It might be said that there are a few things that you will find common among most homesteaders. One of those things would certainly be chickens. The other thing would probably be apple cider vinegar. I'll admit that I didn't really start to understand the many benefits of ACV until just over the past couple... Continue Reading →
How to Make Elderberry Fire Cider
I'm a big believer in boosting our immunity naturally. Natural ingredients like organic ginger, garlic and elderberry all are known to have tremendous health benefits, and we use them religiously. Especially as the weather starts to change, kids go back to school and the cold and flu season kicks off. We forage for elderberry midsummer... Continue Reading →
How to Make A Ginger Bug
I love the name of this ferment! Ginger bug. The name just rolls off the tongue. It's fun, and it will probably make some of your friends wonder if you've been hitting the sauce a little too hard when you start talking about it. But that's quite alright. So what is a ginger bug anyway?... Continue Reading →
4 Things That Will Ruin the Homesteading Experience
Homesteading is all about the experience. We all come to homesteading for different reasons. But in the end, what we really crave is a different approach to life. An experience that transcends the meaningless grind that has become the norm in modern day living. For our family, it was a hunger for a simpler, more... Continue Reading →
Natural Ways to Battle Sickness in the Winter
I apparently believe in fairy tales. I knew Iowa had really cold winters. Surely all those days with freezing temps must mean Iowans deal with less sickness in the winter, right? Germs can't survive the extreme cold. Or at least that's the fairy tale I believed when we moved here. It makes sense, in a... Continue Reading →
The Universal Wonders of Eggshells
I was cleaning out my dad's garage last summer, and I came across a container of crushed eggshells. Now, my dad was a borderline hoarder. He called himself a "collector" but that's really a soft way of saying he just didn't throw anything away. Newspapers, old stamps, coins (he had coins of all... Continue Reading →