We grew our own turkeys this year, and the one thing you really can’t do when you grow your own, is pick your own size of Thanksgiving Turkey. You can choose between Monstrous and not so monstrous but in the end you are likely going to end up with more turkey than you anticipated. This has been our dilemma this year. We only have 3 of us in our family so we can only eat so much turkey in the few days after the holiday. Not one to let things go to waste, it is ... [ Read More ]
4 Elements of a Good Predator Proof Chicken or Turkey Coop
With a warm start to our late fall/winter I worry about the possibility of predators getting to my chickens. Hungry predators getting ready for the long winter are on the prowl looking for food and if my chickens are not secure it is just as likely as not that they could be on the menu. Losing chickens or for that matter ducks and turkeys, to predators of all kinds (that includes dogs who find your coop an easy meal) is common and it is heartbreaking. It only takes one break in to ... [ Read More ]
Caring For Turkeys
This year we decided that aside from our chickens and ducks we would try to raise some turkeys for our holiday table. Turkeys are not any harder to raise than chickens are and although they do require some special considerations it can be well worth your time to raise a few turkeys and enjoy the pure pleasure and satisfaction of eating a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving. There is more than one reason to raise turkeys, not only can raising your own turkeys give you a source of healthy ... [ Read More ]
5 Alternatives to Your Halloween Festivities
Halloween gets mixed reviews; some love everything about Halloween from the trick or treating, to dressing up, to decorating the house and yard with the scariest decorations possible. Others are concerned about Halloween from a religious perspective while still others worry about all the candy their kids may be getting as well as that which they are handing out to kids. For our family there are a lot of things we love about this time of year as well as a lot of things we are ... [ Read More ]
Easy Sun Dried Tomatoes
Last time I went to the store for sun dried Tomatoes the cheapest I could find them for was $5 for a tiny little package. Since I needed two packages for what I was making, I decided to pass them up and not make what I originally had planned on. $10 for a single ingredient just seemed like way too much money just to add them to a meal. While I am sure I could have found them for less if I shopped around, we do not have a lot of grocery stores in our area and by the time I ... [ Read More ]
Save Money On Greens This Winter By Dehydrating Garden Greens Now
My focus this year has been on trying to minimize winter food bills as much as possible. Winter time greens can be expensive in the markets, especially if you prefer to buy organic for your family. Part of my strategy to minimize the amount of money spent on expensive greens is to dehydrate garden greens while they are plentiful now. Not only does dehydrating allow them to retain most of their nutrients it makes them super easy to use in a variety of dishes. While I plan to grow ... [ Read More ]
Weekend Homestead Windup – Is Fall Here?
Hi everybody it is time for another homestead update, and this time my mind is wandering to the leaves on our lawn and the cool temperatures we had this morning. As I drank my coffee I found myself wondering whether fall was on its way, whether a long Indian summer was not in our future. I am of two minds about the prospect of an early fall, as hot and dry as it has been this year, I am probably not the only one who is welcoming cooler temperatures, but at the same time I worry a bit about ... [ Read More ]
Step By Step Making Tomato Sauce The Easy Way
When I first started making tomato sauce I wondered frequently if it was really worth all of that hard work. A can of tomato sauce back then anyway was 50 cents and it seemed like a lot of effort to go to just to make a can of sauce I could buy for so little. I have learned a lot since then, not only about the benefits of making my own food but also that making tomato sauce does not have to be so hard. Back then I would quarter my tomatoes, cook them down a bit and run ... [ Read More ]
The Very Easy and Never Ending Jar of Pickles
I used to think my father in law was a bit out there when he would use the old pickle juice to add onions and cucumbers to, pickling has to be more complicated than that was the rational I had. But after some experience in making refrigerator pickles I realized that reusing the liquid from your pickles over and over not only is an easy way to keep a never ending jar of pickles in your refrigerator but it is an excellent use of resources. It has been impossible to keep pickles in our house for ... [ Read More ]
Weekend Homestead Windup – School is In!
School starts tomorrow and with it a lot of thoughts about this past season and plans for the days ahead. School starting means fall is on its way and that leaves time for new projects. It has been a while since I have done a homestead update, and a couple of weeks ago I decided that I need to try to make weekly updates as long as there was something for me to say each week. To that end I have decided to do a weekend homestead windup which will encompass all of my ... [ Read More ]