
Northern Homestead
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Northern Homestead is a blog about urban homesteading in a cold climate. We write about growing, raising, preserving, and preparing our own real food.
Northern Homestead
2w ago
A root cellar is an excellent addition to any homestead. Ideally, it should be built into a hillside, featuring an entry space and a cellar room. However, most of us do not have that option. Modern houses often lack a cold room. What can you do? Build a root cellar in the basement. A relatively...
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Northern Homestead
3w ago
One of the most significant benefits of starting your seeds is the cost. However, that can quickly be overshadowed if you buy expensive grow lights and run them for months. With energy costs rising, the question arises: What about starting seeds without growing lights? It’s possible, and in this blog post, we share proven tips...
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Northern Homestead
1M ago
The roasted root vegetable recipe is a delicious dish you should make a staple in your home. It is a true garden-to-table recipe that is simple, delicious, and realistically adds to your self-sufficiency list. From garden to table Self-sufficiency is a fancy word that, in its true sense, no one ever reaches. For us, it...
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Northern Homestead
2M ago
As you know, we are an urban homestead in a small town in Alberta, Canada. It gets pretty cold here in the winter, and having heat is essential. Homesteaders in rural areas often rely on wood for heating, which makes sense if you have ample space for growing and storing it. But what about an...
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Northern Homestead
2M ago
Northern Homestead focuses on growing, preserving, and preparing nutritious food. Despite our cold climate and short growing season, we strive to have homegrown food year-round. We do not claim to be self-sufficient; instead, we enhance our diet with high-quality food in ways we can. A question often arises: Do food growers still need nutritional...
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Northern Homestead
3M ago
Preparing fruit trees for winter in a cold climate is essential. We cultivate cold-hardy fruit trees in our cold climate (Zone 3). However, young trees may not have experienced a true cold winter yet, depending on their origin. We cover what qualifies as a cold-hardy tree and provide some reliable sources for obtaining them in...
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Northern Homestead
3M ago
The year 2024 has likely been the most challenging yet. While the gardening season in 2023 was difficult due to rough weather, 2024 has posed health challenges. I wasn’t even sure if we would have a garden in the spring. Looking back, I think we should have kept our gardening efforts to a minimum. Let’s...
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Northern Homestead
4M ago
Building raised garden beds and creating pathways and borders helps us to get the most out of a small urban garden space. There are many different materials to choose from. Today, we are looking into the pros and cons of using rocks to build raised beds and borders in the garden. Why use rocks to...
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Northern Homestead
5M ago
Growing berries in an urban cold-climate garden is a great idea, we have grown many of them. When it comes to the antioxidant scale, two stand out as superberries, scoring up to 10 times higher than the rest of the delicious berries that can be grown. These two are Aronia and Goji Berries. If space...
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Northern Homestead
5M ago
After ten years of our yard-to-garden initiative, we are evaluating what has been successful and what may need to be changed. We are discussing an urban yard in Alberta, Canada, which is in growing zone 3. We are applying permaculture principles, cultivating annuals and perennials in a somewhat wild and free manner. This blog post...
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