Garden Spaces for Small Places
By Dorothy Ainsworth
Issue #116 • March/April, 2009
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden.
Minnie Aumonier
Yes, and if your budget is lean and you want something green, there's...
Hügelkultur for the Homestead
By Rose Shelton
Issue #176 • April/May/June, 2019
Last spring, I finally completed a long-planned homestead project of constructing two hügelkultur beds. What is hügelkultur? It’s basically a method of recycling junk wood to make a...
Home canning safety tips
By Liz Case
Issue #66 • November/December, 2000
Like many who were born shortly after World War II, I grew up in a family with a solidly "city" lifestyle. My mother saw canning as drudgery. For...
Beef & Wild Mushroom Lasagna
Recipe of the Week
Beef & Wild Mushroom Lasagna
Courtesy of
Gail Strong
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound assorted wild mushrooms (such as shiitake, oyster and cremini), sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1...
The attack on Colin Powell prompts questions I’m not supposed to ask
By Dave Duffy
Issue #79 • January/February, 2003
What's wrong with black Americans?
Provocative question, isn't it, especially when it's being asked by a white guy like me. We white guys aren't supposed to question what blacks...
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...
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...
Toffee Bars, Maple Kisses, and Chocolate-Nut Cloud Candy
Recipe of the Week
Toffee Bars, Maple Kisses,and Chocolate-Nut Cloud Candy
Courtesy of
Mariah Dannato
Toffee Bars
Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 12 ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts
Saltine Crackers
Method
Place one layer of crackers on greased...
Tailoring guns to females
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #131 • September/October, 2011
So, I'm sitting here in a hotel writing this, less than three hours after getting off the witness stand in a manslaughter case. The defendant was a 5'3",...
The poor man’s ultra-light dual-fuel backpacking stove
By Rick Brannan
Issue #124 • July/August, 2010
For as long as I have been venturing into the backcountry, which is a pretty long time, I have been on a quest for the perfect backpacking stove....
Lessons for My Children…Chapter 3: Hiding from the government
By Dave Duffy
Issue #138 • November/December, 2012
After opening the discussion in this column last issue about the underground economy, I thought it would be a good idea to explore it more thoroughly since it...
Animal rights loonies save the chickens but ruin the County Fair
By Dave Duffy
Issue #84 • November/December, 2003
We had our County Fair between issues.
It was a small Fair with just a few thousand in attendance, but no one in our town of 1500 would miss...
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...
Black beans and rice
Recipe of the Week
Black beans and rice
Courtesy of
Tom Barth
You'll find this recipe and over 400 more in Backwoods Home Cooking.Click Here
Ingredients
1 lb. black beans, rinsed and sorted
2 Tbsp. margarine
2 onions, coarsely chopped
3-4 bay leaves
3...
Planning the lives of generations to come
By John Silveira
March 8, 2006
I was reading the March 2006 issue of Discover Magazine and read Asteroid Watcher Worries, an interview with Clark R. Chapman, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute at...
Food security 101
By Rowena Aldridge
Issue #138 • November/December, 2012
These days a lot of people are concerned, and rightly so, about their family's economic stability and security. Recently I've become aware of the ways in which I,...
