Planning to keep chickens and wondering which breeds would be best for you? Use this guide to choosing chicken breeds to learn which are best for eggs, meat, showing, cold climates, warm climates, companionship, and a variety of other traits.
Continue reading →Simple autumn olive fruit leather is made from the delicious, nutritious berries of an invasive shrub. Transform a pest into a resource with this recipe.
Continue reading →Save money on chicken feed, reduce dependence on industrial monocultures, make your chickens happier and their eggs healthier with these ideas. Give them access to good habitat, let help in the compost bins, feed them from the vegetable garden, grow fodder, and/or raise worms or grubs, are some of the possibilities discussed here.
Continue reading →Enjoy organic apples from your own backyard by choosing the right varieties, smart group plantings, and proper pruning and thinning. That alone will reduce blemishes sufficient for home consumption. To produce perfect apples, you can go the extra mile by bagging young fruit. Learn all about these practices here.
Continue reading →What makes these bread and butter pickles so special? Mostly it’s the combination of spices, but using all brown sugar and apple cider vinegar also add to the deliciousness. My favorite way of preserving cucumbers.
Continue reading →The idea of true free range chickens is great, but in reality it’s dangerous. To balance freedom and safety, we use a modified free range system which we describe in detail, along with tips on fencing, layout and location of chicken yard, providing cover, choosing appropriate chicken breeds, etc., so that you can develop your own limited free range system.
Continue reading →Beauty, vigor, edibility, medicinal uses, permaculture possibilities, butterfly appeal, breeding opportunities, and use in selling/trading are all great reasons to grow daylilies.
Continue reading →Deciding what to raise on your homestead or backyard farm involves taking inventory of your resources and yourself. This guides you through 15 critical considerations, such as climate, soil, existing ecosystems, lay of the land, storage space, market research, what you like to eat, and your own ability to deal with livestock illness, injury, and death.
Continue reading →A concise but thorough guide to raising baby chicks without a hen. Covers where to buy chicks, setting up a brooder box, feeding, watering, spatial needs, stimulation, and problems to look out for.
Continue reading →Learn how to preserve strawberries by drying, freezing, and canning, including my favorite recipes for jam, preserves, and dry sugar packing.
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