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SUMMER

How to Make a Simple Organic Banana Peel Fertilizer for a Healthy Garden

March 21, 2022 by Kristi Stone 84 Comments

How to Make a Simple Organic Banana Peel Fertilizer for a Healthy Garden - Stone Family Farmstead

Most plants need a certain amount of these top three macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. While there are TONS of different ways to get nitrogen to your vegetable garden, there are fewer to boost potassium. Banana peels can help with that, and and banana peel fertilizer is so easy to make. Potassium helps your plants move water and nutrients between cells. ...

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Filed Under: FEATURED SEASONAL POSTS, HOME & HOMESTEAD, SEASONALTagged With: GARDENING, SPRING, SUMMER

How to Make an Easy, Shelf Stable Homemade Fertilizer from Banana Peels

March 21, 2022 by Kristi Stone 27 Comments

Banana peels make a great liquid homemade fertilizer to provide essential nutrients to our potassium-loving plants. But sometimes you just need a shelf-stable option, and it's tempting just to go to the store and get something that fits the bill. Instead, make this version of homemade fertilizer that you can keep on your shelf for a couple of months, ready to use! Homemade ...

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Filed Under: FEATURED SEASONAL POSTS, HOME & HOMESTEAD, SEASONALTagged With: GARDENING, SPRING, SUMMER

Pruning Tomato Plants: 3 Guarantees for a Better Bounty

March 21, 2022 by Kristi Stone 12 Comments

hands pruning tomato plant

When it comes to tomatoes, they can be quite an unruly plant. That overgrowth can make harvesting a chore, not to mention "set the table" for hornworms and other pests. These and other issues can make growing tomatoes less profitable for you. Learning the skill of pruning tomato plants can help that bottom line in positive ways. Gardening can be an expensive undertaking if ...

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Filed Under: FEATURED SEASONAL POSTS, HOME & HOMESTEAD, SEASONALTagged With: BEGINNER, GARDENING, SUMMER

How to Harvest and Store Romaine Lettuce Seeds

August 19, 2021 by Kristi Stone Leave a Comment

lettuce seeds

While purchasing seeds won't necessarily set you back a whole lot of money, as a homesteader, you are likely interested in frugality to some degree. When seed quality and frugality can intersect, all the better! This year is a great time to learn how to harvest and store your very own romaine lettuce seeds. Rather than yanking the bolted lettuce plants out of the ground ...

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Filed Under: FEATURED SEASONAL POSTS, HOME & HOMESTEAD, SEASONALTagged With: BEGINNER, FALL, GARDENING, HOMESTEAD, SUMMER

5 Ways to Care for Yourself In and Out of the Garden

July 22, 2021 by Kristi Stone Leave a Comment

5 Ways to Care for Yourself In and Out of the Garden - Stone Family Farmstead

Gardeners are tough stock. You spend time outdoors hauling dirt, yanking out dead plants, turning soil, and doing all that needs done to make a harvest. In the process, your body gets sore, fingernails dirty, and hands, dry and cracked from use. Here are 5 ways to exercise self-care in and out of the garden. Self-Care is Necessary for Everyone Though you might feel like ...

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Filed Under: FEATURED SEASONAL POSTS, SEASONALTagged With: GARDENING, SELF CARE, SUMMER

How to Make Fruit Leather from Any Fruit

May 26, 2021 by Kristi Stone Leave a Comment

rolls of fruit leather - How to Make Fruit Leather With Any Fruit - Stone Family Farmstead

If you have your own fruit trees or partake in loss leader deals at the store, you may find yourself with lots of extra fruit on hand during the summer. Rather than letting your overripe fruit go into the compost pile, why not take advantage of the sweetness of fruit at this stage and learn how to make fruit leather? It's nature's candy! So you've made your strawberry jam, ...

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Filed Under: HOME & HOMESTEAD, RECIPES, SEASONALTagged With: FALL, FRUIT, HOMEMADE, PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

How to Make a Delicious Peach BBQ Sauce {+ Canning Instructions}

May 24, 2021 by Kristi Stone Leave a Comment

fresh peaches - How to Make a Delicious Peach BBQ Sauce {+ Canning Instructions} - Stone Family Farmstead

Whether you are purchasing peaches from the store or using your peach harvest, you may not have thought of making something savory with them. After you've made your jam, fruit leather, and wine, make sure to save a few lbs to make peach bbq sauce! Barbecue is some of the best food on earth, thank God it's so easy to do! Todd and I ran across this recipe when we were trying ...

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Filed Under: HOME & HOMESTEAD, RECIPES, SEASONALTagged With: FRUIT, PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

How to Make Fig Wine at Home {Step-by-Step Instructions}

May 19, 2021 by Kristi Stone 20 Comments

Summer is the season when many delicious fruits are harvested. Sometimes the windfall more than provides more than enough jam, frozen fruit, fruit leather, and other fruit products until next harvest. A great way to use up all of your extra figs is to learn how to make fig wine at home. A few years ago, we were invited to a friend's farm to harvest figs from her huge tree. ...

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Filed Under: HANDMADE, HOME & HOMESTEAD, RECIPESTagged With: BEGINNER, HANDMADE HOLIDAYS, PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

How to Make Strawberry Wine Step-By-Step

May 18, 2021 by Kristi Stone 3 Comments

glasses of strawberry wine and a bowl of strawberries - How to Make Strawberry Wine Step-By-Step - Stone Family Farmstead

There's little more satisfying than filling your plate or glass with something you made with your own hands. Even better if it's something you have grown on your homestead! Making fruit wine is one of those satisfying activities, and this one yields the best flavor. This post will teach you how to make strawberry wine with store bought, or home-grown berries. If you ...

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Filed Under: HANDMADE, HOME & HOMESTEAD, RECIPES, SEASONAL, uncategorizedTagged With: BEGINNER, HANDMADE HOLIDAYS, PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

How to Make Strawberry Sauce {Using the Tops!}

May 13, 2021 by Kristi Stone 27 Comments

How to Make Strawberry Sauce {Using the Tops!} - Stone Family Farmstead

It seems such a shame to throw away some of the kitchen scraps we generate. If you are a gardener, chances are that you throw yours into the compost pile, or if you have chickens, to them. But have you ever thought of eating some of them? This recipe will teach you how to make strawberry sauce out of the scraps you may have leftover from canning or dehydrating! There is ...

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Filed Under: RECIPES, SEASONALTagged With: PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

How To Eliminate Food Waste When You Harvest

April 16, 2021 by Kristi Stone 17 Comments

food waste being thrown into the trash bin

Gardening is a lot of work, and throwing any part of the harvest away can feel excruciating. Learning the ways to use more of our harvested produce will put more food on the shelf and eliminate food waste in the kitchen. Love finding ways to use up every bit of what you harvest from the garden you work so hard on each season? I get you! For some reason, I feel a ...

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Filed Under: HOME & HOMESTEADTagged With: GARDENING, PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

How to Process a Fresh Mint Harvest

April 16, 2021 by Kristi Stone Leave a Comment

fresh mint

Springtime is prime time for harvesting herbs for medicines and teas. The temperate weather allows delicate and not-so delicate herbs to grow abundantly in the garden, and if you are growing mint, plentiful harvests of fresh mint are sure to follow. Mint plants produce and multiply like crazy and trying to figure out all the ways we can use it can be pretty tricky. ...

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Filed Under: FEATURED SEASONAL POSTS, HOME & HOMESTEAD, SEASONALTagged With: GARDENING, PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

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Hi, I’m Kristi!

A little about me….For the past 6 years, we have lived on a scant acre in Southern California. I am the wife of the greatest guy ever….also a veteran ex-homeschooling mom of 3, grandma of 1, and fur mom of many!

Besides writing, my hobbies are gardening, herbs, crafting, scratch cooking, food preservation, goat breeding, and teaching all of these things here, to you, on Stone Family Farmstead’s website.


Learn more here.

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