Recipes

A nutritious and healthy source of fat is vital food and energy for everyone. And it is extremely important for all self-reliant homesteaders who raise and butcher animals to acquire the forgotten skills of rendering lard. Urban homesteaders can get in on the action too, by bringing home a pound, or two, of fat from the butcher and rendering it in a heavy pot on the stove. All you need is a cutting board, a sharp knife, pork fat, a heavy-bottomed pot to cook in and a wood/metal spoon for … [Read more...] about How To Render Lard On The Stove & Ways To Use It

These gems taste as wonderful as they look. For many of us, the first time we heard of a shrub outside of the garden center was on a cocktail menu. For me specifically, it was a drink at a craft distillery that listed ginger shrub as one of its ingredients. The cocktail had the spicy bite of the ginger, but also a sweet, tartness that I couldn’t quite figure out. That was the evening I learned about the existence of drinking vinegars, or shrubs as they are more commonly known. … [Read more...] about How To Make Delicious 3 Ingredient Fruit Shrubs

If you’ve ever tried to hard cook then peel farm fresh eggs, you know how difficult and frustrating it can be. The egg white sticks stubbornly to the shell and rips off in big chunks, ruining the look of your beautiful eggs.  I’m here to tell you, this is a common issue for chicken keepers, and there is a very simple solution!  All you need to do is change the way you’re cooking the eggs. The Secret To Hard Cooking Eggs Instead of boiling the eggs, it’s time to try … [Read more...] about How To Hard Cook Fresh Eggs So They’re Easy To Peel (HINT: Don’t Boil Them!)

When you grow your own produce, it’s sometimes difficult to determine how much to plan for. There are dozens of factors that can affect production, and you might find yourself failing to harvest anything from one variety while bringing in a bumper crop of another. This past spring was rainy and chilly across much of the United States, which made it ideal weather to grow Asian greens. My garden’s bok choy went into overdrive this season, and I was left with dozens of plants and little … [Read more...] about 10 Ways To Use Bok Choy That’s Not A Stir Fry