Bottle-raise a calf
By Jackie Clay
Issue #120 • November/December, 2009
If you think milk and beef are expensive in the grocery store, then you should think about raising a baby calf or two. Because corn and milk replacer...
Building and stocking your pantry
By Jackie Clay
Issue #125 • September/October, 2010
At the turn of the 19th century, most country homes had a walk-in pantry, as well as a root cellar for keeping vegetables and fruits. This pantry contained...
Harvesting the wild: Acorns
By Jackie Clay
Issue #79 • January/February, 2003
When I was just a little girl, I used to collect acorns by the boxfull as they fell in the fall. I didn't know why. They just felt...
Plant Once Harvest for Years
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #140 • March/April, 2013
Year after year we start seeds, till the ground, plant, weed, harvest, then tear it all out at the end of the season. It's a lot of work,...
Asparagus au gratin
Recipe of the Week
Asparagus au gratin
Courtesy of
Jackie Clay
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
2 lbs. tender wild asparagus spears
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1...
Tips and handy hints for 4X4 living
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Tips and handy hints
for 4X4 living
By Jackie Clay
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By Jackie Clay
Where Jackie lives, a 4x4 is essential
Issue #71 • September/October, 2001
After spending more than 35 years living in homesteads that were so out of the...
Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead
By Jackie Clay
Issue #109 • January/February, 2008
When I was a child, I used to read and re-read the chick section in our Sears and Roebuck catalog. Imagine! For only two cents you could buy...
Goat milk recipes
By Jackie Clay
Issue #92 • March/April, 2005
One of my greatest joys is having a bounty of fresh milk from my goats come spring. And as I had two does milking on our new homestead...
Digging a shallow well
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #165 • May/June, 2017
When we first looked at the land which is now our off-grid homestead, the realtor mumbled an apology for an old gravel pit on the property from the...
Can she bake an apple pie, Billy Boy?
By Jackie Clay
Issue #77 • September/October, 2002
Okay, I know in the song it's "cherry" pie, but what the heck, we all love apple pies, don't we? Unfortunately, few people bake good old fashioned apple...
Pickled nopalitos
Recipe of the Week
Pickled nopalitos
Courtesy of
Jackie Clay
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
4 lbs. de-spined, sliced fresh nopalitos
mustard seed
dill seed (if dill flavoring is desired)
garlic cloves, halved
dry red...
Caring for your chickens in winter
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
As winter approaches, we all are thinking of ways to make our livestock and poultry as comfortable as possible when the cold weather hits. Visions of blowing and drifting snow swirl in...
Grow Open Pollinated Seeds for Self-Reliant Gardening
By Jackie Clay
Issue #56
In the past I've grown hybrid vegetables, mostly the varieties that have been developed to produce early yields. Because of this, I was able to grow things like sweet corn in...
Avoiding common canning mistakes
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #142 • July/August, 2013
Canning has been an important part of my life since I was a young girl helping my mother and grandmother can in our Detroit basement. I loved the...