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The Good and Bad of Snakes on the Homestead

How do you feel about snakes? Many people have a fear of snakes, and for some people, it goes beyond just a healthy respect for the creatures and turns into full-blown hysterical fear. So, what should you do if you happen to see snakes on the farm or around your homestead? Are they good or are they bad? As you will find with most things in life, there are good and bad elements to them, but in most cases, they tend to provide some benefits to the homesteader. The Pros and Cons If you see a nonvenomous snake on your […]

Composting Chicken House (Video)

When it comes to homesteading, I think the more (proverbial) birds you can kill with one stone, the better. After all, that’s a huge part of what homesteading is all about: creating your own little self-sufficient system. This plan for a composting chicken house is awesome. It’s well-known that chickens can be easily put to work both by contributing to a compost pile or soil amendment with their nitrogen-rich droppings, or by being let loose on a compost pile to unwittingly turn it for you as they scrape and hunt all the delicious little bugs. But these folks in Guatemala […]

6 Crops You Can Plant Outside in Early Spring

I keep saying “spring is right around the corner” so forgive me, I’m just excited to get gardening again! As I prepare my own spring garden by starting seeds indoors, I have also been planning to start a few crops outdoors. I really prefer direct sowing for many reasons, while starting seeds indoors will give you that leg up to start your spring garden, and is great in many ways, direct sowing is easier, of course, and a lot of plants prefer not to be transplanted. I think it’s a really good idea to try both this year, especially if you’re […]

The Best Essential Oils to Start a Collection

There’s a lot of hype about essential oils out there, and it really is for good reason. Essential oils are a wonderful addition to any natural medicine cabinet. But it can be overwhelming trying to get yourself set up with some essential oils, and you can easily get sucked into some of the network marketing companies that sell essential oils for a very high price. or a bundle of several oils at once. You can easily spend up to a few hundred dollars on small bottles of oil that you won’t even use! There are literally dozens of types of […]

How to Permanently Get Rid of Ants

Ants are a real drag to have in your home. And if you’re a homesteader, there’s a good chance you’re bringing lots of dirt inside from your garden or pasture, and with that comes ant eggs. Or perhaps you have lots of little nooks and crannies for ants to sneak in. Either way, if you’re battling ants constantly, year after year, you’re probably ready to be done with them. Ants are not only a big bother, they can actually pose a serious health risk if not addressed. It’s not common knowledge, but some ant species can actually transfer harmful pathogens […]

5 Ways to Preserve Garlic

We’ve all experienced buying a head of garlic, and sooner or later those little sprouts pop out and we need to use it up as quickly as we can. Or perhaps you’re lucky enough to grow it yourself, or simply find yourself with entirely too much garlic on your hands from a deal at the farmer’s market or a Costco bag of organic garlic that was too good to pass up. Well, I’m actually a believer that there’s no such thing as “too much garlic”, because there’s always a way to use it up, if it’s turning too quickly for […]

Homemade Rosewater Recipe

Rosewater is exactly what it sounds like: water infused with roses. It’s simple, but it’s incredibly effective to tone, moisturize, and give a wonderful scent to skin and hair. You can use it in many different ways, as a toner for your skin, a quick moisturizing spray, to add to homemade lotions or remedies or just as a natural perfume. You can make a bottle of homemade rosewater very easily and use for yourself or as gifts, or even as a chic and easy addition to a farmer’s market stand for your homestead. Wherever you live, if you happen to […]

The Real Benefits of Raw Milk (Video)

I’ve written a bit about the benefits of raw milk on this site, and I’m a big believer in it. Raw milk might give many Americans who have gotten used to pasteurization pause, but the truth is, pasteurization actually reduces many of the natural health benefits of milk. Pasteurization has certainly helped with many food safety concerns as far as packaging and transporting food products in the US, but that really might be part of the problem. Or post-industrial world, reliant on national transportation grids to get our food to our door, totally removes the many benefits of a localized […]

Saving Space With Vertical Gardening (Infographic)

We’ve written a lot about urban homesteading and space-efficient gardening for small yards, so I was really excited to find this infographic on FoodRevolution.org. It is a full breakdown of types of vertical gardening set-ups. It details which plants grow well on which kind of trellis, and also has some really creative ideas for DIY vertical gardens you can make with repurposed supplies you probably have lying around or could find easily at a thrift store. Vertical gardening is, in so many ways, the way of the future, as city planners look for ways to grow food in urban environments […]

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 […]

4 Things to Know About Goats Before You Get Them

Goats are fantastic homestead animals, and we write about that all the time on this site. They can produce excellent milk, help you clear brush, grass, and shrubs, and can even been great companions. But you might have some misconceptions about goats you’re not aware of, so we thought we’d share four things you might not realize about goats. Before you purchase any, you should definitely be aware of these things, so you are not surprised when it’s not exactly like you thought! 1. Cream doesn’t separate While the cream in cow’s milk naturally separates, providing you with more than […]

Growing Calcium in Your Garden (Video)

Greens can be an excellent source of calcium, you just need to plant the right ones! John of GrowYourGreens.com shares what plants you can grow that are full of calcium, some even more than milk! He also explains how to amend the soil to ensure as much calcium as possible. This is a great video for anyone on a vegan diet, or anyone trying to grow food for long-term survival. You’ll need as much nutrients you can get, and calcium is a great mineral to grow in your garden, if you know what you’re doing! Check it out: If you […]

Crops to Grow to Feed Your Chickens

Chickens are some of the best and easiest homestead animals you can raise, but their feed bill can get kind of pricey, especially if you have a big flock! Not to mention, what chickens really want to eat, and what gives their yokes that beautiful, rich yellow color is lots of fresh produce. Like us, chickens benefit the most from a diet full of a wide variety of plants, fat, and protein. If you can let your chickens scratch around in a pasture, this is ideal. They love to hunt for bugs (most people don’t realize that chickens are actually […]

The Right Way to Water Your Plants

You may not have realized it before, but there are proven best practices for watering your plants and garden. Determining just when and how to water for the healthiest, most productive crops is all about paying attention to a few key factors. It might seem a little silly; is there really a wrong way to water plants? Not necessarily, but there are certainly better ways! There are no rules written in stone that apply to water all plants in all situations. You can make your call depending on the type of plant, the soil, the weather, the time of year […]

7 Brilliant Uses for Table Salt…Other Than Flavoring Food

Regular old table salt actually has a whole lot more uses than simply flavoring food. Even if you’ve gotten into healthier salts like Himalayan pink salt, you should still be buying regular table salt for the many household applications it has. Salt lasts virtually forever and can be used medicinally, for cleaning, even for the care of animals and in the garden. It should definitely always be a staple in your home, like baking soda or vinegar. Here are just a few of the many things you can use salt for: Soothe bug bites You can use salt to reduce […]

Amish Barn Raising (Video)

The Amish are famous for their incredibly speedy “barn raising”. This is when the whole community comes together and builds a barn in a day, sometimes even a matter of hours. I’ve always wanted to see one done, so I was thrilled to find this time-lapse video on YouTube recently that speeds a barn raising up to three minutes. It’s amazing to see the amount of men at work, and how quickly they’re able to erect the structures and finish them off. It’s so cool what can happen when community comes together and is willing to work just out of […]

How to Feed a Pig for Free

The expression “eating like pigs” is a very apt comparison, pigs eat a lot of food! They happen to be one of the most cost-efficient animals you can raise if you’re trying to fill your freezer up with meat for the year, so you’ll want to feed them well, and efficiently. Unfortunately, pig feed itself is not only expensive, typically full of GMO corn and soy which is not great for pigs or the humans who eat them, it’s also not everything a pig needs. It’s the pig equivalent of public school cafeteria food daily, so you’ll want to give […]

DIY PVC Hoop Greenhouse (Video)

Spring is here, and I’ve got greenhouses on my mind! If you’re itching to get your garden started but it’s not quite warm enough in your zone yet, you might want to consider building a simple greenhouse. These easy, cheap, DIY PVC hoop greenhouses have been popular for a long time, and for good reason. You can start seedlings indoors and get all the benefits of a good greenhouse for a very affordable price. It’s a must-have for any serious gardener, especially if you’re wanting to jump start your garden this year. There are a ton of videos out there […]

The 11 Commandments of Cast Iron Care (Graphic)

Most people who own and regularly use cast iron can’t gush enough about it. You might wonder what all the hype is about cast iron, and you also might wonder why people are so legalistic about cleaning it. The thing is, they’re really not so difficult to care for, at all, and no matter how much they wear or rust, it’s actually usually pretty easy to get them back in shape again, if you know what you’re doing. The great news about cast iron is that if you use them regularly, you really don’t have to do very much at all to […]

A Simple Guide to Raising Turkeys

A lot of Americans only think about turkeys once a year around Thanksgiving, but turkeys are a great homestead animal to raise and breed. They’re a lot like chickens, really, only bigger. If you’re considering raising turkeys yourself, here is a basic guide to what you need to know. Starting out You’ll first have to decide if you want to start with mature turkeys, or with baby turkeys, which are called poults. You can buy poults as you can baby chickens, and raise them up from infancy. Or, you can buy already mature turkeys and let them breed. There are distinct pros […]