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How to Grow Watermelon in a Pot

There’s nothing quite as refreshing on a hot summer day as a nice, juicy watermelon. Unfortunately, the watermelons you find in the supermarket are often conventional and even GMO. If you’d like to harvest some of your own this summer, you don’t need a whole field, you can grow them right in your backyard or porch! Here’s how: Container: Watermelons will need a large, deep container, at least 2′ deep, so that it’s long taproot will have enough space to expand. Choose something sturdy as well, and with proper drainage. Soil: Watermelons like both sandy and loamy soil, with plenty of […]

First Time Butchering Chickens (Video)

Being able to raise and butcher your own animals is a dream of many aspiring homesteaders. I think a lot of people don’t think about what it actually involves to butcher chickens, and in this video, you hear the account of some novice homesteaders trying to butcher two roosters for the first time. Chickens are feisty and evasive, and it’s never as simple as simply grabbing them, killing them, and roasting up dinner, and you’ll hear the various challenges this couple faced when they spontaneously agreed to take two roosters for butchering. They did do a bit of research before […]

How to Safely Handle Raw Milk

Probably the primary appeal of having a family cow is the delicious, nutritious and plentiful milk you can get from her. Raw milk, meaning fresh, unpasteurized milk, has many more beneficial enzymes and bacteria than store-bought milk. But it is important to handle it safely to maintain optimum freshness and sanitation. This is particularly important if you plan on selling your raw milk. If you want to sell your milk, make sure to check your local laws. In some states, it is highly illegal to sell raw milk. In other places, there may be certain restrictions. But even if you […]

Are Vertical Farms The Future Of Agriculture?

When space is tight and the demand for food is high, vertical farms might be the best answer. Check out this piece from PBS on the subject. Here are some fun facts about vertical farms. If you are interested in building your own vertical farm, https://homesteaderdepot.com/supports-for-vertical-gardens-infographic/here are some alternative or unique supports you could use to get started. How to get started with Aquaponics. Other things your might like… Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production… A to Z Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival… Traditional Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era… The Ultimate Natural Medicine […]

Tips for Making Your Own Crispy Pickles

Do you and your family love the taste of fresh crunchy pickles? If you do, and you are a homesteader, you have probably been trying to make your own pickles. It is not a difficult process, but you might’ve found that pickles you’ve made don’t quite have the same snap and crunch that you really like. Fortunately, you don’t have to live with soggy, bendy pickles for much longer. Just use the tips that follow and you will find that your pickles will have a much more significant crunch. One of the first things you want to do is make […]

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 […]

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, […]

How to Make Your Own Butter

You don’t have to have your own cow to make butter at home, although of course it helps. There’s nothing like fresh, homemade butter from your own dairy cow to make you feel like the ultimate self-reliant homesteader. But even urban homesteaders can easily whip (literally) up their own batch of delicious homemade butter with raw milk from a farmer or even cream from the store. The ingredients and process are simple: cream + agitation + time = butter. The process of making butter basically involves agitating the cream long enough to separate the fat from what will become buttermilk […]

Making Your Own Sprouted Flour

You may have heard that sprouted flour is healthier than regular flour, and this is definitely true. When wheat is allowed to sprout before it is ground into flour, it breaks down the antinutrients that are the plant’s natural defense system, which can be difficult for us to digest. This is one possible reason for so many people having gluten and wheat allergies in recent years. Before modern industrial harvesters and mills, wheat used to be cut and lay to dry in the field, allowing the wheat berries as they’re called to naturally sprout before grinding. Sprouted wheat flour can be quite pricey-but, with […]

How to Make A Sourdough Starter

Sourdough starters can be purchased online or you might even have a friend or relative who’s already making them who’d be willing to share. They’re easy to pass around, and you can use just a small amount to grow as much as you want! That’s the beauty of sourdough. To grow your own, you don’t need anything more than flour, water, and time. Let’s begin! What you need: a mason jar or similar sized glass or plastic container, no metal measuring cups and spoons plastic wrap flour (at least a pound to be safe) What you do: Combine 3/4 cup of […]

2 Ways to Preserve Spinach

Spinach is a very easy vegetable to grow, and it offers a ton of nutrients. Plus, it’s tasty, and you can use it for numerous recipes. Of course, if you want to use your spinach after the growing season is done, you’re going to have to know how to properly preserve it. Here are a couple of simple preservation techniques that will keep your family eating spinach all year long. Dehydrated Spinach Rinse your spinach, remove any brown or unappetizing spots, and cut off or tear out thick stems. Once your leaves are prepared, lay them out evenly on a […]

How to Make Yogurt

Yogurt has increased in popularity in recent years, and for good reason. It’s a wonderful source of healthy fat and protein as well as millions of beneficial probiotic bacteria. It’s also delicious! Did you know you can make your own easily at home? Yogurt is nothing more than cultured milk, and, like sourdough, all you need is a starter to get going-which is actually just about 1/4 of a cup of yogurt! There are many different methods for making yogurt, and this is simply one of them. You can make it in a specially-designed yogurt maker, in a crock pot, […]

A Simple Guide to Alternative Flours

There are many reasons people are flocking to alternative flours today. Gluten intolerance is becoming very common, but there are also many diets that eliminate wheat or grains, such as the whole 30, primal or paleo diets. There are a few reasons gluten-free and grain-free diets can be beneficial for your health, but that’s another post for another today. Today we’d just like to discuss a few of the basic non-wheat flours. This is useful to know for homesteaders, in case you’re interested in growing and milling some of your own flours. A note: all grain-free flours are also gluten-free, […]

Top 3 Reasons You Should Be Growing Your Own Food

Whether or not you’re a homesteader, there’s no arguing that vegetables fresh from the garden just taste better than the ones you buy at the store. Even organic store-bought veggies just don’t have that same delicious taste that you get from vegetables that you grew yourself. If that isn’t enough to convince you to grow your own food, let’s take a look at just a few of the top reasons you might want to start a garden today: No Fear of Food Recalls Every year, we hear about different food recalls in different areas. People get sick from eating tomatoes, […]

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. […]

5 Healthy-Sounding Food Additives to Avoid

We all know how many unpronounceable additives there are on ingredient labels these days, and it can be overwhelming trying to decipher even seemingly natural food brand’s ingredients. Because we don’t all have time to Google every ingredient in the supermarket isle, here are five healthy-sounding ingredients that should be avoided. Enriched Wheat Enriched wheat has long been recommended by doctors as a nutritious way to consume wheat, but it’s actually far from healthy. As real nutrients are stripped from the wheat in modern refining, enriched wheat and flour simply has synthetic nutrients added back in. Enriched flours of all […]

Skills to Build While You Wish You Could Homestead

Whether you’re stuck in a cramped apartment in the city or living in a suburban starter home while you save up to buy land, there’s no reason you can’t start building your homesteader skills now, as you dream of more self-reliant times ahead. You can check out our guide to how to homestead in a city if you can’t wait to free yourself from the grid, and also start developing the following skills to be ready when the time comes to fully escape the plugged in life: Bake your own bread: We tend to take our packaged, fluffy white supermarket loaves for […]

5 Survival Foods That Virtually Last Forever

When stocking up a survival stash, it’s important to maximize your space with items that will last the longest. Below is a list of items that will virtually last forever… 1.Dried Beans Dried beans are probably one of the most common items to stock up on and for good reason. When kept away from moisture and light, they can last for decades. Vacuum sealing is a great option for storing beans, as they keep best in an absence of oxygen. 2. Vinegar Due to its high acidity, vinegar will last essentially forever. Vinegar is a great item to stock up […]

Understanding Gardening Zones

When planning a survival garden, it’s tempting to just start with a list of vegetables that you like to eat, or the ones that will offer the most nutrients and highest yields in the least amount of space. But it’s probably best to begin by learning about your gardening zone, so that you don’t waste your time with plants that aren’t a good fit for your area. Garden zones, also called hardiness zones, are the areas that have been defined by the USDA, that show which plants grow best in which areas. These zones are defined by the temperate range […]

The Future Of Home Food Production

I was blown away by this invention. It’s called “Farm Bot” and it is probably the future of home food production. While it looks like it might be a little more advanced (and expensive) than the average gardener / hobbyist can handle, it is interesting to see what these inventors were capable of creating. One of the things I really like about it is how it is “open-source”, meaning they give their plans and software away for free. So that others can freely learn from them or contribute to the project. If you want to learn more about Farm Bot, […]