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Exploring Heat Source Options for Canning
Whether your kitchen has all the modern conveniences or you live off the grid, for canning purposes, some heat sources work better than others. When I bought the cooktop I use now, most of the...
View ArticleA Guide to Canning Tomatoes
Featured in the Countryside Summer 2017 e-edition. Subscribe for more great stories like this! By Kay Wolfe – Tomatoes are one of the easiest and most common plants grown in backyard gardens, and...
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Nubian Goat Breed Spotlight
The Anglo-Nubian goat, or simply Nubian goat in the United States, was developed in Great Britain of native milking stock and goats from the Middle East and North Africa. Its distinguishing...
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A Wood Stove Hot Water Heater Heats Water for Free
By Patricia Greene – A good hot shower or bath is essential to everyone’s well-being. A shower or bath on a cold day with free hot water from your wood-burning cook stove that doesn’t waste fossil...
View ArticleHome Remedies for Sunburns, Cuts, Bites & Diarrhea
By Dr. Sharon L Hagemann – Summer is the season for outdoor living, whether you are gardening in your backyard, enjoying a day at the beach, taking the family on a hike through the woods, picnicking at...
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Ayam Cemani Chicken: Totally Black Inside and Out
Breed of the Month: Ayam Cemani Chicken The Indonesian Ayam Cemani chicken, with its unrelenting darkness, is one of the world’s most fascinating chicken breeds. Its feathers are black, but so is its...
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An Old Fashioned Mustard Pickles Recipe
What do you do with those renegade cucumbers that hide under the vine until suddenly they appear — huge and yellow? You could, of course, relegate them to your compost pile. But why not make an old...
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When to Add Perlite Soil to Container Gardens
What in the world is perlite soil anyway? Is it organic? I do a lot of container gardening especially with my herb plants. Since I try to keep things all natural and as organic as possible, I looked...
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How to Decrystallize Honey
Every so often someone asks me how to decrystallize honey. Now, they don’t use those exact words. Usually, the conversation goes something like this. “Um, I’m not sure what happened to the honey we...
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Wild Plant Identification: Foraging for Edible Weeds
On a sleepy Sunday afternoon, on the grounds of an ex-horse stable, Nate Chetelat presents a wild plant identification tour for a local gardening group. The focus of the tour is foraging and common...
View ArticleHow to Make Yogurt From Scratch + Recipes
By Mary Jane Toth – Yogurt is healthy and delicious. Learning how to make yogurt from scratch is very easy, and requires very little equipment. Yogurt is a thermophilic culture which also contains live...
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Designing Your Ideal Homesteading Land
By Ken Wilson – Homesteading land is neither a farm nor a rural residence; therefore, it presents design challenges that are different from the others. A rural residence is basically nothing more than...
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How Do Greenhouses Work?
Getting an answer to “how do greenhouses work?” will help you choose the most productive location, building and interior resources for your homestead’s greenhouse. Greenhouses are useful for growing...
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How to Make Bath Salts, Soaps, Scrubs and Balms
Making my own spa products, starting with making bath salts, began as a lark. A fun experiment. Then came the Eureka moment. Learning how to make bath salts allowed me to create personal, pure bath...
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A Beginner’s Guide to the Best Goats for Milk
There are many good reasons for raising dairy goats, and this article is the best place to start for more information about the best goats for milk. Maybe your children are looking for a 4-H project....
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Growing Calendula from Seed
Growing calendula (Calendula officinalis) from seed is an annual garden project in my family. We let the little ones help, and they enjoy monitoring growth as the first seedlings push their way through...
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How to Bathe a Chicken
Do you know how to bathe a chicken? Do chickens like baths? Hell no! There is a reason for the saying, “I’m madder than a wet hen.” However, as the flock master, you sometimes must force your birds to...
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The Versatile Mint: Peppermint Plant Uses
By Kay Flowers – Peppermint plant uses are endless; this versatile mint does a lot more than make a refreshing drink. Peppermint is indispensable in my herb garden and so vigorous I can pull handfuls...
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What is the Best Manure for Gardens?
The best manure for gardens is properly composted manure. It’s often called black gold, especially when it contains cow manure. When running a homestead, you have many different types of manure....
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Corn for Chickens and Other Fowl Fallacies
Have you heard that providing corn for chickens can make them overheat? Or that feeding cayenne increases egg production? Even experienced chicken owners still believe a few old wives’ tales. While...
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