We recently purchased 10 acres of totally raw land. We currently sit on 1 acre, so that'll be a huge jump for us. We plan to build it into our dream homestead. Of course, that takes times and funds and patience. But we plan to get started on that this spring. I am focusing on a few things I can do that need an earlier start but don't need me to be there everyday to monitor, like fruit trees, nut trees, and maybe some bee hives and perennial plants. We will be juggling that project along with what we already have and both of our full time jobs, so it's definitely not going to happen quickly.
I am so happy for you!!!and jealous at the same time. I hope your new homestead is all you are wishing for. Can I ask which state? I have been looking and haven't found anything that my husband will look at. I'm just ready to jump in and he just doesn't want to go through the moving process.
That is amazing! Before you start building and while you are planning please watch your land and how it behaves during each season, that way you can build your homestead with mother nature instead of fighting with her. She can be a great partner or a terribly destructive toddler.
Im with Josh on the sleep and its not just an age thing for me, Ive always been that way. I had five kids and they were taught young what things were important enough to justify waking mom😂
(In PA) In September, we used some fence posts we had on hand & used your “instant garden” instruction for 2 spaces closer to the kitchen. Next to the house we built the layers up with the top soil & planted our garlic(we’ll add perennial herbs to that space) & put a 50 gallon rain barrel in we purchased on sale late Fall(we pay for water-rates DOUBLE this month) In the yard across from it, we used the fence posts to terrace a section, putting in the layers from grass cut short-fresh peels, cardboard, then composted manure, newspapers, etc, topped with a dense layer of wood chips, doubling our garden space. Very excited to see how those spaces do! OH & after 3 years of waiting for a good sale, I got a 9 shelved Excalibur dehydrator-TODAY! Saved $156 on it too! So EXCITED!
We decided to hold off on expanding into meat livestock, and just focus on our large vegetable and fruit gardens and laying hens instead. Switching to only working part-time next month, so my goal is to get our garden and home management systems locked in and finally have the chance to learn skincare and candle making. Once we've accomplished those things we can start thinking about adding bees or meat chickens/rabbits.
Carolyn, you are a beautiful person. You guys make my heart happy. I am looking forward to the news that you share here. Thank you guys for being You and spreading your love on to all of us.
Not only does it do no good to be bitter about what life throws at you, it actually makes your experience worse. By focusing on joy within your circumstances you actually improve not only your mood and outlook, but by exhibiting this to others, you improve relationships and end up actually improving your experiences even though you cannot change the circumstances that instigated the problem. (i.e bad weather, broken car, cold and flu, etc.)
Not sure how else to submit questions, But I would love to know if you have opened any freeze-dried milk or cream that's at least a year old. I just opened a jar of half and half, and as a distinctly cardboard like flavor almost like stale but not quite... Trying to figure out if this is just a shelf life issue due to high fat content. Though it does not taste soured or rancid. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Great idea on making a calendar for things to do. Like that idea. Especially with getting ideas out on paper and decide which ones are more important and can keep track when to do things. 👍👍
Wow didn’t know you were having a baby . What a blessing . I had my last baby at 39 . She was number 8 and my oldest daughter was 21 and had twins 22 hours after I delivered. We were always being asked is they were triplets when we were out together. Having babies when your older is much harder but you have so much more patience and enjoy the time when they are little because you know it goes by so fast. Congratulations to you both. I pray your home birth goes well and a healthy baby, which sounds like he’s very strong. God bless!!
OUR HOMESTEADING GOALS: This year I want to get our green house completed and create an apiary for our bee boxes before we get our bees. Then learn to can more of what we grow ourselves.
Our goals.... First a fence for splitting our cows, moving our garden, moving our chicken pen and saving for buying a pressure cooker. Moving away from so much in the freezers. Thank you for sharing. God Bless you all.
Thank you for this sweet, funny, and informative vid. Congratulations on the baby!! I am at the newborn baby stage of planning! It all seems totally out of control and overwhelming. Example: I have 4 badly overgrown pear trees., now 25 feet tall and breaking under the weight of their own fruit. I have no equipment to get up to the branches even if I could hand saw them. The monies that would be used to pay some one to come up here and prune them (I am figuring about 1000$ or so) would be best used another way. Also, these were here when I got here but I don't need 4 hard pear trees, I need to have a mixture of stone fruits and apples also. This is my situation. Any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated. Also, I need to plan!
Research hot boxes to extend your fresh salad green seasons. I am still harvesting arugula, lettuce, spinach and mustard greens from my hot boxes. I live in central New Hampshire and we have had a few nights in the negative numbers. The heat from decaying compost or manure keeps the boxes heated enough to grow greens most of the winter.
🌺 Mine is just starting to grow a garden. I have some materials for above ground planters and a couple of grooved doors for a vertical garden to install next to my shed. I have some seeds but need to prepare for other varieties.
I just received Melissa's book and it's amazing!! I'm so impressed! My hubby grabbed it from the mail box and asked , "what did you order, a brick?!" It is packed full of info and more than worth the price.
My focus on our homestead this year is to improving our current systems. I tried to do too much last year with a new baby and so this year I’m going to back off on expanding the garden and focus on just a few things that have done well in the past. I am planning on doing one new thing, a small burn garden separate from our main crop garden. For our animals, I’m backing up a bit and slimming down our herd of rabbits and our flock of chickens in order to improve our systems. Looking forward to expanding my knowledge in the School of Traditional Skills also! Happy New Year Josh & Carolyn! I’m hoping to meet you at the homestead event and I’m hoping to make it to Joel’s walkthrough at your place!! Can’t wait!!
We have some big goals this year! We need to get our house built as we’re currently living on site in a wall tent. And we need to get the garden started. We may squeeze a few chickens in but we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.
That’s awesome! We are in the same boat. Building in the winter is difficult for sure, but what an amazing adventure! Always nice to hear about other adventurers/homesteaders. 😊
This year I plan to take the lessons I learned from the fails I had in the garden last year and turn them into successes. I planted way too much, way too close to each other. I didn't have a good understanding of the pests I'd deal with with the crops I chose and the region I live in. I didn't develop and feed and prep my garden space enough so I was fighting grass and weeds all year long. When I put the garden to sleep I covered half of it with a heavy duty tarp then covered the other half with the composted straw bales I grew peppers in this past year, composted wood chips from a church friend, and chopped up leaves from my trees. I'm going to only use half of the garden this year and start feeding the covered half in the fall/winter this year, to hopefully be able to use all 1200sqft next year. and slow my plans a bit.
I have tried for 4 years to get hubby into "3 sister" growing. They NEED each other. There are flowers and plants, herbs that need to be near in there as well. I put up a tunnel garden this month as fun, even though it is early January, we are already working the soil of the bigger garden. Hope that helps. Make sure the bees want to come by. They took a hard hit 2022... make it attractive. Prep now for being extremely busy next season, then prep that season for the next season. Try not to fall out working full time, too. Totally get it. It took me months to recover. Lol. Have fun!
Good chats this morning guys thanks for all the input stay warm even here in Florida we have had a bit of not so good weather lately but today it's sunny even tho it's a little chilly!! I'm starting some seeds later on this week stay smiling guys!
For the woman who asked about venison, the bearded butchers on UA-cam show how to make a lot of jerkies summer sausages all kinds of things with venison. On that same note you even might want to look into this two guys and a cooler they do all kinds of sausages hard sausages fermenting the sausage meat how to do it why to do it what to do it with and preserving your meats it really is good. They're both on UA-cam.
Happy New Year!! Always love your pantry chats, a project actually is happening right now, hubs is building me a sprout house. (We are in SC so no snow load here) and quail cages being built on this year too.
Hi Caroline, In my house, you are known as the little house on the prairie lady! I have a question/concern. I bought an All-American pressure canner and I pressure-canned chicken. The chicken was cut up and packaged from a big box store. So far 3 for 3 jars of pressure-canned chicken has an off taste. I might have used city water since this was my first-time pressure canning. I'm wondering what you think. The off taste is not desirable, to say the least. All of the beef I canned turned out wonderful. I was just wondering if you or any of your followers had this experience too. Thank you so much for your channel!
Canning the best quality meat that's affordable makes a better outcome. If the beef was fine, sounds like organic chicken, or home raised if you do that, would be better.
I preordered everything worth preserving a few months ago! It’s amazing and in depth, so excited to use it. I actually bought some sticky tabs today to tab my favorite recipes and charts.
For me, while everyone else goes big, I've downsized. So much that I'm container gardening this year. I'll stick with those I have a good amount of success. Tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet), cucumbers, okra, strawberries, and pumpkins. I'll wait on the pumpkin to see if it's actually feasible. I have a pretty long growing season here in 7b so I'm not too worried about starting pumpkin early. My first project is to ferment cabbage. Thank you, Carolyn, for introducing me to the art of fermentation. My second project is to grow Lemon Balm and Lavender, successfully. I've never attempted Lemon Balm, so fingers crossed. My Lavender die every year, but one can't have success without a few failures. Much love from North Carolina.
I would love to finish rebuilding our house this year. We would also like to get our property fenced, water to the barnyard, and a second vegetable garden area. Plus adding some more trees and herbs. Over the years I’ve narrowed down which vegetable varieties I like so I plan to save more of my seeds.
Y’all cracking me up with the baby and sleep patterns! I think I would feel that way too Josh! I don’t function well with no sleep. The coffee would be left in a hidden place somewhere, the laundry would be in the dishwasher, and many other sleep brain mishaps.😂
Hi, I am looking for your homemade baked oatmeal recipe. It is the best one I have found because it is creamy deliciousness. Where can I find the recipe? For some reason I cannot find mine. Thank you.
Our goals are to expand our garden footprint & our garden season. We also are working to build a yearly menu (flexible) so we can better prepare to have enough food on hand.
I am starting to plan my herbal medicine garden, what to plant, where to put it! Finally got my pressure canner and going to watch your videos again so I wont make any mistakes! We are wanting to build my husband a workshop so I can get him out of the garage so I can use it to put up all my canning!
Lol, hubby and I split a barn off the house. My side was originally a canning space. I'd like to re-vamp that. It has a sink toliet, dishwasher hookup, even a bathtub hookup. Pretty awesome old farm house. 31 windows, not including attic. 😳
Our goals are to expand our passive income so we have more time for the homestead. We are looking at expanding the garden,that in turn will mean we are expanding the preserving side.
As a born and bred southeast Georgian, the thought of negative degrees as a HIGH temperature sounds like torture. Wooweee no thank you. Our feel like temp got down to single digits during the artic blast and I was miserable. Miserable! 😆
I always love your videos and all the comments are so inspiring! I wish everyone the best in the coming year. I'm really thinking I would like to start a few meat chickens this year. We have dairy goats and laying hens and I got back to gardening in 2022 after having to work full time for a number of years before that. I have a learning center for home school kids at the farm now and I'm happy to chat with anyone interested in that as an additional stream of income or just something wonderful to do to help people! Thanks again and I'm so envious of your large family! We have 3 boys that are all grown. Have a blessed year. I'll be praying for a healthy baby and easy delivery 💙
##### THE MUSHROOM QUESTION ---- My questions..... Is she going to eat those mushrooms and if she is, are you all concerned with Salmonella poisoning from the manure from the chickens?
Jason and I are super excited to meet you guys at the Homesteading Conference. We too are working on our talk. Most of our goals are growing our apiary business, Idaho, pasture, pigs, and Irish Dexter cows, as well as growing out a bunch of meat, chickens and heritage turkeys (little goals) 😂 Blessings to your family ❤
Thanks for sharing your wonderful knowledge! Great that you are feeling well, Carolyn; you look radiant! I’m in my 7th decade & will try to get more perennial plants into my front yard permaculture garden & build more soil. I want to get household fixes completed as well (walls washed & painted). Blessings to your family 🤗💜🇨🇦
You have a great channel...thank you! QUESTION: What do you do with your greenhouses during the winter months? Do you remove snow from them all winter long or do you remove the poly from the tops and let them fill in with snow during the winter so you don't have that chore? Our goals this year, on our Rocky Mtn Homestead, are to make all of our roofs gabled so as to shed snow more easily...build a walipini and also to widen our roads so drifting snow doesn't make the roads impassible....in the garden....add a lot more compost to the beds...
That's funny, I usually plant garlic the last weekend of October, I did that this year and got 18" of snow that night. Just trying to wrap my head around the calander because this is a weakness of mine. Do you just go by expected dates frost freeze or how do you decide on dates for planting and harvesting. I'm in about year 3 of homesteading.
We have a QUESTION: ??? Hi Josh and Carolyn I appreciate y'all sharing your expertise and experiences! This question is for Carolyn. I recently went thru my aunt's canning in her basement and I found 2 jars that have rust on the top of them. They were perfectly sealed tight and no rust was on the side rim of the lids and there was no leakage or residue around the outer neck of the jars. Should those jars be discarded or is it safe to keep them or eat them now? Thank you in advance.
Lol, I could never lose sleep ,either. I always put baby in a certain outfit for night, did NOT play or cuddle much during night feedings. Business only. And told them Mama needed to go back to bed. Then I would change a diaper but skip the feeding at about 3 weeks and one baby just started sleeping through the night at 3 weeks. The other one took until 5 weeks. And sleep was heaven!
We are building our new homestead in the hills of northwestern Massachusetts, while working our tiny homestead in Central Massachusetts. Planning where to place my apiary on the new property, so that the bees won't interfere with construction but they will get sun and be in a good spot, even if it's temporary. Then, I will be search and seeking out another apiary near very good flowering plants. I'd like to learn more about mushrooms, will they grow in softwood pine chips? With planning, I set up a small "Back to Eden" garden this past fall. What should I plant there? Tackling the quack grass is always an issue I need to learn more about. I'd like to plant Sourwood on our new Homestead but will it grow in Northwestern Massachusetts, and how long will it take before we get flowers for the bees? Yes! Extending the season while transitioning to a new homestead is challenging. Should I set up a greenhouse here or there? These are the questions I'd like answered this coming year.
I know this sounds crazy but put a bowl of boiled white vinegar outside your house. Just leave it and replenish as needed. I boil it in my teakettle, cool and leave outside. It is a God send. Clears the gunk in the sky and brings back God's skies. Clear blue, headaches are greatly reduced. Humor an old lady, what will it cost a bowl of vinegar and a few minutes of your time. I always pray, that is never a bad a idea. God bless and congrats!
Oh, I would love to visit and join the course in person, but I live on the other side the big pond, in the EU. All the best to you and your family in 2023 Josh and Carolyn, and thank you for gear work you do!
I decided to get a freeze dryer because of the high nutrient retention and the longevity, to store food as a hedge for when I am older. I hope to always be actively growing my food, but just in case I’ll be prepared with good healthy food.
This year we are putting in my first garden. We are in Oregon. My father in law passed away he was thr gardener. We are moving the garden from where he had it. What might be some of the things we need to do to the ground
I'm with Josh on canned venison! That's my favorite way to eat it. We eat a lot of venison at our house. Our children prefer it to pretty much all other types of meat.
We had a major storm come through that twisted our greenhouse to the point it needs to be replaced. The storm also ripped concrete out of the ground ripping our lean-to off the shed and put it out to the back barbed wire fence of our neighbor. Both structures were working so well and now need replacement. Lots of work coming up
My 2023 goals include implementing guilds around my existing fruit trees, planting culinary & medicinal herbs (they'll likely be part of the guilds), growing mushrooms (another guild item), doing a better (planned) job of succession planting (did that the first time in 2022, but just sowed seeds where things had been harvested, no real plan), doing a better job of preserving my harvest in a variety of ways, chipping the prunings from my fruit trees...I'm in town on about 1/8 acre, with about 2500 sq. ft. total growing area, so my only potential BIG project is that I'm looking at another parcel of about 1/8 acre with just one small building on it, to plant fruit trees, nut trees, berry bushes, perennial veg, herbs, & wildflowers.
My experience with cross contamination from making cheese and all milk ferments is that the applecider vinegar contaminated the Air in the kitchen so that after that no milk fermentation succeeded no matter what. Good reason for the old folks to have a separate milk room.
Just got a pressure canner for Christmas I was so excited. I'm trying to plan a little ahead so I can plan further. My question is I have pressure canned a few things so far and occasionally I have a jar that comes out already sealed. Is that okay that it comes out sealed or is there a problem like I'm doing something wrong. Thank you for your videos they are great and informative.
Thank you for being such an inspiration to all of us. I cannot say enough good things about the School of Traditional Skills!! I'm attending my first Homestead Festival in June.... SUPER EXCITED!!!! I actually looked for yall in the lineup, but it's probably too close to Baby Day for safe travel. Reading the list, I saw names I only know because of yall Joel, Justin, Anne, Jess and more.
Rebecca & Justin Rhodes know all about changing the home birth plan! You're not going to follow in their footsteps, are you!?! There is a school of thought that dehydrated foods, stored in a cool & dark environment, and vacuum sealed in the jars, will last for several years (I think it was 10-15 but don't remember for sure). The trick is to re-vacuum seal each time you open the jar to use some of the food...and by dehydrating at a lower temperature rather than around 140, much of the nutritional value is maintained. What are your thoughts on this, given that dehydrators are MUCH more suited to many/most people's budgets than a freeze dryer?
We recently purchased 10 acres of totally raw land. We currently sit on 1 acre, so that'll be a huge jump for us. We plan to build it into our dream homestead. Of course, that takes times and funds and patience. But we plan to get started on that this spring. I am focusing on a few things I can do that need an earlier start but don't need me to be there everyday to monitor, like fruit trees, nut trees, and maybe some bee hives and perennial plants. We will be juggling that project along with what we already have and both of our full time jobs, so it's definitely not going to happen quickly.
I am so happy for you!!!and jealous at the same time. I hope your new homestead is all you are wishing for. Can I ask which state? I have been looking and haven't found anything that my husband will look at. I'm just ready to jump in and he just doesn't want to go through the moving process.
Sounds awesome. I can't wait to find land for my dream homestead. Congratulations 🎊
We’ve just done the same 😀 we bought a blank 25 acre block. We commenced building in April last year and we are still waiting lol
@@nancyseery2213are you recording your journey?
That is amazing! Before you start building and while you are planning please watch your land and how it behaves during each season, that way you can build your homestead with mother nature instead of fighting with her. She can be a great partner or a terribly destructive toddler.
Im with Josh on the sleep and its not just an age thing for me, Ive always been that way. I had five kids and they were taught young what things were important enough to justify waking mom😂
Oh my goodness Carolyn I didn't even realize you were expecting again! Congratulations and prayers for an easy and perfect birth!
(In PA) In September, we used some fence posts we had on hand & used your “instant garden” instruction for 2 spaces closer to the kitchen. Next to the house we built the layers up with the top soil & planted our garlic(we’ll add perennial herbs to that space) & put a 50 gallon rain barrel in we purchased on sale late Fall(we pay for water-rates DOUBLE this month) In the yard across from it, we used the fence posts to terrace a section, putting in the layers from grass cut short-fresh peels, cardboard, then composted manure, newspapers, etc, topped with a dense layer of wood chips, doubling our garden space. Very excited to see how those spaces do! OH & after 3 years of waiting for a good sale, I got a 9 shelved Excalibur dehydrator-TODAY! Saved $156 on it too! So EXCITED!
In PA, too...we have the same dehydrator and LOVE it!
@@karenholsopple6388 I haven’t been this excited since a kid on Christmas morning!
Congratulations! Great progress
We decided to hold off on expanding into meat livestock, and just focus on our large vegetable and fruit gardens and laying hens instead. Switching to only working part-time next month, so my goal is to get our garden and home management systems locked in and finally have the chance to learn skincare and candle making. Once we've accomplished those things we can start thinking about adding bees or meat chickens/rabbits.
Carolyn, you are a beautiful person. You guys make my heart happy. I am looking forward to the news that you share here. Thank you guys for being You and spreading your love on to all of us.
WOW, you all have so much to look forward to in 2023! God bless, keep growing and hope all goes well with your birth and new baby. How exciting!!!
Everything Worth Preserving is amazing! I used it the same day I got it and am loving it! ❤ Great Winter Reading!
Not only does it do no good to be bitter about what life throws at you, it actually makes your experience worse. By focusing on joy within your circumstances you actually improve not only your mood and outlook, but by exhibiting this to others, you improve relationships and end up actually improving your experiences even though you cannot change the circumstances that instigated the problem. (i.e bad weather, broken car, cold and flu, etc.)
Not sure how else to submit questions, But I would love to know if you have opened any freeze-dried milk or cream that's at least a year old. I just opened a jar of half and half, and as a distinctly cardboard like flavor almost like stale but not quite... Trying to figure out if this is just a shelf life issue due to high fat content. Though it does not taste soured or rancid. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Can’t wait for physical copies of the magazine to be available…one day, right?😂
Great idea on making a calendar for things to do. Like that idea. Especially with getting ideas out on paper and decide which ones are more important and can keep track when to do things. 👍👍
Wow didn’t know you were having a baby . What a blessing . I had my last baby at 39 . She was number 8 and my oldest daughter was 21 and had twins 22 hours after I delivered. We were always being asked is they were triplets when we were out together. Having babies when your older is much harder but you have so much more patience and enjoy the time when they are little because you know it goes by so fast. Congratulations to you both. I pray your home birth goes well and a healthy baby, which sounds like he’s very strong. God bless!!
What a gift!
OUR HOMESTEADING GOALS: This year I want to get our green house completed and create an apiary for our bee boxes before we get our bees. Then learn to can more of what we grow ourselves.
Why is it bad if kombucha and sourdough bugs cross over?
I just bought that preserving book thank you for the recommendation. I recommend Hue Richards book for kind of new gardeners Grow Food for Free
Our goals.... First a fence for splitting our cows, moving our garden, moving our chicken pen and saving for buying a pressure cooker. Moving away from so much in the freezers.
Thank you for sharing. God Bless you all.
Thank you for this sweet, funny, and informative vid. Congratulations on the baby!! I am at the newborn baby stage of planning! It all seems totally out of control and overwhelming. Example: I have 4 badly overgrown pear trees., now 25 feet tall and breaking under the weight of their own fruit. I have no equipment to get up to the branches even if I could hand saw them. The monies that would be used to pay some one to come up here and prune them (I am figuring about 1000$ or so) would be best used another way. Also, these were here when I got here but I don't need 4 hard pear trees, I need to have a mixture of stone fruits and apples also. This is my situation. Any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated. Also, I need to plan!
Homestead goals for the year are.
1. Repair barn
2. Build chicken coop
3. Get chikens
4. Grow a lot of black beans and sweet corn.
Research hot boxes to extend your fresh salad green seasons. I am still harvesting arugula, lettuce, spinach and mustard greens from my hot boxes. I live in central New Hampshire and we have had a few nights in the negative numbers. The heat from decaying compost or manure keeps the boxes heated enough to grow greens most of the winter.
WE MIX OUR HIGH SPEED BEEF WITH COW BEEF HALF AND HALF BURGER... IT'S HARD TO ENJOY PLAIN OLE BEEF BEFORE HUNTING SEASON BEGINS AGAIN... :)
🌺 Mine is just starting to grow a garden. I have some materials for above ground planters and a couple of grooved doors for a vertical garden to install next to my shed. I have some seeds but need to prepare for other varieties.
I just received Melissa's book and it's amazing!! I'm so impressed! My hubby grabbed it from the mail box and asked , "what did you order, a brick?!" It is packed full of info and more than worth the price.
My plan for this year is to create a kitchen garden beside the cabin we’re building and a sturdy yard for chickens on our brand new homestead.
My focus on our homestead this year is to improving our current systems. I tried to do too much last year with a new baby and so this year I’m going to back off on expanding the garden and focus on just a few things that have done well in the past. I am planning on doing one new thing, a small burn garden separate from our main crop garden. For our animals, I’m backing up a bit and slimming down our herd of rabbits and our flock of chickens in order to improve our systems. Looking forward to expanding my knowledge in the School of Traditional Skills also!
Happy New Year Josh & Carolyn! I’m hoping to meet you at the homestead event and I’m hoping to make it to Joel’s walkthrough at your place!! Can’t wait!!
I have tried venison but the only way I like it is in a spaghetti sauce. Or like you said a meat pie. I love Elk!
My goal is to plan out the several ways to make a small amount of income to supplement my social security with seedlings and small plants.
We have some big goals this year! We need to get our house built as we’re currently living on site in a wall tent. And we need to get the garden started. We may squeeze a few chickens in but we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.
That’s awesome! We are in the same boat. Building in the winter is difficult for sure, but what an amazing adventure! Always nice to hear about other adventurers/homesteaders. 😊
We are moving to MT in April. We may have to take on the conference!
This year I plan to take the lessons I learned from the fails I had in the garden last year and turn them into successes. I planted way too much, way too close to each other. I didn't have a good understanding of the pests I'd deal with with the crops I chose and the region I live in. I didn't develop and feed and prep my garden space enough so I was fighting grass and weeds all year long. When I put the garden to sleep I covered half of it with a heavy duty tarp then covered the other half with the composted straw bales I grew peppers in this past year, composted wood chips from a church friend, and chopped up leaves from my trees. I'm going to only use half of the garden this year and start feeding the covered half in the fall/winter this year, to hopefully be able to use all 1200sqft next year. and slow my plans a bit.
I have tried for 4 years to get hubby into "3 sister" growing. They NEED each other. There are flowers and plants, herbs that need to be near in there as well. I put up a tunnel garden this month as fun, even though it is early January, we are already working the soil of the bigger garden. Hope that helps. Make sure the bees want to come by. They took a hard hit 2022... make it attractive. Prep now for being extremely busy next season, then prep that season for the next season. Try not to fall out working full time, too. Totally get it. It took me months to recover. Lol. Have fun!
Good chats this morning guys thanks for all the input stay warm even here in Florida we have had a bit of not so good weather lately but today it's sunny even tho it's a little chilly!! I'm starting some seeds later on this week stay smiling guys!
It’s been warmer than usual here in Vt. Happy New Year to you all.
I have a teenager that I swear is part cat! Sleeping is one of her favorite hobbies!
For the woman who asked about venison, the bearded butchers on UA-cam show how to make a lot of jerkies summer sausages all kinds of things with venison. On that same note you even might want to look into this two guys and a cooler they do all kinds of sausages hard sausages fermenting the sausage meat how to do it why to do it what to do it with and preserving your meats it really is good. They're both on UA-cam.
Happy New Year!! Always love your pantry chats, a project actually is happening right now, hubs is building me a sprout house. (We are in SC so no snow load here) and quail cages being built on this year too.
Hi Caroline,
In my house, you are known as the little house on the prairie lady! I have a question/concern. I bought an All-American pressure canner and I pressure-canned chicken. The chicken was cut up and packaged from a big box store. So far 3 for 3 jars of pressure-canned chicken has an off taste. I might have used city water since this was my first-time pressure canning. I'm wondering what you think. The off taste is not desirable, to say the least. All of the beef I canned turned out wonderful. I was just wondering if you or any of your followers had this experience too. Thank you so much for your channel!
Canning the best quality meat that's affordable makes a better outcome. If the beef was fine, sounds like organic chicken, or home raised if you do that, would be better.
I preordered everything worth preserving a few months ago! It’s amazing and in depth, so excited to use it. I actually bought some sticky tabs today to tab my favorite recipes and charts.
For me, while everyone else goes big, I've downsized. So much that I'm container gardening this year. I'll stick with those I have a good amount of success. Tomatoes, peppers (hot and sweet), cucumbers, okra, strawberries, and pumpkins. I'll wait on the pumpkin to see if it's actually feasible. I have a pretty long growing season here in 7b so I'm not too worried about starting pumpkin early. My first project is to ferment cabbage. Thank you, Carolyn, for introducing me to the art of fermentation. My second project is to grow Lemon Balm and Lavender, successfully. I've never attempted Lemon Balm, so fingers crossed. My Lavender die every year, but one can't have success without a few failures. Much love from North Carolina.
Leamon balm grows every were i couldn't keep it from being every were. In oregon
@@kathyadams1766 👍
I would love to finish rebuilding our house this year. We would also like to get our property fenced, water to the barnyard, and a second vegetable garden area. Plus adding some more trees and herbs. Over the years I’ve narrowed down which vegetable varieties I like so I plan to save more of my seeds.
I bought her book as well! I can’t wait to use it.
Y’all cracking me up with the baby and sleep patterns! I think I would feel that way too Josh! I don’t function well with no sleep. The coffee would be left in a hidden place somewhere, the laundry would be in the dishwasher, and many other sleep brain mishaps.😂
Hi, I am looking for your homemade baked oatmeal recipe. It is the best one I have found because it is creamy deliciousness. Where can I find the recipe? For some reason I cannot find mine. Thank you.
Here it is: homesteadingfamily.com/MABC_YT
Our goals are to expand our garden footprint & our garden season. We also are working to build a yearly menu (flexible) so we can better prepare to have enough food on hand.
Non-vaccinated Canadians are still not allowed to travel into the United States. Disappointed to miss the big events! :(
I guess we need to complain for you! That’s ridiculous!
I am starting to plan my herbal medicine garden, what to plant, where to put it! Finally got my pressure canner and going to watch your videos again so I wont make any mistakes! We are wanting to build my husband a workshop so I can get him out of the garage so I can use it to put up all my canning!
Lol, hubby and I split a barn off the house. My side was originally a canning space. I'd like to re-vamp that. It has a sink toliet, dishwasher hookup, even a bathtub hookup. Pretty awesome old farm house. 31 windows, not including attic. 😳
I have the same Preserving book! Can't wait to try the recipes
Our goals are to expand our passive income so we have more time for the homestead. We are looking at expanding the garden,that in turn will mean we are expanding the preserving side.
I really enjoy your pantry chats. I always learn so much. Thank you
As a born and bred southeast Georgian, the thought of negative degrees as a HIGH temperature sounds like torture. Wooweee no thank you. Our feel like temp got down to single digits during the artic blast and I was miserable. Miserable! 😆
Yeehaw! Just signed up for the Modern Homesteading Conference! Looking forward to it and meeting y’all.
I always love your videos and all the comments are so inspiring! I wish everyone the best in the coming year. I'm really thinking I would like to start a few meat chickens this year. We have dairy goats and laying hens and I got back to gardening in 2022 after having to work full time for a number of years before that.
I have a learning center for home school kids at the farm now and I'm happy to chat with anyone interested in that as an additional stream of income or just something wonderful to do to help people!
Thanks again and I'm so envious of your large family! We have 3 boys that are all grown. Have a blessed year. I'll be praying for a healthy baby and easy delivery 💙
##### THE MUSHROOM QUESTION ---- My questions..... Is she going to eat those mushrooms and if she is, are you all concerned with Salmonella poisoning from the manure from the chickens?
So excited about baby!!
Chickens will probably eat any mushrooms. After all they are good and chickens eat almost everything.
Jason and I are super excited to meet you guys at the Homesteading Conference. We too are working on our talk.
Most of our goals are growing our apiary business, Idaho, pasture, pigs, and Irish Dexter cows, as well as growing out a bunch of meat, chickens and heritage turkeys
(little goals) 😂
Blessings to your family ❤
Thanks for sharing your wonderful knowledge! Great that you are feeling well, Carolyn; you look radiant! I’m in my 7th decade & will try to get more perennial plants into my front yard permaculture garden & build more soil. I want to get household fixes completed as well (walls washed & painted). Blessings to your family 🤗💜🇨🇦
Love that so much!!!
You have a great channel...thank you!
QUESTION: What do you do with your greenhouses during the winter months? Do you remove snow from them all winter long or do you remove the poly from the tops and let them fill in with snow during the winter so you don't have that chore?
Our goals this year, on our Rocky Mtn Homestead, are to make all of our roofs gabled so as to shed snow more easily...build a walipini and also to widen our roads so drifting snow doesn't make the roads impassible....in the garden....add a lot more compost to the beds...
That's funny, I usually plant garlic the last weekend of October, I did that this year and got 18" of snow that night. Just trying to wrap my head around the calander because this is a weakness of mine. Do you just go by expected dates frost freeze or how do you decide on dates for planting and harvesting. I'm in about year 3 of homesteading.
I just received my STAY FRESH freeze dryer on Friday and I'm sooo excited. HARVEST RIGHT did not work for me
I wondered why I have not seen your videos...somehow I was unscripted. Crazy how this just happens. I'm back
We have a QUESTION: ???
Hi Josh and Carolyn
I appreciate y'all sharing your expertise and experiences!
This question is for Carolyn. I recently went thru my aunt's canning in her basement and I found 2 jars that have rust on the top of them. They were perfectly sealed tight and no rust was on the side rim of the lids and there was no leakage or residue around the outer neck of the jars. Should those jars be discarded or is it safe to keep them or eat them now? Thank you in advance.
Lol, I could never lose sleep ,either. I always put baby in a certain outfit for night, did NOT play or cuddle much during night feedings. Business only. And told them Mama needed to go back to bed. Then I would change a diaper but skip the feeding at about 3 weeks and one baby just started sleeping through the night at 3 weeks. The other one took until 5 weeks. And sleep was heaven!
We are building our new homestead in the hills of northwestern Massachusetts, while working our tiny homestead in Central Massachusetts. Planning where to place my apiary on the new property, so that the bees won't interfere with construction but they will get sun and be in a good spot, even if it's temporary. Then, I will be search and seeking out another apiary near very good flowering plants. I'd like to learn more about mushrooms, will they grow in softwood pine chips? With planning, I set up a small "Back to Eden" garden this past fall. What should I plant there? Tackling the quack grass is always an issue I need to learn more about. I'd like to plant Sourwood on our new Homestead but will it grow in Northwestern Massachusetts, and how long will it take before we get flowers for the bees? Yes! Extending the season while transitioning to a new homestead is challenging. Should I set up a greenhouse here or there? These are the questions I'd like answered this coming year.
Can you walk on your garden walk ways without damaging your mycelia? Does that affect your harvest of kings straphoria?
I know this sounds crazy but put a bowl of boiled white vinegar outside your house. Just leave it and replenish as needed. I boil it in my teakettle, cool and leave outside. It is a God send. Clears the gunk in the sky and brings back God's skies. Clear blue, headaches are greatly reduced. Humor an old lady, what will it cost a bowl of vinegar and a few minutes of your time. I always pray, that is never a bad a idea. God bless and congrats!
Adding mushrooms to deep bedding: the spores released by the mushroom could negatively affect respiratory systems?? just a thought
Thanks for addressing mushroom cultivation. I've been reading about it this winter, and was curious how you did it.
Oh, I would love to visit and join the course in person, but I live on the other side the big pond, in the EU. All the best to you and your family in 2023 Josh and Carolyn, and thank you for gear work you do!
I decided to get a freeze dryer because of the high nutrient retention and the longevity, to store food as a hedge for when I am older. I hope to always be actively growing my food, but just in case I’ll be prepared with good healthy food.
Ooo so excited for you about your baby!!! 🎉 I’m pregnant too with our fourth baby. Dune June though.
This year we are putting in my first garden. We are in Oregon. My father in law passed away he was thr gardener. We are moving the garden from where he had it. What might be some of the things we need to do to the ground
Make the Attic a more useable space and create a new herb garden. Lost everything do to an abnormal freeze.
Would we have a problem with termites in the wood chips? Thank you!
I HAVE had a sourdough culture infected with a cheese ferment! It was safe to easy but smelled and tasted cheesy! So I started over.
Happy New Years, it’s going to be an exciting 2023😊
I'm with Josh on canned venison! That's my favorite way to eat it. We eat a lot of venison at our house. Our children prefer it to pretty much all other types of meat.
This was a great episode! Your discussion about mushrooms would be an awesome class for the School of Traditional Skills!
We had a major storm come through that twisted our greenhouse to the point it needs to be replaced. The storm also ripped concrete out of the ground ripping our lean-to off the shed and put it out to the back barbed wire fence of our neighbor. Both structures were working so well and now need replacement. Lots of work coming up
If I can’t get the digital magazine subscription until next month will I be able to read this months?
My 2023 goals include implementing guilds around my existing fruit trees, planting culinary & medicinal herbs (they'll likely be part of the guilds), growing mushrooms (another guild item), doing a better (planned) job of succession planting (did that the first time in 2022, but just sowed seeds where things had been harvested, no real plan), doing a better job of preserving my harvest in a variety of ways, chipping the prunings from my fruit trees...I'm in town on about 1/8 acre, with about 2500 sq. ft. total growing area, so my only potential BIG project is that I'm looking at another parcel of about 1/8 acre with just one small building on it, to plant fruit trees, nut trees, berry bushes, perennial veg, herbs, & wildflowers.
My experience with cross contamination from making cheese and all milk ferments is that the applecider vinegar contaminated the Air in the kitchen so that after that no milk fermentation succeeded no matter what. Good reason for the old folks to have a separate milk room.
I have used Mycoforce in chicken litter, for the have dominance of good life in the litter.
I preordered her book but it still doesnt have a ship date. Hopefully soon!!
I am really enjoying the school of traditional skill. I have really learned a lot.
I wish I was closer to be able to go to your conference.
Happy New Year and may you be blessed with a healthy, happy and prosperously prepared 2023!
Have you thought or do you make your own homemade vinegars? Would love to know how to do this.
Another baby??? Wow!! Congrats 🎊🎈
Congratulations on your new baby. Happy for you guys.
Hahahahaha that girls screen name. I just died. 🤣🤣
I purchased Melissa's book and love it!
Just got a pressure canner for Christmas I was so excited. I'm trying to plan a little ahead so I can plan further. My question is I have pressure canned a few things so far and occasionally I have a jar that comes out already sealed. Is that okay that it comes out sealed or is there a problem like I'm doing something wrong. Thank you for your videos they are great and informative.
That is perfectly fine. Sometimes they ping as they are coming out. Check the lid to make sure it is sealed after 16-24 hours, and you should be good.
Getting my house built and the pigs and geese going
Love and blessings from France !!!
I had my last baby at 41. Blessings to you.
Looking forward to seeing you at the conference.
Josh, I can't find the Chad that you referenced regarding mushroom growing. Does anyone have further information for good resources in that arena?
Here it is: mushroommountain.com/tradd-cotter/
Congrats on the new baby coming!!
Thank you for being such an inspiration to all of us. I cannot say enough good things about the School of Traditional Skills!! I'm attending my first Homestead Festival in June.... SUPER EXCITED!!!! I actually looked for yall in the lineup, but it's probably too close to Baby Day for safe travel. Reading the list, I saw names I only know because of yall Joel, Justin, Anne, Jess and more.
Which festival is this?
@Dianna Mc it is called Homestead Festival... im Columbia Tn
Rebecca & Justin Rhodes know all about changing the home birth plan! You're not going to follow in their footsteps, are you!?! There is a school of thought that dehydrated foods, stored in a cool & dark environment, and vacuum sealed in the jars, will last for several years (I think it was 10-15 but don't remember for sure). The trick is to re-vacuum seal each time you open the jar to use some of the food...and by dehydrating at a lower temperature rather than around 140, much of the nutritional value is maintained. What are your thoughts on this, given that dehydrators are MUCH more suited to many/most people's budgets than a freeze dryer?