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What To Do With Those Cherry Tomatoes

August 27, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Every year I say, “I only need to plant 5 cherry tomato plants.” Only to turn around and end up with at least 10 plants and a million cherry tomatoes! I don’t know how these plants do it but they are machines when it comes to cranking out pounds and pounds of fruit. But come the end of July, I am drowning in them. So here is my favorite round up of cherry tomato recipes and other things we do to use them all up.

Even if you aren’t an amazing gardener, you can probably grow all of the cherry tomatoes you could ever want. Trust me. Every year I struggle with our tomatoes. We lose a lot to pest pressure and blossom end rot. Despite various different methods of treating both, we end up with very few tomatoes. I’ll never stop trying to grow them because when I finally get it right, it will be glorious.

Cherry Tomato Ideas

Fresh eating!

That’s the first and best way to use cherry tomatoes. Now, I’m not a big raw tomato lover. In fact, I can’t stand the taste of raw tomatoes. BUT the sweet million cherry tomato variety? It is my favorite and I can usually eat those raw without being grossed out. I much prefer doing something with those tomatoes. I usually make my own sauce, even with cherry tomatoes. It makes a really great sweet sauce.

This recipe for Marinated Cherry Tomatoes from Natasha’s Kitchen is great for hot weather snacking. My family doesn’t like big heavy meals when it’s hot out. So something like this is really great for us.

We eat a lot of pasta and sometimes the heavy tomato/pasta sauce is a bit much when you are wanting a quick lunch. This recipe from A Spicy Perspective is a great way to use up some cherry tomatoes and have a great quick lunch. Add some protein and you have a easy dinner too.

This Roasted Cherry Tomato Spread from A Salty Pot is another delicious option. You can spread it on crackers, salad or even a cold pasta salad.

Have you ever had Bruschetta? Get some crusty sourdough bread or Italian loaf and enjoy this Bruschetta recipe from The Sunshine Hustle. Here is another amazing snack, appetizer, or in my house, a meal.

Meal Prepping With Cherry Tomatoes

Most of the recipes above can be used in meal prep, whether it’s for lunches or dinners. Really, you could cook your cherry tomatoes with some eggs. Delicious.

But making up a couple of meals with these beauties and storing them for the week would use up a lot of these babies.

Preserving Cherry Tomatoes

After a couple handfuls of tomatoes, even the biggest tomato lover will be burned out on them. So another option is dehydrating. I love to dehydrate these guys for sundried tomatoes. I have a huge dehydrator that I can put several hundred in. Usually, you set your dehydrator to 145* to 155* and let them go until they are dry. This can take anywhere from 5-24hrs depending on your temps, humidity, and water content of the tomatoes.

Cherry tomatoes also freeze okay. But remember, when you thaw them out they are usually extremely mushy. This is due to the high water content in them.

My favorite method, second to dehydrating them, is to can them. This can be done either by keeping them whole or halving them. I prefer to pack the jars, fill with water to 1/2″ head space and then process for 40 min (pints) or 45 min (quarts).

Lastly, give it to your livestock. We grow extra plants of everything for two reasons. 1) if one plant fails, we need to have a back up. 2) if that plant doesn’t fail, we can feed it to the animals. My pigs pack on the pounds every summer.

Before we get too far into this post, I wanted to give a suggestion about keeping a garden journal. A digital garden journal is a fantastic way to keep track of past, present and future gardens. Our Digital Garden Journal is a great way to keep up with everything without getting too overwhelmed.

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Cut Back On Next Year’s Garden

If you are anything like me this is absolutely not going to happen. I am still going to plan for 5 cherry tomato plants and then start 15. That’s how it works. Because an overabundance is better than under.

But if you are consistently getting more than you can handle, look at cutting back on your numbers for next year. I hope this post helps you figure out what to do with all those maters. Just remember, there is a blessing in overabundance.

4 Ways To Reduce Food Waste

August 24, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

The simple answer is get a couple pigs or chickens. That’s it. End blog post here. But that’s not an ideal answer. If you can’t have pigs or chickens, or you don’t like or want livestock. What are your other options? How can you reduce food waste?

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Can It!

Sometimes reducing food waste is as simple as making a larger batch and canning it. For example, beef stew is literally the easiest meal on the planet to can. Make a big batch of it and can the left overs. You will need a pressure canner. Though it’s not absolutely required, it is strongly recommended.

If you don’t want to make a large batch but still want to get a couple jars of left overs canned? This little canner is a great option. It’s a little pricey but for the ease of use and not having to lug out one of the big canners? I think it’s definitely worth the investment.

Canning can be pretty nerve-racking to start. Especially, if you are teaching yourself how to start canning. But I promise, the old days of pressure canners exploding are WAY less likely to repeat themselves.

Dehydrating To Reduce Food Waste

I talked here about my new love for dehydrating and I have to say it’s one of my favorite ways to not only reduce food waste, but also to put up food for a rainy day. I love the “set it and forget it” ability with dehydrating food. With a couple hours of prep (for large batches), I can fill up my trays and be done. One of the ways that I work my dehydrator schedule is to cut a large batch of a veggie while prepping/cooking dinner and then fill the trays. Usually, by morning it’s done and ready to be put into jars.

If you are only cutting a cup of carrots but have another pound that will go bad? Just cut all of them and throw what you don’t need in the dehydrator.

When it comes to using a dehydrator to reduce food waste, I mainly use it when I find great deals or sales. Or when my garden is over abundant. I have two dehydrators, one that is a DIY that we picked up from our local Habitat For Humanity and our Excalibur. I have to say the mac daddy one that we picked up? Absolute favorite because it is MASSIVE.

Can You Feed Food Scrap Your Livestock

Another fantastic way to reduce food waste is to feed it to your animals! This goes for ALL animals on the homestead but is only where applicable. We have a 5gal bucket on our back deck that is strictly for our chickens and pigs. Every evening fill the bucket about half way with feed if it’s not full and throw it on the ground for them.

By feeding kitchen scraps to your livestock, you can effectively reduce not only your food waste but also your feed bill! In fact, we have a whole section of the garden that is for livestock fodder. Another cool hack is to bring a small covered bucket to work and have your co workers fill the bucket with their food scraps! We have been feeding our pigs and chickens for months like this.

A word of caution though, not all animals can eat all food scraps. So be aware and prepared for that. Goats can’t eat meat. It’s taboo for a chicken to eat chicken. Cows shouldn’t have large apples. Etc. So just be cautious when feeding your livestock out of your kitchen scraps.

Meal Prepping To Reduce Food Waste

Lastly, meal prepping will help you reduce a lot of food waste. I talked here about how to stretch your meals out to reduce the stress of cooking after a long day of work. When you have a plan of what you are going to eat for the week, it really helps to reduce food waste and stress!

If you are working towards reducing your need of processed foods, that not only feed your family but the scraps go to your livestock, I talk about cooking from scratch here. Because buying the non-gmo, no corn/soy feed for your meat animals doesn’t make a lick of sense if you turn around and feed them a box of mac and cheese.

Bonus Tip: Compost!

The reason why this wasn’t included in the main group is because composting has some “rules”. The general rule of thumb for compost is to put in organic matter. Things like leaves, grass clippings, garden waste, and most kitchen scraps. BUT!

You really don’t want to put meat scraps in your compost. You can put meat or bones in your compost, but you chance predators or the meat going rancid and causing problems in your compost. Another problem is using things like oil, butter, etc can also go rancid. But if you have left over carrot caps, watermelon rinds, etc? Abosultely put them in the compost.

Easy, Cold Pasta Salad

August 20, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Jump to Recipe

It’s the dog days of summer and getting a good lunch on the table is surprisingly difficult. At my house, lunch is usually covered by left overs. But over the last several days, the boys have eaten EVERYTHING in my fridge. So I had to dig deep to figure something out. So enter the easy, cold pasta salad.

What’s So Great About My Pasta Salad?

Well, it’s literally the easiest, laziest, and good pasta salad I’ve ever had. Now, as a rule, I don’t like pasta salad. I’ve tried so many different kinds and they are all pretty gross. Sometimes it’s a texture thing, other times it’s an ingredient issue, but it’s always nasty. But my easy, cold pasta salad is a pretty great treat when your hungry and it’s freaking hot outside.

Easily Sourced Ingredients

The only thing I put in my pasta salads are things that are easily found in my fridge, freezers, or cabinets. Sometimes, that makes for a very interesting lunch, but so far it’s worked pretty well. In fact, I have never gone to the store to get ingredients specifically for this. I’ve also never set out to specifically make this.

The caveat to that is that I always have shredded chicken, small steaks, and veggies in my freezer. I’ve also got some weird salad dressing that needs to be used up too.

Good Texture

I have a lot of sensory issues when it comes to texture, specifically with my food. I can usually get down a couple bites of scrambled eggs before I am gagging and can’t eat anymore. Which sucks, because I actually like eggs. But these sensory issues has created a lot of problems when it comes to trying new foods. Including pasta salads.

The reason I came up with this recipe is simply because I was hungry and didn’t want anything hot or heavy in the middle of summer. And let’s be real, a salad isn’t going to cut it right now.

My Easy, Cold Pasta Salad

The steps are incredibly easy and really, you don’t need a recipe. I like to experiment with recipes and cooking so rarely, if ever, do I have a solid plan in place. If you need a step by step recipe? I’m probably not your girl. But if you just need a foundation to create your own, I got you covered.

The Recipe

Are you ready for the easiest recipe you’ll read?

Boil pasta of your choice to your done-ness (I like al dente for pasta salad)
Prep your protein
Drain your pasta and run cold water over it
Add in your veggies or fruit
Add your salad dressing
Mix everything. Store in fridge if needed.

That’s it

Making Your Own Pasta Salad

The options are endless for making your own easy, cold pasta salad. You could put pretty much whatever you want into it. But I try to make sure it’s got a good protein (I prefer shredded chicken or small steak) and some frozen veggies to help cool everything off faster.

Combinations

Steak with frozen corn and peas with Caesar dressing
Shredded chicken with frozen strawberries and walnuts (or some nut) with a flavored baslamic
Mini shrimp with with bacon bits, peas and baby corn with oil and flavored vinegar
Crab with wanton strips and peppers and soy sauce

Try It And Let Me Know

I love making these different combinations and hope you do too! Let me know in the comments what you like to do with your easy, cold pasta salad!

Easy, Cold Pasta Salad

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Cook Time 20

Servings: 4

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

1 box Noodles
2 cup vegetables or fruit
1.5 cup salad dressing
1/2 lb protien
1/4 cup cheese
Pinch Salt for pasta water
2 Tbsp Oil for pasta water

Method

Start your pasta water. Once at a boil, add noodles and cook till just done (al dente)
While your pasta is cooking, cook your protein if needed
When protein is done, place in freezer
Prep your veggies or fruit. The recipe that I am using above was with frozen veggies, so I didn't have to prep anything
When pasta is done, drain and then rinse with cold water for about 30 sec to 1 minute.

Add everything into a big bowl and mix with salad dressing of choice.
You can serve immediately or place in refrigerator.

Easy Meal Prep Ideas

August 13, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Everyone knows that you should meal prep, right? We know that it saves money, it’s healthier, and can save a ton of time. But the reality is that sometimes, it’s absolutely…. boring. Some people can’t stand the thought of eating the same thing over and over again. Others love the ease of meal prep but just don’t have the time. Or if you’re like me, you have 3 jobs, homeschool, homestead and run a blog. I absolutely LOVE left overs, but I just don’t have a lot of time to make 2-3 different meals a day for 4 people for 5-7 days. I just can’t do it. But I am going to start this series why I meal prep, how I save money, and the ease of doing it. So let’s get started with my easy meal prep ideas.

Why Should You Meal Prep

The better question is, why don’t you meal prep? Is it because of time constraints or money concerns? The thought of making a week’s worth of veggies sound like a terrible idea? Maybe you don’t know how?

But I’ve got you covered! The meals that I will be dropping over the next couple of weeks will not take any additional time and will save you money. Well, unless you use a more expensive ingredient. The recipes are easy to follow, make and reheat. I feed 3 growing boys (yes, the husband is included there) on these meals and I’m not stranger to a good meal either.

At the end of the day, you should meal prep because it’s easier than constantly try to make various meals every night for dinner. Or figure out what you are going to do for lunch for the next week. The dreaded question of what’s for dinner is finally answered!

My Meal Prep

Well, first let me disclose my definition of meal prep…. it’s left overs. That’s it. But there is a lot more to it than that. First, when I make my meal plan (which you can see in our members only area), I look at the entire family’s schedule. For example, in July I worked about 100 hours a week between my three jobs. August wasn’t much better. Jared was working on my greenhouse and I didn’t want him to have to try to figure out what to do for dinner. So when I made my meal plans, I made sure that when I worked a 48 hour shift, I had plenty of left overs. Or when it was Jared’s turn to cook dinner, he had plenty of left overs to choose from. Or the random days that the boys were home alone for a few hours, they had virtually whatever they wanted.

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How I Meal Prep

Above I said I make a meal plan after looking at the schedules. But the easy part is that I double or triple the recipe. Yup, when I make tacos, I double the recipe so I can have tacos, nachos, or burritos. When I need to use up some eggs? I make a huge batch of my breakfast scramble. Then I end up with breakfast burritos or breakfast bowls.

Tools For Meal Prep

Containers

You can use whatever containers you want. Really, there is no wrong container to use. Well, if you use paper, they aren’t going to last long. But glass or plastic are good choices. I personally use these, these and these. When I meal prep, I am putting up anywhere from 2-20 meals. So glass isn’t an affordable option for me. However, one really good option is mason jars with plastic lids.

Labels

When you are meal prepping you want to know when you cooked something and what it is. Sometimes, it’s just not easy to tell what something is in a container. Or when you cooked that batch of rice. I like these labels because they have been pretty easy to use and remove. These are dissolvable which I like.

Misc. Items

I would recommend having huge stock pots whenever possible. When you are trying to mix up a batch of spaghetti in a small pot? Disaster. I have these in 22Qt and 20qt (I have 2 of these).

Also, grab an instapot. I have used it to cook a frozen chuck roast that are fall of the bone tender in just a couple hours. I’ve also made huge batches of beans, rice, etc. It’s a very handy little gadget.

Easy Meal Prep Ideas

I am currently working on the recipes for you guys. But like most of us that are looking to start meal prepping, I am insanely busy. I am working on the spaghetti first and will keep them coming as the weeks progress. But I wanted to give you ideas to get you started with your own meals that you already cook at home.

Kitchen Journal

Also, I highly recommend getting a kitchen journal. The reason is because you will find that something you make doesn’t freeze well. Or you find that you don’t like the taste of second day pasta. Or a certain recipe is fantastic when it is tripled. It’s better to write it down than forget it. Your journal doesn’t have to be anything crazy, I use these bullet journals for everything.

Make A List

I know you are probably hoping for some recipes. But before I start dropping those recipes, I want you to think about your own meals that you make. Do any of them taste good reheated? Write those down. Then I want you to think about your standard sides that you make every week. Write those down too. Things like pasta, rice, mixed veggies, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, etc. How many of those can you make ahead? Then I want you to think about any combinations that you can put together. Once you have made your list, we are going to start brainstorming various ways to use it.

Combining For Easy Meal Prep Ideas

To give you some examples, my meal plan will look something like this:

Breakfast

S: Sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits

M: Breakfast Bowl

T: Breakfast Burrito

W: Breakfast Bowl

Th: Breakfast Burrito

F: Breakfast Bowl

S: Slow Cooker French toast

Lunch

S: Pasta Salad

M: Steak with noodles

T: Steak sandwiches

W: Shredded chicken with rice and mixed veggies

Th: Steak Nachos

F: Spaghetti

S: mac n cheese with shredded chicken

Dinner

S: Steak with rice and mixed vegies

M: Spaghetti with garlic bread

T: Whole Chicken with noodles and mixed veggies

W: Tacos with Spanish rice and beans

Th: Pork chops with rice and mac n cheese

F: Homemade Pizza

S: Chicken Veggie Soup

Now before you get overwhelmed, because I KNOW it’s a lot, start with your dinners first. What are you going to have for the week? Once that is figured out, you can try to figure out what you want to do with your left overs. Or you can purposefully make extras so you can have them later.

Explaining My Easy Meal Prep Ideas

For example, on Sunday pasta salad is for lunch. Look at all the times you have pasta for the week. The answer is 8 times. While that may seem like a lot, and it kind of is, you are looking at 21 meals for the week. If you make rotini noodles like these, you can make all of your pasta at once. This is where that kitchen journal will come in handy. I know that one box of pasta is enough for lunch for our family. Also, I know that one box of pasta is enough for a side for my family. So by the time everything is all said and done, I only need 4 boxes of pasta for 7 meals and I need 2 or 3 for spaghetti night.

But you’re not going to add any sauce or seasoning to this pasta. Instead, you are going to make all of your boxes (except for the spaghetti night) and then toss the pasta with oil, and separate into containers. So if you used 5 boxes of pasta, you’ll use 5 bowls. Same with your rice.

Let’s check out meats next. I have steak 4 times on the menu. I talked about cow sharing here, and that’s the only reason I can afford to have steak as often as we do. But if you don’t cow share, this one may be a little more difficult. When I cook steak for the family, I usually do the “good” steak; ribeye, sirloin, etc. But when you are cooking in batches, a flank steak or round is just as good for steak nachos, or steak sandwiches.

Finally, Saturday night we are having chicken veggie soup. But the more accurate term would be a Brunswick stew. You know, the stew that puts everything but the kitchen sink in it? This soup is the end of the week, left overs are going to the pigs meal. Any unseasoned rice, no sauced pasta, meats, veggies, etc is getting added into this pot. And it is freaking amazing….90% of the time. Sometimes, it’s not very good and we just plan for a hodge podge meal of whatever is left over. The meal plan above would be a good hodge podge or stew. The combinations we have come up with over the years is unusual. Steak nachos with mac n cheese for example.

But What About Breakfast

Really, any meal that you can put in a crock pot is a winner at this house. For breakfast, I will usually start them in the evening before bed so it’s hot and ready in the morning. I have a tiny crock pot I reserve for this. I’ve done breakfast scrambles, french toast, oatmeal, etc and the all time favorite tends to be the scramble.

But usually what I do is pick a time where I am going to be off for at least 6 hours. Then I make 5# of bacon, 5doz scrambled eggs, 5# of southern style hashbrowns, 3# of sausage, and 3# of diced/ chunked ham. I cut the bacon to bite sized bits and cook everything separately. Then I get these bowls and assemble. It’s a ton of work. But it will literally feed us for months.

These bowls do great in the freezer and I pull out enough for Jared and I to take to work, as well as a couple extra for the boys. It’s a lot of work on the front end, but man does it save time in the mornings.

The Easy Part Of Easy Meal Prep Ideas

You don’t have to have entire boards on Pinterest to have easy meal prep ideas. Instead, look at what you are already making and see if you can make a little extra for lunch for a couple days. It doesn’t have to be Insta-worthy. It just has to feed you, save some money and be healthy.

I will keep posting recipes under this tag and category as well as on my other social media, which you can find below.

What I Wish I Knew Before Starting A Homestead

July 10, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Oh, the things I wish I knew. “They” say that hindsight is 20/20 and they are absolutely right. There are so many challenges that we have faced over the years. If someone would have told me, before starting a homestead, that it would have been this hard? Well, I still would have done it….. and I probably wouldn’t have listened. But if I can help you avoid some pitfalls, I’m going to do it, even if I’m wasting my time.

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What I wish I would have known before starting a homestead

Set Goals, Make A Plan, And Stick To It

This seems to be the hardest thing for people to do. There is so much excitement in buying a piece of property and you have all these ideas of how you want to do things. Only to realize half way through a project that it’s not working or you don’t need it. But if you can spend some time thinking about all the things you want, how you’re going to accomplish it and putting it in play? You will be ahead of the game.

Paralysis By Analysis

This is the next part of the planning process and it happens to EVERYONE. Don’t get so caught up in making plans, that you don’t execute them. Yes, there are a million ways to do something. But don’t get so tangled up in the best way, that you don’t do anything. Sometimes jumping in with both feet is the best way to learn. Sure, it can be an expensive lesson. But imagine the pride that comes with learning how to build a coop, a garden bed, or canning? Imagine if you were to put aside the “best” way to do something and just did it? Those lessons are far more valuable than the loss of a couple dollars.

To give you an example, if we had waited to build our goat barn, they would have died that first winter. If we had waited until we knew exactly how to build it, proper plans, location, materials, etc, it wouldn’t have gotten done that first year. We would have had to bring them into the house when we got 4″ of snow and ice. Sure, it’s in a bad spot and doesn’t look pretty but my goats are happy.

Garden Before Livestock

This idea tends to be a forgotten thought on most influencer’s platform. Every single one of us know that you are going to get chickens before you have a way to feed them. Or goats before you have the best practices in hand. It’s just the way this lifestyle works. Sure, you’ll have a few people that will learn everything possible before taking the leap. But a lot of us don’t.

It’s easy to have the mindset of just going to the feed store for food. A bag of non gmo, corn or soy free feed is about $15 for a 50# bag by me. That doesn’t seem like a lot, right? But it is when you buy 6 bags (or more) of chicken feed, goat feed, pig feed, and alfalfa pellets per month …. Then you have to buy hay, supplements, and medications. The feed alone is $360+ a month.

OR you can learn how to grow their food.

Live There For A Season

So many times, new homesteaders want to get straight to work. While that is an amazing attitude to have, sometimes living in the space for a season will give you the best possible look at what is going to happen. For example, we waited a whole year before we put in gardens. Why? Because I didn’t want to waste a ton of time, money, resources, etc on putting a garden in, only to have it be in the wrong spot.

Another example is the goat barn. If we had waited a season before putting that in, we would have seen that the water runs right into the barn after a big storm. Now it’s a constant battle to keep them and their bedding dry.

If You Want It, Get It

Not everything needs to be so utilitarian that you can’t have pretty things. But you will realize very soon that utility and practicality are far more valuable than a pretty face. My gardens are a prime example of wanting something pretty vs totally utilitarian.

My kitchen garden has raised beds in rows, with arched trellises, decorations on the fence, and figurines tucked throughout. Yes, it is pretty and fussy. Yes, we sank over a thousand dollars into it. And by the time it’s finished, we will dump another couple thousand. But it is hands down my most favorite spot on the homestead. I’m in there for hours every single day I’m home. That means it gets weeded and watered regularly. The bugs get picked off more often. It’s better taken care of.

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My big garden? I walk through it to check on things. I’ll weed occasionally. But I’m not hanging out in there. Why? Mainly, because there is just so much more work that needs to be done in there. Also, because my kitchen garden brings me indescribable joy.

Just Because It’s Cute, Doesn’t Mean You Need It

The flip side of idea above is: you don’t need to waste money on garden statues if it takes away from your seed budget. Just because you love llamas, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to get one. Unless you plan on selling fiber. But the point is that whatever it is you want, it needs to fit in with your budget, plan, and goals.

Before Starting A Homestead Define What Success Is

This is really hard for those that aren’t goal orientated or those who don’t really have a goal in mind. But for some of us, we want to have this successful homestead. But what does that actually look like? I ask myself a lot, “At what point will I consider this (whatever it is) done and a success?”

To give you an example, my gardens will be a success when they provide 75% of the food needs of the entire farm. This includes livestock and humans. My homestead will be successful then.

Infrastructure Is Not Build In A Day

So many times we want everything done right now. But it’s important to realize that unless you have a TON of capital, you won’t get all of your infrastructure built right now. Not only does it take time, your plans change! Initially, we didn’t want a greenhouse. Our spring/summer growing season is about 200 days and usually we can grow frost hardy crops straight through winter. In theory, we can grow year round. But we realized after the second failed attempt at starting seeds inside, we need a greenhouse. Blu loves to look out the windows and she doesn’t care if the seedlings are in her way. To protect our seeds, we need to get the away from the 110# fur missile.

Invest In Good Tools An Equipment

This is probably the most important thing you could possible do. Do not waste your money on tools or equipment that aren’t worth anything. I’ll be posting a garden guide (coming soon) of the tools that we have bought and love, and those that I wouldn’t waste your money on. But at the end of the day, spend the few more dollars for tools that work well and will last you a long time. A lot of influencers have a list a mile long of tools that are amazing, and tools that we will tell you to stay away from. Obviously, it’s biased, but walk into large purchases with your eyes wide open.

In that same category, don’t waste money on courses that you don’t need. YouTube, Instagram, and blogs like this one are all great resources of information that is FREE!

Before Starting A Homestead: Grace

The absolutely most important thing that you should keep in mind when starting a homestead, is grace. Grace for yourself when you screw up. Understanding when your spouse screws up. Joy when there is success. All of these things are so important. You won’t be successful every time, with everything. And that’s okay. It’s the best part of learning.

Dehydrating Foods: My New Hobby

April 24, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

This series is going to go over the ins and outs of dehydrating foods. We are going to look at the last 9 months of work, from dehydrating and reconstituting to mishaps and successes. As always on this blog, you will get the real story about dehydrating foods, not the glamorous jars and packages of foods. You’ll see our mistakes and failures but also the successes! Welcome to the first installment of my new favorite hobby: Dehydrating Foods.

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Dehydrating Foods Journey

I always shied away from dehydrating foods, though I’m not really sure why. It’s a pretty simple process, but I’ve always stuck with canning. I’ve owned an Excalibur dehydrator for over 10 years and used it a hand full of times, usually making small patches of yogurt. About six months ago, I ordered dehydrated peppers from Azure Standard. It was a game changer! No longer having to go out and buy peppers for taco night? Having an item on hand that doesn’t take up space in my freezer? Sign Me Up!

Last year, I had quarts of peppers coming in every day from the garden. Most of them rotted before we could use them. Then I realized that I could roast them, grind them and turn them into a seasoning powder. But I used my oven instead of my dehydrator…Why? Because I didn’t feel like getting my dehydrator out. Let’s not talk about a waste of electricity. But this year? I have so many plans for that dehydrator.

Dehydrating Foods Save Money On Pantry Staples

Onions are a staple in my pantry. I freaking love onions. Onion powder, chopped onions, diced onions, you name it. There’s usually onion in 75% of my dishes. Because I buy big bags of them, they tend to go bad before I can use all of them. If I buy smaller bags or single onions, it’s never enough. Plus, I don’t want or need an entire onion in some dishes. So what did I do? Freeze the other half of the onion, or fed it to the chickens. While it’s not necessarily wasted, I usually forget about the other half of the onion in the freezer and spend the money at the store for more.

Another pantry staple is celery. In the depths of winter, we eat a ton of soup. But celery doesn’t can or freeze well. Usually it turns to mush in either of those two preservation methods. And buying an entire bunch of celery isn’t economic when you need a cup of chopped celery.

Dehydrating Foods Reduces Waste

One of the things I hate the most in the entire world is wasting food. It drives me insane to dump food in the trash because it rotted, gets freezer burn, or we were just too lazy to do something with it. I go back to onions and celery. We don’t eat either of those raw. One for obvious reasons. But there is still a far amount of food waste when you lose food in the freezer. Dehydrating these foods helps make sure that waste is minimized.

How many times have you bought limes only to have them rot before you get a chance to use them? Or thought for sure you would use that entire batch of potatoes for mashed potatoes? Throwing them in the dehydrator is a great way to reduce food waste.

Dehydrating Foods Help Clear Out The Freezer

For the last two years, we have purchased a half or whole cow from a local farm. The first year, a half cow lasted us a little over 8 months. This year, we purchased a whole cow. Let me tell you, we struggled to find enough freezer space and end up buying another freezer. I talk more in depth about buying meat in bulk in this post.

But dehydrating food helps to clear out the freezers from that bulk purchase of frozen corn, or random bag of onions that you forgot about. I don’t know about your freezers, but in our house, they become a jumbled mess of food. We try to keep our freezers “separated” by animal, but the reality is that doesn’t always work. Especially when veggies aren’t animals and most creamer is not actually dairy.

Should You Learn How To Dehydrate Food?

In short, yes. Dehydrators are relatively cheap, when compared to canning setups and the DIY options for building your own dehydrator are endless. I also think that having a well rounded approach to preserving your garden harvest is a must. Some things just aren’t going to freeze or can well like peas, celery, melons, zucchini, and summer squash.

Is Dehydrating Foods Sustainable?

Meh. Take this from someone who *gasp* reuses canning lids that are in good shape. Dehydrating foods really isn’t sustainable DEPENDING on how you do it. It usually requires electricity and sometimes requires a steady influx of mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. But canning sometimes requires electricity (you can can on a wood burning stove if you can get it hot enough or a propane camp stove), and after the initial purchase of jars, doesn’t REQUIRE additional purchase unless there is damage or a lot of use.

I don’t know that there is a truly sustainable food preservation method, except maybe fermentation, that ALL food can go through. So I think the question should be what food method is the most sustainable, but whatever.

What Do You Need To Get Started?

Pretty simple list here:

Dehydrator- with trays I like my Excalibur but I would recommend one with a door that actually shuts.

Mylar Bags– I would recommend different sizes. Also grab a heat sealer while you’re at it. It’ll make your life easier

Oxygen Absorbers– This one is based on the size of the bags or jars you are using. So again, I would get a multi pack if you can.

Mason Jars– This is what I use. I’m not a fan of the mylar bags only because I’m set up for jars. I’ve got 8 storage units built in the basement that are the perfect height for jars. Plus I have a bunch of jars and I don’t want to spend more money.

Silicone Mats– These are the mats I use for things that are a little gooey or rollie (like peas). They are great!

Funnels– If you’re a canner, you have funnels. If not the link provided are the ones I have.

Dehydrating Foods Is Easy

This is literally the most set it and forget it way of preserving food. While not technically forget it, it allows you to not be chained to your stove, in a hot kitchen for hours. Over the years, I have spent hours and hours in my kitchen, every summer and fall, canning hundreds of jars of food. Please don’t misunderstand, I absolutely LOVE it. Especially in the winter when I have quarts and quarts of soup at the ready. Or on days when I come from a 24 hour shift and hit the ground running for another 12 hours on the farm, having beef stew on standby is amazing.

I will always be a canner. But now? Now, I’m a food preserver. I can, freeze, and dehydrate.

Reaching into my cabinet for a colorful jar of dehydrated mixed veggies, adding it to a soup, and serve? Yes, please.

Seeing more food in my basement, knowing that no matter if the entire world crumbles, or just my own, we have food.

Knowing that I am teaching my children the value of nurturing a garden, harvesting the bounty, and not wasting food? Invaluable.

How To Build A Successful Homestead

March 18, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

This is a loaded question that is personal, individual, and can only be answered by you, your family and your land’s capability. At the end of the day, every single homestead is going to look different. You may not want a lot of animals or you may not want huge gardens. You may have to work off farm or on a fixed income. There are so many variables to building a successful homestead. But here are my thoughts on how to build your successful on the homestead.

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What Is A Successful Homestead?

Before you start the first project, buy the first piece of land, or anything else, you need to determine what will make your homestead successful to YOU. Is it being 90% self reliant? Raising 100% of your own meat? Surviving or Thriving? It’s so important to have a definition of your success so you can measure your progress. And it’s okay if that definition changes or evolves. But if you cannot figure out the benchmark for your successful homestead, you won’t be successful.

Defining A Successful Homestead

If you already know what your successful homestead looks like, congratulations! You are ahead of the game by a LOT. I didn’t really understand that I needed to define what my vision of success looked like until I had been homesteading for a couple of years and realized that I was spinning in circles, getting a lot of things done, but nothing that was moving us towards “success”.

So Jared and I sat down and really thought about how would we define the success of our homestead. The question we needed to answer was, “What is THE thing, that when it’s done, we can say we were a success.”

For our homestead, we define success as growing 75% of our food and our animals food, that means meat, dairy, and produce for us. It also means fodder like corn, oats, BOSS, squash/pumpkins and other veggies. Success also means building as much of our infrastructure ourselves whenever possible. Finally, I will deem the homestead and this blog a success when it not only supports itself financially but also allows us to retire early.

Measuring Against Your Definition Of A Successful Homestead

Every single goal, project, expectation, or purchase needs to be measured against your definition of success. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do that project, set that goal, or make the purchase. But the KNOWING is the most important thing.

To give you an example, I want a greenhouse so badly. I want to grow coffee, citrus, and other heat loving plants that my zone gets too cold for. Towards the bottom of the blog post, I have listed out our definition of success, but one of the big ones is growing 75% of our food. Measuring the want of a greenhouse against growing 75% of our own food, the greenhouse would be a good purchase and project. If I build a greenhouse, we could start our garden plants in the greenhouse which would greatly improve their chances of surviving Blu. It would limit the amount of citrus and coffee we purchase from the store. Win.

Another example would be buying a milk cow right now. This would definitely help us with grow/ own 75% of our own food because we would save a ton of money on dairy products and potentially meat. But if we do it now, before we have solid pastures set up, we would not be working towards success because of the amount of hay we would have to purchase. Lose. BUT it’s something that can be done later.

So before you start doing things to or for your homestead, make sure it’s getting you closer to success instead of further away.

Setting Expectations For Success

A long time ago, I heard someone say that the #1 relationship killer was unmet expectations. I thought it was a crock, because everyone knows it’s communication, right? But when he explained it further it makes total sense. Let’s say you expect your spouse to always do the dishes, but you never said “this is your chore” and they never agreed. They can’t meet your expectation. Or if you have told your spouse a million times that you can’t stand roses. But they get you roses all the time, you have the expectation that they will not buy you roses because you don’t like them. That expectation is not met. Overtime it causes immense frustration and anger that ultimately can kill a relationship.

It’s the same for homesteading. If your expectation is to have all of your infrastructure in place within one year, and it doesn’t happen, you’re going to be upset. If you keep failing to meet your expectations, you could hit burnout and give up.

Unrealistic Expectations

One of the things that every single homesteader is guilty of is setting unrealistic expectations. We think that we have to have everything done, RIGHT NOW! The reality is that unless you have the capital to buy a farm that is already where you want it, it’s going to take years of work and a ton of capital to get you where you want to be. And if you don’t have a ton of capital, it’ll take even longer.

It’s saying I’m going to buy a cow with absolutely ZERO grass to raise them on. Or I’m going to heat only with the trees harvested from my land and there isn’t a single tree on your property. Or my favorite, I’m going to grow 100% of my yearly food needs in an unproven garden with no experience.

These unrealistic expectations will not be met. Sure, you can get a cow, but you will be buying TONS of hay. You can’t heat with only wood from your farm if you have zero trees on your land. And trust me when I say, you won’t grow a year’s worth of food in an unproven garden if you have zero experience.

Realistic Expectations For A Successful Homestead

Setting your expectations for a successful homestead should be in line with your definition of success. For example, if you’re definition of success is for the homestead to feed you and your animals, maybe don’t get animals before the garden. Which ALL of us do, no matter how many times we say we won’t.

Your expectations should be worked into your goals. There is a huge difference between a goal and an expectation. A goal is something you are striving for, while an expectation is something you expect to happen. If your goal is to grow 75% of you and your animals feed, the expectation is that you are going to put in a garden.

Having a realistic expectation of what you are able to do, the capital available to do those things and a clear set of goals will set you up on the path to a successful homestead.

Your Land’s Capability

I feel like this is very important when it comes to homesteading, that you really look at what your land is capable of. I mentioned that if you have an expectation to heat with only wood harvested from your own land, but you have zero trees on your property, that is unrealistic. But I wanted to take it one step further because I don’t think new homesteaders truly understand what they are getting into.

If your land is steep hills, mountains, etc, it is not necessarily capable of supporting a cow. If your land is mostly trees, you are going to have to do some major work to get a garden in. I want everyone to homestead in SOME capacity where you are right now. But at the same time, you have to be realistic in what you can and can’t do base on what your land can do.

Neighbors may not want to listen to your goats scream all day. Local ordinances may not allow more than so many chickens. Before you start defining your successful homestead, you have to be aware of what land you are buying and what it can actually do for you.

Our Successful Homestead Plan

For Jared and I to feel like we have been successful in building our homestead, it has to have 3 key points:

The homestead grows 75% of the food for us and our animals.
We build, create, or source from our property as much as we possibly can.
Our homestead (and blog) would be considered a success if it can fully support itself and allows us to retire early.

Let’s break this down

75% Of All Food

This is a big expectation because it’s a lot of food. But I don’t expect that overnight or even in one year. We learned a lot in our first garden and we’ve learned even more since. But we have realized that we have to grow slowly so that we don’t end up packing too much work on ourselves. Since we both work fulltime, we have to be aware of how much we can actually do. This is where that homestead flexibility comes in.

We also have a ton of trees on our land. Which is great for heating the house, but sucks when it comes to sunlight and garden space. This year we installed a kitchen garden in this weird lawn space in between our driveways. It’s a lot of space and a great place to have veggie plants, flowers, herbs, and lettuces. We can even put in our potatoes, carrots, garlic and onions. But I forgot that in the summer, there are a ton of trees that block the sun. This isn’t a big deal because those trees need to come down anyways. But our garden may not thrive because of them.

Our gardens are a process and that’s okay. 75% of our food doesn’t need all be done right now.

Being Self Reliant

Jared and I are both city kids and we don’t have anyone teaching us how to do these things. Because of that, it’s really important to both of us that we learn how to do stuff for ourselves. I didn’t know how to make bread before I started this journey. Now, I can make sourdough!

Jared had never felled trees before coming to the homestead. Now? He’s really good at it. He didn’t know how to sharpen a chainsaw. Now, he does.

Leaving behind a legacy is really important to me. I’m not going to get my great grandmother or grandmothers cast iron pans. I didn’t get cooking skills from my mom, grandmother, great grandmother. Jared and I didn’t learn how to butcher animals or put in gardens from our family. And that’s okay because that’s not the life they lived. But because this is so important to us, we are also teaching our kids how to do these things. We are teaching them how to repair toilets, install light fixtures, build chicken tractors without plans, put in gardens, sharpen chainsaws, and so much more.

That’s a legacy I am proud to leave behind.

Financial Freedom

I started this blog and our homestead with one single end goal: Retire early. That’s it. We are putting in the work now, while we are young, so that we can have systems in place for retirement. When the homestead produces 75% of our food, that puts approximately $900/mo back in our pockets. When it produces 75% of our animals food? That’s $600/mo!

While this blog is not currently making a lot of money, the reality is that it is getting to the point of being self reliant. Thanks to you guys!

Walking into retirement with virtually zero bills or debt allows us to not worry so much about a crashing economy. Knowing that we can garden and sell the produce or sell goat kids? That brings more options to the table than praying my 401k and social security will still be there.

Building Your Successful Homestead

At the end of the day, your homestead is not going to look like anyone else’s. You’ve got your own hopes, dreams, capabilities, resources, and needs. But if you can define what a successful homestead looks like to you, and then start setting expectations and goals for it, you will get there so much faster.

Welcoming American Guinea Hogs To The Homestead

November 21, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

About a month ago, we welcomed Bacon and Delilah to the homestead. We had talked about wanting to get pigs when we started the homestead, but I never really put a lot of thought into it. After a ton of research and a swift kick in the pants while at The Homesteaders of America Conference? We picked up two American Guinea Hogs.

Why We Chose The American Guinea Hog

When we started looking at adding pigs to the homestead, there were quite a few concerns that I had about pigs. I was told that they are mean, bite, root, escape and eat a ton of food. The trade off was that if you could keep them contained and fed for six months, you would have a pig at market weight. Well, I’ve got some problems with that.

Mean/ Biting

While I don’t normally mind animals that are…. difficult, I do have a problem when they are large animals that are potentially deadly. I’m not saying that pigs are deadly. But I am saying that aggressive animals have no place on our homestead…. except Blu….and Bella.

After doing a ton of research we were really leaning towards the Berkshires, Duroc and Kune Kune. These breeds have great personalities and are rarely aggressive. Plus they are heritage breeds which is really important to me.

Rooting

Another issue with pigs is the damage they can cause to the soil. Our soil is extremely compacted with red clay under it all. But the top? It’s all sand. We want SOME rooting to help break the soil barriers so that more organic material gets mixed up in the soil. But we don’t want them to root so much that the soil biome is ruined. Or worse, stay in one area so long that they compact it with wallowing. Also, I was wanting a pig that would graze more than root. But since I don’t have pasture or grass yet, I need them to root.

This is getting to be a tall order for pig breeds.

Escaping

When looking at various breeds and watching many videos, we learned that pigs are incredibly smart. They are also more than willing to use their brute strength to break down fences. The only one that wasn’t going to constantly try and break free was the Kune Kune. But the Kune takes a long time to reach market weight, like 14+ months. This is getting harder and harder to pick a breed.

Feed Bill

The faster you want your pig to reach market weight, the more they are going to eat. The problem is, I don’t want to buy any more feed than I have to. The Duroc will reach market weight in five months, but to do that, we would have to give it grower feed, which is expensive. I talked about the real cost of raising livestock here. I’ve already got a $600/mo feed bill. Let’s not add to that.

I really wanted a grazing pig that would eat table scraps and left overs but ultimately would eat grass if we didn’t have scraps to give them.

Enter The American Guinea Hogs

The American Guinea Hogs are amazing pigs and up until about 75 years ago, it was a staple animal on almost every single farm in the US. But with the rise of super markets and city living, they fell out of favor. In fact, up till recently, there were only about 100 on in the country.

American Guinea Hogs are grazing pigs that will get bigger than the Kune and do it faster. But AGHs are a small heritage breed of pig. That means that it’s not going to be one of the monsters that will yield hundreds of pounds of pork. But that’s okay. Because they are smaller, it makes raising and butchering a lot easier.

Bacon is extremely friendly, needing to have all the snuggles and scratches. If I come outside, he is at the gate grunting at me to come snuggle and scratch. Delilah is a little stand-offish but she is coming around. The good part about that is that they come when they are called. There have been a few rainy days here and the solar chargers have run out of juice. If they slip the fence, it’s not a big deal. I simply call them and they come running, no food needed.

Another great thing about the AGH is that I have bought two bags of feed in the six weeks they have been here. Between the table scraps and fermentation, they haven’t even eaten a whole bag yet!

American Guinea Hogs Care

So what do you need to care for American Guinea Hogs? Not much if you already have livestock. We have been soaking and fermenting everyone’s feed, so we needed a few 5 gallon buckets. We already had feed buckets to bring them feed so no added expense there. We also bought a couple of Premier 1 fences with a solar charger. I mentioned above that our other charger ran out of juice, I suggest highly getting the one linked above. It doesn’t run out of juice! We just bought ours and it’s been amazing.

You do need to make sure you have some sort of a shelter. Right now, they are in our old kidding shed and that is working out very well. If they out grow it, we will look for something else but for right now, it’s good. They can handle lower temperatures as long as they are dry and have deep bedding.

Our AGHs are doing great and I absolutely love them. Butchering day is going to be brutal but at least I know they had the best life possible.

Our Thoughts On The Homesteaders Of America 2022 Conference

October 20, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

When we go on trips, we try to have a purpose behind the trip. When we went to Yellowstone, we wanted to have fun and see all the mountains and animals. But we also wanted to make it educational for all of us, get some photography to sell, and enjoy time with family. When we went to Virginia for the Homesteaders of America Conference, our purpose was purely educational and they knocked it out of the park.

Homesteaders of America Conference: Day 1

Prior to leaving for the conference, we made sure to look at the schedule and see which classes/ lectures we wanted to take. We put those into our Google calendar so that we weren’t having to scramble to figure out where we wanted to be.

Planting Fodder For Livestock

The first class we took was Shawn and Beth Dougherty about planting fodder crops for livestock. Let me tell you, this couple is extremely engaging. If you haven’t heard of them, check out their website at the link above. Their lecture, and their entire philosophy, is to reduce input onto the farm, increase soil fertility and become more self sustaining. They talked in depth about planting crops that preserve well and that animals can eat.

This was fascinating. While I knew that we could plant food for animals, I hadn’t really thought much about it. In my head, I planted my garden for my family and the animals got any excess. I figured, animal food came in the form of grain from the feed store. Again, I knew that we could grow their food, but didn’t really think much beyond that. But with a $600/mo feed bill, I’m starting to see the draw to growing their food.

We walked away with more information on rotational grazing, increasing soil fertility and how to use livestock for more than just enjoyment.

Homestead Security Class

The second class was for homestead security, and to be honest, I tuned out most of it. This was a class for Jared. While I 100% believe in homestead security, it’s just not something I’m interested in. I didn’t take a single note. Not to mention that within about 10 minutes, I was bored out of my mind. I actually left the class and went to walk around to the different vendors. Jared really enjoyed the class, but I don’t know that he took any notes. Mainly because the class covered things that he/we were already doing.

Farm Set Up and Checklist

This was put on by Daniel Salatin and one I enjoyed almost as much as the Dougherty’s. Daniel talked about how to set up farms and how livestock should be the last thing brought to the homestead…. oops. But the biggest take away that we needed to work on getting water capture and stop relying on hoses and buckets to transport water.

Another thing that was interesting was pasture rotation. Now, we knew pasture rotation is extremely important. But one of the things that we struggled with was the idea of permanent fencing for that rotation. We want our animals to free range, this by itself will reduce worm load. But there are a ton of other reasons to rotate pasture. And at the top of that list is soil conservation and fertility.

Homesteaders of America Conference: Day 2

We were extremely excited about day 2. There were a lot of good speakers lined up, but really it was the day we got to go home. I loved the conference and we will definitely go back, but I missed my goats…. and kids.

Sustainable Broiler Breeding

This class was enlightening because we had raised meat chickens already and weren’t a fan. We wanted to move away from buying broilers and move towards hatching our own. We didn’t necessarily want hybrids or other crosses like the Cornish X. The biggest reason was expense. If I have to buy chicks every year to feed my family, then what I am going to do when I can’t buy them?

Tom from McMurray Hatchery explained that while there are birds that are dual purpose, they are not really meat birds. For example, a Brahma is marketed as a meat bird, but it takes 1-2yrs for it to reach market weight. That’s a lot of feed for a big bird. Not to mention that once it hits market weight, the meat will probably be very tough.

Tom’s suggestion for a sustainable bird was a New Hampshire Red. They grow quickly but not so quick that they suffer from the major health problems that a Cornish x will. He also suggested Rocks and Sussex due to their fast growth and good market weights at young ages.

Sustainable Homestead

Shawn and Beth had another class that we were excited to sit in on. This one was similar to their fodder crop class but focused more on how to grow your SOIL and reduce input to the farm. Their idea is to stop bringing input onto the farm and let the farm grow and nurture itself.

The big thing with a lot of these well known farmers like the Salatin’s, Dougherty’s, Rhodes’, etc is that you want to create an environment where the soil is protected, encouraged and treated like the most important thing on the farm.

The idea is that you want to use animals to do the work. You put goats/cows in a pasture and let them eat the grass, browse and other tall material. This will allow the plant to kill off roots which will leave carbon in the soil. Then you bring in the chickens. The chickens will peck through the manure, eating bugs and larvae, spread the manure and lay their own. They will eat the low lying grasses as well. After the chickens you bring in the pigs to eat any left over grains, manures, and break/till the soil.

When it’s done, the pasture has a chance to soak up all that carbon, nitrogen, etc. and have a chance to take off. It will improve the soil. New plants that couldn’t grow in impacted soil. But when these creatures come in, they are able to rework the soil and increase the fertility of it. Soil, sunlight and water are the keys to good farming.

Pastured Livestock

Daniel Salatin’s class on pastured livestock echoed the same things from his previous class on setting up a homestead, as well as Shawn and Beth’s class on setting up a sustainable homestead. But it was much more in depth on the HOW. He talked about the 4 R’s of pasture management: Rotation, Rest/Recovery, Removal, and Recon.

Rotation is pretty obvious. Rotate the animal onto new forage daily, or weekly depending on the animal.

Rest/ Recovery- allow the plants, soil, etc. to recover. When plants in the area have reached mature potential you can allow animals back onto the pasture.

Removal of nutrients- we want the soil to pull nutrients back into the ground. If that doesn’t happen, then the manure should be removed. Having multiple animals move through the same pasture but eat different things is paramount to creating not only good soil but healthy animals.

Recon/ Observation- Did it work? Daniel said to take a picture of the same pasture during all 4 seasons and do it every year at those same times. Why? We want to see if we are improving the soil and plants in that area. If we are making it worse and it is not recovering, then we need to do something different.

Catching Free Bees

This was my favorite class of all because I want honey bees so badly. Unfortunately, I am the only one that will take care of them because everyone else is terrified of bees. So until I am ready to take over that chore 100%, I am putting them off. Plus the cost is huge. You’ve got boxes, frames, paint, bees themselves? I’m not totally ready yet.

But listening to Kaylee talk about catching a swarm and how to do it, got me thinking. If we can set up our farm so that everything they need is here? Maybe we can do it?

We learned about how to catch bees and how to work with them, which will decrease your cost for getting bees by 100%.

Our Thoughts On The Conference

I think that anyone could learn something from this conference. It’s a great place to go and learn, to ask questions. Every single speaker that lectured also answered questions and were so passionate about it. We were able to talk with Shawn and Beth about free ranging our goats. They not only answered our questions but gave advise on how to do it effectively within our own “ecosystem” of animals and plants on the homestead.

We walked away with new products to try and books to read.

But most importantly, we walked away realizing that we are not alone. There are thousands of people out there just like us. Just trying to live in harmony with nature, to get back to the land. Raise our children and animals in a way that Mother Nature would approve. To get dirty, be wild, and have fun. These people are a wealth of knowledge and they are willing teachers.

If you have the opportunity to go to next year’s conference, I highly recommend going. Even if you don’t have a homestead yet. Even if you are just dreaming. It is absolutely worth it.

If you can’t get to the conference, here are some books that I highly recommend based off what I learned while I was there.

The Homestead Holiday Gift Guide

October 2, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

The holidays are coming and with that comes the desire to get those that matter to us gifts that are meaningful and useful. If you are living on a homestead, or have relatives that do, this list is packed full of great ideas to help you get the most bang for your buck. While also get something that they will love. Some of the things on this list are things that are on our own holiday wish list. Others are things that we have already bought and absolutely love. This homestead holiday gift guide is sure to have something for your homesteader.

If you are a homesteader, and your family doesn’t know what to get you for the holidays? Share this with them. Or, if you are going to a holiday party and need a hostess gift? Check out the $0-$50 section below. It’s got a ton of great ideas.

Homestead Holiday Gift Guide

I have broken this guide up into price points because that’s important. No one wants to find the perfect gift and realize it’s outside of their price range. Also this entire post is filled with affiliate links. Buying from these links doesn’t charge you any extra but it does allow us to make some extra money for the farm. You can read more about our affiliate disclosure by clicking the link.

But First Some Housekeeping

The holiday season is a time for giving. As the giver, you are giving someone a gift that you thought they would like or that made you think of them. And friends? That is amazing. As the recipient, it is an awesome feeling when someone hands you a gift and says, “This made me think of you.” But also as a recipient, I don’t want you to waste your money on me. I would rather you donate that money to a good cause like animal rescue, save the bees, or really anything where the money actually goes to the cause.

Sometimes though, the gift giver simply wants to give you a gift. And if you are getting a gift for a homesteader, you may be a little lost on what to get them. You know they don’t want anything, but you are bound and determined to get them something. Most homesteaders would love to receive a gift that works on the farm. So let’s talk about homestead holiday gifts.

$0-$100 Gifts

First and foremost, GIFT CARDS. I can not stress this enough. I know, it seems like such an impersonal gift. But it is seriously the BEST gift I could receive and I know a lot of other people feel the same. I hate wasting money and when people buy things that I can’t use, it bothers me. Not because I’m spoiled, although that is true too. It’s because that person spent their hard earned money on things that won’t get used, can’t be returned, etc. So seriously consider gift cards to places like Home Depot, Tractor Supply and Amazon.

Digital Prints, Digital Art Work, or Printables– I have several different digital photography prints in my Etsy store and they are a huge hit. Unlike regular artwork, these are digital and can be printed at any size you want. These make fantastic hostess gifts, too. You will usually find prints for less than $10 and it doesn’t cost more than a few more dollars to have them printed at Walmart, Target, Sams, etc.

Ask About Their Amazon Wish List– Almost anyone that regularly shops on Amazon has at least one wish list. I have 10. But ask them for a link to their wish list so you can be sure to get something that they will love.

Donations– Every year there is that one person that you have absolutely no idea what to get them. I’ve got a family full of them. Instead of getting them a present that is going to hang out in the garage for the next 5 years, you know who you are, make a donation to their favorite charity. Get them a card, explain what you did, and put the receipt in the card.

Books– If your homesteader is a bookworm then I’ve got the list for you!

Homesteading

Cookbooks

Animals

Gear- Whether it’s stuff for butchering, milking, or building having extra gear is amazing. Gift cards would be amazing for this stuff as well because you may not know the difference between hoof trimmers to get, or which power tools they need batteries for. But I will tell you this, getting me gear so I can do my chores better? Score.

Sharp Things

Tools

Miscellaneous

Cast Iron, the good kind from antique stores.
Boots are always a plus
Coveralls! Seriously.

Seeds!!!!!!!! This would probably be better as a gift card, but I don’t know many homesteaders that will turn down packets of seeds. Tomatoes are usually pretty safe. Cucumbers are too if they have livestock. But check and see what they grow, and then check out Territorial Seed Company or Eden Brothers.

Plants- Territorial Seed has some great plants including coffee plants! Etsy is also another great place to get edible plants so consider berry bushes, grape vines, etc.

$100-$250 Gifts

You had better be pretty good to get something off this list. While I know I haven’t been super good, if my family is reading this? I would like this milker please!

Greenhouse– There are some greenhouses that will come in under $250 that are great for seed starts or house plants that are too big to come inside. If you know they are short on space, a greenhouse may be a great option.

Pressure Canners– I will never say no to an additional canner. I’ve been saving up for this canner, but just having another one is a time saver for me. The All American 931 can hold 19 quart jars and is a double stack. When I’m hip deep in canning season, this helps a lot. The Presto is a great canner and you can usually only get 7 quart jars in there.

Camp stove- Along the same lines as a pressure canner, having additional burners would be amazing. Not to mention not heating up the house. This camp stove has been on my list for a while and I’m hoping to get one before next canning season.

Bench Grinder– You have no idea how quickly sharp things get dull on the homestead. Having a good bench grinder is a great gift to give. Jared is able to sharpen all the knives, scissors, shovels, axes, and more with ours.

$250+ Gifts

If you’ve got a from scratch chef that has made you some amazing meals, check out this Kitchen Aid Mixer. Yes, it’s pricey but well worth the money spent, especially if that means you are going to get some awesome home cooking from it. This one is on my wish list as well

Got a homesteader that has goats? Or other hooved creatures? Hoof Boss is definitely a time and back saver. When we have to trim hooves, it takes hours. It’s hard on the back and trying to wrangle all the goats? Well, they’re lucky they’re cute.

Chainsaws– Now, this one will need a little bit of research, but an extra chainsaw is always great to have around. Not to mention the chains, sharpening equipment, etc.

At The End Of The Day

Your homesteader will love whatever gift you give them, we are grateful like that. But if you want to give them something that they will use, or need, check out some of the offerings on the homestead holiday gift guide. Or better yet, ask them what they want or need. I’m sure they would be ecstatic to receive something they need.

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