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The Health Benefits of Flaxseeds

Flax seeds are a pretty popular health item as of late. They can be bought either ground, in seed form, or in a highly nutritious oil. As the healthy fat craze continues, flax seed has proved itself to be a desirable form of healthy omegas-3s. I have always enjoyed it ground on top of yogurt or in multigrain bread, while I enjoy the oil in salad dressings. However, what I did not learn until recently is that flax seed oil is also used as a natural remedy. While it’s great for day-to-day health maintenance, it’s also a great natural health […]

Off-Grid Outdoor Kitchen Tour (Video)

If you’re an aspiring homesteader, this will be better than anything on HGTV to you. This amazing outdoor kitchen is any homesteader’s dream summer kitchen and I was super excited to see this video appear on one of my favorite homesteading YouTube channels. Summer kitchens are so essential to the homestead. Cooking can get incredibly hot as the weather gets warm, and having the option to cook outside can greatly reduce the temperature of your home, helping to keep it as a cool haven from the oppressive summer heat. Also, as you begin to harvest both from your garden and […]

How to Read Antique Cookbooks

Antique cookbooks are a wonderful relic of the past, and yet, if you’ve ever tried to make any of the recipes contained within, you might find yourself scratching your head. Just as lifestyles have changed drastically in the last half, even quarter century, so have the way we cook, talk about, and interact with food, and the cookbooks of yesteryear might be a bit cryptic to today’s modern cook. However, if you are a homesteader, these antique cookbooks might be very appealing to you. They are written for people who had access to the kinds of things homesteads produce, and […]

How to Use Apple Cider Vinegar for Beautiful Skin(Infographic)

Apple cider vinegar is probably one of my favorite substances on the planet. It is so versatile and beneficial, and every time I’ve used it for some kind of natural remedy, it works amazingly well. I’m also among the small percent of the population who also enjoys the taste of it (well, in moderation…) While I could go on and on about the benefits of apple cider vinegar, I thought I would instead share this great infographic. You see, among all the amazing benefits of apple cider vinegar is its many options for naturally improving your skin and complexion. From […]

How to Plant Corn in a Square Foot Garden (Video)

I think corn is one of the coolest crops you can grow, and given it is native to the Americas and was a staple of the Native Americans, it’s clearly a good choice for the self-reliant homesteader. It is nutritious, caloric, keeps well, and, of course, does wonderfully in many North American climates. If you have long-term goals of self-reliance or food independence, you should definitely start growing corn now. This video is a how-to for planting corn in a square foot garden, using a very simple and reliable method of planting. The homesteaders who made this video are using the […]

How to Make Aromatic Potpourri

If you are a flower gardener or simply love the smell of fragrant potpourri, you should definitely learn to make your own. You can harvest and process your own flower petals or buy your own and make several sachets to give to friends and family. There are few more thoughtful, easy homemade gifts than an aromatic sachet of potpourri! The most common bases for potpourri are rose petals and sweet geranium leaves. If you grow roses, this is a wonderful way to use the petals once the flowers begin to die. You can add to these whatever you like, and […]

Is Your Soil Good Quality?

If you are interested in homesteading, urban homesteading, or natural health, you probably care about what goes into your body. You try to buy organic and eat whole, healthy foods that are the best sources for the macronutrients, micronutrients, and minerals that our bodies need to thrive. But do you take so much care of the plants you grow? Plants need food as well, and not just bland, synthetic versions of the food they thrive on, but natural, pure, varied nutrients. The way plants get their “food” is through the soil. This is one reason it is so important to […]

Living Simply in a Tiny Off-Grid Cabin (Video)

Would you be happy living with less? This family certainly is. Living in a tiny cabin on a piece of land in New Zealand, instead of paying rent, they do work-trade for the opportunity to live off the land. You’d be amazed at the simplicity of their dwelling, and yet, they’re clearly very fulfilled. I found this to be such an inspiring look at just how fulfilling a more reduced life can be. I lived in a similar way for some time and relate so much to their experiences. It really is amazing just how much easier life can be […]

Why Raise Meat Chickens?

If you are used to buying your chicken from the supermarket, you might not realize this, but there is one breed of meat chicken that dominates the modern, globalized meat market. You know it well, and yet probably don’t even know the name. You buy your whole fryers, your boneless skinless chicken breast, your thigh meat, your wings, your drumsticks, your whole legs. It might come from different brands, priced differently, sometimes on sale, sometimes more expensive for higher quality. But it is almost always the same chicken breed: the Cornish Cross. The Cornish Cross has not always been the […]

Why You Need to Rest if You’re a Homesteader

Homesteading is a lot of work. It’s definitely work that’s quite worth it, and if you are a homesteader, it’s probably what you signed up for. You are probably the kind of person who was willing to sacrifice the ease and convenience of modern life to roll up your sleeves, pull on your work boots, and get dirty doing what you love most. If you’re a type-A personality and absolutely live to work, that’s great. Or maybe you get stressed out easily, and overwhelmed by all the spinning plates of homestead life. The thing is, regardless of how naturally hard-working […]

What Is Guerrilla Tree Planting?

A lot of people out there would love to live a more sustainable lifestyle. One in which you give back to the environment from which we take so much. If you live in a city or suburb, or even if you’re homesteading, it might feel like there’s only so much you can do to make a positive impact on our natural world beyond your own small life. When it comes to living a greener life, there are so many great ways you live more in a more sustainable and self-reliant way. Whatever your views on environmental policy, I think everyone […]

Goat Crossfit (Video)

Regular Crossfit is all the rage, but now…there’s goat Crossfit! When this urban homesteader’s friends all started going to Crossfit down the street from her house, she knew she didn’t need to go, because she already had goats. This very cute and funny video shows the brilliant invention of goat Crossfit! It has yet to take off, but it looks like such a fun, great workout, we’re confident it will very soon… 😉 If you enjoyed this, you might also like…. Long-Term Survival for Homesteaders… Natural Healing Secrets You Need to Know… Effective Primal Diet Hacks…

Life In The Country Is Free of Pollution….Right?

It is a very common assumption that urban centers tend to be much more toxic and polluted than rural communities or wilderness. And there’s good reason to think this. Cities have far more toxic emissions from the many vehicles that go in and out of the city every day, the high concentration of factories, plants, and refineries, the shere volume of people densely populating our nation’s major urban centers. It is true that there is much pollution in cities, as anyone who’s ever overlooked the Los Angeles basin on a sunny day can attest. Cities produce a huge amount of […]

A Basic Guide to Marking Goats

Goats are a wonderful addition to any homestead, but if you have quite a few, you might need to consider marking them at some point. Usually, small homesteads who raise a handful of goats merely for pleasure and can recognize all their goats according to their markings won’t need to rely on marking to identify their goats. But if you’d like to breed, sell, and/or register your goats, you will need a system for keeping track of them. The most common methods of marking goats are either tattooing or ear tagging. Tattooing is the only permanent method and may be required to register […]

How to Stay Cool on the Homestead

The last few years have experienced record-breaking heat throughout the summer, all across North America and Europe. With unseasonably warm winters, it’s likely that this summer will be no different. Unfortunately, for gardeners and homesteaders, we need to spend quite a bit of time outside, heat or no heat. So what are some ways you can keep cool, while still staying on top of your chores? We’ve got some tips. 1. Timing is Everything Perhaps most important is to plan very carefully for all your chores to get done in the cooler parts of the day. Get up with the […]

Essential Items for Your Emergency Survival Kit (Infographic)

Whether you’re a survivalist, prepper, homesteader, or simply someone who wants to create a culture of self-reliance in your home, you need to be prepared for emergencies. It can be overwhelming thinking about everything you might need to survive long-term, but it’s always prudent to simply start with the basics. Every family should have a basic emergency survival kit, and this infographic from SHTFPreparedness.com is a great guide for how to build this kit and what you should have in it. These simple items are essential for any kind of emergency, and even if you’re not set up with enough food […]

Survivalist or Homesteader? (Video)

This is a great video from a popular homesteading and survivalism vlogger I really enjoy. He poses the questions: which will survive longer, a homesteader or a survivalist? Are they the same thing? Does one come before the other? I think this is a really great topic since, while homesteading and survivalism are not necessarily synonymous, there’s a lot of overlap. The ultimate goal of homesteading is self-reliance and independence, and survivalism is all about preparing for any number of scenarios in which you will not be able to rely on others to save or help you. If you’ve ever […]

When the Garden Doesn’t Grow: How to Increase Food Supply

As a homesteader, you will typically put a lot of faith in your garden when it comes to having enough food to last your family. You will learn how to plant and keep the plants healthy and strong, how and when to harvest, and canning techniques, most likely. When everything is going well with the garden, this can be a great method to take care of the bulk of the food you and your family need. However, it is not always enough. Sometimes, the garden can fail, too, and that means you need to have some other ways of procuring […]

Make Money on Your Homestead

You love the idea of living simply and living on a homestead. However, you probably also love the idea of having some extra money coming into the household. Fortunately, you can combine these two loves and find some interesting ways to make money from your homestead, and it is easier than you might imagine. Here are just some of the different ways that you can start using your activities on the homestead to earn more to supplement your life. Grow and Sell Excess Food If you are already growing a nice garden, and perhaps some fruit trees to provide for […]

All About Parsnips

Parsnips are not a very well-known garden vegetable, but they’re wonderful to grow, taste delicious, and keep extraordinarily well in the garden over winter, or in your root cellar. From the carrot family, parsnips, or Pastinaca sativa, resemble a pale carrot. They can be difficult to grow, but they’re worth the effort for their ability to keep through winter. They are the easiest garden vegetable to keep in the soil through the winter, to be dug up as needed, which makes them a wonderful choice for homesteaders. Today, we’re going to discuss all things parsnip; how to plant, grow, harvest, and keep. […]