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Spiced Christmas Jam – Recipe
I really wanted to up my game this year with homemade Christmas gifts. I love to make candy, put together bread mixes, or crochet cute little presents for my friends and family each year. I was reading a vintage cookbook and found an astonishingly simple yet delicious-sounding recipe for Christmas Jam, a festive fruit preserve…
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New York-Style Turtle Cheesecake – Recipe
It has been a few years since I made a cheesecake so I decided for this Thanksgiving I would whip up the classic dessert for our family dinner in Oregon. I’ve made many a cheesecake in my day and I was really looking forward to creating the perfect, creamy concoction for the dessert table. I…
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Flours for Feeding a Sourdough Starter
Let me get this post started with a statement that I’m sure is going to ruffle some feathers! Flour is the most important ingredient in keeping a sourdough starter. While there are many resources which insist pretty much anything – from the temperature of the water to the type of crock you use – could…
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Grandma Jill’s Favorite Fudge
Before we moved to the homestead we made the trip to Oregon each year for every major holiday. Christmas is absolutely my favorite holiday and it’s always a tradition for me to make candy and other various baked goods. Fudge being a personal and family favorite I started making it for our celebrations in Oregon…
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My Favorite Home Canning Gadgets
For many years I made do with canning supplies I could find used or tools I already had in my kitchen. This works perfectly fine and I actually highly recommend it for those who are just starting out! It’s always best to try and minimize startup costs when trying a new skill. That being said,…
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Homestead Diary: The Heritage Apple Project
Over the last few years I have been building a generous collection of foraged apple seeds. I have a tradition of sprouting these seeds as early as New Year’s as a totally gratuitous mid-winter gardening activity. The first couple of years I only collected a handful of varieties, but over this last summer my little…
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Where to Get My Favorite Free Seed Catalogs
In the colder months when the wind blows snow flurries over our lifeless garden and the fire burns cozy in the living room, one of the most anticipated events in my house is the mid-winter arrival of the annual seed catalogs. There are few things more comforting than relaxing on the couch with a colorful…
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How I Organize my Garden Seeds
Welcome (or welcome back) to the cabin! I’m sitting down with a cup of tea and my seed purchases for the 2023 season to chat with you about what I’m most excited to grow this year as well as how I organize my seed stash.
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Hearty Sourdough Multigrain Bread – Recipe
Do you love the sweet and nutty chewiness of a whole wheat loaf of bread, but want to leaven it with sourdough? Look no further. While I use a homemade seed mix, Bob’s Red Mill makes a nut & seed mix that can be added to any bread recipe for a hearty dose of heart-healthy…
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Lavender: The Complete Growing Guide
Lavender is a hardy perennial herb renowned for its aromatic blooms and soothing medicinal qualities. Popular with pollinators and astoundingly deer-proof, this classical, compact shrub is a fabulous choice for low-maintenance landscaping or beautifying a kitchen garden. Dating back to the Old World and being native to the Mediterranean, lavender is drought-tolerant, easy to grow…
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The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Sourdough
This is a perfect way to maintain your sourdough starter without it taking over your life! It spends most of the time in the fridge in a small jar, but it always available if you need it. When baking with it always remember to reserve at least 50 grams of starter to keep it going.
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Garden Minestrone – Recipe
I can say without an ounce of trepidation that this batch of minestrone soup is the BEST we have ever tasted! I have made gallons of it, and the pot is always scraped clean by the night’s end. It comes together quickly and easily, and pairs amazingly with a side salad or even just some…
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Homestead Diary: Making Yogurt At Home in The InstantPot
But now that I’ve started making my own yogurt at home I have cut our overall dairy cost by over half, even though I’m paying twice as much for milk – and in my mind that’s an investment worth making. A two week supply of yogurt now costs us $7 instead of $50 and it…
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Rosemary Olive Oil Sourdough – Recipe
In my quest to find a traditional sourdough recipe for this type of bread, I found two things to be true: it is typically made with olive oil, something that I’m not as experienced with in sourdough; and the rosemary is either added to the olive oil to impart flavor, or the dried herb is…
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Sourdough English Muffins – Recipe
Over the past year that I’ve spent honing my home baking I’ve come to one important conclusion: Bread is not as complicated as it’s made out to be. This is especially true when it comes to sourdough! I don’t feed my starter on a regular schedule, rather by what its reaction is to feeding; I…