Ah, dandelions. Whether you love seeing them in your yard or detest them, you’ve got to admire their resilience. Despite our best efforts to purge them from our landscape, these happy weed ambassadors persist. But these days, more and more folks are being won over to the sunny side. Instead of the question, “How do you get rid of dandelions?” it’s more often replaced with, “What can I do with all these dandelions?” Oh, I’m so glad you asked, friend. Lots. Lots and lots. As foraging is making a resurgence, many people are looking for an easy place to start, and what better place than in your b ..read more

If you’re new to raising chickens or are in the preliminary research stage of adding a few chickens to your backyard, you’ll be interested to learn that all chicken breeds have different personalities and traits. Some breeds are well suited to beginner chicken keepers with no experience handling birds. Other breeds are a better choice for seasoned chicken keepers.  Why choose beginner chicken breeds? The breeds on this list are great for beginners because they’re not likely to give you problems that could be tough to handle for newbie chicken keepers.  Over the last 14 years, I’ve k ..read more

This spring, while you’re out tidying your flower beds, don’t forget to cut a handful of hosta shoots to go with dinner. Hostas are a classic landscape filler, immediately recognizable by their leaves. But what most folks don’t know, even many hosta owners, is that their shoots are quite tasty. Yes, you can eat hostas! The Humble Hosta Let’s be honest with each other: when it comes to notable landscape plants, hostas are kind of boring. Oh sure, they do their job of filling flower beds and embankments alike with lush, green foliage, but even their flowers are a bit ho-hum. It’s no wonder tha ..read more

Where fresh water meets land, the cattail stands tall, its cylindrical seedheads and upright sword-like leaves lightly swaying in the breeze. Cattails are so ubiquitous to water that it’s quite impossible to picture a pond or river edge without them. Cattails might be one of the most familiar wetland denizens, but that doesn’t make them any less remarkable. More than a pond feature, cattails are year-round sources of food, building materials, crafting supplies, and medicine. Wherever there is shallow water, you’ll find cattails growing. Cattails – also called reeds or bulrushes – are easy to ..read more

As fall moves into winter, chicken keepers face a seasonal shift — their hens are molting, and egg production slows or stops. Our chickens are molting so hard it looks like one of them exploded in the enclosure. Feathers everywhere! One key strategy I take to support my small flock this time of year is fermenting chicken feed. This method not only improves the nutritional profile of the feed but also bolsters the overall health of my hens. Fermenting chicken feed offers multiple benefits, especially during a molt. While a slow-down of production is normal during the shorter days of the year ..read more

Raising little critters on your homestead can take a lot out of you. Not only does it take money from your pockets to feed them, but you worry about their health, too.  Growing fodder is a great way to save money on the feed bill and provide your animals with much-needed nutrients and fresh food, which is especially necessary in the winter. Fodder is inexpensive and easy to grow, as well as super fast! You can grow fodder from grain to grass in just a week! Why grow fodder for chickens and rabbits? There are so many benefits to growing fodder for your livestock.  Save money feeding ..read more

I wrote this post after many, many years of failing at making sourdough bread and maintaining a sourdough starter. It took me years, tons of research, and experimentation to find out where I was going wrong and how to fix it.  And I’m happy to report I have finally fixed it. I’m finally to the point, after more than 10 years of attempting sourdough, that I’m getting great results every time, and have been keeping my sourdough starter alive and thriving for more than a year.  All those failures have inspired this post. I hope you can learn from my years of mistakes so you can get to ..read more

Move over plum chutney, there’s another jar that needs to fit on the shelf – or in the fridge. It has something to do with plums and a whole lot of sweet and sour, with a generous amount of exotic spices tossed in for good measure. In late summer and early fall when plums are in season, it’s definitely a recipe worth trying. Where Do Spiced Pickled Plums Come From? Growing up, I never had the golden opportunity to eat pickled plums. If the chance had ever come along, however, I’m pretty sure I would’ve taken a bite. I wasn’t a picky eater, though I knew of a couple kids who were. Something te ..read more

Did you know there are several fantastic reasons for growing peas in your garden? Spoiler alert – you don’t have to grow them for the sheer enjoyment of shelling peas alone. The leaves, shoots and flowers of the pea plant are all edible too. Why Grow Peas? Freshly shelled garden peas, destined for a pot of soup. For starters, peas are very easy to grow; just about everyone can accomplish this uncomplicated garden task. Peas pretty much grow on their own with very little care from you – unless they need to be trellised, which is only as difficult as you make it. A few stakes and some string wi ..read more

If you are lucky enough to have a productive plum tree in your garden producing buckets full of plums, then you may be familiar with the overwhelming task of harvesting and processing all of your fruit. If you have a heavily laden plum tree, the fruiting can be so prolific that branches can break! One year, we lost a large limb on one of our plum trees due to overloading. (Fortunately, the fruits were ripe, and so we were still able to make use of them.) As you can see, this year, one heavily laden branch was reaching right down to the ground – much to the interest of our chickens. But when y ..read more