Homesteader Depot

Blog

  • The Best Homesteader Blogs and YouTubers to Follow

    The Best Homesteader Blogs and YouTubers to Follow

    We might be your favorite homesteading site (right?) but we’re certainly not the only one! Check out this list of amazing homesteading blogs and YouTube channels to follow other inspiring homesteading sites.

    YouTube:

    Markerbuoy

    This guy is amazing. He’s been living off-grid for 20 years, and seems to have been building everything he needed the whole time. He works with glass, wood, metal, builds engines, you name it.

    Becky’s Homestead

    This lady is bound to be your new hero-she lives on an awesome homestead with a bunch of livestock, a food garden and in a cabin she built herself. Her channel is full of homesteading tips of all kinds, and you’ll love her totally un-pretentious attitude and great tutorials.

    HomesteadPrepper

    Because homesteading and prepping so often overlap, this channel is a great look at one man’s homestead from a prepping perspective. This channel is full of security plans, SHTF preparedness, political commentary and off-grid/DIY homesteading ideas.

    Keeper of the Homestead

    If you dream of being a big-family-on-purpose homestead housewife, this is the channel for you. This spunky mom and wife takes you through the tasks of her homestead as well as homemaking, homeschooling and everything in between.

    Blogs:

    Pioneer Homesteader

    Self-proclaimed homesteader-in-chief Riley Carlson started this website to share everything she has learned-and everything she loves-about homesteading. Designed to be a place where anyone of any level can come in and benefit from the jam-packed website, there’s everything from recipes, gardening, animal husbandry, tutorials, you name it, she’s got it. A fantastic all-around and frequently updated site with a ton of expertise.

    The Elliot Homestead

    Written by a wife and mother homesteading from North Central Washington, she blogs about feeding her family wholesome real food, and providing it herself. They grow livestock, garden, and store up food for the winter.

    City Girl Farming Blog

    This is the ideal site for any aspiring urban homesteader. The author grew up in Montana but upon moving to Portland realized she missed the wholesome country ways of her childhood and decided to homestead right there in the city. She writes about her chickens, living and eating sustainably, and has a ton of resources for people who want to get started with urban homesteading.

    Backyard Farming (on an acre or less)

    Another guide for homesteading in small spaces, this site is full of fantastic resources for making the most of a small homestead.

    This is just a small list of the many wonderful blogs and homesteader sites out there. One of the best things about homesteading in this era is the multitude of resources we have available at our fingertips-so take advantage!

    If you liked that, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…

     

  • The Health Benefits of Raw Milk

    The Health Benefits of Raw Milk

    Raw milk is simply amazing. Most milk you will find in grocery stores, however, has been pasteurized, losing many of the benefits raw milk has. Raw milk has been under attack in recent decades, highly regulated and even illegal to sell in some states. But if you’re lucky enough to live in one of the many states that still allow the sale of raw milk for human consumption, you can reap its health benefits. Here are just a few reasons to find a local farmer to buy some from today.

    It’s only milk

    Milk in stores often contains additives, preservatives, hormones, antibiotics and added synthetic vitamin D. Raw milk is just milk, right from the cow, often within a few days of your purchasing it. Not to mention, it’s typically organic. As you’ll read more below, raw milk from small farms is normally grazed and organic.

    Farm fresh and local

    Most raw milk comes from dairy cows at small family farms, meaning they are pastured. Grass-fed meat and dairy is far superior to the more common industrial grain-fed alternative, as grass is what cow’s stomachs were designed to digest and there are far more nutrients available to them in fresh grass. It’s also very environmentally-friendly; grass-fed milk has a much lower carbon footprint than a feedlot farm cow.

    Raw milk is also local-most likely very local-and you can buy from the farmer directly. It is very cool to hand the person who milked the cow that you’re buying the milk from your money-a locavore’s dream.

    It’s nutritious

    Raw milk contains the enzyme lactase which helps our bodies break down the lactose in the milk. This enzyme is no longer available in pasteurized milk. So when we digest pasteurized milk, the enzymes already available in our stomach are often depleted which can wreak havoc on the digestive system. Gut health is crucial for overall health, so this is why consumption of dairy is often attributed to a multitude of health issues-but raw milk counteracts this. It also contains healthy fats, bioavailable vitamins that are also often depleted during pasteurization, and has been known to reduce allergies in many happy drinkers of raw milk. Read more about the nutritional benefits of raw milk here. 

    If you liked that, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…

     

  • Five Ways to Preserve Herbs

    Five Ways to Preserve Herbs

    As summer winds down, you may have a garden brimming with herbs just dying to be harvested. One of the biggest downsides of herb gardens is how much work it can be to process all the herbs! A pretty good problem to have, if you ask me. Here are five great ways to make the most of a bulk herb harvest and keep your herbs through the winter, for many months of delicious cooking.

    Freezing 

    This is quite possible the easiest and quickest method of preserving herbs. Simply toss your herbs in a Ziploc bag, squeeze the air out, and stick right in the freezer. You can pull them out whenever you need some and, other than the additional moisture content, they can be used just as you would dried herbs. This might be the best option for space as they can be flattened in the bags and stacked pretty easily in a freezer.

    Freezing in oil 

    This is the best way to preserve herbs if you want to just grab a small amount to toss in a pasta sauce or other dish. Stick small portions of the herbs in each section of an ice tray, then cover with oil and freeze. Once they are frozen you can pop out the cubes and put them in a Ziploc bag for long-term storage in the freezer.

    Drying

    The most classic way to dry herbs, this can be done either in a dehydrator, a very low oven with the door cracked, or hung on a string. If you have a particularly dry cellar or pantry, you can even just put them in a paper bag for a few weeks. Once dried, they can easily be removed from the stem or stalk and put in airtight jars.

    Preserving in salt or sugar

    In an airtight jar with salt or sugar, herbs will keep sometimes for up to two years and flavor the medium you’re preserving them in. The salt or sugar will absorb the flavor of the herb can be used as you regularly would. This might be nice for homemade bath salts or body scrubs too, with herbs like lavender or lemon balm.

    Preserving in oil 

    This is a very delicious way to preserve herbs! The herbs must be completely free of moisture, and are packed in jars, often with garlic as well, and covered with oil. You can use one of those fancy oil bottles as well. Let sit for a few weeks and then just use as regular oil. Also a lovely option for gifts.

    I hope this list has given you some ideas for maximizing your herb harvest this year-at the very least, I bet it’s made you hungry! Happy cooking!

    If you like this, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…

  • Monsanto or Organics: Who Should You Trust? (Infographic)

    The notorious ago-giant Monsanto has been genetically modifying foods, dominating the agricultural industry and putting small farmers out of business with ridiculous lawsuits over their crops being cross-pollinated with Monsanto GM seeds for decades. But they have a a frighteningly massive influence over the media and government (the USDA is a revolving door of Monsanto employees going in and out, but that’s another post), so if you are someone you know is a skeptic, here is a very informative infographic on who we should trust with our food source, originally published on Care2.com.

    dont-trust-monsanto

    *Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. It was established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA).

    If you like this, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…

     

  • Crock Pot Sourdough Recipe

    Crock Pot Sourdough Recipe

    Sourdough bread is delicious, and nutritious! When made with a real sourdough culture, it breaks down the anti-nutrients in the wheat that are commonly attributed to gluten intolerance and allergy. There’s also no better-tasting sourdough than when it is made fresh at home.

    A very easy way to make sourdough is right in your crock pot! If you don’t have a bread maker or don’t want to heat up your kitchen in the hot summer months, crock pot sourdough is a wonderful option. It also makes for a very easy way to rise the sourdough.

    First, you’ll need your culture. This is the most time consuming, but once you have one going, it’s a lot simpler to make loaf after loaf. This blogger seems to have originated crock pot sourdough, and also has a recipe on her website for the culture.

    Once you have a bubbly, active sourdough culture, you can follow this recipe here for delicious crock pot sourdough:

    Crock Pot Sourdough Recipe

    1 cup active culture

    3 cups flour (you can use some combination of white, white whole wheat or whole wheat if you like)

    salt

    warm water

    olive oil for greasing

    1. In a large bowl or food processor, quickly stir or pulse the salt throughout the flour. Then add the culture and mix or pulse until blended.

    2. Next add 1 cup of warm water, and stir or blend until you have a uniform dough that can be formed into a ball. You might need to add either more flour or water as needed. Should be sticky, but not too wet.

    3. Let rise overnight, either in the bowl or food processor, lightly covered, or, for a really nice, steamy rise, you can heat up your crock pot for a few minutes, then grease, and put the dough in to rise.

    4. Once the dough has at least doubled in size, it’s ready to cook. If it’s been rising outside the crock pot, dump it out onto a floured surface and reshape slightly into a loaf if needed. Then place in the greased crock. If it has been in the crock already, simply move on to the next step:

    5. Cover the crock with a dish towel or paper towel to absorb the moisture as the bread cooks. Then, cover with the crock pot’s lid. Set to low for about 1.5 hour, then check. when it’s done, it will be browned around the edges and no longer sticky and doughy on the top. It might need an extra .5 hours to achieve this.

    6. It’s hard to get a really crispy top in the crock pot, so you might want to finish it off for 2-3 minutes in the broiler-just watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn! This step is totally optional.

    7. Set on a cooling rack and once the loaf is cool enough to touch, enjoy! It’s best served fresh with warm butter and honey.

    If you liked that, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…

  • Preparing the Homestead for Winter

    Preparing the Homestead for Winter

    I know, I know, it’s not even labor day yet, but it’s never too early to think about preparing the homestead for winter. The key to a safe winter is planning, preparation and foresight. If you’d like to homestead one day or get more off-grid eventually, here are a few basic tips for winter prep you can start considering now, for this year or the next. Even if you’re not a homesteader at all, these are useful tips for disaster preparedness through the winter.

    Collecting Firewood

    This is probably what comes to mind first when you think of preparing for winter, and it is of course vital. Fireplaces and wood stoves can be lifesaving, and even if you have gas stoves, you may want to consider a wood-burning backup for heating and cooking, in case gas lines get shut down or roads get blocked and you can’t drive to purchase more propane.

    You can purchase truckloads of firewood, sometimes find people selling it or giving it away on websites like Craigslist or other local listings, and of course cut your own. The most important factor is dryness: storing the wood while dry and keeping it dry.

    Storing Food

    As summer wanes away, take advantage of your garden harvest and also whatever harvest is going on in your community and start preserving food. Canning, drying, fermenting and packing in oil are all great options for refrigeration-free food storage in your cellar. Also if you are a hunter or know some, you’ll want to start preserving meat too. Meat can also be canned, made into jerky, and you can also render tallow too.

    Even if you are happy with your emergency supply of canned goods, preserving fresh produce through the winter is a very good idea for nutritional reasons. Throughout the winter, finding fresh, local produce can be very difficult, so preserves offer a nice alternative to irradiated Ecuadorian produce.

    Make repairs 

    Before the weather gets cold is the ideal time to check your house for any repairs that might need to be done before winter. You wouldn’t want to find out in the middle of a winter storm that you’ve got a leak in your roof or poor insulation on one of your windows. Get your regular maintenance done on your vehicles, too.

    Other ways to prepare for winter are to make sure you’ve got flashlights and/or oil lamps with spare batteries and/or oil, plenty of winter clothes and blankets for your family, and-something often overlooked-a way to dry clothes indoors. With the right considerations and foresight, you can have a very safe and prepared homestead winter.

    If you liked that, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…

  • Easiest Herbs to Grow for Tea

    Easiest Herbs to Grow for Tea

    Herbal tea can be very calming, invigorating and of course, healing. These days, however, a lot of major herbal tea brands that have become staples in homes and health food stores unfortunately have added ingredients like natural flavors and soy lecithin. The good news is, there’s several easy and delicious options for homemade herbal tea!

    Mint

    Mint is the most obvious and a lovely option for tea. Tea made with mint leaves can help with upset stomachs and other digestive issues, and it is also very calming and refreshing. It grows best in well-drained soil and shade, and it crawls so it’s a great ground cover. It also repels bests so it’s perfect around your garden beds.

    Lemon Balm

    Lemon balm makes for a delicious tea with a lovely flavor, and it’s very medicinal too. Perfect for treating colds, it is a wonderful natural sedative for restless children or patients. It’s an easy and low-maintenance herb, that can get very big very quickly, so it’s perfect for tea as you’ll want to cut it back often.

    Dandelion

    Dandelion tea, either from the roots, leaves or flowers, is wonderfully medicinal and also quite flavorful. The root even can be used to make caffeine-free, liver-supporting coffee. Odds are you already have dandelion growing in your lawn or pasture, but it can be easily grown in gardens as well.

    Chamomile 

    Chamomile is a classic herb tea that’s a lovely bedtime treat. It is wonderfully medicinal, benefiting chest colds, inflammation, eczema and allergic reactions. Best grown outdoors in the ground, it can be a lovely option for mass planting and the pretty little flowers are a great landscaping choice as well.

    These are just a few options for herbal tea-there’s many more out there! Home-grown and home-brewed tea is the best you’ll get, for taste and for health, so consider some of these wonderful tea herbs today!

    If you liked that, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…

  • How to Propagate and Use Comfrey

    How to Propagate and Use Comfrey

    Free medicine doesn’t just come from the government (kidding!).

    The wonder plant comfrey is one of the easiest herbs to grow and among other amazing benefits it has been known to speed healing in bruises and broken bones.

    One hardly needs a green thumb to take advantage of this plant’s healing properties.  Comfrey is most commonly grown from root divisions.  These can be purchased online from your favorite gardening website, or even on Amazon. But even easier, they can easily be taken out of ground from any mature comfrey plant that you have access to without doing the slightest damage to the existing parent plant.

    If making your own cuttings, simply dig up the entire parent plant, and cut off the existing leaves. You can save them for poultice or just “chop and drop” them near any plant that you wish to add nutrients to.

    Then divide the root base-which is about all there is going to be left of the plant after removing the leaves-into as many pieces as you can given the plant that you have to work with. Cutting the pieces too small may reduce the chances of survival or at least increase the time it will take for the cutting to regrow, try going with pieces about the size of your fingers.

    Next, all you need to do is put the new cuttings in containers with potting soil, keep them moist, but not saturated, and in indirect sun for around two weeks.  When your new cuttings first sprout, it will be only time that these hard plants are vulnerable, so try to keep them on a start table to reduce pests.

    Once established, these plants will continue to produce medicinal leaves and grow more roots, allowing you to easily and exponentially grow your comfrey supply.

    Once you have a hearty supply of comfrey in your garden, turning it into useful medicine for treating burns, bruises, sprangs, and broken bones is just as easy as growing it.

    First, harvest the leaves. Consider leaving at least 20% of each plants leaves intact will help speed regrowth, but if necessary comfrey can recover from being run down with a lawn mower so don’t worry too much.

    Then puree, the leaves in a blender that you don’t use for food-or at least one that you will clean thoroughly before using again for food, since comfrey does contain hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can cause liver damage if ingested.

    If no blender is available, the leaves can be finely chopped and beaten to a juicy pulp.  The puree or pulp can then be placed directly on the wound site and wrapped with plastic wrap or cellophane, which would in turn be wrapped in an ace bandage to keep it in place.  This can be left in place over night and changed out in the morning.

    This isn’t all this plant has to over though, so check back soon for more information on how, among other things, comfrey can increase food production and help with weed control.

    If you liked that, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…