Reblogged from The Homestead Experiment:

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I love herbs. I love cooking with herbs.  I love tea made with herbs. I love smelling herbs. I love herbs.

Since I have a slight obsession with herbs, it was positively necessary to plant some herbs.

I also have a slight obsession with Pinterest. And, uh, don't forget that I'm not off the grid. I'm a modern-day homesteader! I even have a homesteading board!

Read more… 180 more words

Boy did my bubble burst when I learned how much they wanted a month for that thing! OOF! I can’t tell you how much I’d like to have a chicken or two. But I guess we’ll have to let that dream go for another year.

Then I started hunting for public garden space. Again, because we live in a subdivision, and since we had a decent yield from last year’s garden and we’d like to plant more this year, and because we’d like our kids to have some yard to play in, we thought we’d look into finding a community garden in which to plant (was that one huge run-on sentence?).  I found a nice plot near our town center.

But, again, I was disappointed to find out it was not an option for us, this time just because all the plots were already reserved. Sigh…

So what’s a suburban homesteader to do? Make. It. Work.

That’s right, folks, we’re just going to get creative! It’s a suburban homesteader’s mantra. Our distinctive. Our…I dunno. It’s just what we do.

We’re back to making plans for container gardens, and making (better) use of our raised beds. And we are going to do a little bit larger plot in the ground. And don’t forget our other goals for 2013.

It all starts tomorrow.

Hubs doesn’t know it yet, but he’s got a date with the tiller. Bright and early on what promises to be a fabulous Saturday morning!

Wakey, wakey…hibernation is OVER and WE’RE BACK!

Happily Homesteading!

JulieAnn

We had incredible set backs this year: an unexpected move and an even more unexpected injury to our youngest child. Along with that, I’ve gone back to work. So as I sat down to contemplate what we accomplished this year, I didn’t think we’d done much. But then I went back to my wish list. I began to realize that we had done pretty well all things considered.

Our accomplishments this year:

• We planted a garden in our raised garden beds, herb garden, laundry basket potatoes, and other various containers and had a pretty decent yield of vegetables and herbs.
• I found a huge stockpile of canning jars and rings, a water bath canner, AND a food dehydrator at a our local thrift store. Jackpot!
• We located some local suppliers for u-pick berries and apples and bought a boatload.
• Along with some great purchases from our local farmers market, I was able can, freeze, air dry, and dehydrate quite a lot of herbs and vegetables.
• I also found a local supplier for honey. YUM!
• I now make our own bread, yogurt, and laundry detergent (when I can…just keeping it honest).
• We’ve purchased a composter and have it doing it’s thing for next planting season.
• We have a good system for recycling (that “system” being a 5-year-old boy who is responsible for the recycle bin).

Our goals for 2013:

• Learn how to make our own soap
• Build a greenhouse to lengthen our growing season
• Plant a strawberry patch of our own and maybe a couple berry bushes – maybe?
• Increase the size of our in-ground garden
• Purchase or build a rain water barrel to collect the rain water for our garden
• Purchase a half of cow from a local supplier
• Purchase an upright freezer so we can more successfully stockpile said meat

We’ll continue to post as we continue on this journey, and as we learn new things – both the good and the bad.

Until then, we pray your holiday season is full of joy, laughter, and special memories made with your family. That is, after all, why we choose the simple life!

Happy Homesteading from our family to yours!

I’m sure you know of the many ways to preserve herbs. You can hang them to dry, or put them in a paper bag. You can grind them from fresh, mix with a bit of oil, and then freeze them in cubes. Or you can do what I’ve decided to do, and that is to dry them in the fridge. This method simply requires that you snip the herbs from the plant and layer them in a dish with a wet paper towel between each layer. Allow them to stay in the fridge until they are completely dry – about 3 weeks. I have loved this no-nonsense/no-supervision required approach.

That’s oregano, basil, and rosemary drying. Can’t wait to use the rosemary with my Thanksgiving turkey!!

The fun part is that I discovered a large supply of herb jars at my local thrift store that I purchased for just such a time as this. All I had to do was pull the leaves from the stems once the herbs were dry and put it in my jars.

Aren’t they cute? One more item in my pantry that came straight from my homestead. It’s a good day!

I also made myself some pesto out of the abundance of basil we had. Traditional pesto is made with pine nuts. I love pine nuts! I do not love their price. They blow my budget. So I found this recipe for Basil Walnut Pesto (click on the picture below to go to my Pinterest pin) and, after a test round a couple of weeks ago, decided to make as much of this as I could.

I’m making large batches and then freezing it in ice-cube trays to pre-portion it.

If you have eaten pesto then you know that a little goes a long way, so these small cubes will last me most of the winter, I would suspect! Just in time to start growing my new batch of herbs next year!

In all, I would consider my herb garden to be the most successful part of this year’s growing season. Can’t wait to enjoy the dry herbs through the winter months, and I’m looking forward to planting even more next year.

We’re happy homesteading!

JulieAnn

We’ve been doing small batch canning as much as possible this summer. Today was pickles and yellow squash.

I used a Garlic Dill Pickle recipe from my fellow Ohio homesteader and blog friend Old World Garden Farm. They have been really encouraging to us as we’ve been experimenting with homesteading this year. And their recipe looked entirely doable. So like the recipe said, I put all of the seasonings in the bottom of each jar:

Sliced the cucumbers into spears (the recipe said it could be in any shape – whatever you prefer), packed them into the jars tightly, filled them with the liquid, and processed them in a water bath.

We can’t wait to eat these pickles come winter time. I’m sure they’re going to be de-lish!

While the pickles were processing, I also worked on our yellow squash. There wasn’t a lot of yield this year, so all I had were 4-5 squash that I set aside for preserving. I cut all of it into cubes and blanched it.

Once done I bagged them in individual portions in freezer bags and put them in our deep freeze.

At least I’ll have a few meals this winter that will benefit from these homegrown goodness. And really, when you begin to tally what we have been able to put up, we’re kind of impressed. To date, we’ve canned pears, roasted red peppers, red pepper jelly & pear raspberry jelly, and now these pickles and squash. We’re planning to go apple-picking soon and we always get oodles of apples. And then I’ve got herbs to process, and carrots to pick from outside and process. Not bad!

Hmmm – maybe this homesteading thing is working afterall…

Well, after us city-slickers managed to get our tent up we had a great time of fun, learning, and freezing (it was 33 degrees our first night…this city-girl seriously considered packing up and leaving!!!)

We learned about our “edible backyard.”

Yes – that’s grasshoppers frying over the fire. And this is me

The retreat center staff taught us about tracking animal prints.

Early homesteaders skills like weaving, candle-dipping, cooking over a fire, and rope-making.

And we learned about long-rifles and tomahawk throwing – means of protection and provision.

What an insanely fun time we had! It was so educational. We walked away with such great respect for early homesteaders who worked hard to make a living from the land. We do this by choice. They did it just to survive.

And we determined that off-the-grid homesteading is NOT for us.

It’s the (sub)urban homesteaders life for me!

Happily Homesteading!

JulieAnn

P.S. Is this point at which I admit I never ate that grasshopper? Couldn’t do it…just couldn’t do it. ICK!

Today I’m with Kristen over at Centsable Girls blogging on From Processed Food and Public School to Homesteading and Homeschooling. Kristen and her husband were students at a small college where my husband and I were on faculty. We really loved them. So much so, we did their marriage counseling.  HA! They now live in New York with their sweet little boy and are doing their best to live a “homesteader’s life” on their small budget. And blogging along the way! So it’s my privilege to be asked to be a small part of her great blog!

Here’s an excerpt:

Our life as ministers has required that we live on a very strict budget. I used to think the way to stick to this budget was with budget groceries. Things like boxed meals, snack mixes, and canned foods.

6 years ago I woke up one morning and my eyes were burning. I’m not talking Ben Stein-esque, “Dry…red eyes…” I mean, they were burning. Like someone had stuck a hot poker on my face. I looked in the mirror and my face was covered in the reddest, ugliest hives I have ever seen.

One day we were sitting at the dinner table and my daughter started telling a story about school. At some point in the story she said, “the counselor’s been telling me…” My red flag flew straight to the top of the warning flag pole. Why was she in the elementary school counselor’s office? What happened to get her there? How many times had she been there? WHAT was this counselor saying to my child? And WHY HAD I NOT BEEN INFORMED??? Turns out our daughter was one of several girls, “it” had happened many months before this dinner convo, and the counselor had been called in on the initial handling of the “issue” and then had consistently checked in with the girls since. But not once, not ever, had anyone from the school bothered to inform us.

And thus began a journey…

Click here to read the full story.

When we first began this Homestead Experiment, one of our biggest questions was how, exactly, were we going to accomplish this while living in a suburban environment – one where we have limitations like no bees, goats, chickens, turkeys, or pigs?? What else is involved in this homesteading thing?

At times this summer it felt very much like we were just trying to maintain a garden. Nothing more, nothing less. But when it got down to it, we realized there are certainly other things we’re doing that we would consider to be part of our homesteading adventure.

So, here are 8 steps to (sub)urban homesteading:

1. Recycle!

I was putting my recycle bin out at the curb this week and after glancing up and down the street (because I didn’t want any neighbors to catch me outside in my jammies!) I realized we were one of only two houses on the entire street with recycle bins. Sure it’s not a self-sufficient practice per se. But it definitely lines up with the homesteaders mantra to “waste nothing.”

2. Unplug Unused Items

We’re as guilty as anyone on this one. We leave the iron plugged in when we’re done ironing, for goodness sake. At least…we used  to. Any electronic that is plugged in is using power whether it is turned on or not. Even if you’re not an “off-the-grid” homesteader, you can cut back on your electricity use by unplugging that lamp in the guest room, the rarely used second TV, or your empty cellphone charger.

3. Use Less Utilities

The suburban lifestyle comes with some unwritten rules, no? Well, try these on for size: hang or drip dry your clothes. Turn your air off and open your windows. Or just raise the pre-set temps a little higher if that’s too extreme for you (HA!). Use a crock pot instead of the oven. Take a bath instead of a shower. Get a rain barrel rather than relying on your hose to water. Don’t water your lawn (you might get some nasty looks. Just sayin’.)

4. Skip the Meat

Seriously. We would love to be able to afford to eat 100% organic, free range, hormone free, grass-fed meat anytime we wanted. But we can’t. And since we can’t take the typical homesteaders route of raising our own meat, our suburban alternative is to skip the meat all together every once in a while. You should try my Thai Butternut Squash Soup or Russian Lentils and Rice !

5. Go to the Library

Yes, we consider this a key homesteader step. This lifestyle is about spending less, consuming less, and simplifying our lives. Rather than buying books or magazines, or going to movies, or even renting movies – check your local library for great reads, and DVDs to watch at home with your family. And what better by-product could there be than having quality family time??

6. Master the Art of Upcycling

A t-shirt can become a cleaning rag. Or it can be turned into a cute scarf (Thanks Pinterest!). Use a mason jar as a drinking glass. Or as a soap dispenser. Save a plastic milk jug and turn it into a watering can. Upcycling is a major part of the suburban homesteader’s lifestyle.

7. Make Your Own

We’ve already posted about this: we make our own laundry detergent, bread, yogurt, and peanut butter. We’d love to begin making our own cheese, sew some of our own clothes, and even build a furniture piece or two that we’ve been wanting.  (“patience young grasshopper…”)

8. Think Like a Homesteader

Homesteading is not a “live in the moment” lifestyle. You plan. For everything. Think ahead to what you need. For your garden, for your home, for your clothing, for winter, for summer, for everything. Live on a budget. Stop the unnecessary spending. Develop convictions. Educate yourself. Make intentional choices about what you will do with your money. And follow through, of course!

So, what else would you add to our list?

These spotted beetle-thingy’s  (yes, I just called them “thingy’s”) are clearly eating our green bean plants to the point of death. Any idea what they are? And what do I do about in them in the future?

These caterpillars are hanging out on my parsley plant. Should I let ‘em stay?

And these…well, we have no idea. They are on our back sliding glass door. We first noticed what looked like eggs, and today we noticed they had…hatched? Ahhhh!

So, what say ye? Good or bad???

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Growing Potatoes in a Laundry Basket

We were so excited about trying this and it did not disappoint. And while ours didn’t exactly look like the one above, it did grow, grow, grow! So much so that we didn’t  know exactly WHEN you’re supposed to dump them out…er, harvest them. So we made an arbitrary decision that it should happen this week.

My kids were so antsy to see what was in the dirt!

And we were so excited when we started digging and there they were!

I wish you could have heard their squeals when they discovered there were, in fact, potatoes in there!!

If you remember, when we were looking into this method, several homesteaders said a single basket could produce up to 10 pounds of potatoes. Well we certainly didn’t produce that. We did manage to grow enough for one meal for our family. And those taters were GOOD! (They definitely tasted different from store-bought potatoes. That was an interesting phenomenon).

We were also surprised how, after a full summer of growing, they weren’t any bigger than they were.

How cute is that?? lol~ Was it because it was a really hot summer? Or because we didn’t hill the dirt enough? Not enough water? Too much water? Dunno. But we’ll be doing this again next year for sure (with a few tweaks.)

Anyone else try this method? Or have a clue what happened with ours?

We’re still Happy Homesteading!

JulieAnn

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