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…
Tag: 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…
{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….
{drink it up} Rosie Collins
October is one of the busiest months for me. Well, make that August, September and October. Harvest time in the Northeast starts in August and doesn’t end until past Halloween (I won’t even begin to really harvest my pears until November!). Usually this means just cutting down and picking the wonderful veggies and apples and putting…
{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…
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,…
{How To} Butter…and Accidental Crème Fraiche & Buttermilk
This past Tuesday, Nick and I learned that Meadowbrook Farms won’t be able to bring us the butter we use every week from The Country Creamery in Canestota, NY any longer. The news was a bit alarming; we use 18 lbs of the stuff each week for croissants, scones, muffins and cookies. We love its…
{community sharecropping} July is for Garlic Harvest
Garlic is an easy crop and should have a place in every home garden. The individual cloves are planted in October, lie dormant in the ground all winter, and then are among the first plants to sprout in the spring. You can buy garlic heads from your local farmers market this fall, break them up…
