food

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Easy Potato Soup

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Cooking from scratch is easy! Throw this Easy Potato Soup in the crock pot in the morning and it’s ready for dinner when you get home from work. Or whatever. When we filmed The Potato Soup Movie for YouTube, it seemed to only make sense to put it here in writing, as well. I am […]... Read More
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How to use Cloth Produce Bags

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Cloth produce bags are an old idea whose time has returned. They are simple and sanitary. You can keep a dozen on hand and they take up barely any space. Produce stays fresher and mold-free for longer. They can be used damp or dry, depending on what you are storing. They go in the fridge, […]... Read More
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Homemade Vitamin C

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Homemade Vitamin C was today’s project. The urban homestead has a lemon tree and a grapefruit tree, so we have lots of raw material. We have never used any pesticides on the trees, so this stuff will be all organic! I have always felt wasteful throwing all those peels away. To find out I could […]... Read More
tomato sauce

Juicing in the Real World

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Most of us don’t have time for fruit and veggie prep, juicing and cleanup every day, several times a day. The gurus tell us to drink freshly juiced vegetables right away to get all the health benefits. True, this is the ideal. You mothers who breastfeed and pump your milk at work understand how this […]... Read More

Wild Fermentation

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Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz I love to preserve my homegrown bounty and I have also wondered how it was done before the advent of water bath and pressure canning in the 1800’s. Certainly people preserved foods long before rubber canning seals were invented. Sandor Katz digs deep into ancient preservation methods – primarily […]... Read More

Secrets to Sneaking More Veggies into your Family’s Diet

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If your family is like mine, you’re lucky if you can get them to eat salad with dinner on a regular basis. French fries are counted as a veggie, and pizza is a full meal (meat, diary, bread, tomato sauce). Indeed, one of my sons honestly admits that the only way I’ll get him to […]... Read More

Life Without Refrigeration

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Could you live off-grid without a refrigerator? Susan Gregersen has for over 30 years. She wrote Life Without Refrigeration to share her experiences and tips for preserving food without benefit of a fridge. She explains how bacterial growth and spoilage occur, and why some foods need to be kept cold. To start with, several chapters […]... Read More

Money Secrets of the Amish

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Money Secrets of the Amish, by Lorilee Craker is jam-packed with practical, down-to-earth wisdom from the Plain People. Probably most of us want to stop being slaves to money and start living the good life. The Amish have a reputation for living well on less, consequently, it might help to find out how they do it. A […]... Read More
side pork package cooked side pork

Side Pork – Better Bacon

Posted on by Mrs. D 1 Comment
Ah, the wonders of side pork. Just what is it? Side pork is the cut of the pig that bacon is made out of. And they do sell it “unbaconized” in the store. We acquired some the other day and sliced it up to fry as bacon. We also cut it into chunks and put it […]... Read More
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My New Favorite Way to Can Tomatoes

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my new favorite home canned tomato sauce Over the summer, I got a case of tomatoes at the farmer’s market and they were so tasty that I decided I needed to save some for over the winter. Sun drying was out of the question. Too much rain and too much humidity. So, I decided to […]... Read More