Your Practical Guide To Self Reliant Living
Chanterelles have a fruity aroma and a mild taste that’s just as at home in a savory risotto as a sweet treat. I’ve candied them, made them into a cheesecake and finally homemade chanterelle ice cream. Years ago, if you told me mushroom ice cream was delicious, I would have been skeptical. That was until…
Chanterelle risotto is the perfect fall weather comfort food. The richness of a simple risotto is brightened by the fruity flavors of chanterelles, leaving you with a dish suited for a fancy first date. Or in my case, a much-needed weeknight dinner “date” with my husband, toddlers in tow. The little ones were so excited…
Chaga mushrooms are a centuries-old wild foraged remedy for everything from high blood pressure to cancer. They fetch a high price in stores or online, but they’re a common, easy to identify mushroom that grows all over the world. It’s most commonly found on white and yellow birch trees, and once you’ve found a stand of…
Connecting to the power grid was one of the worst decisions we’ve made on our homestead. This is the story of how we connected to the grid only to voluntarily choose to live with it off, and still operate our homestead independently. After nearly 5 years living completely off the grid, here’s how we came…
Shaggy Mane mushrooms (Coprinus comatus) are incredibly easy to identify, and a great choice for beginning foragers. They’re one of the “foolproof four” or the four most easily identified mushrooms, along with chicken of the woods, giant puffballs and morels. Also known as lawyer’s wig because they look a bit like the old school wigs used…
I’m always searching for quick and healthy snack ideas, and they come in especially handy during a long day working out in the garden. I’ll pop in the house for a glass of water, and a quick energy boost. The problem is, unless I have something planned ahead of time, my mid-garden day snack ends up…
Pomegranate wine is easy to make at home with fresh pomegranates or pomegranate juice. It’s a traditional drink in eastern Europe and the middle east, and it’s still made today. Commercial bottles of pomegranate wine generally sell for more than $20 each and tend to be very dry and acidic. Making pomegranate wine at home…
Starting asparagus from seed is easy, and it’ll save you a lot of money compared to buying pricey asparagus crowns. Nurseries sell asparagus crowns, which are just bare root 1-year-old plants, for as much as $5 each. A potted asparagus plant will set you back $10 to $12 in the spring. A single seed packet, on…
Here we are, trying to plant an heirloom orchard on our homestead. We’ve got plenty of winter storage apples, cider apples and even an early summer apple that ripens on the 4th of July. Now comes my favorite type of apple: Pie apples. Pie apples have a crisp texture that holds up well to cooking, and strong…
Humans require salt for survival, plain and simple. While it’s easy enough to extract salt from seawater, that’s only practical if you’re near the coast. Inland sources of salt were well known to our ancestors, but most of that knowledge is long gone. Beyond natural deposits, it’s also possible to extract salt from plants. Some…
Believe it or not, harvesting pears can be tricky. Unlike apples, pears cannot ripen fully on the tree and they have to be picked weeks before they’re fully ripe. That’s good news for the supermarket, where they want the fruit to wait in warehouses or trucks for weeks on end before it hits your table. …
