Picking your pressure canner — All American or Presto?
By James Kash
Issue #143 • September/October, 2013
The garden is in full swing and you have baskets of vegetables piling up; what do you do? You can them, of course. Your mother's old granite-ware canner...
Installing your own small, remote off-grid solar system
By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM
Issue #116 • March/April, 2008
A typical residential-size solar system installation will involve properly sized and installed AC and DC electrical wiring to reduce the risk of electrical fire, a proper...
How to butcher a chicken in 20 minutes or less
...while leaving the carcass and feathers intact!
By Dr. Roger W. Grim, D.C.
Issue #79 • January/February, 2003
Figure 1. With a trash bag properly fitted around the chicken, clean up will be easy.
When I was 12...
How to maintain a dirt road
By Marjorie Burris
Issue #48 • November/December, 1997
It is our job to maintain two and one half miles of dirt road if we want to get into our property. We are completely surrounded by forest...
Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal
By Charles Sanders
Issue #142 • July/August, 2013
A 450-pound hog will provide a lot of delicious meat.
Hogs are raised throughout our neighboring Amish community for many of the same reasons old American homesteads raised them....
Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs
By Kristina Seleshanko
Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019
Something we heard a lot when we first started raising chickens in the suburbs was, “For the cost of raising those birds, you could buy an awful lot...
Build a holz hausen to dry firewood
By Doug Fluckiger
Issue #132 • November/December, 2011
My secret passion is tall, dark, and handsome. I may find her lying luxuriantly among a dark grove of firs. She may be standing proudly on a sunny...
You can safely and easily can your own meat
By Jackie Clay
Issue #105 • May/June, 2007
Of all the foods I can every year, the most useful is the wide variety of meats. While we aren't huge meat eaters, these rows and rows of...
Sewing and using cloth diapers is easier than you think
By Annie Tuttle
Issue #113 • September/October, 2008
I'll admit that it was the pastoral vision of a laundry line full of sun-bleached diapers above barefooted, rosy-cheeked, milk-fattened babies that first drew my attention toward cloth...
Build Your Own Hoop House
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #171 • May/June, 2018
I’ve had my own garden for more than half a century, and I have learned a few things after all these years. One of the most valuable things...
Renovating old walls
By David Lee
Issue #106 • July/August, 2007
Some years ago my wife and I were out searching for a new building lot when we fell into The Trap. We had recently built and sold a...
How to can chopped garlic
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #173 • September/October, 2018
Before we had our garden established, I routinely purchased chopped garlic at the grocery store. Why? Because it was easier to scoop a tablespoon of chopped garlic out...
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...
The 7 core areas of preparedness
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #133 • January/February, 2012
As I write this article, it's early September. And September, as you may or may not know, is National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency...
Canned bacon — Roll your own
By Enola Gay
Issue #127 • January/February, 2011
I have to admit, I am somewhat of an extreme canner. I love to can unusual thingscanned foods you just don't find on everyone's shelves. My latest canning...
Preserving plums
By Kristina Seleshanko
Issue #171 • May/June, 2018
I’ve read that the Chinese believe plums symbolize good luck; perhaps that’s why plums are one of the most cultivated fruits on earth. (Or maybe it’s just that...
