Practical Self Reliance

Your Practical Guide To Self Reliant Living

Article Index (Start Here!)

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At this point there are more than 700 articles on Practical Self Reliance, and there’s just so much information that it’s hard to know where to start. 

Here are all the most popular articles, sorted by category!

Practical Self Reliance


Click on the links below to jump to a category, or just scroll through to read them all!

Reader Favorites

I’m starting with your favorites, based on the feedback I’ve received over the years.  If I missed any articles that you really love, let me know in the comments so I can add them to the list!

Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Food Preservation

My detailed food preservation tutorials are some of the most popular articles on Practical Self Reliance.  You don’t have to live out in the country to preserve your own food, and anyone can learn about canning, fermenting, dehydrating and more…even in a small apartment kitchen.

There are literally hundreds of food preservation tutorials on the site, covering almost every way possible to preserve food at home.  I had so many canning recipes that I actually stared a dedicated site called Creative Canning so I could share even more recipes with you.  There are still more than 100 canning recipes right here on Practical Self Reliance.

You’ll also find dehydrating, fermenting, cheesemaking, salt curing and even freeze drying.

Canning

For a full list, take a look at my canning recipe archive, or the specific pages for my water bath canning archives or pressure canning archives.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Canning

Fermenting

Lacto-fermentation is a centuries old way to preserve food, and increase the nutrient content and digestibility at the same time.  Vinegar making is similar, but uses different microbes.  Both are easy to do at home.

For a full list, here’s my Fermenting archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Lacto-Fermentation

Dehydrating

Home dehydrating is one of the easiest ways to preserve foods, and properly dried food will keep right at room temperature for years without refrigeration.

For a full list, here’s the Dehydrating Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Dehydrating

Cheesemaking

You don’t have to have a cow to make homemade cheese!  You can make delicious cheese at home grocery store milk and minimal equipment.

For a full list, here’s the Cheesemaking Archive. Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Cheesemaking

Salt Curing

While it may seem intimidating at first, salt curing is actually surprisingly easy to do at home.  Just high quality meats, a bit of salt, and a lot of patience.

For a full list, here’s the Salt Curing and Charcuterie Archive. Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

homemade lonzino

Freeze Drying

Home freeze drying appliances are gaining popularity, largely because they’re easy to use and preserve food for years without losing nutrients.  When the foods re-hydrate, they’re pretty much exactly the same as they were before they were dried (days, months, years or decades before).

For a full list, here’s the Freeze Drying Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Freeze Dried Fruit

Freeze Dried Fruit including blackberries, bananas and strawberry slices.

Foraging

One of my favorite subjects to write, I love foraging for just about anything, be it deep in the woods or right on my own lawn.

For a full list, here’s the Foraging Archive with over 100 in depth foraging guides.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Wild Weeds

For a full list, here’s the Edible Wild Weeds Archive.

Edible Fruits and Nuts

For a full list, here’s the Edible Fruits Archive and Edible Nuts Archive.

Wild Mushrooms

For a full list, here’s the mushroom foraging archive.

Foraging

Gardening and Permaculture

We grow literally hundreds of different species of edible plants on our permaculture homestead, including more than 60 types of small fruit.  I especially love growing, unique, tasty food that you just can’t find in the grocery store.

For a full list, here’s the Gardening Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Permaculture To Do List

Permaculture Harvests through the seasons. Spring Strawberries, Summer Red Currants, Autumn Black Walnuts and Winter Nannyberries

Herbalism

I’ve been reading about herbalism since grade school, and more than 25 years later I’m still passionate about herbs and herbal medicine.

For a full list, here’s the herbalism archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Herbalism

Winemaking & Homebrewing

I made my first wine, mead and beer in college, right in my own dorm room, and now more than 15 years later I have plenty of recipes to share!

For a full list, here’s the Winemaking and Homebrewing Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Winemaking

Animal Husbandry

At this point, we’ve kept most of the common homestead type animals.  Learn from our experience, mistakes and all…

For a Full List, here’s the Animal Husbandry Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Goat Eating Raspberry Plant

DIY & Handicrafts

A big part of this life is learning how to do it yourself, and we’ve accumulated a lot of skills over the years!

For a full list, here’s the DIY Project Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

DIY and Crafts

Preparedness

Homesteading and preparedness go hand in hand, and it never hurts to be prepared for emergencies (both big and small).

For a full list, here’s the Preparedness Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Preparedness

Off Grid Living

When we moved to this homestead, it was completely off grid, powered by both solar and wind.  For our first 5 years, we stayed that way, carefully tending our batteries and monitoring the weather.

For the past 5 years, we’ve had a hybrid system.  We still have batteries and solar panels, but we also have a grid connection that we use to charge the batteries (instead of running a noisy generator).

When the grid’s down, we don’t skip a beat.  It’s the best of both worlds! 

For a full list, here’s the Off-Grid Archive.  Or, simply Click Here to return to the top of the list.

Off Grid Home From the Woods in Vermont

Your Favorites?

What did I miss?  What are your favorite posts on Practical Self Reliance? 

Leave me a note in the comments below.

Best of Practical Self Reliance

 

Reader Interactions

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Comments

  1. Nola

    A terrific site and thank you for sharing your vast knowledge and experiences.

    I’d like to order your Best Of book but don’t see where I can do so. Please help!

    Reply

  2. Eric Manzer

    I can’t believe i’m only now discovering your site. I’m dazzled. Beautiful! I live in a remote (no road) location on Alaska’s South Central Coast and most of your articles pertain to the life ways practiced here. We just canned half of our annual subsistence allotment of Copper River sockeye salmon. Our community has a reliable hydro microgrid so freezing is an essentially risk-free option, but, as I expect you would agree, successful canning imparts more than durability to food. I was contemplating canning some of the several gallons of blueberries we’ll gather later this year when a search led me to your site. Wow.

    I sold my publishing business years ago to work outdoors as a commercial fisherman here in Alaska but have been involved in several publishing projects over the years. I would love to have your articles collected into a few discreet volumes that I could put on my kitchen bookshelf. I could do that for myself, of course, but sharing them in a durable form would be a wonderful service. I plan to collect articles of yours to supplement the knowledge our local wild food practitioners. Thank you so much for your site, and when you do get around to compiling your work into book form, I would be honored to read drafts and offer suggestions if you’d like.

    Reply

  3. Barbra Shemon

    Just found your site and am finding information that I am looking for as I have used tinctures for years but my doctor that I get them through is retired so now I am creating the same types of tinctures that I have been purchasing in the past.

    Reply

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