Living off the land is a dream many of us share. Homesteading is a catch-all term for the various aspects of turning this dream into a reality. In this blog category we share tips and tricks for everything from gardening to tool maintenance, splitting firewood, and growing mushrooms. Additionally, you’ll find some of our favorite books and resources here.
Perennial crops are some of our favorites. They’re the starlets of the permaculture world for many reasons. Not the least of which is that once they’re established, they keep giving and giving with (usually) less maintenance than annuals. There are tons of different perennial crops, from giant trees to tiny ground covers. Indeed, each […]
To make maple syrup, collect sap from sugar maple trees (Acer saccharum) and cook it down. This is done by placing small tubes (also known as “taps” or “spiles”) into shallow holes in the tree’s trunk; they direct the sap into buckets or other receptacles. After collecting it, pour the sap into a large pot […]
Most of us gardeners peruse seed catalogues in the fall and winter. After checking out what’s new and interesting, plus covering the bases with our trusty standbys, we place our orders through independent garden seed companies. At that point, all there is to do is await the arrival of our box full of neat […]
Acorns look delicious, don’t they? They’re so smooth and appealing in their cute little “cupules” (hats). They are full of nutrition, but they’re also full of bitter, astringent tannins. These are compounds that make raw acorns distasteful and hard to digest. However, people all over the planet, from California to Japan and everywhere in between […]
Aren’t pickles fun? They’re such a great way to preserve the harvest, plus making pickles gives you a chance to experiment with flavor combinations. Not to mention, pickles of all kinds make great snacks and accompaniments to meals. Here we explore two very different ways to turn vegetables into pickles: lacto-fermentation and vinegar pickling (with […]
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