DIY

How to Process Soil into Clay for Pottery

August 16, 2018 by Ashley Adamant 5 Comments

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How did primitive potters harvest clay? People have been making pottery for millennia, and convenient hobby shops have only been a thing for a few decades at best. Before that, people harvested their own clay right from the soil.

Clay is present just about everywhere, and even soils described as “sandy loam” can contain as much as 20% clay. To the naked eye it may look like sandy soil, but with a 20% clay content, every 10 pounds of soil is hiding 2 pounds of clay ready for harvest. With a little effort, you can harvest your own clay for craft projects or even something as advanced as a backyard bread oven.

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How to Select and Maintain a Scythe

August 7, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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No one enjoys the sound of a noisy lawnmower. I hated it, along with the vibration shaking my hands, and the smell of gasoline and engine fumes filling the yard. When I started researching other options for keeping the yard under control, I kept coming across references to scythes.

Time and time again I’d start shopping, only to get confused by the terminology. How on earth do you pick out a scythe if you’ve never even seen one in person? How do I know if it’s adjusted for my height? What blade do I need? Am I strong enough to use it?

When I finally took the plunge and ordered one, I found it remarkably simple to use. I could clear a 50×50 foot section of the yard full of thistle and buckthorn saplings in as little as 20 minutes. This thing works better than my lawnmower ever did, and it’s a brush hog too!

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Homemade Blackcurrant Gin Recipe

July 18, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Blackcurrants ripen in mid-summer, during the hottest days or the year. Here I am in the kitchen whipping up a batch of blackcurrant jam on a hot July afternoon. While jam is delicious, I’m wondering if I’ve made the best choice. A cool cocktail to sip in the shade sounds a lot better right about now. I glance up to see a bit of gin on my shelf, and the last of the freshly harvested blackcurrants in my bowl land in a mason jar covered in gin. A quick blackcurrant gin is ready in as little as 24 hours, and it’ll still be plenty hot then too.

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Best Wasp Traps

June 5, 2018 by Ashley Adamant 3 Comments

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Wasps can be difficult to trap, especially in the early summer when they’re just building their nests. That small spring population will quickly get out of control, one a nest becomes established and dozens of wasps hatch out.

Without wasp traps, out backyard becomes uninhabitable during the summer time. There are so many wasps hovering around the porch, door and garden that you cant take a step without walking into one.

One summer, the wasps built over 100 nests under our second story eves, well out of reach and impossible to knock down. With small children in the house, we’ve had trouble finding a natural wasp trap without harsh chemical pesticides. Wasp spray may be effective, but it’s not something you want all over your house, yard and porch. Besides that, it kills far more than wasps and lingers in the environment long after the wasps are gone.

Over the years we’ve tried many non-toxic wasp traps, and we’ve learned a lot about what makes an effective wasp trap.

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How to Become More Self Reliant This Month

May 1, 2018 by Ashley Adamant 6 Comments

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A while back my friend Kimberlee wrote a guest post about her year-long self-reliance challenge. She challenged herself to learn a new homestead skill every single week for a full year, and in the end, she had learned 52 homestead skills just by setting a goal and holding herself accountable.

A full year is a big commitment. Why not just start with one month? What can you do this month to improve your self-reliance?

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Tapping Birch Trees

April 15, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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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 me that it’s not like maple syrup, and you wouldn’t use it on pancakes. It’s described as being “fruity, spicy, and sometimes reminiscent of molasses or licorice in flavor.” It’s for making spicy sweet things, like birch syrup roasted carrots or birch syrup sweetened spice cake.

I’ll admit, it did have a bit of spice to it, but I’m still happy with it on my pancakes.

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Homemade Lemoncello Recipe

April 2, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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We love to make maple lemonade in the summertime. Just a bit of maple, some fresh lemon juice and a can of seltzer if you want to get fancy.

With a cup or two a day, that’s a lot of lemons. It seems a shame to let all that tasty lemon zest go to waste, so why not make limoncello?

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6 Ways to Make Maple Syrup without an Evaporator

March 9, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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Outside of the tropics, it’s hard to grow your own sugar cane. Just about everywhere else has some type of tappable tree that you can use to make your own backyard maple syrup.

On average, a single maple tree will produce enough sap to make a quart of maple syrup. If you only have a few maples in your yard, it hardly makes sense to invest in a full sized sugaring arch. There are plenty of safe and efficient ways to boil maple syrup without a big investment.

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How to Make Echinacea Tincture ~ DIY Recipe

March 5, 2018 by Ashley Adamant 2 Comments

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Tinctures are a convenient way to take your herbal medicines. They’re ready to use, just pop a few drops into your mouth or a glass of water and you’re done. The problem is…tinctures are expensive.

A simple echinacea tincture sells for $8 to $12 an ounce. If you plan ahead a few months before for flu season, you can make your own echinacea tincture for as little as $1 an ounce.

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Making Maple Syrup

March 4, 2018 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

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While I love tending my garden in the summertime, for me, there’s nothing that compares to the satisfaction of making maple syrup from my own trees. There’s no weeding, no watering. Just set up a hammock and lounge all summer and let the tree do the work.

When early spring hits and temperatures warm above freezing, I’m itching to get outside. There’s no better way to spend an early spring day than walking from maple to maple and surveying your crop. Sure, homemade maple syrup is a lot of work, but all the work comes at a time of year when there’s not much else to do outside.

Break out your boots and get a bit of exercise, and you’ll be rewarded with truly local maple syrup.

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DIY

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