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Homesteading – Page 63 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Category: Homesteading

  • How to Freeze Raw Potatoes

    How to Freeze Raw Potatoes

    Keeping potatoes in a root cellar is a common way to store these essential root veggies through the winter, but plenty of people don’t have root cellars! Canning is another option, but that usually takes a pressure canner.

    If you find yourself with a lot of potatoes you’d like to store for a long time but don’t have a cellar or a pressure canner, freezing them is a great option-if you do it right. It can be kind of tricky, so here are some tips to ensure they remain fresh in the freezer.

    Use Fresh Potatoes

    Don’t use potatoes that have started to turn. If you want them to keep fresh in the freezer, use the freshest potatoes you can find that haven’t yet started to sprout or get black spots.

    Vinegar

    Before preparing them for freezing, cut them up and rinse them in cold water with a little vinegar. This will help preserve them.

    Related Article:  Creative Ways to Freeze Eggs

    Blanch

    Before freezing, blanch your potatoes in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, then cool and let dry completely.

    Banish oxygen

    Potatoes usually turn brown or black after exposure to oxygen, so if you can, vacuum-seal your potatoes before freezing. This will keep them in a completely oxygen-free environment and as fresh as possible in the freezer. But if you do not have a vacuum sealer, you can put them in a zip-lock bag with a paper towel and try to squeeze out as much as the air as possible.

    Thaw at room temperature

    For some reason, if you thaw in a bowl of water in the sink rather than in the refrigerator, frozen potatoes are less likely to turn black. For instance if you are planning on cooking with them in the evening, take them out of the freezer and put them in a bowl of room-temperature water in the sink to thaw throughout the day.

    To use your thawed potatoes, just throw in any dish as you would fresh potatoes. They work best in longer-cooking recipes like stews, soups and chowders. You can even use them for mashed potatoes! Enjoy!

     

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  • Cultivate Your Own Wild Yeast Starter (Video)

    Cultivate Your Own Wild Yeast Starter (Video)

    As homesteaders, we’re used to growing our own food, raising animals, even fermenting and preserving. But something really cool you can cultivate is wild yeast! You are probably used to baking with active dry yeast that you buy in packets at the store, but did you know you can harvest the microorganisms that naturally occur in any environment to make your own active starter?

    It’s really cool! And if you don’t already homestead, it’s a very fun way to grow “food” right on your countertop, needing little more than flour, water, and time.

    Check it out!

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  • Drip System Installation (Video)

    Drip System Installation (Video)

    Recently I wrote about how to conserve water, time, and energy by watering wisely, but that is under the assumption that you, like myself, don’t have a drip system.  If you have the money to invest in a drip system there is no better way to conserve water, time, and energy in watering your garden.  With a timer added to your system you can pretty much forget about your garden and it will still grow.  This video features a system that retails for about $30, in the video it irrigates a 8’x10’ bed with material to spare (the timer is not included in the price).  While not every garden setup allows for a drip system, if you live in an area prone to drought, you may want to design your garden to be compatible.

     

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  • Growing Loofah Sponges  

    Growing Loofah Sponges  

     

    I always thought that loofah was the remains of some aquatic creature living on oceans reefs.  But then when I was searching an online seed catalog I saw it listed.  I had to click it to check it out, and then grow some for myself.  It turns out that loofah is in the same family as cucumber, it’s a gourd, and it can be eaten or left to dry on the vine and used as the sponge you see in stores.  Here’s how.

     

    • They do not handle frost well, so don’t plant them too early if you live in a cold zone.
    • Plant them in an area where they will have room to grow, which can be horizontal on a fence, or vertical on a trellis, and where they can get plenty of sun.
    • They produce a nice yellow flower that looks nice.
    • This will turn into a gourd that while young resembles a cucumber. It’s at this stage that it is edible.  If you want to eat them, harvest them when they are between 4 to 6inches long and still tender and green.   You will need to remove the skin, and cook them.  They can be steamed, stewed, or best of all, stir-fried.
    • If you want to get a sponge just keep waiting. The gourd should start to turn yellow or brown.  Shake the gourd regularly to check if it’s done.  If you can hear loose seeds rattling around inside it is done.  You want to keep checking and not leave it too long so that it doesn’t begin to rot.  If it does rot it will ruin a portion of the sponge that you can cut off, but it will also leave the rest of it brown instead of white or yellow.  After harvesting the dried gourd, remove the top and empty out the seeds so you can grow more next season.  Then soak the gourd until the skin softens and peel the skin off.  What remains is the loofah sponge.

    It’s not the most productive crop in the garden, but it does taste good when harvest young, and the novelty of growing your own sponge is pretty cool.  It’s also a nice non-perishable item that you can take to the local farmer’s market or sell online to make some income off of your garden and help fund your homestead.

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  • Getting Rid of Mice

    Getting Rid of Mice

    Some people are horrified of mice. Some people think they are cute. When you are a homesteader, they are a problem that you need to solve quickly. If you are unable to get rid of the mice, they can destroy or contaminate your food supply faster than you might think. They breed quickly, and when you see just one or two of these rodents, you can be sure the problem runs a lot deeper.

    First, you will want to determine just how you want to get rid of the mice – humanely or with lethal traps. It depends on how you feel about killing mice. Live traps can work quite well. However, if you choose this method, you need to release the mice far away from civilization. You can’t just walk to the other side of your yard and let them go because they will head straight back into the house, your storage, and everywhere else you don’t want them to be.

    If you utilize lethal traps, don’t feel bad about it. If you don’t get rid of the mice, they are going to cause a substantial amount of problems for your home and potentially your health. You need to put you and your family above your feelings for fuzzy little mice.

    Once you get rid of the mice on your property, you will want to make sure they stay away. Using a spray of apple cider vinegar and water has proven successful for some. In addition, you might want to consider getting cats, as they can prey on the mice. Also, if you happen to see snakes on your property, as long as they are nonvenomous, let them stay. The snakes will also help to keep the population of mice down for you.

     

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  • Cheap Homesteading Supplies You Need

    Cheap Homesteading Supplies You Need

    As a homesteader, you want to reduce your expenditures and become more self-sufficient. You want to grow your own food, and perhaps even mend and make your own clothing. However, as independent as you might be, or want to be, you still need to have the right tools and supplies. You can get many of the supplies you need without going over your budget thanks to buying in bulk and buying from places such as dollar stores. The following are some of the supplies you can find in these stores.

    Needles are usually available at these budget stores, and you can buy several packs since they are only a dollar. You may also be able to find thread there as well. However, you should be careful. Only buy one spindle at first and check the quality. While the needles shouldn’t be a problem, the thread might be low quality, and you don’t want to waste your money on it.

    Freezer bags are usually available as well. Sometimes, they are name brand and sometimes they aren’t. However, they all tend to do the job the same. You can use these bags for meat, vegetables, and more. Along the same lines, you may find some aluminum foil. You can never have too much.

    If you are lucky, you might even find some buckets with lids at the store, and these are great for storing many different things. However, you should only store food, such as rice or beans, in food grade buckets, or in glass jars.

    The next time you are in town and passing by the local dollar store, take a few minutes to walk around the aisles. You might find quite a few other homesteading supplies, such as duct tape, that you can buy without breaking the bank.

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  • Growing An Edible Garden Landscape

    Growing An Edible Garden Landscape

    Gardening is a hobby that can be enjoyed by everyone. With the numerous types of accessible gardening methods available, physical limitations or mobility concerns should not prohibit you from growing a garden. An online search of photos of accessible gardens that creative individuals have designed will give you some ideas as to how you might want to design your garden. Keep in mind that accessible gardening is just like traditional gardening in that the design you choose and the plants you include can be tailored to your individual preference.

    Raised beds are a popular form of accessible garden. When you choose this method, you can construct the gardens so that they are a convenient height for you. The width of the garden can also be determined in accordance with the range of reach you have. If you have the space available, you can construct numerous raised beds in order to increase the variety and amount of vegetables you grow. Be sure the area between the beds is large enough for a wheelchair, walker or rolling cart if you depend on any of these items. A smooth surface area is essential for easy navigation through your raised beds.

    Garden tables are an ideal method of accessible gardening. They are ideal for anyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter. Garden tables can be built to fit the space you have available. You can find some helpful information on how to construct a table garden from most cooperative extension offices. Table gardens should allow for at least a 6″ soil depth. Increasing the soil depth will expand the variety of vegetables you can grow in your table garden. A lightweight, organic potting mix is recommended for table gardens. This type of accessible garden will require more frequent watering than a traditional garden or a raised bed garden. When you plan the layout for individual plants, be sure you put plants such as beans, peas, squash, cucumbers and anything other type of vine along the edge of a raised bed or table garden. This will make harvesting the vegetables much easier and prevent them for becoming entwined with the other plants.

    Planter boxes and standing planters are an ideal way to create an accessible garden. You can create an individual garden design using boxes, planters and trellises by looking around the Internet and at local stores.  The shape of the boxes allow for easy reach and easy navigation around the planters. This type of garden is a great choice if your only available space is a patio or deck.

    An accessible garden is quite similar to the very popular container gardens that are increasingly trendy. To assure the greatest success with the plants you include in your garden, you can utilize the list of recommended vegetable varieties for container gardens found at http://www.highmowingseeds.com/Suggested-Varieties-For-organic-non-gmo-Vegetable-Container-Gardening.html. Don’t hesitate to try new vegetables in your garden. Gardening should not simply be a means of providing food for you and your family; it should also be an enjoyable and personally rewarding hobby.

     

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  • Sewing, Knitting, and Crocheting – Three Skills You Need

    Sewing, Knitting, and Crocheting – Three Skills You Need

    As a homesteader, you are a collector of skills. With every skill that you acquire, it leads you one step closer to true self-sufficiency. The following are three related skills that you will certainly want to add to your repertoire – sewing, knitting, and crocheting. Let’s learn how these skills can benefit you.

    Sewing

    If you can sew, and if you practice your techniques, you can mend your clothing and tailor it as needed. This means your clothes can last for far longer than they would have. Not only that, but you may even get to the point where you decide you can make some of your clothing. You want to learn how to sew with a sewing machine, of course, but that’s not all. You should also learn how to sew by hand since a machine might not always be available.

    Knitting and Crocheting

    While these two skills are very similar, the methodology behind them is different. You may choose to focus on just one of the fields, or you might want to learn how to do both. When you can knit and crochet, you can make hats, mittens, scarves, blankets, and more. These are fun skills to learn, and you can put them to use. Having extra blankets around is always nice. In addition, you can give gifts that you’ve made, which is part of the homesteader’s DIY spirit.

    You might be wondering how long each of these skills takes to learn. Well, it depends on the person. Some people are fast learners and can pick up the basics quickly. It might take others a little longer to get the skills down. Once you get the basics though, you are well on your way. Of course, it can take quite some time to become a true master of these skills.

     

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