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How to Make Natural, Raw Sour Cream

Sour cream is a delicious staple condiment of American cooking, that can greatly enhance the taste of many delicious dishes, from potato pancakes, to baked potatoes, to nachos. Most people will be familiar with the store-bought version, a thick, gooey cream that comes in a plastic container and often with additives and even artificial flavoring. But did you know you can very easily make your own at home? Like pickles, homemade sodas, yogurt, and sourdough, sour cream is one of the many delicious, healthy, and easy home fermentation products that anyone can try themselves. And it just so happens to […]

Quick and Easy Probiotic Lemonade

I’ve been sharing some recipes for natural fermented sodas in the last few months using a “ginger bug” starter culture as a base. I thought I’d share a natural fermented probiotic drink that’s even easier to make, and doesn’t require a ginger bug to start. All you need for this probiotic soda to culture is whey. Whey is something you can’t buy in stores, but is incredibly easy to make at home. It is the liquid that separates from the curds when milk curdles, and it is also the common byproduct of cheesemaking or straining homemade yogurt. To get whey purely for […]

Beef Cuts and How to Cook Them (Infographic)

I’ve often recommended on this blog finding local, farm-raised meat and dairy for the most sustainable, healthy lifestyle. The thing about finding local meat, however, is that you might find yourself with some cuts of meat that you’re not familiar with and not used to cooking. I don’t know about you, but when I started learning to cook, I mostly knew how to saute ground beef and braise chicken breasts. Getting familiar with the different cuts of beef and how to prepare them can vastly broaden your culinary knowledge and abilities, as well as introduce you to some great new […]

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, […]

6 Things You Should Do Before Getting Piglets

I’ve raved quite a bit in the past about how great pigs are. You can buy them as piglets for a very affordable price, and within a season have a hog big enough to fill your freezer with meat. For the initial start-up cost, space they need, food they eat, and meat they yield, they’re incredibly efficient animals to raise for meat. And, as someone who hates waste, I just love how much you can feed them! It’s also relatively easy to feed them virtually for free, which is another big plus. When you buy pork at the supermarket, you […]

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 […]

5 Mistakes First-Time Chicken Farmers Make

When it comes to homesteading of all kinds, trial and error is a great way to learn. However, when you’re raising animals like chickens, you probably want to reduce the possible mistakes you can make. If you’re considering starting your own chicken flock, you’ll want to do it right. We’ve got a list of five common mistakes people make when they first start keeping chickens to help you avoid making them yourself. 1. Not protecting against predators Like a fox in a hen house, many predators out there, depending on your region, will see your chickens as a delicious, juicy, […]

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 […]

The Benefits of Homemade Soap

When was the last time you looked at the ingredient list on the soap that you buy at the grocery store? Most people never stop to take the time to look at this list, just getting what they’ve always bought or whatever marketing plan and commercials have told them a good soap should be. When you start to look at the ingredient list though, chances are good that you will find quite a few things that you can’t pronounce, including chemicals that may not be as good for your skin as you believe. It makes far more sense to go […]

Dirt Cheap Foods for Homesteaders

Whether you’re an urban homesteader or full-blown, land-owning, farmer, you have probably come to a time in your life at some point in which you had to keep your budget tight. If you are saving up for land, land development, or simply trying to budget and spend in a smarter way, food is always one of the biggest expenses, and it can be hard to know how to cut back on food spending without going for less healthy, processed foods. Fortunately, there are many wonderfully healthy and nutritious foods out there that are not only good for you, they’re dirt […]

Simple Yet Healthy Homemade Ketchup

Ketchup is an American staple, but did you know you can make it very easily at home? Unfortunately, a lot of store-bought ketchup is made with loads of sugar and sometimes even artificial coloring and flavoring. If you’re craving some delicious ketchup but want a healthy, whole-food version that doesn’t sacrifice health for taste, I’ve got the perfect recipe! This recipe uses all natural, easy-to-find ingredients, and instead of lots of cane sugar like regular ketchup typically has, it requires just a bit of honey and coconut sugar, which are much healthier and both have a very low GI index […]

Essential Oils for Natural Health (Infographic)

I recently shared some recommendations for the best essential oils to start your collection. I found this infographic on Pinterest the other day though and I thought it was an excellent cheat sheet for natural remedies for common maladies and health issues. Some of these remedies use the foundational essential oils I had on this list, while others call for more obscure essential oils. This should give you an idea of just how many uses for essential oils there are, and maybe some of the less common essential oils you might want to consider investing in. If you have a […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

How to Use Bentonite Clay

If you don’t already have bentonite clay stashed away in your natural medicine cabinet, you should. Bentonite clay, which is a sedimentary clay made up of weathered and aged volcanic ash, is an amazing natural health tool with a wide variety of uses around the homestead. It’s strong electromagnetic pull naturally draws out toxins, heavy metals, and impurities and can be used both topically and internally. Here are just a few of the ways you can use bentonite clay for your natural medicine chest Toothpaste Bentonite clay can be used as a base for natural, homemade toothpaste, including this tooth powder recipe. Deodorant […]