Did you know that you might have a bountiful and nutritious food source right at your feet this fall? Acorns are much more than something to rake up with your leaves and deposit into your compost pile. With a little preparation and know-how, you can eat them as you would other nuts, you can use them to make oil, and you can grind them into flour … [Read more...]
20 Strange Meals People Ate During The Great Depression
The Great Depression brought out both the resiliency and ingenuity of literally millions of people. With few options, people had to make do with what was on hand. Clothes were sewn with spare flour sacks and shoes repaired with cardboard. Food, however, is where things got really interesting. Some foods were still plentiful and reasonably … [Read more...]
10 Best Campfire Snacks
One of the main highlights of any camping trip is cooking food over the campfire. The warmth of the fire, the smell of the air, the company of loved ones, and the delicious meals--nothing beats it! When I was a kid, I relished those times. Unfortunately, my parents weren't very creative when it came to cooking, so we mostly ate hot dogs, canned … [Read more...]
Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe
European explorers learned all kinds of things from Native Americans. Fish as fertilizer, the three sisters gardening method, and the process of making pemmican. The word comes from the Algonquin language known as Cree and the direct translation is rendered fat. Because of the translation, you should understand that the basic ingredients of any … [Read more...]
Fermentation 101: How to Make Yogurt, Sauerkraut, Apple Cider Vinegar, and More
It Boggles the Mind to Think that Allowing Food to Rot Would Make it Taste Better, Last Longer, and Actually Be Good for You… But it Does. We eat this stuff all the time and don’t even know it. Everything from bread and cheese to beer, wine, and simple things like sauerkraut, Kimchi, and yogurt are the result of a little-understood process known … [Read more...]
Dandelion Soda Recipe – Naturally Fermented with a Ginger Bug
It's that time of year again, and dandelions are everywhere. A few weeks ago I made a lost with a list of things to do with dandelions. Naturally, a few days later I came across another idea that I would have added to the list if I'd thought if it: dandelion soda! I almost edited my post, but this soda turned out so good that I decided to make … [Read more...]
How to Make Hard Candy With Just 4 Ingredients
Everybody knows kids love candy, but there's something they love even more: candy they made themselves! That's my experience, anyway. When I was a kid, my mother taught me how to make candy at home, and I was so excited by the idea of making candy from scratch that I thought it was the tastiest thing ever. Now that I'm a parent, I have the … [Read more...]
2 Ways to Make Tasty Homemade Pickles
If you like pickles, making your own can be a fun and healthy way of preserving the abundance of your summer harvests. Pickles are a useful preservation method for a multitude of different veggies. While canned pickles usually rely on vinegar, brine, and heat for preservation, there is also a way to naturally ferment most veggies, and even some … [Read more...]
How to Make Hardtack (Step by Step with Pics)
Hardtack is a survival food that can sit on the shelves for years. It was first made popular during the Civil War when soldiers were given rations to take into the field. With no refrigeration or luxuries like sugar available, they were forced to survive on the very basic, bland, and incredibly hard crackers that were fondly dubbed hardtack. It … [Read more...]
18 Best Cast Iron Skillet Bread Recipes
If you're a homesteader, then learning how to make your bread is crucial. But you don't have to settle for the same bread recipe over and over again. I know I would go crazy if I had to eat the same kind of bread month after month. There are many different types of bread you can make, and one of the best ways to make it is with a cast iron … [Read more...]
Grandma’s Pancake Recipe: The Best Pancakes EVER!
These are the most delicious pancakes in the world! At least according to me, my kids, and my grandma, but I think you'll agree with us once you try them. My grandma taught this recipe to my mom, and she taught it to me, and none of us ever bothered writing it down until now. It's similar to most from-scratch pancake recipes, but what I love … [Read more...]
20 Lost Recipes The Pioneers Cooked On Their Journey West
There's a lot we can learn from the pioneers who traveled across the United States back in the 1800s, especially when it comes to cooking meals from scratch. There are certain recipes that they made again and again because they were tasty, easy to make, and required ingredients that could be stored for a long time or were readily available such … [Read more...]
The Easiest Way to Make Your Own Yeast
There are many ways to make your own yeast, but arguably the easiest way is to grow a sourdough starter. To do this, all you have to do is capture wild yeast using flour and water. Though there are other methods that are fairly easy, I recommend this method for a couple of reasons. First, it involves basic ingredients that everyone already has … [Read more...]
How to Make Natural, Healthy Soda at Home
I already made a post about homemade soda a few months back, but what can I say, I really love soda. And since I vowed to never drink sodas made by giant corporations (who don't seem to care about public health), I've been making my own soda lately and trying various recipes. Recently, I discovered a recipe by Rain Country that I really like. … [Read more...]
Peasant Bread: A Delicious Food That Anyone Can Make (With Pics)
If you're new to from-scratch cooking or bread-making in particular, peasant bread is a great place to start. It’s long been a cheap family staple and is an easy recipe to add to or alter to suit your tastes. Plus, it’s no-knead! While there isn’t a strict definition for peasant bread, traditionally the basis was simply flour, water, yeast, and … [Read more...]
18th Century Energy Drink
Isn't it amazing that there was once a time when no one had ever heard the term, "energy drink"? I myself, an admitted Monster Energy Drink addict, find the idea horrifying. But even though drinks like Monster, Red Bull, and 5 Hour Energy are fairly new, there have always been things people drink for an energy boost (other than tea and coffee). … [Read more...]
How to Make Homemade Soda: 3 Herbal Recipes
I was a Coca-Cola addict for over a decade until I realized how much the high fructose corn syrup was harming my health, so I switched to Diet Coke. A few years later, I learned about all the damage aspartame and other artificial sweeteners can do to the liver and other organs, so I quit that too. Today I mostly drink water, but I still crave … [Read more...]
