9 Practical Emergency Foods And How to Store Them

9 Practical Emergency Foods And How to Store Them

  Long term food storage is a good idea in many, many circumstances.  There are several basic food types that you should consider stocking up on that will last for years if needed.   Beans Dried beans of every variety are super cheap and even easier to store.  Store them in a dark, dry and cool place for best results.   Coffee and Tea Most of us consider ourselves in an emergency situation if we run out of coffee.  So, try to imagine going through an actual emergency without it…OH…THE HORROR!!! Just make sure you keep it in the right […]

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Building Your Very Own Smokehouse

Building Your Very Own Smokehouse

  There are a number of DIY smoker methods, ranging all sizes and prices.  If you only need to smoke small items or one medium item at a time, like a Christmas turkey, all you need is a large terracotta pot or unused metal trash can. But, if you need a good-sized smokehouse to help you prepare for winter on a homestead or other rural area, this design based on pallet wood should provide what you need without breaking the bank.  Its also designed so that you only need the most basic of woodworking skills to complete it. An important […]

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4 Nifty Alternatives to the Standard Root Cellar

4 Nifty Alternatives to the Standard Root Cellar

If you have your own garden and: You’ve used all your canning supplies Your freezer is full Your friends refuse to take any fresher produce off your hands Chances are you may need to consider an alternative method of storing your crops rather than just letting them all rot in their earthy homes. In cases like these, a good root cellar is an excellent alternative to mass vegetable homicide. However, unless you already have a handy hole dug in the ground complete with a door to keep out foraging animals.  You may need a viable alternative.  Fear not!  Alternatives do […]

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[DIY] Simple Venison Jerky Recipe

[DIY] Simple Venison Jerky Recipe

When you’re stockpiling for an emergency, some foods are easier to preserve than others. Vegetables and fruits can be canned or dried. But what do you do to preserve meat? Freezing is effective for regular use, but it won’t help you if there’s no power. One of the best and most effective ways to preserve meat is by making jerky. Jerky is easy to make, healthy to eat and has a long shelf life. Making it can extend the life of venison and provide you with a healthy, protein-packed snack to get you through hard times.   Preparing to Make […]

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7 Steps for Easy Canning

7 Steps for Easy Canning

If you decide to get into the wonderful world of canning, be prepared to experience some of the more flavorful food you’ve ever experienced at a fraction of the cost. Canning allows you to pick or buy produce when it’s at its peak maturity and preserve that flavor year-round. The simplest canning process is Water Bath Canning. To get started you’ll need a few inexpensive basics, many of which you may already have, or be able to find at your local thrift store or flea market. The absolute essential musts are: A pot that holds enough water to cover any […]

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Common Canning Mistakes to Avoid

Common Canning Mistakes to Avoid

Home canning is one of the best ways to preserve food, and every homesteader should try their hand at it! You’ll love being able to make huge batches of all kinds of canned food, and save for gifts or for food through the winter. However, since it is food preservation, it is very important that you do it properly. These canning mistakes have the potential to actually make your canned food highly dangerous, so make sure you are following canning safety protocol before you dive in and start experimenting. Here are some of the worst canning mistakes you can make, […]

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Keeping Your Harvest Year-Round (Infographic)

Keeping Your Harvest Year-Round (Infographic)

Whether you’re gardening or carefully shopping local and in season, the healthiest way to consume what you reap is to preserve it well so you can make the most of it! Produce turns quickly, but you can prolong the benefits of a fresh harvest with some smart planning and thinking ahead. There are so many great ways to preserve food, and this amazing infographic from Fix.com shows you how. We write a lot about food preservation here on Homestead Depot, but this infographic is a great guide to the overall concept of food preservation, and it gave me some great ideas! […]

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Tips for Freezing Produce at Home (Infographic)

Tips for Freezing Produce at Home (Infographic)

As you are planting your spring garden, make sure you have a plan for how to use up all the delicious produce your garden will yield! Or, if you’re getting ready for the farmer’s market season to start up again and would like a quick and easy way to preserve the delicious in-season produce you can get there, consider freezing! Freezing is a simple and fast way to preserve produce to easily reuse when needed, but you’ll want to make sure you’re doing it right! We put together this infographic to use as a guide for how to freeze produce […]

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Cold Canning vs Water Bath vs Pressure Canning

Cold Canning vs Water Bath vs Pressure Canning

When considering canning as an option to preserve produce from your garden, which method should you choose? You may find that each method (pickling, hot water bath, and pressure) yields different benefits suitable for different veggies or products. Cold canning is fast, easy, and great for short-term storage. We pickle cucumbers, squash, peppers, and many other veggies. Water Bath Canning gets up to boiling temperature which works great with high acid vegetables like tomatoes. However most vegetables do not have a high enough pH to can with this method without adding an acid source. Pressure Canning gets your jar’s internal […]

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How to Store Food in Vacuum Packed Canning Jars (Video)

How to Store Food in Vacuum Packed Canning Jars (Video)

I’ve had a vacuum sealer for years that has an attachment on it for canning. I never thought much of it, and figured it required a bunch of fancy additional equipment to use. However, it recently just clicked that I can use it for vacuum canning! And it doesn’t take much at all, just a lid for my jars, and I’ve got plenty of canning jars already. So, I wanted to learn how to use it. This video is a great tutorial on how and why to use your canning attachment to your vacuum sealer. She explains how long the food will […]

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How to Can Hamburger

How to Can Hamburger

I’ve been sharing a bit about canning meat lately, and I thought I’d share an actual recipe for how to do it. Now, remember that you do need an actual pressure canner to can meat, but given the amount of foods you can preserve with a pressure canner, it’s definitely worth the investment. Any way in which you can preserve meat is great to be able to do, since it’s nutritious and caloric. When it comes to canning hamburger in general, this is a great option for meat canning as you can take advantage of sales (ground beef goes on […]

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Dehydrating Food: A Beginner’s Guide

Dehydrating Food: A Beginner’s Guide

Dehydrating is a great option for preserving food for the long term, especially for gardeners or homesteaders. But even if you’re just an urban homesteader, it might be an excellent way to get started with food preservation. If you like to shop sales, frequent farmer’s markets, or grow veggies or herbs in your own little urban homestead, dehydrating is a great way to maximize your finds and easily store food for the long term. Here are some of the benefits to dehydrating vs. other food preservation methods: it preserves the nutritional content of food it condenses food and also makes […]

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The Coin in the Freezer Trick

The Coin in the Freezer Trick

Have you ever suffered from a long-term power outage or been evacuated from your home due to a natural disaster? In the event that nothing catastrophic ends up happening to your family, you will probably end up in a frustrating situation that many find themselves in after power has been out for a prolonged or unknown period of time: You don’t know how long the food in your freezer has been sitting in a freezer without power. So, the reason this might be relevant to homesteaders is if you are working on getting off-grid or already living this way, live […]

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Root Cellar Storm Shelter (Video)

Root Cellar Storm Shelter (Video)

I love things that have multiple purposes, and this root cellar storm shelter really takes the cake. A root cellar is definitely on the top of my list of features on a dream homestead, and for many locations in the US, having a root cellar that could double as a storm shelter is beyond ideal. We get more and more crazy every year, and no matter where you live, it’s very important to have a secure location that you can weather the storm out from. Not only will this underground root cellar and shelter provide safety and security, it would […]

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DIY Salt Cured Fish (Video)

DIY Salt Cured Fish (Video)

I recently posted a video about curing bacon, because I love cured meats of all time (and who doesn’t love bacon?). Curing meat seems to be a great homestead skill to have, wherever you live! However, curing fish is new to me, and this video explains how. It seems like a really cool process, using pickling salt, the sun, and a wood oven to cure and dry the fish. Seeing projects like this always motivates me to learn new ways to preserve food and add to  my stockpile. Check it out: If you liked this, you might also enjoy… Become […]

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How to Preserve Flour for Up to Five Years (Instructions and Video)

How to Preserve Flour for Up to Five Years (Instructions and Video)

Did you know there’s such a thing as canning flour? Neither did I, but I recently came across a video with instructions on how to do it. I’ve dealt with both weevils and pantry moths in the past, so I was pretty intrigued by this method, and it definitely seems like a surefire way to store flour for a long time. It’s not really as complicated as canning other types of food, but it follows the same principles. Here is what you need: Supplies:  Flour that you want to preserve Half-gallon canning jars and lids Canning funnel (very useful, but optional) Paper […]

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Canning Stone Fruits (Infographic)

Canning Stone Fruits (Infographic)

I have always been fascinated by canning, and I’d love to do more of it myself. It always seems kind of intimidating, but it’s really not too complicated, and this handy infographic from SurvivalLife.com breaks canning stone fruits down into simple steps. Stone fruits are some of the easiest items to can, and the steps taken in this guide can be followed with a $10 canning kit from Walmart or any grocery store. Cherries, plums, apricots, and peaches, make great preserves, from jams and jellies to easy pie fillings. I think my favorite thing about canning is how long preserves last, up […]

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Creative Ways to Freeze Eggs

Creative Ways to Freeze Eggs

If you are ever faced with an abundance of eggs and not enough time to make something with all of them, it can be overwhelming! Eggs, especially of the farm-fresh variety, are such awesome, healthy, cheap (or free, if you have your own chickens!), and versatile sources of nutrients that it is imperative to use them efficiently. One really great option for preserving eggs with any of the following freezer methods is not only having eggs through the winter as production slows, but also to make them quick, easy, and relatively mess-free to use! Baking in Muffin Tins A really simple […]

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Easy Pickled Garlic

Easy Pickled Garlic

Pickling garlic is a great way to preserve it for the winter, or if you don’t grow garlic, to ensure that you always have it on hand. You may have seen minced garlic or even whole garlic cloves in the store, but those typically have lots of preservatives in them or take on the flavor of whatever they’re preserved in. This recipe isn’t like them. This method will keep your garlic tasting fresh, and just like garlic. Since it is preserved in vinegar, when you’re ready to use it, you can simply rinse off the vinegar and use as you […]

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Preserving Meat with Salt

Preserving Meat with Salt

Whether your homestead is off-grid, you don’t have enough room in your freezer, or you want meat that could last when power is interrupted, salting is a great time-tested option.  In this article, we will discuss dry salting.  The process works by using the salt to draw out the moisture from the meat and any potentially harmful bacteria until microbial growth is prohibited.  It is basically chemically induced dehydration.  There is always a risk of food poisoning when one is consuming meat that is moths, or even a year old, get properly prepared and use caution when salting your meat […]

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