St. John's Wort Salve — Practical Self Reliance
St. John’s Wort Salve is a time-honored herbal remedy for nerve pain, bruises, burns, and wounds. It's easy to make at home!| Practical Self Reliance
Hawthorn syrup is a delicious herbal remedy for heart health, and it’s also delicious in drinks and desserts. Hawthorn berries… The post Hawthorn Syrup appeared first on Practical Self Reliance.| Practical Self Reliance
Rose hip syrup is easy to make with just two main ingredients: rose hips and sugar (or honey, if you… The post Rose Hip Syrup appeared first on Practical Self Reliance.| Practical Self Reliance
St. John’s Wort Salve is a time-honored herbal remedy for nerve pain, bruises, burns, and wounds. It's easy to make at home!| Practical Self Reliance
Nanking cherry (prunus tomentosa) is an easy to grow small fruit that's perfect for backyard growers or small orchards.| Practical Self Reliance
My first exposure to ground cherries was in Vermont. I was selling baked goods at a farmers market, and a young girl walked up and asked if I wanted to trade. Sure why not? She| Practical Self Reliance
Honeyberries, also known as haskap berries, are a type of fruiting honeysuckle that tastes like a cross between a blueberry and a grape. For cold climate gardeners, honeyberries are a dependable source of early spring| Practical Self Reliance
Discover how to grow and use Cornelian Cherry in your garden! From planting tips to delicious recipes, our guide covers it all.| Practical Self Reliance
Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) provides edible and medicinal benefits when handled correctly. Learn how to identify, safely harvest, and use this often-overlooked plant.| Practical Self Reliance
Seaberry wine is a bold, citrusy fruit wine made from sea buckthorn berries—those bright orange fruits packed with vitamin C,… The post Sea Buckthorn (Seaberry) Wine & Mead appeared first on Practical Self Reliance.| Practical Self Reliance
Seaberry oxymel is a tangy, immune-boosting syrup made by infusing raw honey and apple cider vinegar with seaberries—bright orange, vitamin-packed… The post Seaberry Oxymel appeared first on Practical Self Reliance.| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to make zucchini flour at home with a dehydrator, freeze dryer, or oven. A shelf-stable, gluten-free flour that’s perfect for preserving summer squash.| Practical Self Reliance
Storing fresh eggs in limewater is a traditional preservation method. Learn how to keep eggs fresh for over 12 months without refrigeration.| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to make pickled eggs—step-by-step guide to preserving hard-boiled eggs in a tangy vinegar brine with your choice of spices for a flavorful snack.| Practical Self Reliance
Starting a backyard raspberry pick-your-own patch is a great way to earn income and build community. Learn how to plan, plant, and run a successful U-pick.| Practical Self Reliance
Discover creative ways to make $1000 a month from your garden year-round. From growing specialty crops to selling homemade products, learn how to turn your garden into a profitable venture.| Practical Self Reliance
Earning a little bit of money from your homestead is easy enough. Sell a dozen eggs to a few neighbors, or take a few homemade jams to the farmers market and you'll have a bit| Practical Self Reliance
While there are lots of reasons to raise your own meat beyond cutting costs, it's still nice to know if all that effort actually saved any money in the end. We tracked our costs for| Practical Self Reliance
Small-scale maple sugaring can be profitable with the right approach. Learn about the costs, techniques, and market opportunities to determine if turning sap into syrup is a viable venture for you.| Practical Self Reliance
Canning water is a simple and effective way to ensure a safe and reliable water supply for emergencies. Learn how to properly can and store water, giving you peace of mind during unexpected situations.| Practical Self Reliance
Wood ash from your fireplace or wood stove may seem like a waste product, but there are a surprising number of ways to use wood ash.| Practical Self Reliance
Dandelion tincture is a natural spring tonic that's traditionally used to increase energy and cleanse the system after a long winter indoors. It's often made as a simple dandelion root tincture, but you can also| Practical Self Reliance
The Yellow Transparent apple is known as one of the earliest ripening apple varieties, prized for its tart flavor and crisp texture. Learn about its growing habits, harvest time, and best uses in cooking and fresh eating to enjoy this early-season delight.| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to plant an orchard for year-round fruit—strategies for selecting cold-hardy varieties, proper planting, and maintaining a continuous harvest in colder climates.| Practical Self Reliance
Resources for building a homestead root cellar include design tips, material recommendations, and construction guides. Learn how to build an efficient, cool, and dry storage space for preserving your harvest.| Practical Self Reliance
Thimbleberries are a delicious species of wild flowering raspberry, and there are varieties that grow wild in both the Pacific… The post Foraging Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus and R. odoratus) appeared first on Practical Self Reliance.| Practical Self Reliance
Wild Raspberries (Rubus sp.) are the same grocery store fruits you find for a hefty price tag, but they’re free! … The post Foraging Wild Raspberries (Rubus sp.) appeared first on Practical Self Reliance.| Practical Self Reliance
Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), also known as wild bee balm, is an edible and medicinal wildflower, and these beautiful blooms… The post Foraging Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) appeared first on Practical Self Reliance.| Practical Self Reliance
Cayenne salve is a warming, pain-relieving herbal remedy made with infused cayenne oil and beeswax—ideal for sore muscles, arthritis, and joint pain.| Practical Self Reliance
Foraging, Gardening, and Homesteading Guides - Practical Self Reliance| Practical Self Reliance
Thimbleberries (Rubus odoratus or Rubus parviflorus), also known as flowering raspberries, are a delightful addition to any garden. If you’re looking for a berry that offers an intense, raspberry-like flavor but with a sweeter, more| Practical Self Reliance
Apple seeds are easy to grow at home with the proper preparation, and seedlings are often more vigorous than their grafted nursery counterparts. Give an apple tree seedling 3-4 years, and it'll catch up to| Practical Self Reliance
Discover how to grow asparagus from seed with our step-by-step guide. Learn planting techniques, care tips, and harvesting methods for a bountiful harvest.| Practical Self Reliance
Broody chicken breeds are perfect for hatching chicks without an incubator and are the key to a self-sustaining flock.| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to raise chickens with this beginner's guide—step-by-step tips on housing, feeding, health care, and egg production for a successful flock.| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to raise baby chicks into healthy adult hens—essential tips on feeding, housing, and caring for chicks as they grow into strong, productive layers.| Practical Self Reliance
Duck eggs and chicken eggs differ in taste, texture, and nutritional content. Duck eggs are richer, with a thicker shell and higher fat and protein content, making them ideal for baking and cooking. Learn more about their differences and how to use each in your recipes.| Practical Self Reliance
Chicken egg colors vary by breed and can range from white to shades of brown, blue, and green. Learn what influences egg color and how to choose breeds for your flock with this beginner’s guide.| Practical Self Reliance
The cost of a chicken can vary slightly by breed or depending on where you live, but for the most part, it's reasonably predictable. Learn how much it costs to raise chickens at home, either| Practical Self Reliance
Discover the best egg-laying chickens for beginners, perfect for starting your flock with high productivity and easy care. Enjoy fresh eggs with minimal effort.| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to make sauerkraut in a crock—simple steps for fermenting cabbage with salt in a traditional crock for tangy, probiotic-rich results.| Practical Self Reliance
Winter storage apples are perfect for keeping your fruit fresh throughout the colder months. Learn about the best apple varieties that offer great flavor, texture, and long-lasting storage for your pantry.| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to keep apples fresh for over a year without a root cellar—simple storage methods to extend shelf life without any special equipment.| Practical Self Reliance
Preserve cucumbers in a variety of ways, from pickling to fermenting, and enjoy their fresh, crunchy taste year-round. Discover creative methods to store this summer favorite.| Practical Self Reliance
Immune-boosting herbs and mushrooms offer natural ways to strengthen your body's defenses. Discover a variety of powerful plants and fungi that support your immune health.| Practical Self Reliance
Drying herbs at home is an easy way to preserve their flavor and aroma for year-round use. Learn the best methods for drying herbs, whether by air, oven, or dehydrator, and discover tips for storing them to maintain their quality and potency.| Practical Self Reliance
St. John’s Wort is a bright yellow medicinal herb used for mood support and wound care. Learn how to identify it in the wild and use it safely at home.| Practical Self Reliance
Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) has been getting quite a bit of press lately as the newest superfood, but it's nothing new. Permaculture enthusiasts have been planting sea berries for years now because they're a hardy| Practical Self Reliance
Eating milkweed can help support monarch butterfly populations by promoting the plant’s growth and conservation. Learn which parts of milkweed are edible, how to prepare it safely, and how your choices can contribute to saving these vital pollinators.| Practical Self Reliance
While rhubarb is often propagated from root divisions, growing rhubarb from seed is a much more economical method. Many commercial rhubarb plants available from nursery catalogs are just seedlings grown out for a year or| Practical Self Reliance
Discover how to forage thistle safely for its edible and medicinal qualities. Learn to identify, harvest, and use this wild plant.| Practical Self Reliance
Burdock tincture and I have a special relationship. It's one of the first tinctures I tried where I actually saw the difference within hours of taking it. The results were dramatic, and I'd never before| Practical Self Reliance
Hi there! I'm Ashley Adamant, the creator behind Practical Self Reliance, where I share my journey in homesteading, self-sufficiency, and sustainable living. Our Vermont Homestead in Spring. I spent much of my youth growing garden| Practical Self Reliance
Harvest day comes with a lot of preparation: sharpening knives, preparing the tractor, pulling out the meat grinder and cleaning every inch of the kitchen in preparation for a full day of chaos. All of| Practical Self Reliance
Learn how to make real probiotic-rich lacto-fermented pickles with this easy step-by-step recipe, a perfect project for a small or large batch of cucumbers! (This post is a contribution by Melissa Keyser) My dad hates| Practical Self Reliance
Every culture that has bread has a traditional way of using stale bread. Traditional Kvass takes forgotten stale bread, usually rye bread, and turns it into a bubbly probiotic beverage that's incredibly satisfying (and just| Practical Self Reliance
It's hard to beat the freshness of home-pressed apple cider, but that freshness doesn't last long. Fresh pressed apple cider begins to ferment on its own in as little as 24 hours if left unrefrigerated,| Practical Self Reliance
Every summer I make a huge batch of no sugar dill pickles with the tiniest cucumbers I can find. I save the monster cucumbers that get lost on the vine for sweet dill pickle relish,| Practical Self Reliance
Cheesemaking at home is incredibly rewarding, and there's nothing like stocking a cheese platter with your homemade delights. Learn the basics of homemade cheese, from simple cheeses like mascarpone and paneer, all the way up| Practical Self Reliance
Plum jam tastes like summer and those sun-kissed fruits will remind you of warmer days when you're eating this tasty plum preserve on cold winter days. It's easy to make with just two ingredients, just| Practical Self Reliance
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Grape jam is one of those lost recipes that no one seems to make any more. Every grade school kid knows about grape jelly, but grape jam has long since gone by the wayside. Grape| Practical Self Reliance
Some days I just want a pickle, and nothing compares to a perfectly crisp home-canned pickle. They top my burgers and hot dogs all summer long, but more importantly, in the wintertime, they remind me| Practical Self Reliance
Canning blueberries is a simple way to preserve blueberries for winter baking, or simply eating right out of the jar. While freezing blueberries is one of the most common ways to preserve these summertime fruits,| Practical Self Reliance
Strawberry rhubarb jam is easy to make at home with a bit of fresh fruit and sugar, no pectin needed. The rhubarb adds a delightful tart flavor to the jam, while the strawberry adds sweetness| Practical Self Reliance
Strawberry jam is a springtime classic, and this easy strawberry jam recipe requires just three ingredients and comes together without added pectin. Strawberries are what get my littles to the garden every spring, and they'll| Practical Self Reliance
Strawberry wine is simple to make at home with minimal equipment. After you've canned your fill of strawberry jam, a small batch country wine is a great way to preserve strawberries for year round use.| Practical Self Reliance
Canning strawberries is an easy and versatile way to put up the berry harvest. While strawberry jam may be tasty on toast, canning whole strawberries means you preserve the whole fruit for use in pies,| Practical Self Reliance
Cold stratification is a plant defense mechanism, designed to keep seeds from breaking dormancy and sprouting at the wrong time. In nature, seeds would cold stratify all on their own under a blanket of snow.| Practical Self Reliance
Herbalists know that burdock root is powerful medicine, but most would be surprised to learn that the burdock is edible as well. Burdock leaves, stalks and roots are edible and can be downright tasty if you| Practical Self Reliance
Aronia Berries, also known as Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is a nutrient-dense wild edible berry that's gotten a lot of press recently as a great source of antioxidants. They're not cultivated commercially in some areas,| Practical Self Reliance
Preserving eggs is an old fashioned skill and it's making a comeback as more people take up raising chickens in their backyards. Believe it or not, there are literally dozens of ways to preserve eggs| Practical Self Reliance
Home winemaking is both fun and tasty, but the bottles can add up quickly. A single 5-gallon bath produces around 20 bottles of wine, and when I started making homemade wine I wanted to ferment| Practical Self Reliance
Apples have been a staple wintertime crop for hundreds of years, and that goes well beyond applesauce. Canning and freezing are relatively new discoveries, and our ancestors developed a number of unique ways to preserve| Practical Self Reliance
Blackberry wine is the perfect way to make use of a huge crop of summer blackberries. This one-gallon blackberry wine recipe can easily be increased to make a full 5-gallon batch if you have plenty| Practical Self Reliance
Fruit vinegar is incredibly easy to make using either homegrown or storebought juice. While you can take a shortcut and infuse storebought vinegar with fruit for flavor, there's something incredibly satisfying about making your own| Practical Self Reliance
Honey and strawberries make a pretty divine pairing over yogurt or ice cream. If you give them a bit of time together to, shall we say, get to know each other, they'll ferment into a| Practical Self Reliance
Dehydrator recipes can be hard to find in this age of modern convenience foods. The thing is, dehydrated food is the original convenience food, and there are few quicker, easier and more versatile food preservation| Practical Self Reliance
Home canned peach pie filling on the pantry shelf is like having a homemade dessert ready at a moment’s notice. It works wonderfully to top a cheesecake or coffee cake, and it’s perfect for whipping| Practical Self Reliance
Home Canned Cherry pie filling is easy to make at home, and a few jars of it in the pantry means homemade cherry turnovers (one of my favorite desserts) are always fresh at hand. Up| Practical Self Reliance
Canning apple pie filling at home means you're just minutes away from having a pie in the oven. The apples are already peeled, chopped, seasoned and thickened. That allows you to just pour the pre-made| Practical Self Reliance
Red currant jelly is one of the easiest preserves you can make with the summer's bounty. Red currants are naturally high in both acid and pectin, so all you need is the fruit and a| Practical Self Reliance
Strawberries are one of the first fruits of the summer, and these strawberry canning recipes are a great excuse to dust off your canning equipment and get jammin'! Strawberries are naturally high in acid and| Practical Self Reliance
Canning blackberries allows you to take a short-season fruit and preserves it for year-round use, no freezer required. Blackberries hold up remarkably well to canning and emerge for the jars firm and flavorful, perfect for| Practical Self Reliance
Blueberry jam is bursting with berry flavor, and it's easy to make at home (no pectin required). Mmmmm....blueberry jam. There's no quicker way to bottle up summer in a jar than a quick and easy| Practical Self Reliance
Blackberries are one of the truly simple pleasures of summer, and it only takes a few handfuls to make a flavorful homemade blackberry jam. Blackberries are naturally high in pectin, so it's easy to make| Practical Self Reliance
When the peaches come in, our preservation kitchen goes into overdrive. Peaches are high sugar and high acid, which makes them perfect for canning, but that also makes them ideal for homemade peach wine. Once| Practical Self Reliance
Peach jam is one of the best preserves of the summer. It's easy to make this classic peach preserve as either a freezer jam or canning recipe. Every summer we pick up a case| Practical Self Reliance
Canning plums is a simple way to preserve plums for year-round use. Plums can be preserved as halves or wholes (with pits or without), and canned in your choice of water, juice, or syrup. Plums| Practical Self Reliance
While I love tending my garden in the summertime, for me, there's nothing that compares to the satisfaction of making maple syrup from my own trees. There's no weeding, no watering. Just set up a| Practical Self Reliance
Hard cider is a tradition that's as old as the craft of orcharding itself. Some of the first apple trees produced sour, bitter apples that aren't great fresh but ferment into a spectacular alcoholic cider.| Practical Self Reliance
Canning beets is an easy way to preserve them for year-round use. Pull out the pressure canner and can plain beets for salads, soups, or just tasty snacks. Beets are absolutely perfect for canning, and| Practical Self Reliance
Canning apple slices at home is an easy way to enjoy the autumnal flavor of in-season apples throughout the entire year. Autumn brings with it a surplus of apple cider, applesauce, apple donuts, and other| Practical Self Reliance
It's easy to add rich flavor to homemade stocks and broths simply by incorporating organ meats. Though eating nose to tail has become more popular, most people don't know how to utilize organ meats in| Practical Self Reliance
Once you start canning food at home, you'll want to find canning recipes to put up everything in a convenient shelf-stable package. Home canning is easy, but it can be hard to find quality canning| Practical Self Reliance
Canning peaches at home in a water bath canner is a simple way to preserve peaches on your pantry shelf without taking up freezer space.| Practical Self Reliance
Canning Bone Broth at home is so simple that once you learn how you'll never buy it again. Bone broth was a staple of our ancestors and the perfect way to extract every last bit| Practical Self Reliance
Canning asparagus at home is pretty simple and means you can enjoy home-grown asparagus year round. While asparagus is often frozen for long term preservation, home canned asparagus is shelf stable, which works much better| Practical Self Reliance
Canning green beans is one of the best ways to preserve them at home, and they're ready at a moment's notice right from your pantry shelf. Pressure canning is my absolute favorite food preservation method.| Practical Self Reliance
Beechnuts are the tasty wild nuts of the beech tree, and they were once an important food source for early colonists and Native Americans alike.| Practical Self Reliance
Butter nuts, also known as white walnuts, are the rich sweet fruit of the butternut tree (Juglans cinerea). They grow wild throughout the forests of the Northeast (Range Map), though they're increasingly rare due to| Practical Self Reliance
