.
If your dream is to build a life where you are as self sufficient as you can be, where you are connected to your food source, and where community comes together to provide sustainable, healthy, local food, then work out the kinks and make it happen. Find your niche and find your angle. It’s there if you work for it. I have a list a mile long and I am constantly evaluating and reevaluating what things my family is willing to do to make our dreams a reality.
My great grandfather was a hunter, fisherman, and a farmer and lived in a time where people raised and grew their own food. At least some of it and you were better off if you could grow and raise most of it. They had chickens and a garden of course. There were pigs too. As time went on, those things faded away. They got older and could no longer farm and keep up with chickens and pigs etc. Modern ways snuck into their lives bit by bit. Now when you walk that property there’s no evidence of many of those things. I couldn’t tell you where the chicken coop was kept or where their garden was. I don’t know where they kept the pigs. (When I was a young child, there were pigs managed my him and my grandfather in a separate location. That I do remember) What IS left though is the gift he planted for the future.
When my great grandfather buried 3 pecans in the dirt and nurtured 3 small pecan trees into full grown producing trees, I wonder if he was imagining his great great grandchildren running around in the fall and picking them up off the ground. Could he fathom how special it would be one day when his great great granddaughter would help pick all the pecans out of the shells so her 9 year old brother could make a pecan pie from scratch for Thanksgiving with his family by himself? When he planted all the blueberry bushes, the apple trees, and the figs, did he picture his great granddaughter in her kitchen furiously canning, and freezing and dehydrating those very fruits he planted? He planted other fruit trees as well but some didn’t make it through various hurricanes etc.
My son with with homemade pecan pie and my daughter with her pumpkin pie from our pumpkins we grew.
This is the time of year, we go up and see how many pecans we can pick up. It normally takes several trips to gather them. My grandfathers “pecan picker upper” (that’s the technical name isn’t it?) was left in his garage and I just think using it is kind of special. His apple picker was in there too and I grabbed both so nothing would happen to them!
As a kid I remember the extra freezer in my great grandmothers house was full of blueberries and pecans. My grandfather would sit on the back porch and crack pecans all winter. He would sometimes do it in the kitchen when it was too cold and my grandmother would get frustrated by the mess he’d leave. I’m certain that he would be proud of us and our evolving little homestead. I’m sure that it would touch his heart to know that generations later, his hard work is appreciated.
The one thing I have really dropped the ball on at this property is planting fruit trees, nut trees, and bushes. I just haven’t committed to the spaces to put them. I need to just pull the trigger and do it. “They say” the best time to plant a fruit tree is 5 years ago. As we come up on 4 years here I think, “Man!! How big our trees would already be if I had just done it then!” And then I think about my kids growing up and picking fruit from our trees and bushes that I plant and possibly their children and so on and I know I need to just get them in the ground! You don’t always know who the gift is for down the line but go ahead and plant that tree. It will bring joy on another day.. to you, to your family, and to the unknown. It is said that a planting a garden is faith that tomorrow will come. Planting a tree is putting faith in the long term future.
So for now, this year, we will enjoy what we have and enjoy what was given to us. Appreciating what has been provided by the past. The gift to the future that my great grandfather gave us. These pecans are here because my great grandfather was providing food security to the future.
Every spring, all the big box stores are loaded up with all you could want for your spring and summer garden. They are over flowing with bulbs and flowers and asparagus crowns and seed potatoes and onion sets. They have overflowing shelves of grape, raspberry, and blackberry vines, blueberry bushes, fruit trees and TONS of veggie and herb starts. After winter, we are more than eager to get out there, get our hands dirty, and feel the warmth of the sun. We dream of counters full of fresh produce from our gardens and fantasize about all the canning we will do.
Summer comes. It’s hot. There’s bugs. There’s weeds. Maybe parts of our gardens didn’t go as planned. Pests, disease, and low yields have us frustrated but we have other huge successes and pantry shelves full of home canned veggies and jams and mason jars filled with ferments and dehydrated goodies. Freezers stocked full of vacuum sealed produce. We’ve spent countless evenings washing and chopping and dicing and preparing canning jars. We’ve worked our butts off ya’ll! We are sunburned and tired.
Fall arrives and you could take a break. You could rip out that summer garden, put it to bed and just sit back. You could and that would be ok. BUT you would be missing out on so much! Unless you live in some of the coldest regions, there is a huge opportunity to make that garden work for you even longer! Many of those things you planted for your spring garden can be planted again for the fall!
For some reason, those big box stores don’t seem to show the same enthusiasm for fall gardening as they do in the spring. Those same shelves that were overflowing in the spring now look more like an afterthought. A few racks of brassicas and no more seed packets to be found… maybe a little rack with some flower bulbs for spring. They have to make room for those giant Halloween and Christmas inflatables!
So skip those stores and head to a local nursery (that’s where you ought to be spending your dollars anyway!) Yes, they will be full of pumpkins and mums, but you’re going to find all that you need for a great fall garden as well!
I stopped in a local (ok it’s still kind of a hike from where I live) nursery in VA beach the other day and got a truckload of dirt to fill raised beds I just made and am getting ready for spring when I saw tons of onion sets!
Onion sets are just small onion bulbs about the size of a large marble that were grown from seed in the previous season. Onion sets provide the easiest way to grow full sized onions. Onion sets are easily found in the spring at every nursery including those big box stores but you don’t always see them for fall gardening. I grabbed a bunch of yellow and red onion sets and headed home to find a row to plant them in!
Planting Onions
You can plant onions just about any time of year especially if you are growing for green onions but I plant mine around the same time as the garlic. Prepare your soil by making sure its loose and weed free. Amend your soil with compost and/or your fertilizer of choice. I sprinkle in some blood and bone meal just like I do the garlic and plant 4-6 inches apart to give them room to grow into big onions. This takes about 14 weeks for spring planting but will take a bit longer for fall planting. Bury them only 1-2 inches deep, pointy end up, and mulch them lightly with straw, pine straw, fallen leaves, etc. This will help them hold in moisture, insulate them from the cold, and help prevent weeds. Now you can sit back and wait. Onions are on their way.
Long Day and Short Day Onions You may have heard the term ‘long day’ and ‘short day’ onions before. Which do I get? Onions are sensitive to the amount of daylight they get. Different varieties of onions have been bred for different parts of the country. The farther north you live, the longer the days are in the summer. If you draw an imaginary line between North and South Carolina across the country to San Francisco and you fall above that line, go ahead and plant long day onions. Plant short day onions if you fall below that line. If you’re right on that line, you may be able to get away with either. Experiment and see what works best for you.
Day-Neutral Did you know there was such thing?
There are also varieties that grow well regardless of the day length. These varieties are sometimes referred to as Indeterminate.
Which Onions varieties keep well?
Yellow, white, and Red Onions are your best keeper varieties. They have a lower water content than sweeter varieties and a higher sulfur content (that’s the stuff that gets you cryin’ when you’re cuttin’) These varieties store well long term but don’t limit yourself to only these varieties! If you choose to grow onions that don’t store well long term, simply use those first before using your keeper onions or don’t plant as many.
Most storage onions can keep at least 8 months but can last up to a year in the right conditions. Keep them dry, out of light, and away from potatoes. Potatoes and onions each emit a gas that makes the other go bad faster. Also keep the onions out of the fridge. Inspect the onions regularly and pull out any that are starting to get soft or go bad. One bad onion will start to spoil the rest pretty quickly.
It’s October and where I live, that means it’s Garlic Planting Time! Who doesn’t love garlic!? Whether you’re trying to repel vampires, boost your immune system, or make your dinner delicious, garlic is there to save the day. Are you one of those who reads a recipe that states “two cloves garlic” and think “sure! Five cloves it is!” I know I am! Everything is better with garlic and so that means we go through a fair amount of garlic heads in a year! It’s pretty easy to grow so why not plant it in the fall and have it ready mid spring!? You can easily plant and store all you need for the year! Don’t forget to set aside enough to plant next fall for the following year!
What kind of garlic to plant? First you’ll need to decide if you want to grow a hardneck or softneck variety. Are you looking to harvest oh-so-sought-after garlic scapes? Then go for the hardneck variety. They also are hardier and do better in colder climates (though I grew them here in zone 8a and it turned out fine) Hardneck garlic has a rich flavor and large cloves that are easier to peal. Softneck garlic won’t have the tasty garlic scapes but are a better variety for long term storage. When stored properly they can last 6 months or more. They seem to also mature sooner than the hardneck. They have a milder flavor and are lovely braided hanging in the pantry.
After you’ve picked your variety you can head to the seed catalogs or online to order. There are truly tons of places you can order from but I’ll tell ya, I just went to the produce isle at the grocery store and got some organic heads of garlic.
Open up your garlic heads and separate the cloves. Chose the biggest cloves and leave the paper in tact. Head out to the garden and pick a nice sunny spot with good drainage. You will want an area that gets 6 hours of sun. Garlic is a heavy feeder so it needs lots of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Adding compost and organic material to the soil at the time of planting isn’t a bad idea. I like to add in some bone and blood meal when planting.
Space your garlic 4-6 inches apart in a sunny location with loose soil.
Loosen up the dirt and plant shallowly, root side down, 4-6 inches apart and cover with just and inch or two of soil. Your garlic may not come up until the spring or.. you may see some green before winter really gets going. In that case, I like to mulch them well with leaves to protect them from the cold. If it’s going to snow, I will definitely make sure I’ve insulated them with leaves or straw. Whatever you’ve got will work.
Make sure you plant the cloves in the right direction!
In the spring, be on the look out for those scapes and make sure you harvest them before they start to flower to make sure you get the biggest cloves possible out of your garlic. I already cannot wait for the garlic scape pesto I will be making in the spring!
Garlic scapes in the spring. Harvest them for bigger cloves on your garlic head.
Go plant your garlic, enjoy this beautiful fall weather and
I recently attended the Homesteaders Of America conference of 2021 in Front Royal Virginia and I must say I left inspired! If you have an opportunity to attend, I assure you, you will leave eager to expand your homesteading endeavors! I met people from all over the country, from all walks of life, with various homesteading scenarios. Some were suburban gardeners, some had hundreds of acres and some were just starting their journey. Multiple times while chatting with people, I was asked “do you homestead?” On one hand I thought, well, I suppose so! I mean, after all, this blog and my Instagram profile IS called Butterfly Homesteader but I also couldn’t help but feel like doubling down. Compared to some of these people, I’m just a backyard gardener with a few chickens and big dreams.
As the conference went on, I met more and more people and listened to more and more speakers all tell very different stories about their homesteading journeys. Though they were all varied, there were some common themes. They all wanted to feel connected to their food source. They wanted a natural and healthy lifestyle. They wanted food security and safety. They wanted to be self sufficient and sustainable. They wanted to be stewards of the land and give more than they take. They wanted to be able to provide for their family without so much reliance on the stores. They wanted their children to know that food doesn’t have to come wrapped in plastic at the supermarket. They wanted skills to take care of themselves and raise their children to have those same skills. They wanted an escape from the hustle and bustle of the world and live a more simple life where Family is the center. On a political note, many of them worried about the future regardless of their Left or Right leaning opinions. They wanted to live a lifestyle they hope will prepare them and their family for uncertain times ahead. While each of them and their stories were all similar AND different, at the end, we all just came together with the same common goals.
So what is homesteading? Well, to put it simply, it’s a way of life. A self sufficient lifestyle where we are constantly planning what needs to be done to be prepared for the future. Homesteading is a “start right where you are” kind of thing. You can start right on your balcony in pots, raised beds in your yard, or bigger if you can. Don’t sell yourself short assuming you must have it all and do it all. You are enough. What you can do right now is still valid and important. Every step you take to assure safety and security for your family is essential to a homesteading lifestyle. If you are constantly on the move learning all you can about being self reliant and sustainable with what you have.. then, my friend… you might be a homesteader. Homesteading is also about community. You don’t have to do it all on your own. Find your village. Create your village. Homesteading doesn’t always look like Pinterest perfect lives or hilarious IG reels/tiktok videos and stunning IG posts. It’s not beautifully edited YouTube channels and you don’t even need to be an authority on any particular subject. In fact, we are always learning and growing and figuring out new ways to pivot and adapt to the ever changing weather and ways of the world. Homesteading isn’t an all or nothing label where you must grow all your own food and build your own house by hand and raise all the different livestock animals to get in the club. Can I tell you a secret? I’ve never made sourdough bread before! Gasp! I know! I’ll lose my “homesteading membership” for that one I’m sure! There’s tons skills homesteaders seek to acquire and I encourage you to ask yourself what skills you have, what skills you seek and what skills you can teach others. At the end of the day, your family, your food security, and your health, is YOUR responsibility! Happy Homesteading!
