Tag: homesteading skills
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Embrace Change, Adapt, Grow
Those three ideas in the title of this post are pretty much the heart and art of living well today. They are also the focus of Issue 4 of Epicurean Living. For any newcomers, Epicurean Living is a free PDF magazine I create about philosophy, gardening, homesteading, creativity, and ecology. You can open and read,…
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Abundance Begins
Our first real garden harvest of the growing season is the abundant and lush beauty that washes over our landscape in May. This feast for the senses nourishes us just as much as the fruit and calorie-dense staple crops that come later on. What’s most amazing to me is that before I began homesteading, I…
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Early and Evergreen Herbs and Spices
I started my journey to become a gardener by growing herbs. It was so much fun, and saved me so much money, that even before I even knew the term “homesteader” I became self-sufficient at growing herbs. I grew so many, everywhere I could, that I cut them for bouquets, gave divisions to friends, and…
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Epicurean Living: The Chicken Issue!
The latest edition of Epicurean Living is now available for free online viewing or download. I’ve dubbed this one the “chicken issue” since I devoted the entire Epicurean homesteading section to the subject. There are also details on using all five senses in the garden and some easy ways to engage with the ecology where…
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Early Spring Garden
Spring gardens are slow to wake. Day by day, they brighten a bit more. Blooms begin. Foliage fills in. Then one morning, you step outside and find the world transformed by life. This morning — a blustery, cold one set against the backdrop of a bright sun — it feels as if the garden has…
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Cooking Lessons: Bouillabaisse
The very first time I had seafood stew was in my early 20’s. I ordered it at a French restaurant in the U.S. under the name “bouillabaisse”. I didn’t love it. The broth was bitter and the whole dish smelled like stale urine to me. It was a while before I dared to try that…
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The Year-Round Spice Garden (with free PDF seasonal chore calendar)
Variety is the spice of life. Likewise, spices can add immense variety and edible interest to your meals and your landscape year round. There’s a lot of crossover between spices and herbs in the kitchen. However, for garden planning purposes, it’s good to have a clear distinction between the two in mind. Herbs vs. Spices…
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Natural Garden Planning
Seed catalogs are arriving. So now is the perfect time for planning what to plant in your outdoor garden. Right? I used to think so until I realized that gardening isn’t like placing an order on Amazon. You can’t pick the plants you want and install them like you would a power cord or an…
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Hoarding
Supposedly, the average American household hoards an average of 300,000 objects. That number sounds astounding. But when I did a rough count of the non-food objects in our small kitchen I got to 800 in short order. And I’m an anti-consumer! When you factor in spaces like garages, basements, closets, sheds, and even rented storage…