Farm Life Archives - Our Homestead Adventures

This is why you don’t name your chickens

Chickens can be a great addition to your farm, family or homestead. But there’s an old rule about keeping a chicken… don’t name it

Gardening: In A Coronavirus Crazy World, Control What You Can Control

Why gardening can: calm the soul, ease food security worries and lead to self empowerment even as the world seems to be going crazy during the coronavirus crisis.

A Cat Finds A Homestead

One dark morning as I flipped the porch light on to walk out to the bus stop, a small shadowy movement caught our attention near the trash can. This stray cat would find its way into our home and heart.

Dilly Beans Recipe, Small Batch

A good green bean harvest meant we could feast on dilly beans this year. This was our first season of pretty good success with beans. At least in our eyes. Success looks different to different people. Let me explain that last year we were only able to save 11 ounces of beans… carefully packed away…

Lemon Balm Tea, aka Melissa Tea

Herbs have so many uses, you should grow some. Herbs can be used for so many ailments as well as for enjoyment, that’s especially true with Lemon Balm. Our herb garden started out small, with the herbs that were most familiar to us. As we began learning more about homesteading through taking classes, listening to…

Wild Violet Jelly Recipe

“How to make wild violet jelly” or “Another weed not to kill in your yard”. Wild violets usher in spring. The dainty purple wild violet flowers carpet the grass and hint of warmth to come. These flowers come in various shades of purple that are so intriguing at a closer look. At your next opportunity,…

Naturally Decorated Easter Eggs

Decorating Easter eggs is a family tradition, we experimented with our farm fresh eggs this year and the results were beautiful. Easter eggs, in our house, had always started off as the white eggs we would buy at the store. But as our diverse flock (Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, Buff Oprington, Black Australorp, Silver…

Farm Eggs vs Store Bought Eggs

Yes, you can taste the difference between farm fresh eggs and store bought eggs. We’re asked all the time whether we can tell the difference between the eggs from our chickens and those bought at the grocery store. They come from chickens, how different can they be? Oh… there’s a difference. Since building our coop…

Ms. Olivia’s Sweet Peaches

A peach buzz began to swirl. There was a buzz among the locals that a peach truck was scheduled to deliver in our small town. There is nothing like access to good foods that aren’t typical of your area. A friend called to let me know it was coming and we started thinking about all…

Dog Training on the Homestead

Progress, not perfection: Farm dog training When we moved to our homestead property, we talked of getting a family dog at some point. Both my husband and I had had dogs growing up and into adulthood (our Black Lab, “Pelé” was our first dog as a couple) but we’ve never dealt with a situation that…