Honey Vanilla Bean Applesauce

Honey Vanilla Bean Applesauce

Today kicks off an extravaganza of applesauce recipes, just in time for apple season! I spent last week experimenting and formulating some delicious new canning recipes and today I’d like to share the first one with you: This Honey Vanilla Bean Applesauce recipe is warm, fragrant, and simply delicious. It uses wholesome ingredients and will […]

Crispy, Crunchy Dill Pickles (no additives needed!)

Crispy, Crunchy Dill Pickles (no additives needed!)

There is nothing more disheartening for the pickling enthusiast than a soft, sad pickle. I’ve been there. It kept me from attempting pickles again for a few years. Completely avoided even growing cucumbers at all for fear that someone might ask, “Oooh, are you going to make pickles with those?” Why? Do I look like […]

Raspberry Rhubarb Jam

Raspberry Rhubarb Jam

Sometimes, the best things in life do come at a cost. Berry picking is definitely one of those things for us- and I don’t mean money, either. It means heading out into the woods, husband and children in tow, knowing there’s a very real risk of bears, bugs, bees, thorns, bumps, bruises, scratches, tears, and […]

How to Prepare for {and Save Money On!} Canning Season

How to Prepare for {and Save Money On!} Canning Season

There is no season I look forward to more than canning season. Except maybe gardening season, but the two go hand in hand, don’t they? It makes me as anxious as my kids are for their after-nap-treat. And as the canning shelves start getting lighter and my boxes of empty jars begin to stack up […]

How-To Monday: Home Canned Chili

How-To Monday: Home Canned Chili

Like many of my fellow homesteaders, I’m in the “quiet time” of the canning season. The garden is put to bed, the apples and ripened-in-a-box tomatoes {always the last to be put up} have long been taken care of, and I can finally take a deep breath. Maybe even entertain the thought of a “break”. […]

Canning Rabbit Meat

Canning Rabbit Meat

Canning meat is something that everyone should know how to do and most certainly should never be afraid of. Much of the time when I mention canned meat in conversation, I get that sideways, eyebrow raised, are you crazy? look. I understand that it might sound, well…gross. But it isn’t. I promise you. It’s not […]

How to Store Your Home Canned Goods

How to Store Your Home Canned Goods

Canning. It is what makes us giddy upon finding a hoard of jars in a thrift shop and has us blissfully sweating in our kitchens on hot summer days, standing over steaming pots and dreaming of the winter to come when our goods will be most appreciated. It is what has us in tears over […]

How-To Monday: Canning Potatoes

How-To Monday: Canning Potatoes

It’s one of the last crops that we pull in for the year: potatoes. They can stay in the ground long after the cold winds blow, and the overlooked ones have been known to emerge like forgotten dinosaur fossils the following spring. The great thing about them is they’re easy to grow and produce a […]