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Article Index (Start Here!)

February 7, 2023 by Ashley Adamant Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links.  Read full disclosure 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
  • Food Preservation
    • Canning
    • Fermenting
    • Dehydrating
    • Cheesemaking
    • Salt Curing
    • Freeze Drying
  • Foraging
  • Gardening & Permaculture
  • Herbalism
  • Winemaking & Home Brewing
  • Animal Husbandry
  • DIY & Handicrafts
  • Preparedness
  • Off Grid Living

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!

  • 70+ Ways to Use Wood Ash
  • Best (and Worst) Emergency Food Suppliers
  • 100+ Canning Recipes from A to Z
  • Storing Eggs in Lime Water (Lasts 12+ Months)
  • 50+ Edible Wild Berries and Fruits (A Forager’s Guide)
  • How to Process Soil into Clay for Pottery
  • 100+ Best Books for Self Reliant Living
  • Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
  • Dandelion Wine
  • Salt Cured Egg Yolks
  • 50+ Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes
  • Freezing Fruit (A to Z Guide)

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

  • Beginner’s Guide to Water Bath Canning
  • Beginner’s Guide to Pressure Canning
  • 100+ Canning Recipes from A to Z
  • 50+ Pressure Canning Recipes
  • 30+ Soup Canning Recipes
  • 30 + Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes

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.

  • How to Make Sauerkraut
  • How to Make Fermented Hot Sauce
  • How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar
  • How to Make Lacto-Fermented Pickles
  • Fermented Turmeric
  • Fermented Garlic Honey

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.

  • 100+ Dehydrator Recipes
  • 5 Best Vegetables to Dehydrate for Winter Soups
  • How to Dehydrate Apple Slices
  • How to Dehydrate Pineapple
  • How to Dehydrate Carrots

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.

  • Beginner’s Guide to Cheesemaking
  • 50+ Cheesemaking Recipes (from Beginner to Advanced)
  • How to Make Farmer’s Cheese
  • How to Make Cheddar from Scratch
  • How to Make Colby Cheese
  • 18th Century Farmhouse Cheddar

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.

  • How to Make Duck Prosciutto (salt cured duck breast)
  • How to make Pancetta (cured pork belly)
  • How to Make Lonzino (cured pork loin)
  • How to Make Guanciale (cured pork jowl)
  • Salt Cured Salmon (Gravlax)

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).

  • How to Freeze Dry Food at Home
  • Best (and Worst) Freeze Dried Food for Long Term Storage
  • Cooking with Freeze Dried Meat

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

  • Foraging Chickweed
  • Foraging Yarrow
  • Foraging Wild Violets
  • Foraging Fireweed (Rosebay Willowherb)

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

Edible Fruits and Nuts

  • Foraging Bunchberries
  • Foraging Saskatoons (Serviceberries)
  • Foraging Wild Black Cherries
  • Foraging Chokecherries
  • Foraging Aronia (Black Chokeberry)
  • Foraging Barberry

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

Wild Mushrooms

  • 13+ Wild Mushrooms for Beginners
  • Morel Mushrooms
  • Chaga Mushrooms
  • Birch Polypore
  • Tinder Polypore
  • Witches Butter Mushrooms
  • Puffball Mushrooms
  • Shaggy Mane Mushrooms
  • Reishi Mushrooms
  • Turkey Tail Mushrooms
  • Dryad’s Saddle

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.

  • 50+ Unique Fruits & Nuts for Cold Climates (Zones 3 to 5)
  • 30+ Perennial Vegetables
  • How to Grow Honeyberries
  • How to Grow Nanking Cherry
  • How to Grow Shipova
  • How to Grow Salmonberry
  • How to Grow Lingonberry
  • How to Grow Hardy Kiwi (Hardy to -40 F)

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.

  • 100+ Medicinal Plants (and How to Use Them)
  • 20+ Immune Boosting Herbs
  • 20+ Herbal Preparations for Herbal Medicine Making
  • 16+ Medicinal Trees for Your Herbal Medicine Chest
  • How to Make Herbal Tinctures
  • How to Make Herbal Salves
  • How to Make a Herbal Oxymel

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!

  • Beginners Guide to Making Fruit Wines
  • How to Make Mead (Honey Wine)
  • How to Make Wine from Grapes
  • 50+ Winemaking Recipes
  • 50+ Meadmaking Recipes

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…

  • How Much Does it Cost to Keep Chickens?
  • Beginner’s Guide to Chicken Egg Colors
  • What’s the Difference Between a Duck Egg and a Chicken Egg?
  • Raising Geese: 8 Things to Know Before you Start
  • What’s the Difference Between a Goose Egg and a Chicken Egg?
  • Raising Rabbits on Pasture
  • Raising Angora Rabbits
  • Selling Angora Fiber from Backyard Rabbits
  • How Much Does it Cost to Raise a Pig?
  • How to Preserve a Whole Pig without Refrigeration
  • Raising Dairy Goats Off Grid

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!

  • How to Use a Drop Spindle to Spin Yarn
  • DIY Root Cellar Plans
  • Beginner’s Guide to Candlemaking
  • DIY Apple Harvest Rack
  • How to Make Soap (For Beginners)

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).

  • Planning an Emergency Food Supply for Your Family
  • The Best (and Worst) Emergency Food Suppliers
  • Emergency Water: The Best Options for Filtration, Purification, and Storage
  • Canning Water for Emergencies
  • Shelf Stable Food (Pantry Versions of Perishable Groceries)
  • The Best (and Worst) Freeze Dried Food for Long-Term Storage
  • How to Install a Driveway Alarm
  • Survival Gardening: Our Real Life Dry Run

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! 

  • Off Grid Appliances
  • Gravity Feed Off-Grid Water
  • How to Use a Wood Cook Stove
  • Pedal Powered Washing Machine for Off Grid Laundry
  • Maintaining Off Grid Systems in Winter

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

 

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Ashley Adamant Author Bio

I’m an off-grid homesteader in rural Vermont and the author of Practical Self Reliance, a blog that helps people find practical ways to become more self-reliant. Read More…

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