Tag Archives: self sufficient living

It’s like a cow but smaller! Backyard Meat Rabbits!

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Ok maybe not QUITE like a cow.. let me explain …
I am a firm believer that it doesn’t matter where you are in life, you CAN do SOMETHING to take some responsibility for where your food comes from, how it is raised, and how it gets to your plate. I remember living in Hawaii and seeing the locals with chickens, quail, and numerous planter pots growing food on their apartment lanais (that’s a balcony for all the Haoles out there). I thought if they can do all that in such a tiny space, these suburbanites don’t have any excuses! I see Pinterest post after Pinterest post about small scale homesteading with titles like “farming on 1/4 acre” etc.
If you live in a neighborhood or have a small lot of land, you may have considered chickens. That’s many peoples’ first step. They are excellent composters. They take care of your kitchen scraps and weeds and bugs from the garden. And of course they can provide meat and delicious and healthy eggs every day as well as lots of entertainment. Many people live in neighborhoods with an HOA that doesn’t allow chickens and… well.. keep fighting the good fight and do what you can to change those rules in your HOA! You can petition your neighbors ect. BUT in the mean time, rabbits and quail often slip under the HOA radar. They are small enough and their space requirements aren’t very much. They are also quiet enough that, even with a strict HOA, you could be raising your own livestock to feed your family. Yes, even in some of the smallest back yards!
I’ve had chickens for several years now and have even raised meat birds right here in my small back yard but the idea of rabbits kept creeping up in my mind as another source of meat for our family. I was nervous about them because I’d never raised rabbits before. They are so cute. Would I be able to dispatch one and eat it? Would my family be on board? And a thousand other questions. I of course did what we all do when we want to know something. I went to YouTube and to social media groups and read blogs and slowly got less nervous about the idea.

So starts the rabbit adventure! I was blown away by the math I was reading regarding how much meat you could put up with just a few rabbits!

The numbers will vary depending on breed and other factors but .. just some rough possible numbers. One rabbit can provide about 3-4lbs of meat (some a little more some a little less). They grow out in as little as 12 weeks. That’s not too bad. It’s basically dressing out to be about the same weight as a whole chicken.

Ok so how many rabbits do I need to make this a worth while project and provide a decent enough amount of meat to make this worth it!?

Alright so let’s run some numbers. A rabbits gestation period is 28-32 days or so depending on breed and depending on the rabbit. She will give birth to, let’s say 8 kits. (sometimes more sometimes less). If you have 2 does and 1 buck and breed them at the same time, let’s say you get 16 kits born at a time. Twelve weeks later, you will have 16 rabbits with about 48-64lbs of meat!

Rabbits can technically breed again the same day she gives birth however, I have given birth a few times myself and… I just can not get on board with that type of breeding program. Some folks breed them again when the kits are 2 weeks, some wait until 4 weeks. I suppose there are those who wait longer as well but that is personal preference. Let’s say you wait 2 weeks. The kits will wean at 5-6 weeks and that gives mom just a little bit of time to herself to get ready for the next litter. Then you start over again.
Depending on where you live and the way your rabbity is set up, you may be taking a break from breeding in the coldest months of the year and/or the hottest months of the year but for fun, just consider what you could come up with without taking a break!

In 12 months, with your 2 does and 1 buck, you could produce a BUNCH of meat! Here comes the punchline, “It’s like a cow, but smaller!” In your own small backyard, in one year, you could technically produce the same amount of meat as a whole COW! Now of course you will need just a few more rabbits than a breeding trio to make that happen and likely won’t be breeding your does every month of the year, but by adding a couple more breeders to your herd, breeding less months of the year, you could still achieve those numbers in a suburban backyard. That’s absolutely amazing to me!

With calculations like this I just HAD to build my rabbitry and begin a new adventure. I’m still learning a lot every day. Buckle up folks, it may be a “hoppy” ride.

All Things Cranberry

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There are some pretty standard Thanksgiving side dishes that are just required to be on the table and cranberry sauce is one of them. Many people I talk to claim to not really like cranberry sauce for me to later find out they are referring to the jellied store bought canned sauce they grew up with sitting on a plate that was still in the shape of the can, ridges and all. Well yeah… that ISN’T very good! If you haven’t had home made cranberry sauce, then you really are missing out! The internet is overflowing with amazing cranberry sauce recipes and each and every one of them are super easy to make!

Fresh Cranberries are cheap this time of year and even freeze really well! I always stock up on them around now. I don’t live somewhere that I can grow them myself or I absolutely would! Grab some extra bags of fresh cranberries and have them handy for after the Thanksgiving rush of baking so you can pull that canner out again! Cranberries are naturally acidic and are very easy and safe to can! You can even try fermenting them! I have some in the pantry now fermenting in honey.

Canning cranberry sauce is a very easy project and you can have home made cranberry sauce ready for whenever the urge strikes you. Simply make your cranberry sauce and can it using the same processing time as mentioned for the juice. Most cranberry sauces consist of only acidic ingredients (other than the seasonings) so safety isn’t really a concern here. Just don’t add any nuts before canning if you like nuts in your cranberry sauce.

Ok so why do you want to can all this cranberry sauce if you only eat it on Thanksgiving and Christmas!? Well that’s easy! Eat it on more than just Thanksgiving and Christmas!

There are tons of ways to enjoy cranberry sauce other than the obligatory spoonful of cranberry sauce on your plate 2 days a year!

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Spoon a little over your cheesecake or pound cake.

Put some on a sandwich (of course I also mean those left over turkey sandwiches).

Try stirring some mayo or cream cheese into the cranberry sauce for an amazing sandwich spread.

Use as a filling for small single serving pies.

Add some to your yogurt and granola for breakfast.

Make your own pop tarts with that left over pie crust.

Add a spoonful to your oatmeal.

Whip up some cranberry butter for toast or muffins.

Use as an ice cream topping.

Make a glaze for meats or create your own BBQ sauce recipe.

Add some to the top of your cream cheese covered bagel.

Create your own cranberry vinaigrette salad dressing by adding a spoon full of cranberry sauce to some oil and vinegar.

Use cranberry sauce in muffins, cakes, and bread recipes.

Cranberry Bars and cheesecake bars .

Mix in with apples or other fruit to make a cobbler, crisp, or pie.

Cranberry cookies.

Add to some roasted root vegetables.

Add to smoothies.

Serve with brie and crackers.

Make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to stock up on cranberries and hit up those after holiday sales in the grocery stores!

Happy Homesteading!

Fig Jalapeno Jam

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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.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Equipment

  • water bath canner
  • food processor

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/4 cup white vinegar
  • 2 cups figs
  • 2 cups bell peppers red, green, yellow, or orange will do
  • 1 cup jalapeños diced seeded if you want them less spicy
  • 1 pkg Sure-Jell
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 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.
Keyword condiment, fig, jalapeno, jam, marinade, salad dressing

Happy Homesteading!

Mayo from scratch

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Jump to Recipe

As someone who ALWAYS makes EVERYTHING from scratch….. HAHA just kidding! I do NOT do this. I do, however, think it’s important to know how cook from scratch. I believe having skills is imperative. I believe knowing what goes into your food and how to do it yourself is essential. You probably can’t do everything from scratch. You may not even want to but it is always a good idea to learn. How DO you make mayonnaise from scratch? Learn these skills now so when and if you need them, you already know, even if it isn’t something you exclusively do all the time. Do I buy store bought mayo sometimes? Yes. Can I whip up some delicious home made mayo on the fly when I need to? Absolutely. Does it taste better than store bought? Is this a real question? OF COURSE!

It is convenient to be able to just go to the store and buy things. It’s easy to grab a cheap bottle of ketchup and mustard for a weekend cookout. No one thinks twice about grabbing prepackaged items (especially condiments) from the shelf at the store. Until you run out. Until the store runs out. Until someone is sick and you can’t get to the store. OR until you realize that those prepackaged convenience foods are full of artificial flavors, colors, unhealthy oils and preservatives! Until you realize that you can do it yourself with better ingredients and it will taste better too!

When we got our chickens, there quickly became a problem in our house. What in the world do I do with all these eggs? We do like eggs for breakfast. I do use them for baking but the fact is, other than the winter time and when they are molting, you typically end up with a lot of eggs. Everything seems fine then all of a sudden you realize your counter is overflowing with them. So off to figure out some creative ways to use these fresh delicious eggs. Yes, of course it’s a good idea to preserve some for the times the chickens aren’t laying but there’s still plenty to get creative with during the year. Mayonnaise was something I had put off learning because I had heard that traditionally it can be a little tricky. Then someone assured me that with a couple simple tricks, it was super easy and I will kick myself for not doing it sooner. They were right.

Mayonnaise is just simply an emulsion. The traditional method of making mayonnaise involves slowly pouring while whisking and saying prayers that you don’t mess it up.. which you might. Then you start over. No. Nope. I’m not even going to bother. I am already frustrated hearing this and I’m not going to do it. *Crosses arms, looks the other way* Ok. I will take a moment to say here that even this is a skill I’d like to master. I just haven’t yet.

Both eggs and mustard contain substances that act as an emulsifier. Oil and water typically don’t mix. Emulsifiers are attracted to fat on one end and oil on the other end. This allows for everything to dance happily in one creamy delicious condiment for your sandwich. But it isn’t simply as easy as just stirring it all together though. Your technique matters. The traditional method of pouring slowly while whisking can very well turn into a curdled, greasy, gross mess.

Blenders work ok but it is difficult to make a small batch of anything in a blender. The solution is one of my favorite modern day appliances! The Emersion Blender! I love this thing. I use it for all sorts of things!

Ok so you will notice that mayonnaise uses raw egg.. *GASP* If this makes you nervous, you can purchase pasteurized eggs. If you want to dance in danger like me, grab those fresh eggs from the counter and get crackin.’

Put immersion blender at the bottom of the jar for about 20 seconds and then move it up and down until all of the oil is incorporated and the mayo is smooth and creamy.

Mayonnaise from scratch

Simple immersion blender recipe
Print Recipe

Equipment

  • immersion blender
  • wide mouth mason jar

Ingredients
  

  • 1 egg (pasturized if you're concerned about raw eggs)
  • 1 cup mild tasting oil (vegetable oil, avocado oil, light olive oil)
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp ground mustard
  • 1/4 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Add all the ingredients to a wide mouth mason jar
  • Put the immersion blender all the way to the bottom of the jar and blend on high
  • After about 20 seconds of blending when the bottom of the mixture is white, lift up on the immersion blender to incorporate the rest of the oil.
  • You may have to go up and down a few times with the immersion blender until it is all blended
  • The whole process will take just a minute or two.
  • Taste and add more salt or lemon juice if desired

Notes

Store your mayonnaise in a mason jar in the fridge for up to about 2 weeks. 
Keyword condiment, Mayo, mayonnaise

Happy Homesteading!

Fall Leaves are Free Garden Gifts

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Every fall I see neighborhood streets lined with clear trash bags filled with garden GOLD (raked up leaves). They are just sitting there waiting to be picked up and hauled to a landfill. Organic material like leaves (and all those things you ought to be composting) do not break down in the landfill like they would in nature. Instead it decomposes without oxygen, which releases icky methane into the atmosphere.. So if you aren’t composting, START!
Anyway, that was a small tangent. Leaves. That’s what we are talking about. They are free gifts for your garden. The “browns” of the composting world. Don’t send them off to the landfill! Don’t leaf blow them back into the woods. USE THEM!
Have you seen the price of compost these days? (Or the price of ANYTHING?!) Make your own leaf compost with all those leaves in your yard and in your neighbors yard. Drive around and snag all those bags on the curb! 

When I first started researching compost I thought, “well this is too complicated for me! I would need a chemistry degree to understand all this!” The truth is, the basics aren’t all that hard to understand but there are definitely people out there who have WAY more knowledge than I do about the magic of compost. That being said, you got this. Nature does it all the time and Nature doesn’t have a chemistry degree either. If you search the internet for the perfect ratio of “browns” (carbon) and “greens” (nitrogen) for your compost and read more than one source, you will likely get confused pretty quickly. No one can agree. Really you just take those suggestions as a launching point and just jump in. No one is out there weighing and measuring their compost ingredients anyway. We basically eyeball it and keep on truckin. You learn what to look for and how to trouble shoot. What to do if it smells, what to do if it’s too dry, etc.


There are a few ways to make your own leaf compost and I will cover some of them. You just do what works for you.

I’ve seen people simply bag up chopped up leaves (maybe hit them with the mower first) in black trash bags and poke a bunch of holes in the bag to allow moisture to get in. Then store them behind a shed over the winter. The sun heats up the bag and the moisture gets to working to make you some yummy leaf compost for your garden. I personally don’t want a ton of plastic waste so I don’t use this method. 

You can also make a what I like to call a “leaf corral.” You can use some leftover fencing to make an enclosure for the leaves. Now you have a choice to make. You can simply let the leaves sit and they will break down over time. It may be a long time before you have compost to harvest. This may be ok with you. If you are in a hurry and you want to speed things up, you can add nitrogen and turn your compost. This is that “greens and browns” concept of composting. Greens can be veggie scraps, grass clipping etc. Now I’ll tell ya, I keep my composting with veggie scraps to an enclosed compost bin so I don’t attract rodents or other animals. One way you can add “greens” to your leaf compost without attracting rodents is to use coffee grinds. I know it’s not actually green but it counts as a “green” in the composting world. You can ask local coffee shops for their grinds. Turning your compost will speed things up. Compost will become hot. That’s how you know it’s working! 

Like I said before, I have an enclosed compost bin that I use for my veggie scraps. Throughout the year I always have tons of scraps to add but leaves only fall once a year. I like to keep my leaves stored in a “leaf corral” so that they are available when I need them to add to my enclosed compost bin. I also keep this “leaf corral” available so I can use them as mulch here and there. I don’t mulch the whole garden with it but I do use it around my onions and garlic over the winter. Some people use them in Lasagna Gardening which is just a no till method where you create layers on top of the ground. Leaves would be one of these layers. These layers will break down, composting in place, to create lovely soil for you to grow in.

So instead of being annoyed at the fall chore of raking leaves, be happy that these little gifts are just falling from the sky!

Get Composting and …

Happy Homesteading! 

Overwintering Peppers

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If you live in zone 9 or warmer, you may not have to do anything to your pepper plants to enjoy them for several years. Pepper plants can live about 5 years and possibly longer. Many gardeners in colder areas grow them as annuals but you can overwinter them very easily!

Many of you are already passed your first frost date but we aren’t quite there yet. I have been eyeing the 14 day forecast and don’t expect that we have all that much longer before that frost comes to claim what’s left of the summer gardens. This morning I woke up to 39 degrees so I know I better get on overwintering these peppers before its too late.

This part is a little heartbreaking. The plants are so big and beautiful still with only a little cold damage. Their branches are still heavy with peppers. Deep breath. It will be worth it! 

So… This is actually my first time doing this but after watching multiple trusted youtubers assure me that it can easily be done, I decided it was ok to sacrifice some space in the greenhouse to try it. I can not wait to report back in the spring to let you know how it went. 

Since this is an experiment and I found some new pepper varieties I want to try next year (more on that later), I didn’t want to dig them ALL up. I did one of the jalapeños and two of my favorite sweet peppers. 

https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/new-items-2020/lesya-pepper

I picked the biggest and healthiest of the ones that were growing (and the ones with the straightest trunk. A few of mine were growing wonky and should have had some support.)

So how do you do it? Well, don’t look at me! This is my first time! Just kidding. I will tell you what I did. Often when I watch YouTube or consult various blogs about a gardening topic, I will get several different answers and I end up doing more research to figure out who’s advice I should follow. Overwintering peppers was not one of those things. They each did basically the same thing. This may be a first. It also gave me the confidence that it’s not that hard. 

First find which peppers you want to save for next year. Pick a good healthy one! 

Harvest all the peppers that are on the branches and set out to ripen if they aren’t yet. All of my Lesya peppers were still green but they will turn red on the counter. (You can eat them green but I HATE green peppers. I blame that on my first pregnancy where the smell of them made me sick)

After you have the peppers picked, go ahead and start choppin! You want clean shears as to not introduce disease to the plant and clean between each plant. I know some people aren’t as strict about this advice and I will admit I’m not either but I think I’m supposed to say it anyway. 

You don’t want to chop it all the way down you want to leave available several nodes where new growth will come form next year. The plants do sometimes die back some so make sure you account for a little of that. Make sure you take off all the leaves. You don’t want the plant focussing on that right now. 

I personally was generous with what I left at first and then went back and cut it some more after I got all those leaves out of my way and could see more. If you’ve done this before, you may tell me that I could have cut back even more but… I was scared haha. 

Now dig up your plant and shake off a good bit of dirt back into your garden bed. Im told that peppers don’t mind having their roots trimmed back some and even am assured that they like it. I trimmed the roots some and potted them up in some potting soil I have in the green house and gave it a good soaking.
While I was doing this, I unearthed some lovely hatched reptile eggs. The jury is out on who they belong to. Thoughts?

Stay tuned for the results of this experiment and for a list of all the peppers I want to try next year! I found some very interesting varieties including a COLD HARDY variety!! I am so excited! 

Homemade Crackers

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If you have children, your pantry likely has in it some snack food items you wouldn’t be proud of. Mine sure does. Fortunately they do love fruit and veggies but they very much enjoy munching on some crunchy carbs. Goldfish, pretzels, chips, popcorn, and crackers are regularly requested. The convenience of packaged junky snack food easily creeps into our lives over and over. When the prepackaged food is so easy to just buy, open, and eat, it’s easy to eat a little too much and a little too often. There is something special about participating in the preparation of your food. The love and work that go into something is important. The appreciation for the effort involved in food preparation helps you to take a moment and be present instead of just gobbling up the convenience food around you. Making things from scratch isn’t just frugal. Going through the process of start to finish, from-scratch cooking, connects you to your food, allows you to savor every bite, and can help to be mindful of portion control. 

 When you or your children really just want crunchy carbs, try making some homemade goodies with real ingredients and no chemical preservatives!
Homemade crackers are easy to make and fun to do with the children. Who doesn’t love using a cookie cutter?! A few simple ingredients you already have and you can whip some up. 

The spices you can use for this recipe are endless. You can make them sweeter and add cinnamon, you can go savory with garlic and onion. Really whatever makes you happy here! Get creative!

Homemade Crackers

Easy to make with ingredients you already have.
Fun for kids.
Great with soup, jam or a stand-alone snack
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Course Snack

Equipment

  • mixing bowl
  • rolling pin
  • cookie cutter
  • toothpick
  • pastry brush
  • lined cookie sheet

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2-3 tsp spices of your choosing
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cracked pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 cup water
  • course salt
  • more oil for brushing

Instructions
 

  • Mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt/pepper, and spices of your choosing in your mixing bowl.
  • Make a well in the center of your flour and add oil and water.
  • Incorportate the oil and water into the flour mixture until it forms a ball of dough.
    If the dough is too wet, add small amounts of flour until you are able to make a dough ball.
    You want the dough to still be somewhat tacky.
  • Onto a floured surface, roll out your dough evenly and very thin, no more than 1/4 inch thick.
  • Use cookie cutter (or pizza cutter or knife) to cut out your crackers.
  • Transfer crackers to a lined cookie sheet.
  • Use a toothpick to "prick" each cracker 3-5 times each.
  • Using pastry brush, brush oil onto each cracker.
  • Sprinkle the crackers with course salt.
  • Bake in oven at 400 degrees F for 12 minutes.
  • Allow crackers to cool and store on counter in sealed container.
    These crackers do not have preservatives in them and the humidity in your home could affect how long they can be kept. Store in fridge if you need to store them for more than a few days.
Keyword crackers

Gift Ideas From the Homestead

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Every year I tell myself this year will be the year that I do not procrastinate. This year I will start my Christmas gift preps early. I will make a plan and get things done long before Thanksgiving. Well.. it IS before Thanksgiving but I wouldn’t say its “long before” Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m writing this to inspire myself to get on the ball and perhaps to help you to get on the ball if you haven’t made your plans yet.
This is the time of year that the big box stores have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decor out all at once. It is a big fat reminder that the last three months of the year just zip by in a blur. From costume parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and all the holiday parties that get crammed in December, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed trying to plan Christmas gifts especially if you’re trying to make homemade goodies for the people you love.
I find the best thing to do is to make a list of all the people you give gifts to and fill in with ideas for what kinds of home made goods you could make for them. Pinterest boards with gift ideas are a great way to help you sort through all your ideas. 

Homesteaders tend to come with an array of different skills from sewing and crocheting/knitting to wood working, soap making, home brewing and so much more.  Use the skills you already have! This might be a fun time to step outside the box and learn a new skill! Look around and see what kinds of things you can do with what you’ve got. If you have bees, obviously honey and beeswax products are a good place to start. Getting the kids involved is the best especially if the gift is for the grandparents!


Below is a list, in no particular order to help inspire some gift ideas. A launching point, if you will. Quite a few of these require some advanced planning times. You may have to add some of these to next years list. Thats ok! Get a head start on next year’s planning! There are so many more things that can be added to this list. Please feel free to comment on this post to help expand the list!

-DIY flower press (or gifts made with flowers you pressed) This is a fun gift for a child or adult so they can make their own pressed flowers. Out of the pressed flowers you can make all sorts of things from jewelry to stationary, magnets, sun catchers etc. 

-Rag rug. This may be one of those “learn a new skill” kinds of things.

-Homemade basket (wooden, rope, fabric, crocheted) 

-Woodworking and wood burning. The options here are endless. (Porch sign, wooden tray, noodle board, bird house or feeder)

-Grape vine wreath. If you have grape vines or access to wild vines, making wreaths are a fun way to use them.

-Gourd bird house or other gourd crafts. Put part of the garden to use in growing your own gifts! 

-Herbal tea blends

-Soaps 

-Crocheted or knitted items 

-Candles 

-Canned goodies (pickled items, jams etc)

-Baked goods 

-Baking mixes. Put together a baking mix into a jar with a cute label with instructions. Everything is better when it comes in a mason jar.  

-Soup mixes. Use your home grown beans and dehydrated veggies to put together soup mixes.

-Home made vanilla extract. This takes a little time to be ready but is super easy to make. 

-Infused vodkas. This one also takes a while before they are ready but its fun and easy to put together. I like to make a bunch of small ones so there’s a variety.

-Bath bombs

-Dehydrated food. Get creative with your dehydrated goods for the year. Veggies, fruits, herbs, you name it.

-Wood carved items (such as bowls or spoons) This may be another “learn a new skill” gift. It’s always fun to learn a new skill.  

-Grow Job’s tears to make jewelry (from these are a plant that produces “beads”). 

https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/grains-and-cover-crops/job-s-tears

-Body butter

-Lip balms 

-Luffa items packaged for bath or cleaning. Growing luffa has been super popular in recent years. Find ways to make them into gifts.  

-Home made beer

-Home made wine or mead

-Pottery 

-Homemade room sprays with essential oils 

-Seeds form your garden

-Propagated plants 

–Meat rubs 

-Herbed salts 

-Herbed or flavored sugar



Every year I try to make a few home made gifts for the people on my list. Here are a few I’ve remembered to take pictures of! 

What kind of home made gifts are on your to do list this year ?

Happy Homesteading!

But I Don’t Have Land!

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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. 

Happy Homesteading!

Planting a Gift to the Future

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  • My mother on the tractor and my great grandfather
  • My grandmother and great grandfather
  • My grandmother with her pigs

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. 

What’s stopping you from planting that tree?

Happy Homesteading!

My great grandfather and me.