Homesteading Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Our Homestead Adventures

Perspective: Every day something dies so you may live

Where our food comes from has new perspective after butchering our first chicken. We rose well before the sun. It was raining, we couldn’t see the orange glow had we gotten a later start anyhow. But as we prepared to butcher a chicken for the first time, we were met with a range of thoughts…

Bourbon and Honeysuckle Syrup

Bourbon lovers may consider this sacrilege, but it’s tasty. I type while sipping an unbelievably sweet drink so forgive if my storytelling goes astray, I ramble or my writing is a bit more fluid than normal. A few weeks ago Amy made the brilliant decision to try her hand at Honeysuckle Jelly (it’s really delightful).…

How to Make Honeysuckle Jelly

Honeysuckle jelly, a sweet summer treat You’ll know summer is on the way when the thick, aromatic perfume of the honeysuckles embrace you, sending a stream of warm memories rushing through your mind and sending a joyous smile to your face. The nostalgia of bright yellow honeysuckle vining around old fence posts, causing one to…

How to make mulberry jam

Mulberry Jam Our garden has taken a little bit of a backseat while the mulberry trees in our area are producing their tender, subtly sweet, red wine colored berries. There is nowhere to hide those bluish stains on chin and hands from nature’s delicious and natural dye…especially when denying that you’ve spoiled your supper. The…

Unearthing Farm Artifacts in the Garden

An evening planting digs up questions and farm artifacts. This evening over an hour was spent digging two holes to place a couple of melon plants. Breaking ground was easy. It was when the earth was turned over that remnants, artifacts of moments long forgotten where discovered buried several inches to a foot deep into…

Our Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving menu items An update to our “Inspired to Try, Homegrown Thanksgiving Challenge”. The Thanksgiving menu is ready to share, think we can pull it off? We’ve got our starters, main course items, and desserts. The menu items consist of food we are currently growing so we can prepare to save them for November- and…

Introducing New Chickens to Your Flock

Sometimes “Soon” is “Too Soon” We’ve heard a lot of advice about when to introduce new chickens to your flock. Until now, we’d had great success. Typically, we’re told, you want the new chickens to be about 3 months old before adding them to your flock. A group of Barred Rock and Silver Laced Wyandottes…

Thanksgiving turkey, Raise or Hunt?

Homegrown Thanksgiving challenge update, Turkey edition “What if our Thanksgiving dinner included only the things that we provided for ourselves?” That question triggered the first Inspired to Try challenge, now we had a big decision to make. The turkey is usually the star of the show so do we hunt a turkey or raise a…

Meet Amy + Chris

We are Amy and Chris, parents of 4 children, learning by living, taking a homestead adventure that many of our friends and family think is crazy… even if they secretly envy us. We do not shy away from adventure & trying new things but even this is not what we would have imagined just a…

Our Orchard, A Memorial to A Great Man

Instead of just a tree, why not plant an orchard? When we moved into our home, it was shortly after Chris’ dad had passed. Family and friends wanted to give us something that would remind us of him. Maybe a flower bush or special tree? After some thought, we decided to pool our gifts into building a…