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  1. K

    Arugula: Still a Favorite Weed

    The post below was one of my very first blog posts back in 2008, and it remains true that arugula is one of my favorite early spring greens and grows everywhere that it is allowed to seed, even in my high-desert climate. I still let it seed itself around in the way described below, but I also...
  2. K

    Dried Wild Violet Sprinkles

    I love these so much. I love everything about them. Straight from the earth, very easy to prepare- with no dehydrator or special equipment needed. Unless you consider a twist tie and a string as special equipment… Plus: no food dyes, no sugar, no additives, no gluten, no bad stuff at all...
  3. K

    Homestead Gifts: Handmade Holiday Evergreen Kissing Ball

    I love a gift straight from the heart- and this Kissing Ball is just that. I grew up on a Christmas tree farm; the trees were planted when I was about four years old, and for many years- from middle school to college, every holiday season I stood out in the cold Wisconsin weather and sold...
  4. K

    How to Make Beeswax Birthday Candles

    In celebration of the year that you were born, you should have the finest. You deserve the Cadillac of birthday candles on your three-tiered, from scratch, chocolate cake with real buttercream. You’re nodding your head. Have you ever seen more adorable candles? The soft yellow wax, the rustic...
  5. K

    Honey & Lard Lip Repair Cream

    Yep, I’ve been slathering lard on my lips. And honey, naturally. Join me, won’t you? My lips need extra TLC all year round: in the below-freezing winter weather the dry air really takes a toll on them, and in the warm summer months I spend a lot of time outside in the wind and parching-sun, and...
  6. K

    Milkweed Pod Santa Ornaments {Handmade Gift}

    My parents planted a Christmas tree farm when I was just a young girl, so I grew up learning to make holiday decorations to sell for extra spending money at the tree farm. As a 16-year-old, I was a Christmas craft extraordinaire! And also a really big geek, but that’s a story for a different...
  7. K

    How to Package, Store, and Sell Honey, plus Creative & Inexpensive Honey Labels

    We’re still pretty “new” as far as beekeeping goes. Newbies, if you will. See what I did there? Of course we’ve had ups and downs over the past few years, but overall I consider us successful beekeepers. The first year we didn’t take any honey from the bees, but the past two years we were able...
  8. K

    Wild Rose {Old-Fashioned} Lard Soap

    Making lard soap… is there anything more homestead-y than that? Karl’s grandma (a real-deal homesteader and farmer) tells a story about how when she was young, she would bring home the used tallow from the fryers at the local diner she worked at, and they would make big batches of tallow soap...
  9. K

    Homemade Honey Lip Balm {As Featured in Mother Earth News Magazine!}

    Every year when the weather turns cool (the start of chapped lip season!) I make a new batch of homemade lip balm. It always ends up slightly different, but it’s always the best lip balm I’ve ever used. Homemade is best and nothing store-bought can even compare! My goal when I set out to make...
  10. K

    Using What You Have IV: Your Friendly Local Weeds

    I have written a lot about foraging at various times in the past, but it occurs to me that there was never a better time to bring it up again. And if you are not willing to commit the time to learning foraging in general, then learn two weeds: amaranth and lambs quarters. These two are worldwide...
  11. K

    Using What You Have VII: Primary and Secondary Consumption of Elm

    I’ve become more and more intrigued by culinary uses of tree leaves, since there is nothing more ecologically sound: the soil is never disturbed, carbon is sequestered, soil biota is preserved, and a small tree can produce an awful lot of leaves. The drawback is that there is little information...
  12. K

    Semi-Permaculture Garlic

    Glorious spring is here. There are no leaves on the trees yet, but the fruit trees are starting to bloom, and the perennials are starting to show up. Green garlic is always the first vegetable of my gardening year, and it’s one of the most welcome. I have seen “green garlic” in stores and...
  13. K

    Passing pleasures: Hops shoots

    I decided to re-up this post on hops shoots without change because this is their brief season and because I still think that this is the best way to cook them. Many years ago I planted hops vines along my fences, planning to use the flowers for brewing. Not long afterwards, I gave up beer...
  14. K

    Fall Renewal

    It’s been an unusual growing season at my place, with the strangeness in the larger world reflected in strange events that affected my gardening. First, a hard freeze two weeks later than I have ever had at my property before. Then after things were replanted, a heavy hailstorm in late spring...
  15. K

    Leaf Ales for All Seasons

    I’ve had more inquiries about this post than about any other, so I’m re-upping it with a few subsequent notes: 1. The effect of fermentation on flavors is unpredictable and often wonderful. I am not at all a fan of beets, for instance, but one or two beets gives the brew a beautiful rosé color...
  16. K

    Greens: Early Spring Horta

    For gardeners, early spring is a time of great anticipation. This is the season when the growing season to come glows with perfection in your mind, completely removed from hard weather, pests, and general exhaustion. But it is also the time of the very first harvest, if you grow some perennial...
  17. K

    A Variation on Hortapita

    In my last post I wrote about horta made entirely from green alliums, the first greens of spring. Horta is very good all by itself, but it can also be fun to elaborate, and I have written before about hortapitas, the many types of greens pies that are filled with horta. They can be large or...
  18. K

    Arugula: Still a Favorite Weed

    The post below was one of my very first blog posts back in 2008, and it remains true that arugula is one of my favorite early spring greens and grows everywhere that it is allowed to seed, even in my high-desert climate. I still let it seed itself around in the way described below, but I also...
  19. K

    Seasonal Seasoning Butters

    At this glorious time of year, perennial edibles are coming up everywhere. Many of them are herbs used as seasoning for generations, and at this time of year I start making seasoning butters to take advantage of them at their best. The butters change throughout the season, according to what is...
  20. K

    How to Freeze Dry: Butternut Squash Soup, Hash Browns, and Strawberry Bananas

    Since getting my freeze dryer a few months ago, I’ve been able to freeze dry all sorts of things. While I enjoy doing “fun foods” like cheesecake bites and ice cream, the reason I got my freeze dryer was for the practical purposes of preserving food and creating healthy convenience and emergency...

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