Making dandelions palatable

By John Kallas, Ph.D Issue #82 • July/August, 2003 We've heard stories about how good dandelions are. What one usually hears from enthusiastic wild food promoters is, "All you need to do is find very young...

Duane’s shrimp dip

Recipe of the Week  Duanes shrimp dip  Courtesy of Lisa Nourse   You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here Ingredients 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 block cream cheese 1 cup mayonnaise 1-1/2 cups celery, chopped fine 1...

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...

Breaking Ice on Hard Water Fishing — A Cool Introduction to a Fun Sport

By Linda Gabris Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 Only thing hard about hard water fishing is the ice. Once you've broken through that obstacle, the rest is easy gliding. Ice fishing is great sport for the...

The poor man’s ceramic knife sharpener

By Rick Brannan Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 There are few things more frustrating and dangerous than working with a dull knife. In my quest for a sharp knife, I have purchased many different styles of...

Chuck meets Bubba

By John Silveira Issue #68 • March/April, 2001 What follows happened a decade and a half ago. I worked in a large corporation where I shared a large cubicle with two other guys. I'll call them...

Bob’s basic breads for beginners, bachelors, barbarians, and backwoodsmen

By Bob Van Putten Issue #173 • September/October, 2018 I reckon it takes a lot of gall for me to write about bread because compared to my wife I’ll never be anything but a rank amateur...

Bacon-Avocado Potato Salad

Recipe of the Week  Bacon-Avocado Potato Salad   Courtesy of Mavis Linder  Ingredients 6 medium boiling potatoes 2 avocados, cubed 8 slices bacon 1/2 cup chopped onions, chopped 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 1/2 cup white wine 1/4 cup...

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...

Hiding a gun — The rules of three

By Claire Wolfe Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 My friend Jack pulled the car into a grassy clearing. We donned rubber boots, fetched a metal detector and digging tools from the trunk, and headed off along...

How to tell a bad egg

By David Scott Matthews Issue #53 • September/October, 1998 One of the things that my family loves most about living in the country is that we get to eat fresh eggs from our genuine free-range chickens....

Woodchuck-Proof the Garden

By Setanta O'Ceillaigh <!-- >!>!>!> Make content-2-col-left = 70% if activating this column --> Issue #160 • July/August, 2016 The cycle never ends: As soon as one garden pest is dealt with, another takes its place. Last...

Understanding the gun debate, part 1

By Massad Ayoob Issue #161 • September/October, 2016 It has been said that gun legislation and abortion are the two most polarizing issues in the United States. The former has taken the lead on both the...

Cash in on your household junk

By Linda Gabris Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 If you think "Howdy Doody" has been holing up in your attic for too many years, maybe it's time you turned the dummy in for some cold hard...

Grilled Chicken with Pineapple-Peach Sauce

Recipe of the Week  Grilled Chicken with Pineapple-Peach Sauce  Courtesy of Laura DeBenedictis  Ingredients 1 lb chicken thighs, skinned 1 cup pineapple juice 1/4 cup peach preserves Method Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rinse thechicken and place in a...

Defending against terrorists

By Dave Duffy Issue #152 • March/April, 2015 I watched a lot of TV news in the days following the terrorist assassinations of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris. What struck me as odd was that...