How to make cranberry jam from fresh cranberries! Use the discounted cranberries after Thanksgiving to make a delicious batch of jam!
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How to Raise the Best Turkeys
How to Raise the Best Turkeys Have you ever wondered what it would be like to raise turkeys on your homestead? Maybe you’ve heard that these birds are so stupid that they will drown in the rain or that they are very difficult to raise. Not true! They aren’t difficult…
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How to Make Peach Jam from Fresh or Frozen Fruit
How to Make Peach Jam from fresh or frozen fruit!
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Butcher Day with My Dad and Mom
For instructions on processing your birds, check out my post How to Butcher a Chicken. A Helping Hand My husband, son, and I live 600 miles from my parents. We visit them in New York every summer and they visit us in Illinois at least once a year,…
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Thankful for a Step Back in Time
Autumn Pioneer Festival Every fall I like to visit the Autumn Pioneer Festival because it reminds me of how self sufficient people had to be during the westward expansion of our country. It makes me feel a little bit wistful that I was born into an age of modern convenience.…
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How to Start a Chicken Co-op
For more information on processing chickens, check out my post How to Butcher a Chicken. What is a Chicken Co-op? A co-op is a group that works together to achieve a common goal. A chicken co-op is a group that either pools their buying power to receive better prices for…
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How to Make Blueberry Jam
Use these step by step instructions to make your own delicious blueberry jam from fresh or frozen blueberries! Great in winter!
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‘One Too Many’ Pumpkins
Check out my post on Heirloom Pumpkins! ‘One Too Many’ Pumpkins I can never have too many pumpkins in my garden. I love all of the different varieties, colors and shapes of pumpkins one can find in the garden catalogs each spring. Of course, I want to try every kind…
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Can You Keep Cornish X Chickens as Laying Hens?
Cornish X Chickens for Eggs? Cornish X chickens have been hybridized for fast growth and economical meat production, making them unsuitable for keeping as pets or laying hens. They usually grow so big, so fast that their legs and hearts are unable to withstand their bulky size. Normally it isn’t…
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My Grandma’s Bread Bowl
This post was originally published on 1/25/13. Grandma’s House My Grandma M didn’t have a lot of fancy things in her house. She had a few nice dishes, most had little chips from 5 farm boys passing them around like bulls in, well, in a china shop. I have a…
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How to Make Jam from Frozen Fruit
Make jam from frozen fruit all year round! You can freeze the harvest when you don't have time to process jam and jelly, then make your preserves later. Or make jam from storebought frozen fruit!
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Top Ten Uses for Whey
My Top Ten Uses for Sour Whey If you’ve ever tried making your own Queso Fresco, Cottage Cheese, or Ricotta Cheese from fresh milk, you know that there is a lot of whey left over. These cheeses are made by heating the milk and adding vinegar, which is why this…
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What is Self Sufficiency?
“No man is an island, entire of itself.” John Donne What is Self Sufficiency? In the purest sense of the term, self sufficiency means the ability to survive on only that which you are able to gather, grow, make, or raise on your own. The thought of self sufficiency…
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How to Cull Your Old Laying Hens
For detailed instructions, check out my article How to Butcher a Chicken. When to Cull Laying Hens It can be difficult to decide when to cull your older laying hens. Some people like to keep their hens for a few years before culling them from the flock. Other people choose…
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Dark Chocolate Cake
Who Doesn’t Love Chocolate Cake?! I make this dark chocolate cake for my husband because he’s a huge dark chocolate fan. He’s also a fan of healthy foods, so I try to make our desserts as guilt-free as I can. Usually. I used mostly organic ingredients (including Organic Fair…
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Scrambled Duck Eggs That Don’t Taste Like Duck Eggs!
Scrambled Duck Eggs with Milder Flavor For the first time since I was a kid, I’m eating duck eggs! I ordered Pekin ducklings this spring and now have 5 ducks and 1 drake. We usually get 5 duck eggs a day and they are starting to pile up in the…