Self-reliance tips, rural living guides, and off-grid skills delivered weekly.
Unsubscribe anytime.
✓ You're in! Check your inbox to confirm.
Wondering what to plant in July? These 12 crops sown over the holiday weekend still deliver a full fall harvest. Get the count-back math and…
Read More →Three field guides worth bookmarking — canning times, cellar storage, and safe cooking temps.
| Food | Pressure | Pint |
|---|---|---|
| Green beans | 10 lb | 20m |
| Corn | 10 lb | 55m |
| Tomatoes | water bath | 35m |
USDA/NCHFP processing times & pressures for common foods.
View full chart →| Item | Store | Keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Onions | cool, dry | 9 mo |
| Potatoes | cellar | 4–6 mo |
| Apples | cellar | 6 mo |
How long fruit & veg keep in the cellar, fridge and freezer.
View full chart → Network| Doneness | Target |
|---|---|
| Rare | 125–130°F |
| Medium-rare | 130–135°F |
| Well-done | 160°F+ |
Safe pull temps for steak & burgers, from Popular BBQ.
View full chart →Reader Favorites
A practical winter system for growing microgreens indoors: what to sow, how much light and warmth they need, and where the work usually goes wrong. This piece offers reflection grounded in real work and mistakes, not instruction. But winter is long, and a little structure helps keep the greens – and the spirits –…
Home canning season is here. Learn how to prevent botulism when canning low-acid foods, which method to use, and the warning signs before you taste a jar.
The New World screwworm is back in U.S. livestock in 2026. Learn the warning signs, the daily prevention routine, and what to do if you spot an infestation.
Fall migration is a smart time to tighten your coop routine. This practical guide explains how to protect your backyard chickens from bird flu with simple biosecurity steps, safer feed and water habits, quarantine basics, and warning signs every flock owner should know.
Backyard flock biosecurity works on the fall migration calendar, not the USDA case count. Here is the September checklist, the warning signs, and who to call.
Firewood moisture content decides your winter heat, not species. Get the 20 percent rule, the meter test, and how to spot wet wood before you pay.
The 50-state legal map of foraging: 15 states allow berry and mushroom picking in state parks, 29 prohibit it. Every state’s statute or code citation, federal-land rules, quantity limits, and a downloadable CSV — all verified against primary sources August 18, 2026.
Start a garden by working backward from your last spring freeze date, not a calendar month. A cited planting table for 36 crops, real NOAA freeze probabilities for 12 cities, and a companion-planting chart graded by actual evidence.
Homesteading has no legal definition – the word means three unrelated things in American law. Here is what each one actually is, what the 2022 USDA Census says about how common small-scale farming really is, and the cottage food, poultry and municipal rules that decide what you can do.
Short answer: Oregon State University Extension caps compost at 25 percent of a raised bed by volume. The University of Maryland Extension recommends 33 to 50 percent. Both are land-grant institutions, both published those numbers, and almost every soil calculator online quietly hard-codes one side of the disagreement without telling you it exists. This page…
A New Mexico Taos architect spent fifty years turning old tires into houses. The idea still has a following because it answers the same question every homesteader asks: how much of this place can we handle ourselves? Drive west of Taos on a high desert mesa and the houses stop looking like houses. They look…
What to plant in August for a fall harvest, zone by zone. Frost-date math, the crops to sow now, and how to protect a homestead fall garden.
