Homesteading Archives - Page 13 of 36 - Homesteader DepotHomesteader Depot

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Most Decorative Edibles for Your Yard

Maybe you’ve only got a small yard or a patio, and would like to combine your vegetable garden with your landscaping. Or perhaps you can’t have a garden where you live and you’d like to grow some veggies under the guise of decorative plants. Perhaps you’re just the visual, artistic type and would like to produce food and have a stunning, attractive, decorative garden. Either way, there are lots of beautiful options for you to grow vegetables that are both decorative and edible! Here are some of the best: Basil Basil is a cinch to grow and just so happens to be very […]

The Best Animals to Raise on a Homestead

Being able to raise livestock is one of the biggest appeals of homesteading, and it’s very rewarding too! Livestock can bring so much reward, from delicious byproducts, to valuable contributions to gardening and even landscaping, as well as companionship. Here are some of the best animals to raise on a homestead, and why. Chickens Chickens are just awesome. They’re cheap to feed, can be put to work in a number of ways, can easily be tended to using natural remedies, and produce delicious eggs and meat for you. Chickens are a globally popular animal to raise, for good reason to. […]

Urban Homestead

This is a very inspiring short film about “the hub”, a 1/2 acre lot in the small town of Oxford, in North Canterberry, New Zealand. Kane and Fiona Hogan are able to grow a beautiful, productive, and lucrative garden right in the middle of their town, and use that revenue to get out into the community and help the elderly with their gardening needs as well. This humble 1/2 acre lot is the center of a growing urban gardening culture in this small town, and is working to establish a sustainable, affordable, and healthy source of food for the community. […]

Tips and Tricks for Starting Seeds

Winter is on its last legs and it’s time to get ready for this year’s garden! If you’re in a zone with a shorter growing season or just want to stagger your crops for a richer harvest, check out these easy seed starting tricks. We already mentioned the first two in a post on frugal ways to start seeds, so check that post out for a more detailed description of how to do them: Cut and fold paper tubes to use as a biodegradable seedling planter. Use the tubes from toilet paper, paper towels, or wrapping paper. Start your seeds […]

How to Make Moss Grafitti

Moss Grafitti is a really cool new trend which involves growing moss in certain formations to create words or images. It’s the height of urban-dwelling earth-loving hipster culture, but you can easily do it on your homestead to add some beauty and creativity. Maybe you’re looking to give your barn a bit of visual appeal, mark your property line on some trees, or just have fun with a new artistic medium. Painting with moss is a unique and ecologically-sound way to release your inner artist around the homestead. Here’s how: Choose your spot First, choose the appropriate place to grow […]

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 […]

Frugal Ways to Start Seeds

It’s almost time for spring planting, are you ready? This is a great time to start your seedlings indoors to transfer to prepped garden beds in a few weeks. However, if you’re not set up with lots of fancy seed trays and want to get started anyway, here are a few frugal hacks for starting seeds indoors. Egg shells Did you know you can actually start seeds in egg shells? It’s true, and really cool too! All you need to do is save your egg shells, clean them with warm water and soap, and let dry. Collect enough to start […]

More Ways to Profit Off Your Land

A few weeks ago, we wrote an article on ways to profit off your land as a homesteader, and we promised there’d be more, so here it is! This week’s post on how to profit off your land is all about livestock, dairy, and meat. Being able to raise, consume, and sell your own animal byproducts is one of the biggest appeals of homesteading, and, with the right set-up, experience, and a bit of time, you can conceivably pull quite a profit. We already covered eggs, which is a really good start and has relatively low overhead. It’s a great […]