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The Backyard Homestead

kyuuei

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I've been reading this book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Little-House-...TF8&coliid=I18XA2HYQD7WR7&colid=1RYNM5EEJAS6N

Little House in the Suburbs

For a while now and last year we gave it a try--and I LOVED the results. Everything pulled our family together, even just for a little bit, and now I can't imagine us NOT starting a garden in the spring. The process of it made us want to venture into farming just as a hobby--a cow, a goat, a couple pigs, and chickens with a small orchard and garden.

I don't know if I'll venture into all of that by myself, or making things like my own cheese or honey yet.. but this is something exciting and new.

If you don't already do any of this stuff, would you be willing to give it a try? If not, is it scary to try something new, or does it simply seem daunting to learn a new trade?

Did you just need a push or some support? If you DO do this stuff, show off some pictures and talk about what you do!
 

ceecee

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I've read this book. I also have a subscription to Mother Earth News, which is probably the best homesteading/self-sufficiency resource there is. A year subscription is $10, I highly recommend it. The only thing that limits me is the size of our property. We live on a good sized inland lake and lot size is fairly small so I stick to container gardening but we also have wild raspberry bushes, blueberries and I grow strawberries too. I have rain barrels to collect water, I can, buy meat and dairy from local farms and buy local produce almost exclusively. These are some pics I have from last year. I also make ricotta and mozzarella from time to time.

romas0022.jpg


veggies0033.jpg


lettuce0011.jpg


spinach0022.jpg


pickles0011.jpg
 

kyuuei

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:drool: Those pickles look so amazing!! I attempted to pickle cucumbers and the recipe I used from a book was much too bitter and vinegar-like. How do you get them so crisp looking?
 

ceecee

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:drool: Those pickles look so amazing!! I attempted to pickle cucumbers and the recipe I used from a book was much too bitter and vinegar-like. How do you get them so crisp looking?

JDS31126402.jpg


Keep in mind, any processed food is going to be somewhat less crisp than ones that are strictly refrigerator pickles or any uncooked/unprocessed ones. The pickle crisp really cuts down on that. As far as taste, keep looking at recipes. I like dill, with garlic, no sweetness but some sugar is beneficial to some recipes.

Here's a refrigerator type and it's good. The beans too - I love dilly green beans.

http://dlynz.com/?p=344
 

WheresRocket

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I also have a subscription to Mother Earth News, which is probably the best homesteading/self-sufficiency resource there is. A year subscription is $10, I highly recommend it.

Mother Earth News has been so useful to me in learning about self-sufficiency. Many of the things I've tried along these lines would have seemed completely daunting if Mother Earth News hadn't been there to break it all down for me.

One of my favorite articles was an excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which she takes you through the process of making fresh mozzarella. I tried it with my mom and got great results. It was nowhere near as intimidating as I expected.

I've since also read the book - the premise is that Kingsolver's family decides to live for a year only on what they grow or can buy locally (with a few exceptions such as spices and coffee), and how they accomplish that. It makes the whole deal seem so accessible. My garden is still small - I'm in my mid-twenties and have yet to live in one place more than two years, so I can't go all-out like I could if I owned land - but I love being able to at least grow my own herbs.

My husband and I are also fledgling beekeepers (currently on hiatus, with the bees living at a relative's farm, because of a change in our living situation), and enjoy learning about it. We have three hives. The first year, we got a good bit of honey and it was phenomenal, without that bitter back-of-the-mouth taste like storebought. Year 2 didn't deliver much. This is Year 3 and the bees are doing well at the farm, although we won't be the ones to harvest any honey this year.

Y'all's pickles are inspiring me! I recently tried my first canning experiment: strawberry jam. The canning went great; my jam skills need work. :laugh:
 

ceecee

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Mother Earth News has been so useful to me in learning about self-sufficiency. Many of the things I've tried along these lines would have seemed completely daunting if Mother Earth News hadn't been there to break it all down for me.

One of my favorite articles was an excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which she takes you through the process of making fresh mozzarella. I tried it with my mom and got great results. It was nowhere near as intimidating as I expected.

I've since also read the book - the premise is that Kingsolver's family decides to live for a year only on what they grow or can buy locally (with a few exceptions such as spices and coffee), and how they accomplish that. It makes the whole deal seem so accessible. My garden is still small - I'm in my mid-twenties and have yet to live in one place more than two years, so I can't go all-out like I could if I owned land - but I love being able to at least grow my own herbs.

My husband and I are also fledgling beekeepers (currently on hiatus, with the bees living at a relative's farm, because of a change in our living situation), and enjoy learning about it. We have three hives. The first year, we got a good bit of honey and it was phenomenal, without that bitter back-of-the-mouth taste like storebought. Year 2 didn't deliver much. This is Year 3 and the bees are doing well at the farm, although we won't be the ones to harvest any honey this year.

Y'all's pickles are inspiring me! I recently tried my first canning experiment: strawberry jam. The canning went great; my jam skills need work. :laugh:

That's great! I know canning takes a little practice, especially the timing. I read a lot of books and just started with the simple things and moved on. Last summer I made a bunch but I entered strawberry margarita jam and peach bellini jam at the county fair. I won 2 ribbons for taste and new and creative. I wish I had made more because I am on the last jar of both.

pinterest0022.jpg


I'm also going to go with this idea for herbs, instead of a long plant box. I can set this right outside my kitchen and it gets almost a full day of sun.

2012_02_17-mchin02.jpg
 

kyuuei

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My husband and I are also fledgling beekeepers...

I just read a long chapter regarding this subject. I'm sad to say I'm terrified of bees, annoyingly and really unnecessarily so. :doh: They're so sweet, and they just buzz around, but I can't help locking up, panicking, and fearing for my life when they're around, even though I'm fairly sure I'm not allergic to them. :laugh:

It sounds so lovely, though, having fresh honey. I may just have to stick to buying it from someone else braver than I though.

I do, however, intend to build a bat house on my property. I'd love nothing more. :heart:

Y'all's pickles are inspiring me! I recently tried my first canning experiment: strawberry jam. The canning went great; my jam skills need work. :laugh:

We've had mixed results with fig jam. Even the 'bad' batches still taste really good to me, and we're fairly lazy about canning. A lot of tomatoes get canned for us every summer, and we use the spaghetti sauces, tomato pastes, salsas, and marinades we make out of everything throughout the autumn and winter, and find we STILL have a ton of jars left over.

I'm trying to work out some different recipes and systems of making the cans more multi-tasking for different meals so we can start actually utilizing the things we create and organizing them.

My heart is also dead set on buying two baby dwarf goats instead of dogs.
 

kyuuei

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That's great! ... insert stuff here..

Picture of awesome fresh herbs here.

OMG Peach bellini jam?? I'm fairly sure I melt at the taste of a crisp frozen bellini on a hot day. I used to serve a very very divine one at my shop at the Ren Faire. :drool: The thought of having that sort of taste on a piece of toast first thing in the morning.. *Swooooon*
 

Qlip

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I love the idea of it, but that kind of living requires a lot of attention. I did break out a bar of soap and a bucket and hand washed some of my laundry yesterday just to give it a try, and because I didn't want to go to the laundromat. I must have not rinsed my shirt out as well as I should, because I smell lightly of Ivory soap, which is not a bad thing.

Make sure to check your city codes before buying livestock. Most towns in Nebraska have laws that restrict keeping goats unless they are kept X feet from the street, X being much bigger than any city lot size.
 

ceecee

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OMG Peach bellini jam?? I'm fairly sure I melt at the taste of a crisp frozen bellini on a hot day. I used to serve a very very divine one at my shop at the Ren Faire. :drool: The thought of having that sort of taste on a piece of toast first thing in the morning.. *Swooooon*

It's so good. I made a small batch of Carrot Cake jam too. Top a bagel with some cream cheese and a little of the jam and it's just like cake. I have seen some recipes for Mimosa jam and I'm going to try that this year.


Peach Bellini Jam

7 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups chopped, peeled ripe peaches
1 cup Prosecco
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 6 ounce package of liquid pectin

Combine everything but the pectin and bring to a full boil, stirring to make sure all the sugar dissolves. Stir in the pectin and bring back to a boil, remove from the heat and skim off any foam, ladle into jars.

Carrot Cake Jam

2 cups Finely Shredded Carrots
1 cup Finely Chopped, peeled pear
1× 15 oz Crushed Pineapple In Juice, undrained
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
1× 1.75 oz pkg Regular Powdered Fruit Pectin
4 cups Granulated Sugar
2 cups Packed Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
¼ cup Flaked Coconut or Raisins, optional


In a 4-6 quart heavy pot, combine carrots, pear, pineapple with juice, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bring to boiling, stirring constantly, then reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, sprinkle mixture with pectin, then stir until pectin dissolves. Bring carrot mixture to boiling, stirring constantly. Add granulated and brown sugars. Return to a full rolling boil, then boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam with a metal spoon. Stir in vanilla and coconut or raisins, if using.

Ladle hot jam into hot, sterilized half pint canning jars, leaving a 1/4 inch head space. Wipe jar rims and adjust lids. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Start timing when water returns to a boil. Remove jars from canner and cool on wire racks. Makes 7 half pints.
 

kyuuei

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It's so good. I made a small batch of Carrot Cake jam too. Top a bagel with some cream cheese and a little of the jam and it's just like cake. I have seen some recipes for Mimosa jam and I'm going to try that this year....

I AM giving these recipes a try when I get home. :heart: One of my goals this year for christmas is to give all handmade gifts to my friends, instead of copping out and buying things from the internet as I've done in the past with much success. :laugh: My goal is to give twice as many christmas presents on half the income. I know I can make that happen and still give lovely gifts. :yes: Beautiful jams seem like a good idea for many of the people on my list.

[YOUTUBE="0rB5ToejoAg"]Might I recommend...[/YOUTUBE]

YES! :laugh: They're so tiny and adorable, how could I not get something like that?!

We plan on keeping chickens, and a book I was reading said that chickens do very well with goats because the goats intimidate predators, so a couple goats would do well. I plan on having a couple good for milking and one purely as a pet. :) A couple dwarf goats and a pygmy.

saanen-kids.JPG
 

WheresRocket

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I just read a long chapter regarding this subject. I'm sad to say I'm terrified of bees, annoyingly and really unnecessarily so. :doh: They're so sweet, and they just buzz around, but I can't help locking up, panicking, and fearing for my life when they're around, even though I'm fairly sure I'm not allergic to them. :laugh:

It sounds so lovely, though, having fresh honey. I may just have to stick to buying it from someone else braver than I though.

I do, however, intend to build a bat house on my property. I'd love nothing more. :heart:

Bees are so... I dunno, it's such a primal thing, you know? So far I have only been stung once, because we're pretty strict about protecting ourselves, but I have a feeling I will get more leery the more times it happens. It's hard to control your responses to a creature you know can harm you and you know doesn't understand or care about human rules - not like domesticated animals, where you can have some confidence that they know your intent.

I don't ever see us keeping bees on a large scale or making a business out of it; I don't love it that much, and it's really a lot cheaper to just buy local honey. But I like the science-y aspect of it, just as a personal satisfaction.

A bat house would be such a neat thing to have; I'd love to sit and watch them in the evening. I was fascinated with bats as a kid (because, you know, fuzzy creatures! in the SKY!) and still love to see them.

It's so good. I made a small batch of Carrot Cake jam too. Top a bagel with some cream cheese and a little of the jam and it's just like cake. I have seen some recipes for Mimosa jam and I'm going to try that this year.


Peach Bellini Jam

7 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups chopped, peeled ripe peaches
1 cup Prosecco
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 6 ounce package of liquid pectin

Combine everything but the pectin and bring to a full boil, stirring to make sure all the sugar dissolves. Stir in the pectin and bring back to a boil, remove from the heat and skim off any foam, ladle into jars.

Carrot Cake Jam

2 cups Finely Shredded Carrots
1 cup Finely Chopped, peeled pear
1× 15 oz Crushed Pineapple In Juice, undrained
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
1× 1.75 oz pkg Regular Powdered Fruit Pectin
4 cups Granulated Sugar
2 cups Packed Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
¼ cup Flaked Coconut or Raisins, optional


In a 4-6 quart heavy pot, combine carrots, pear, pineapple with juice, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bring to boiling, stirring constantly, then reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, sprinkle mixture with pectin, then stir until pectin dissolves. Bring carrot mixture to boiling, stirring constantly. Add granulated and brown sugars. Return to a full rolling boil, then boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam with a metal spoon. Stir in vanilla and coconut or raisins, if using.

Ladle hot jam into hot, sterilized half pint canning jars, leaving a 1/4 inch head space. Wipe jar rims and adjust lids. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Start timing when water returns to a boil. Remove jars from canner and cool on wire racks. Makes 7 half pints.

Thanks for sharing your recipes! I love the way the strawberry margarita jam looks in those wide jars, too. So pretty.

I knew my strawberry-lemon jam needed work when it was so black in the jar I couldn't see the seeds. I hadn't watched it carefully enough when it was simmering, and I'd let too much liquid boil out. A recipe for 4 half-pint jars made about 2 and a quarter. :doh: Live and learn!
 

kyuuei

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I have a goal for 2013 to use only bathroom products and toiletries I have made myself.. to start experimenting with simple, cheaper, and hopefully more effective solutions.

The talk of aluminum in deodorants, and all the chemicals I keep sticking on my face.. Lately, I've used baby powder on my face twice a day and that has helped with how oily my face gets more than anything else. I sweat so much out here there's no way I can wash with harsh chemicals multiple times a day. Im going to use up the products I have, and start making shit myself.. if it doesn't work, I'll find an ingredient that does.

The inspiration came from trying to find an alternative to Jergen's Naturally Smooth hair minimizing lotion. I couldn't find it ANYWHERE.. it was discontinued, the company said "F you, we're not making it anymore" and no companies making similar products have any on the shelves either. A $5 bottle, six years old, is being sold on Amazon for $40!! Ridiculous?!

But I saw the active ingredients.. and I thought. Well..Why not just make my own lotion with those ingredients in it? Soy proteins, and great burnet root extract. That's it, really. So that's what I'm going to do when I get home. Make my own lotion, and say eff you to Jergens.. and everything else really. Apparently there has been a lot of great success with No-shampoo solutions of mere baking soda and water with some vinegar and the occasional hot oil treatment. By the time I looked up all the recipes.. Besides the essential oils, many of them called for the same ingredients. Too easy. Though I think I'll still buy my soap--I think soap makers make it just as well as I eventually would be able to..
 

kyuuei

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My list of things to try making myself:

Lotion. My first endeavor, since it sparked it all. I have all the list of ingredients. Sweet almond oil, emulsifier, sage EO, great burnet root extract, hydrolyzed soy protein, preservative, a bit of fragrance, thickener, and lemon EO. Meant to be a shave minimizing lotion. We'll see how it turns out when I get home!
 
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