Summer is a fantastic time for not only eating delicious salsa made from your huge tomato harvest, but for canning salsa too! This is the best salsa recipe for canning, and is wonderful to make for your shelf every year. It has been tested and found to be safe when you follow the given instructions, so you don't have to worry that you'll mess up! Part of the goodness of ...
HANDMADE
How to Make Fruit Wine at Home: Second Ferment
So far, we have gathered our tools for the wine making process, made the mash for the first ferment, and this week it's time to transfer our wine to a 1 gallon jug for the second ferment! Are we having fun yet? I know I am! Despite the fact that I am 72 days sober on the day I'm writing this article, I really do enjoy making wine. We grow chardonnay grapes here on our ...
Wine Making Process: How to Start an Easy First Ferment
Do you grow fruit on your homestead and are not sure what else you can do with it? Has your family eaten enough of it that they are ready for it to go out of season? Are you jammed and jellied out? Why not try wine making? In this post, I'll take you through step 2 in the fruit wine making process, which is starting the first ferment. ( Didn't catch step 1? Read it ...
Wine Making Process: What You Need to Get Started
Preserving what we grow is so rewarding, and there are so many ways to do it! Home canning, dehydrating, freezing, and even storing are a few ways to "put up" the foods you grow, but there are definitely more! One of my favorite ways to preserve fruit is to make wine. This post will kick off a series that will take you through the fruit wine making process, step-by-step from ...
How to Make Your Own DIY Soap Without Handling Lye
When it comes to soapmaking, we DIYers tended to make our first batch with trepidation. The reason for this is because of the use of lye--a product that most of us aren't used to handling. It doesn't have to be this way, though--you can make your own trepidation-free DIY soap without lye! Making soap without lye is done by using a product called 'melt and pour' soap. Melt ...
Fast and Easy Hot Process Goat Milk Soap Recipe
Making soap can feel intimidating, but it's really pretty simple if you use this hot process goat milk soap recipe. The part that makes most people nervous is working with lye, but once that skill is mastered, it's easy to make homemade goat milk soap quickly and easily. Homesteaders are usually DIYers, often taking responsibility into their own hands to learn the ...
How to Make the Most Delicious Homemade Vanilla Easy
We homesteaders love to be self-sufficient, don't we? And when we can save money at the same time, that's the perfect combination! Making homemade vanilla extract is one of the best ways to save money and learn a new skill that can be used with other things like herbs and even fruit! I have been making my own vanilla extract for a good 10 years. It tastes wonderful and ...