Your Practical Guide To Self Reliant Living
Pork stock is one of the most unappreciated bone broths. Sure, we’re all ok tossing a ham bone into the split pea soup, but few people think about making a dedicated stock out of the tasty goodness of pig bones. Pork stock has its own unique, rich flavor that works well with all manner of…
When we think of medicinal herbs, most people’s minds go right to small weeds and flowers growing at the edge of your lawn or on a roadside. It’s not common that we think of trees as a source of medicine, but historically, much of the country was forested and the people had to find medicinal…
I’ll be honest, the main reason we bought an instant pot was for beans. I know, you can make anything in an instant pot, but all I wanted was to be able to take dry beans from the pantry and have them on the table as quick as possible. We’ve tried making out own canned…
Unlike most perennials that need to be propagated by a nurseryman, strawberries love to self-multiply. Plant a few strawberry plants and they’ll send out runners in every direction. Within a few years, your strawberry bed will be overrun and crowded. It’s time to transplant some of those strawberry babies to new homes and establish a…
Ramps or wild leeks are usually just that…wild. They’re foraged in the early spring, by people who happen to know a “secret” patch, usually somewhere on public land. More often than not, your “secret spot” is the secret spot of a dozen other people, and even if each of you try to harvest sustainably, those…
While tapping maples was discovered in the new world, birch trees have been tapped by Nordic peoples for millennia. Birch sap is drunk straight as a health tonic, and it’s also made into birch beer, birch kvaas and birch syrup. I first tasted birch syrup as a sample at our local Vermont farmer’s market. The farmer warned…
There are so many reasons to love morel mushrooms. They’re widespread, easy to identify and tasty. Morels sell for roughly $20 per pound fresh or around $15 an ounce dried, so there’s good reason to hunt for your own. Most morels pop up in the early spring, giving you a good excuse to get outside and…
I found miner’s lettuce in a seed catalog years ago when I was first shopping for winter greenhouse greens. Our attached greenhouse stays pretty warm, but it’s not heated. It goes to about 20 degrees on cloudy days midwinter, and I wanted something that could keep growing right through the coldest months. Fedco seeds says that…
It’s hard to find a crisp pickle these days. To can crisp pickles, you need to find tiny cucumbers, about the size of your pinky finger. They’re almost impossible to buy unless you grow them yourself. For the rest of us that want a crisp pickle from farmers market cucumbers, refrigerator pickles are the best option….
Canning garlic isn’t usually done, but there are some circumstances where it might be worth a try. Garlic is one of those crops that usually keeps well on its own. Harvest it in the late fall, braid it and hang it to dry before keeping it all winter in a cool, low humidity environment. The…
When your own small row of backyard raspberries is bursting with fruit, you wonder why anyone would be willing to pay $5 per half-pint at the grocery store. If you’re anything like me, you might begin to think backyard PYO raspberries are a good way to make a little extra cash. With careful planning and…
