Creating and maintaining your own sourdough starter
By Emily Buehler
Issue #97 • January/February, 2006
Most people know about sourdough starter—it can be used instead of yeast to make bread rise, resulting in bread with a sour flavor and a chewier texture. Bakers...
Confessions of a former liberal
By Dave Duffy
Issue #50 • March/April, 1998
There is an old adage that goes something like: "If you're not a liberal when you're in your 20s you haven't got a heart; if you're not a...
Slug Zapper
By Joel Winters
Issue #142 • July/August, 2013
I live in a small clearing in a big forest. This is on the rainy side of the mountains in the Cascade foothills. Slugs are underfoot nearly year-round...
Something unsaid about Timothy McVeigh’s execution
By Dave Duffy
April 12, 2001
There's something unsaid about the coming Timothy McVeigh execution, scheduled for May 16. Many of us can feel it but are afraid to express it for fear of being labeled...
Gabion walls for form and function
By Joe Mooney
Issue #153 • May/June, 2015
I think there has to be something ingrained in the human brain that loves things built of stone. Maybe it's our desire for strength and safety or the...
For a truly independent energy system, your choices are solar, wind, and water
By Larry Elliott
Issue #28 • July/August, 1994
Just as the words "backwoods home" conjure up images of farmhouses, livestock, woodstoves, tractors, and gardens, the words "independent energy" bring to mind a whole new set of...
Defending your lifestyle
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #60 • November/December, 1999
I was sitting in the witness box, an expert witness for the defense, in a courtroom out west not long ago. The opposing lawyer was conducting cross examination,...
Vegetarian and semi-vegetarian: Healthy meals that satisfy the omnivore
By Richard Blunt
Issue #122 • March/April, 2010
Humans are omnivores, which means we can eat just about anything nature has to offer. In fact, research has shown we need to eat a wide variety of...
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...
Bartering for bad times
By John Silveira
Issue #138 • November/December, 2012
Bartering may not be a part of your life, right now, but if there's a deepening of the recession, or it becomes a depression, or we enter a...
Smoked Salmon
Recipe of the Week
Smoked Salmon
Courtesy of
Lisa Nourse
The best meals are made from stuff you grow--or catch. Here's a tasty smoked salmon treat made from a 38-pound king salmon caught by 11-year-old Ian Nourse, who...
Plantation Coffee Punch
Recipe of the Week
Plantation Coffee Punch
Courtesy of
Louise Johnson
Ingredients
1/3 cup instant coffee dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water
5 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Method
Mix the dissolved instant...
Solar suitcase
By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM
Issue #150 • November/December, 2014
Completed solar suitcase project
From time to time, people call to ask what we have for emergency solar power suitable for a bug-out bag. Naturally, my first...
For safety’s sake, homestead fuel storage must be handled properly
By Emory Warner
Issue #43 • January/February, 1997
Home storage of fuel is a necessity for homesteaders. Even if you are still on the grid, your truck, tractor, standby generator, etc. will still require fuel. I...
Why bureaucracy will likely destroy America
By John Silveira
Issue #50 • March/April, 1998
"Civilizations rise and fall," Dave said and I turned around to see if he was talking to me, but he was still staring at his monitor. I looked...
Mountain lions — Attacks are still rare, but just in case…
By Gene Sheley
Issue #50 • March/April, 1998
Near the top of North America's wildlife food chain is the mountain lion, a close second to bears in various forms in ferocity, strength, and killing ability. In...































