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Homesteading – Page 78 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Category: Homesteading

  • Super-Simple DIY Pest Repellent for the Garden

    Super-Simple DIY Pest Repellent for the Garden

    As you probably know, most commercially available pest-repellants are full of harmful chemicals that you wouldn’t want anywhere near your house, children, or pets, let alone near the garden that you’re growing your food in.

    Even if you don’t spray chemicals right on the leaves of your plants, spraying them around the perimeter, either to kill grass, weeds or bugs, will trickle into the soil and can easily be absorbed through the roots of your plants, and you don’t want that.

    But there is a very easy, at-home solution for keeping pests out of your garden, and it’s safe enough to use regularly.

    The solution is very simple: vinegar and peppermint essential oil. You can spray it around the perimeter of your garden, however NOT on any plants you want to keep alive, vinegar kills plants! If you have a fence around your garden it would be ideal to coat the fence with the spray every week or so, and the strong, pest-repelling scent of the peppermint oil is sure to keep pests away.

    What you need:

    Peppermint essential oil

    Vinegar

    Spray bottle

    Label (optional but recommended)

    What you do:

    1. Pour your vinegar into the spray bottle.
    2. Add about 25 drops of your peppermint essential oils
    3. Put the top back on the spray bottle, and shake to combine. You’ll want to do this before you use each time just to make sure the oil is evenly dispersed throughout the bottle
    4. Label if you like. This is highly recommended if you use spray bottles for other garden uses, as vinegar is something you definitely don’t want to get mixed up with say, a neem oil spray or fertilizer!

    And that’s it! If you can create a barricade around your garden of the strong vinegar and peppermint oil scent, it will greatly reduce the pests in your garden without putting toxic chemicals in your food.

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  • Simple Steps Towards Self-Reliance

    Simple Steps Towards Self-Reliance

    If you’re homesteading, you’re probably already pretty self-reliant. But if you’re not and you wish you were, there are still many ways you can become more self-reliant, no matter where you’re living. Every little thing you can do counts, and also will help you assess just how much you rely on “the system” and what you can do to change that.

    Here are a few simple ideas to reduce your dependence on, say, multi-national corporations or globalized trade, and more on yourself and the resources that are available in your community. It might be called “self” reliance, but really, relying on our communities, local farmers, artisans, and small-scale production, is a huge leap towards resource independence.

    Buy Food Local and Seasonal

    It might some adjustments to your diet, but find out what grows in your area and shop according to what you can purchase locally and seasonally. Find local farmers markets, community gardens and local food production like bakeries or butchers that specialize in local meat.

    Learn to Cook

    Learning to cook as much as you can from scratch will give you a better idea of what the food you like to eat requires. It also will help you be more independent from large-scale food production and narrow the food you eat down to more local, fresh, organic ingredients.

    Make Something With Your Hands

    Whether it is knitting, weaving, carpentry, soap or candle making, learning to make something yourself, instead of buying it from the store, is not only fun, it will make you feel just a bit more able to survive on your own, without the support of lots of large-scale industries.

    Buy Something Handmade

    Obviously you probably don’t have the time or resources to make everything you use on a day-to-day basis for yourself, so shopping for handmade, local, artisan items yourself is a great way to supplement what you can’t do. Soap, food products, clothing, fabrics, furniture, purses, belts and wallets, even art or metal work are usually made by people who work hard to create unique, beautiful and high-quality items. If you can’t find much locally, Etsy is another great way to support small artists and keep money between individuals, not big companies.

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  • The Cost-Effectiveness of Homestead Pigs

    The Cost-Effectiveness of Homestead Pigs

    A lot of people don’t like pigs because they’re stinky, dirty and loud. But most people won’t object to bacon, ribs or pork chops. And this is a pretty good reason to have pigs, and why most people raise them!

    Not only are pigs delicious, however, they are also very cost-effective sources of meat, especially if you are looking to be more or totally self-sufficient. Larger meat animals like cows need a lot of space, and smaller meat animals don’t yield anywhere near as much meat.

    But pigs are just perfect! Here are some reasons why they are economical choices for the homestead:

    Space

    As opposed to cows or even goats, pigs need much less space to live. Of course, the bigger the space, the less offensive the smell, but you can keep your pigs in a pen with a minimum of 20 square feet per fully-grown hog. Given how large pigs can get, this is a great use of small space on a homestead for a big meat yield.

    Quick Growth

    It takes about 12 to 18 months until you can butcher a cow. However, if you buy a weaned piglet and give it 24/7 access to food, you can butcher it and fill your freezer up in as little as four months! Buying a piglet every six months will more than exceed your yearly bacon quota.

    Waste Not, Want Not

    One really fantastic advantage of pigs is that you can feed them your slop! Homesteads often produce lots of scraps from the garden or food processing, so you will have to spend very little on pig food if you regularly feed them scraps from your kitchen and garden. Plus it adds variety to their diet!

    Multiple Babies

    Cows only have one or maybe two calfs at a time, but pigs have whole litters! To breed them you will of course need a male and a female, but you can quickly turn your two pigs into nine or ten, which means more pork than you will know what to do with.

    Overall Cost

    Piglets are very affordable, especially compared to weaned calfs that can cost hundreds of dollars. Your average weaned piglet can cost about $50-$100 (depending on your area). And given how much meat you can get in such a short period of time, this is a steal! Add that to the small amount of space they need, how much you can supplement their diet with scraps and how easily you can multiply your herd, this makes pigs a very economical choice for the homestead.

  • How to Make Goat Cheese

    How to Make Goat Cheese

    Goats are such wonderful homestead animals, for many reasons, but of course, at the top that list is plenty of fresh, raw, delicious goat cheese!

    Goat cheese is great not only because it is delicious and nutritious, but if you do have goats, you probably also have lots of extra milk. Making your own cheese can be a great way to use it up, and you can even sell it at the farmer’s market or right out of your homestead-goat cheese has gotten very popular in recent years and many folks are willing to pay top dollar for fresh, local, homemade goat cheese right from the farmer.

    There are fancier ways to make goat cheese than the following recipe, but this is just by far the simplest and doesn’t require anything special at all. Let’s begin!

    Farmer’s Cheese

    *2 quarts of milk

    * ¼ cup vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice, or citric acid

    • Heat the milk on low on a skillet, carefully, until the milk is about 185 degrees or almost boiling, then quickly remove from heat
    • Add your acidic medium, and cover for about fifteen minutes. The milk should start to separate, meaning you will see a distinct difference between the yellowish “whey” and the “curds” which are, well, curdled chunks.
    • Slowly ladle the curds into a colander (you can set aside the whey and use for other cooking or fermenting projects) that has been lined with cheesecloth
    • Tie the corners of the cloth together and hang; and easy way to do this is to secure the bundle with a string, tie to a wooden spoon, and suspend over a bowl in the refrigerator.
    • Let the additional whey strain for about 12-24 hours in the refrigerator, occasionally checking the consistency of the cheese until it is to your liking. Then place in an airtight container and use over the next five to seven days.

    And that’s it! Super simple delicious goat cheese made right at home! Have you ever made goat cheese?

     

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  • What to Plant to Attract Bees

    What to Plant to Attract Bees

    Bees are essential for our survival, and they’re dying in record numbers. We need them to pollinate our plants, so as they are dying in record numbers worldwide, it is devastating to think of the effects this might have on life on earth.

    There’s only so much a single homesteader can do, but as bees are just as vital to our small operations as they are to global food production, we can definitely still try to do our part to attract, nourish and sustain bees on our humble homesteads.

    Of course, beekeeping is a great way to do this, and if you can, it will definitely benefit you as well as the global production of bees. Not only will you have lots of happy pollinators buzzing around your garden, you’ll also get honey and honeycomb!

    But not everyone is ready to take that leap into beekeeping, you’re either homesteading in a city and don’t have the capacity to keep bees, or you’ve decided for one reason or another that keeping hives is just not the right option for your homestead, which is totally understandable. So what can you do to help the bees?

    Plant for them! There are a number of fragrant herbs and flowers that bees love, and most of them are pretty easy to grow!

    Here’s what to plant for the bees:

    • lavender
    • sunflower
    • catnip
    • poppy
    • borage
    • sage
    • cilantro
    • thyme
    • fennel
    • geranium
    • heliotrope
    • zinnia
    • crocus
    • buttercup
    • aster
    • anemone
    • calendula

    These lovely herbs and flowers are favorites of bees, and there sure to be constant visitors to your garden if you plant them!

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  • Why Your Homestead Needs A Dog

    Why Your Homestead Needs A Dog

    One of the reasons many people want to homestead is to find a safe place to get away from it all, and wait it out if civilization happens to crumble.

    Of course, even before the proverbial feces hits the fan, there are many reasons to keep a homestead safe. For one, there will always be natural predators who may be very interested in what you have growing in your garden or sleeping in your hen house.

    We can’t all afford to make mini-compounds out of our land, and of course, there are many options when it comes to fencing and homestead security. But there is one amazing animal you can get who will take the security of  your homestead as seriously as you do:

    A Guard Dog

    What is a homestead or farm without a trusty dog? Or three? Dogs are not only wonderful companions, they’ll happily and loyally guard your homestead from human and animal predators alike.  Dogs are pack animals which means when you’re they’re owner, you’re part of their pack. They will see you as the pack leader and be eager to keep you and the rest of the pack, your family and other animals, safe and aware of any threat. All that barking dogs do is for a reason! And if you train them to “bark with a purpose” so to speak, they won’t just bark incessantly for no reason-they’ll do it to warn you.

    What kind to get?

    Some breeds are better suited for guarding or fighting off attackers or prey, respectively, but of course for a homestead the classic breeds are sheepdogs or laboradors. Pit bulls get such a bad rap but raised right, they are insanely loyal, territorial, and fierce, so they can protect your homestead, will ruthlessly fend off any furry attackers and will also be gentle and sweet to your children.

    Puppy or adult?

    It’s probably best to pick the breed you think would be best suited for your homestead (adopting is always cheaper and more humane than buying purebreds though) as a puppy and train them to guard as well as leave your other animals alone. If you adopt an older dog, make sure it’s one who has already spent time around other animals and is well-trained to guard and hunt themselves.

    There’s nothing as reliable as another creature that is as committed to the security as your homestead as you are, and they will probably do more to keep your homestead safe than any fence or weapon.

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  • Are Snakes Good for the Garden?

    Are Snakes Good for the Garden?

    Snakes get a bad reputation, and that’s unfortunate. Too often, people kill them as soon as they see them. Many types of snakes are entirely harmless to humans, but they can be very good for your garden. In fact, garter snakes, rat snakes, and a number of species can be very beneficial. Let’s look at some of the good reasons to keep them in your garden.

    One of the best things about snakes is that they will eat the vermin from the garden. This means, you won’t have to worry about rats and mice. Some snakes will eat insects as well. If you are fortunate enough to have king snakes on the property, you will not have to worry about rattlesnakes. That’s right, the king snakes will eat the rattlesnakes.

    Of course, there certainly are some snakes that can be very dangerous. Rattlesnakes, water moccasins, and a similarly venomous varieties of snake are not something that you want to have on your property. That’s understandable – however, you might want to let the garter snakes, rat snakes, and the other harmless serpents stay in the garden. After all, think about all those benefits they offer.

    In addition to snakes, you might find some lizards out in the garden and the backyard as well. Again, these are very good for your outdoor spaces. They can do a good job of helping to thin out the insects. Not only will this help the health of your garden, but it can also make being outdoors a bit more pleasant since you won’t have to deal with all of those bugs.

    Now that you see so many benefits offered by snakes, as well as lizards, you should welcome seeing them in the backyard and in the garden. They are more afraid of you than you should be of them.

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  • DIY Mint and Vanilla Extracts

    DIY Mint and Vanilla Extracts

    Vanilla and mint extracts are great to have on hand for baking and cooking, especially with the holidays coming up. And what might be especially good news to gardeners with lots of mint to spare, you can actually  make your own extracts very easily at home!

    For mint extract, either peppermint or spearmint, all it takes is lots of mint to harvest and some high-quality vodka. Vanilla, on the other hand, is probably not something you have growing in abundance in your backyard, and you might have to look for good-quality vanilla bean at your health food store or even online. But a little bit goes a long way, as you only need a few beans to make the extract and it will last for many recipes.

    Speaking of the holidays, these homemade extracts also make really great gifts! They unique and special, and also very affordable to make. They’d make great stocking stuffers or additions to gift baskets for relatives far away.

    What you need:

    Mint:

    1 Cup mint, washed and thoroughly dried

    12 oz. vodka

    Vanilla:

    3-4 vanilla beans, split completely open

    8 oz. vodka

    Jars, preferably dark

    Bottles, preferably dark. (You can use old vanilla or mint extract bottles)

    What you do:

    1. For the mint extract, stuff the mint in your container and cover with vodka. Lightly crush the leaves to release the flavor of the mint into the vodka. Seal the container.
    2. For the vanilla, simply put the beans into your container with the vodka and seal.
    3. Leave your extract in a cool, dark place for about 4 weeks. Shake occasionally.
    4. When your extracts are ready to use, strain out the vanilla or mint and pour them into your bottles, if desired. Keep in your pantry or on your shelf and use as you would store-bought extracts!

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