For anyone trying to increase their self-reliance, learning to bake bread is often one of the first goals. Bread making isn’t difficult and it’s a great way to save money. It’s also a great survival skill. It doesn’t have to stop there though. If you want to take this skill a step further, you should learn how to bake bread without a … [Read more...]
5 Off Grid Kitchen Gadgets You Need
Setting up an off-grid kitchen is easier said than done. Most rely on electricity and electronics more than they realize (ovens, blenders, mixers, timers, and so forth). But with the right tools, you can do you everything you would do with an "on-grid" kitchen. In this video, Stacy from Off Grid with Doug & Stacy shares five of her favorite … [Read more...]
7 Ways to Bake Without an Oven
Play with your food! It’s time to start experimenting with different baking methods that don’t require a traditional oven! That means getting your hands messy, buying some new toys, and deep diving into some YouTube videos... for science. Remember, bread making and primitive baking go back centuries before electricity was even invented. We don’t … [Read more...]
27 Essential Spices That Should Be In Every Kitchen
Whether you're stockpiling food or just organizing your first kitchen, be sure to include lots of spices on your list of necessities. By having the following essentials on hand, you'll already have all the spices you need for almost any meal. And in addition to being able to flavor your food, you'll also be able to heal many ailments. First, you … [Read more...]
10 Genius Kitchen Tricks to Make Your Life Easier
If you spend a lot of time in your home, you need to follow Household Hacker on Youtube. They make videos about the coolest kitchen and household tricks anyone has ever come up with. No matter how many of their videos I watch, I learn something new every time they upload a video. Here are their latest hacks. 1. Easily Peel an Egg - Peel a small … [Read more...]
20 Foods to Cook on a Wood Stove
Wood stove cooking is a great way to let your fuel work double duty in the winter time. With a wood stove already running, you can save on stovetop electricity or propane. Wood stove cooking can be especially handy if the power goes out, or if you live off grid or are planning to live off grid someday. There are a number of specialized tools you … [Read more...]
How to Build an Earthen Oven (& Bake Bread In It)
Earthen ovens have been used to cook food for at least two thousand years. They were widely used in homes and forts in the 18th century, they were moved from place to place on wagons in medieval times, and there is evidence of them being used all around the world during the era of the Roman empire. They're made from a mixture of clay and sand … [Read more...]
6 Reasons Every Homesteader Should Own a Dutch Oven
When you picture a woman cooking over the fire on her way out West, you probably picture her using a Dutch oven. Dutch ovens were popular with colonists and settlers, mountain men, westward homesteaders, and cowboys. They evoke images of simpler times, traditional living, and meals around the fire, but Dutch ovens shouldn’t be a thing of the past! … [Read more...]
25 Powerless Appliances for Your Homestead Kitchen
Kitchens are the hub of the home. They’re nearly always busy and so much of the daily chores are done there. From cleaning vegetables and eggs, to butchering, baking, and preserving, there’s tons of work happening there. To make homestead life easier, it’s important to have your kitchen properly equipped with the right tools. Unfortunately, many … [Read more...]
20 Plants You Can Turn Into Flour
In most of the world, wheat is a staple of almost everyone’s diet. Bread, pasta, cakes, cookies, cereal, and even beer all have wheat in them. Because of this, many off gridders are trying to grow their own wheat, but unfortunately, wheat can be difficult to grow depending on the land and climate. Thankfully there’s a plethora of other plants … [Read more...]
How to Make Maple Syrup
I've always loved pancakes and syrup (who doesn't!?), but I never had homemade maple syrup until a few years ago when some relatives from the Northeast paid us a visit and brought along some syrup they had made. I expected it to be good, but it was even better than I had imagined. Now I'm ruined for store-bought syrup. If you live in an area … [Read more...]
7 Best Ways to Cook Without Electricity
Picture this: a rogue comet enters the Earth’s atmosphere, interfering with all electrical waves and causing internet, heating, light, and worst of all, electric cooking to become obsolete. Equally plausible, a tree falls down during a winter storm taking your power lines with it. Either way, while your friends in the ‘burbs are in a panic … [Read more...]
35 Basic Ingredients You Need For Cooking From Scratch
One thing anyone can do to start homesteading no matter where they live is cooking from scratch. It can help you eat healthier, save money, and reduce your dependence on the grocery store. However, it can be hard to make homemade meals all the time, especially if you don’t know what to keep on hand. If you keep these simple ingredients stocked … [Read more...]
Fried Chicken from the 18th Century
If you're interested in off grid living, you should check out the Youtube channel, Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc. They teach you what it was like to live in the 18th century, and especially the kinds of foods they cooked. Most people think of fried chicken as a modern food, but it's actually been around for at least several hundred years, as … [Read more...]
25 Essential Kitchen Tools for People Who Love to Cook
If you’ve wanted to cook from scratch only to see a recipe that uses a bunch of kitchen utensils you don’t own, you’re not alone! Learning to cook from scratch isn’t that hard and will save you tons of money, which is why it’s absolutely worth it to invest in a few good kitchen tools. It’s absolutely worth it to invest in a few good tools. … [Read more...]
5 Fermented Foods That Anyone Can Make
Beyond the microbrewery, a growing number of households are using fermentation techniques that preserve fruits and vegetables all year long, without the use of electricity. Long before the advent of refrigeration, ancient food preservation techniques, one being fermentation, were utilized to make fruits and vegetables safe for consumption, long … [Read more...]
