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Homestead Meat Curing

This summer we raised a pig for meat. Actually, we co-raised three pigs with our neighbors, housing the pigs at their farm, and sharing in the cost and labor. Raised on pasture in the sunshine and fed with 100% non-GMO feed and lots of organic food scraps and whey from Creme Brulee, they became the most amazingly delicious pork chops and sausages. But the real excitement of raising pigs has been curing our own bacon, jowls, salami, lardo, and prosciutto. When we lived in Oregon we raised pigs two years in a row, keeping one pig for ourselves, and selling the others to friends. With our share of the meat, we enjoyed sausage links, roasts, bacon, and even some outstanding salami, which, … [Read more...]

A Year with our Family Milk Cow

A few weekends ago we quietly celebrated a year with our sweet Jersey cow, Creme Brûlée. Becoming a new cow owner is like having a baby in that it really does take several months to get your bearing! And caring for a cow after many years of caring for goats was very much like having my second child; in some ways everything was same-old, same-old, but in other ways, it was completely brand new! For months prior to Creme's arrival, I had been reading about cows, dreaming about cows, talking to cow owners, and preparing for her arrival. Creme Brûlée is one of the sweetest, most wonderful cows imaginable, thanks to excellent training from her previous owner. But when she arrived at our … [Read more...]

Creating Your Off-Grid Homestead

When we moved to Missouri, three years ago, we had a lot of homesteading experience, but absolutely no experience living off-grid. Sure, we loved to backpack and camp and knew we could "rough it" for a while, but the experience of living for years with no running water, no electricity, and no refrigeration while we built one piece of infrastructure at a time. Yeah, that was new. As I shared our experiences on this blog, it became clear that others were looking for more information about this kind of off-grid homestead-building experience: the kind that starts with a modest budget and a DIY approach, and adds elements as time and money become available. The outline of a book took shape, … [Read more...]

Lighting with Beeswax Candles

For well over a year, while building our tiny house, we lit our home with beeswax candles. Although our home is now equipped with solar electricity and LED lights, we still occasionally enjoy using beeswax candles for their warm glowing light and amazing scent. In the process of becoming so intimate with candlelight, and living next door to several electricity-free homesteads that also use candlelight, we've collected a few tips and tricks for lighting a home with beeswax candles. Use Tapers We found that taper candles gave off the best light. Votives, tea lights, and pillars are beautiful to behold, but we have found that the strongest, clearest light comes from a taper candle. We … [Read more...]

Living without Running Water

For the past two and a half years on our homestead, our family has been living without running water. Instead, we live with what I have heard referred to as "walking water." In our case, the walking part has been quite literal - walking hundreds of gallons of water in buckets from one place to another. I admit, living without running water has been one of the bigger challenges of developing a homestead from scratch, particularly when our dreams, plans, and actions include planting hundreds of fruit trees and two large gardens, raising chickens, ducks, lambs, bees, dairy cows, and keeping a family of four clean, fed, and hydrated. Why no running water? Honestly, when we moved to NE … [Read more...]

Five Foods to Store for Winter

Stocking up on storage crops in the late summer and early fall, and storing them for winter eating is a great way to get local, organic food at a lower cost and higher quality than what you might find in supermarkets. In addition to growing many storage crops in our garden, we like to visit our CSA farmer and local orchards in October or November and come home with enough vegetables and fruit to last us through much of the early winter. In the Autumn months, food becomes our primary home interior decoration! Squash sits on top of any available surface, garlic and onions hang from the wall in long chains or braids, and sweet potatoes are piled in boxes under our bed (the coolest spot in … [Read more...]

Remodeling our Outdoor Kitchen

Our outdoor kitchen got a bit of a facelift recently, and we've been really pleased with its improved functionality and comfort. For the past two years, the outdoor kitchen looked like this: The tarp did a great job protecting us from light rain, but the space was not big enough to both prepare meals and dine. As a result, our picnic table stood in the middle of our lawn, under a shade canopy. That worked fine, unless the sun was setting, in which case the shade was in a different location than the picnic table! Brian loves to move earth and rock. It's one of his homesteading superpowers. So he envisioned a terraced space in which we could place the picnic table and the full … [Read more...]

Hatching Ducklings with a Broody Hen

We absolutely love our two Cayuga ducks - they are consistent layers, great foragers, and always entertaining to watch. They came to us last year as 6 week old ducklings, and have thrived as free rangers (even swimming in our homestead pond). This year, when we wanted to add a few more ducks to our flock, we had the good fortune of learning a trick from our neighbors down the road - hatch ducklings with a broody hen! We had a broody hen ready to go, and procured fertilized duck eggs from the same neighbors. We set Snow White up in our brooding coop and placed four eggs in her nest. Then we marked the calendar for 28 days, and waited. One day short of the anticipated hatch date, … [Read more...]

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Homestead Meat Curing

Top Off-Grid Homesteading Posts of 2015