Editor’s Note: Ohhh I am so excited to share Erika’s project, DIY Deodorant, on FSC! Gah! I can’t wait to try it, I’ve been meaning to for ages as I’ve had Erika’s Professor Funkenstein: Solving a Funky Problem bookmarked for-eva! It was first published on January 14, 2010. She has a few notes just above…
Category: Homesteading
{winter projects 2012} Butter In A Jar
Editor’s Introductory Note: To give us another week to get back “into the swing of things”, I decided to have a very special week of posts lined up in advance. I asked all six contributors with a personal blog (Christine, Jillian, Erika, Deanna, Liz & Becky) to republish an “oldie but a goodie” post here on…
{FREE EBOOK} from scratch holidays
Coined ‘from scratch holidays‘, we wanted to dedicate most of November & December’s content to various seasonal recipes for your holiday table, edible gifts and reflections on the holiday season as a whole. We have more to come, including radish toasts, DIY coffee creamer, beef jerky, dark chocolate covered candied orange peels, Kahlua marshmallows &…
cold & flu season w/ fire cider
I was introduced to Fire Cider (produced by a local place, Shire City Herbals in Pittsfield, MA), a few weeks ago when a friend offered me a few precious shots of his stash after hearing me complain about inflamed lymph nodes in my throat, and the worry of a prolonged oncoming illness. Made with apple…
{reflections of a daughter} DIY Coffee Roasting
There is really nothing like the smell of freshly roasted coffee. Unless of course you were like me when I was introduced to coffee roasting, seven and a half months pregnant. It was Christmas of 2004, I was in my third trimester of pregnancy, and my mother decided that for my dad’s Christmas gift that…
{DIY Backyard Chickens} Go for it!
So in the first two parts of this DIY series, I’ve shared some of the how-to and what not to do’s of keeping backyard chickens. You may be wondering, though, why bother with backyard hens? Or maybe, like the folks at All Over Albany, you’re thinking that backyard chickens seem like a lot of work. To…
{how to} Cold Storage 101
I’ve pretty much wrapped up harvesting crops on Silly Goose Farm. Apples are done, tomatoes are done, and all that’s left to put-up is a couple of cabbages, a few rows of rainbow carrots, and a whole bunch of pears. The pear trees on our farm are over 100 years old and positively drip with fruit….
{gardening} My End-of-Season Garden
Remember way back in the beginning of gardening season when I showed you my garden and said it’s good to spend a few minutes in it each day? Yeah, well I’m going to be blunt and tell you that I didn’t follow my own advice this year. Last year it was so easy because I…
{DIY Apple Cider} from Tree to Tummy
Our old farm has a fun history. From the reseach I’ve been conducting on the property, here’s what I’ve found: The original farm was started by the Gaige family pre-Revolutionary War (the Gaige family can be traced to our area since the 1730s). The house across the street was built in the early 1800s by…
{DIY Backyard Chickens} the coop
Not long ago, I began a little series on keeping a flock of chickens in your backyard. You can read the first installment here. This week I introduce to you: THE COOP I began dreaming about my chicken coop back in 2005. I was living in New Canaan, CT and working in Tarrytown, NY. One day…
{community sharecropping} September is for Eggplants
September is the biggest harvest month in the community share-cropping gardens. That means that we have to do something with the perishable stuff we grew all summer. While I think zucchini make excellent compost, I want to use each and every eggplant, no matter how small. I have spent years convincing my husband that we…
{DIY Backyard Chickens} for the love of one good egg
In the spring of 2009 I decided it was high time I got myself a flock of chickens. For years I had contemplated this endeavor, collected flyers from Agway and Cooperative Extension, and had even gone as far as hoarding old building supplies for a coop, some of which are likely still in my parent’s…
{locavore challenge} A Day in the Life of a Locavore
{Welcome Denison Farm CSA Members} What does it mean to be a locavore? There are a million and one philosophical reasons for being one, such as the positive effects on the environment, supporting the local business climate and creating greater ties to the community. You could go on forever about all the good points. But…
{COMMUNITY SHARECROPPING} Home Grown Wheat
Our rabbi, Jonathan Rubenstein of Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, runs a non-profit bakery out of the temple. Most Friday mornings he is there, baking challah and babka, plus his kick-ass granola. When we sold our house and garden in Argyle, New York three years ago and were moaning about where we would go to garden, Jonathan’s…
Lard {Yes, that’s what I said: Lard.}
I should admit that, straightaway, this task was a stretch even for me. In a moment of pure curiosity (lunacy?) and inability to turn down a good deal, or a free deal, I graciously accepted a cooler full of pig fat from a local farmer. Josh from West Wind Acres had a few pigs processed,…
