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The Ultimate Guide to Health Diets

It can be overwhelming trying to eat healthier these days. It seems like every day there’s new information about the health benefits of a certain food, while the current fad diet preaches the elimination of that diet. If you browse healthy recipes on Pinterest, there’s lots of confusing terms applied to different recipes that might make finding the right recipe for your needs difficult. If you are wanting to try a new cleansing diet, eat healthier, or simply understand what all these diet buzzwords mean, this simple guide is for you. Since this is a site about homesteading and we […]

How to Make Pickles at Home

Pickles are one of the most classic and widely recognized forms of brine preservation. While the term “pickled” can apply to various forms of preserving various kinds of vegetables, what most of us think of when we think of “pickles” is the classic, brine-preserved cucumber that has become a staple of delis and diners across America. It most famously made its way into the American diet through Jewish delis in New York City, and, like any classic food, it can be made easily at home. While the formula is simple, however, there can be a bit of trial and error involved, […]

How to Make Sourdough Without a Recipe (Video)

I’m a huge fan of home fermenting and culturing of all kinds. Yogurt, kefir, kombucha, pickled vegetables, and my personal favorite, sourdough bread. Sourdough is not just a distinct flavor of bread, it gets its rich, sour flavor from the leavening culture that causes it both to rise, and changes the metabolic structure of the wheat. Sourdough is actually much healthier than breads that are not naturally fermented, because the culturing process actually breaks down the antinutrients that can make wheat difficult to digest. Some people who can’t otherwise eat gluten can still eat sourdough, actually! I have made sourdough […]

Dandelion Pesto Recipe

Dandelion is a wonderful plant, that the majority of Americans just think of as a weed. If you’re not already foraging your yard’s dandelion for natural remedies or food, you definitely should be. Dandelion grows virtually everywhere, and I can almost guarantee it’s growing somewhere near you, either in your backyard, local park, or any field or meadow nearby. It was a staple of Depression-era cooking, and it’s tasty, nutritious leaves can be prepared in a number of ways. You can easily eat them raw, but if you’d like to enjoy them in a very delicious way, try this amazing […]

How To Make Caramelized Onions in a Slow Cooker

I don’t know about you, but I love caramelized onions. What I don’t love is spending half an hour in front of my stove, stirring the onions and waiting for them to get to just the right degree of caramelized. Caramelized onions are a delicious addition to a wide variety of dishes, from soups to salads to pork chops and beyond. They can make a very simple, dressed-down seem like it’s straight out of a fancy French restaurant. Of course, the fancy part of it is probably due to the careful process of making caramelized onions, which many home cooks […]

Soaking and Sprouting Times for Seeds (Infographic)

I shared an article last week on sprouting alfalfa, and I did mention that you can use many other kinds of seeds and beans as well, using this method. It is definitely true that the basic principle of soaking, draining, and sprouting applies to many seeds and beans, they vary, sometimes quite drastically, in ideal soaking time and the amount of days it takes for them to sprout. Here is a great resource from nourishsystem.com for any aspiring sprouters out there. This is a chart that lists many of the popular sprouting seeds, grains, nuts, and beans, and all the information […]

Delicious Beef Liver Pate Recipe

I recently shared a post on the health benefits of liver, and I did promise I’d post a liver pate recipe. Liver pate is a great way to eat liver, it’s super delicious and actually very good for you, at least in moderation, as while it includes lots of healthy fats, it’s still pretty caloric. It is a classic example of fattening-but-healthy French food, and liver pate from France has gained a worldwide reputation for its decadent flavor. And it’s really not too hard to make at home! I chose a very basic recipe that calls for ingredients you already […]

The Simplest Way to Peel Garlic. Period. (Video)

Garlic is a homestead kitchen staple, but let’s face it; it’s more than a little tedious to fidget with the papery skin of each individual clove. Sure, you could smash your garlic with a knife or a mallet and make a big mess. If you have half an hour or more to spare, you could soften the skins in hot water. If you need to peel enough garlic to season food for an army, or make a hefty portion of a natural remedy like honey-infused garlic, you can shake them into oblivion between two bowls, but that’s more trouble than […]

How to Can Butter (Yes, Really!)

Lately, butter has come raging back as nutritionists reveal it’s actually quite healthy for you. For a few decades, butter was demonized as too fattening and unhealthy, but as vegetable-oil based alternatives were introduced, we saw obesity rates skyrocket. Not sure why no one ever noticed the correlation, but it turns out that in fact, the saturated fats that come from butter are not only better for you, they can ultimately help lose weight when coupled with a balanced diet full of “good” fats, and free of processed foods and sugars. I personally love butter, and was really excited to […]

How to Make Healthy Gummy Candy

Gummy candy is a great treat, but unfortunately, it’s usually loaded with dyes, preservatives and chemicals. Like many junk foods, there are healthy versions you can make at home, but DIY gummy candy has a unique quality among healthy alternatives to candy: it’s actually really good for you. The base of homemade gummy candy is gelatin, which is an excellent source of protein, minerals, and vitamins that help improve skin, hair, nail, dental, and bone heath, ease the symptoms of arthritis, relieve tendonitis and other muscle and joint-related health issues. It’s amazingly good for you, but make sure you buy gelatin from grass-fed […]

A Simple Guide to Starting a Beehive (Video)

Last week, we shared the very cool idea to make a beehive using mason jars, so since it did not come with instructions as to how to actually start a hive, I thought I’d go ahead and follow up with that one. Bees are a wonderful thing to do on the homestead, or even in your backyard, if you’re able to. Raw honey is one of the most valuable and nutritious substances on the planet, so raising bees is a space and time efficient way to produce food on a small scale, and a wonderful addition to any homestead or self-sufficiency […]

Hunt for Your Meat

If you are a homesteader, you have probably spent quite a bit of time trying to determine just how much food you can grow on your property. While growing your veggies and fruit, and canning them, is great, most people will also want to have meat on the table. You may have some livestock that you can use, such as chickens. However, the best way to get more meat is to start hunting. Take the time to see what animals are in your area and the times of the hunting seasons. Common animals to hunt include deer, boar, ducks, quail, […]

How to Use Extra Whey

Every aspiring or seasoned dairy farmer is familiar with whey, the byproduct of making yogurt, cheese, and other delicious dairy products. In the process of making many of these dairy products, the whey is often discarded, but it’s actually quite nutritious on its own, and can be reused in many different ways. Use in almost any recipe in place of water or even milk. Whey adds depth of flavor to bread, soups, sauces, marinades, and main dishes. If you are overrun with whey, you can even boil pasta or rice with it! Soak grains and legumes The acid and cultures in […]

The Easiest Gardening Method You’ll Ever Try

A thriving garden is the beating heart of the homestead. For many people, though, keeping a garden can be a challenge. Traditional methods require heavy machinery for soil preparation, questionable chemical fertilizers, all adding up to a prohibitive upfront cost. A great and easy method of gardening that has a very low financial demand is the “lasagna garden”. It was given that name because the method involves developing arable soil by composting an existing plot with layers of organic matter. You create the layers in the fall, to be ready for planting in the spring. Here’s a quick guide to […]

Overnight Oats-5 Different Ways (Video)

I absolutely love overnight oats. They’re such a great, healthy way to have a quick, easy breakfast waiting for you in the morning. Overnight oats are a staple in Europe, they typically use muesli and let it sit in yogurt and/or milk overnight. Not only does the yogurt really draw out a delicious flavor in the oats, because it is acidic, it also breaks down the “antinutrients” in the grains, making them easier to digest. Grains are not inherently bad for you, they just typically need to have these antinutrients broken down using methods such as soaking, sprouting, or souring. […]

Coconut Oil Candy Recipe

In case you have been living under a rock, coconut oil has soared in popularity in recent years for being an insanely healthy superfood. Regular consumption of coconut oil will provide a multitude of benefits, including: Reducing wrinkles and sagging skin Fighting fungus and bacterial infections Supporting the pancreas, liver and kidneys Preventing Alzheimer’s Easing digestion Improving bone health Maintains healthy blood sugar Reduces cholesterol The problem is, most people won’t feel like swallowing a spoonful of coconut oil daily. It is, of course, easy to incorporate into your diet by cooking with it or putting in smoothies, but if […]

How to Freeze Lemons (Video)

I saw this on Pinterest recently and I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. Freeze lemons, OK, so what? Well, it turns out that lemons contain unique compounds called “lemonoids” which do serious battle against cancerous tumor, particularly from breast cancer. Lemon peels are packed with vitamins, way more than the actual lemon juice. Aside from being amazing cancer-fighting nutrient sources, they also help to detox the whole body from health issues like worms, parasites, fungi, and bacteria, which can be responsible for a multitude of overlying health issues and are not often addressed by modern medicine. […]

How to Make Homemade Almond Extract

I love DIY everything, and extracts are surprisingly easy. At the store, extracts for baking and flavoring foods can be surprisingly expensive, especially if you’d like organic or natural extracts of any kind. Almond extract is great to have for baking of all kind as the subtly sweet flavor of almonds makes for delicious cakes and cookies. The process for making your own is very simple. Since it only requires 15 raw almonds, it shouldn’t be too expensive to make this organic and natural, with some decent-quality vodka as well. You could make this large batch and put into smaller bottles for gifts […]

Food for Healing (Inforgraphics)

I am a huge fan of using food for natural remedies and anything DIY. Not only does it save a bunch of money to use natural remedies made with food, but it’s most often much healthier and with more readily available healing properties than the over-the-counter alternative. I’m often recommending food items for DIY natural remedies, as you’ll know if you follow this blog regularly, and in my personal research I’ve often found Indian bloggers and vloggers are well-versed in using food, herbs, and other plants for natural remedies and beauty treatments. I recently came across this great set of […]

A Vegetable Growing Cheat Sheet

I love a good, detailed infographic, especially when it comes to gardening. A lot of the gardening infographics that show up on my feed on Pinterest are pretty simple, so I was stoked when I found this one from Anglianhome.co.uk recently. It’s an all-purpose cheat sheet for vegetable growing, from what’s best for plot vs. patio (or potted) vegetable gardens, where to plant, when to plant, and a handy companion planting guide as well. I think the companion planting guide section is my favorite, with handy color coding. It can be overwhelming trying to decide what to plant with what, […]