Because we don’t have central air conditioning, we try to keep our house naturally cool during the summer. That means we cook indoors as little as possible. Through the years, we’ve used a modern grill on our deck and then … Read More
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. During my cross-country farm tour last fall, I stopped by Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) in Iowa and was overwhelmed by their amazing heirloom seed collection and the many other resources that they … Read More
Five years ago, we bought our first solar oven, and I talked about our experience on my Antiquity Oaks farm blog. We were in summer cooking heaven. Until then, our only cooking option for keeping the house cool in summer … Read More
My new book, Homegrown and Handmade, second edition, comes out next month, and I’m incredibly honored that farmer extraordinaire Joel Salatin wrote the Foreword. ~~ Deborah by Joel Salatin “What can I do?” The question encompasses both the angst and … Read More
When people buy their first goats, they often have a lot of questions about the process. After all, you don’t just go into the local pet store and buy a couple of goats every day. Should you put down a … Read More
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You’ve likely heard about declining bee populations, but do you know why they are declining? In Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, Ross Conrad explains that some of the reasons for declining … Read More
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I keep hearing more and more about gluten allergies. In fact, I learned in Restoring Heritage Grains that over the past 60 years, gluten allergies and celiac disease have become at least four times … Read More
Last week, we talked about how many does you need to start your herd. But if you want milk or meat, those does will have to get pregnant, which means you need a buck — or at least his semen. … Read More
Baby goats are so cute, you could easily get carried away and buy a lot, but that’s probably not the best strategy. The number of goats you get depends on how much milk or meat you want. Since goats are … Read More
When I wrote the second edition of Homegrown and Handmade, I just could not let the book get reprinted again without adding all of the things that I wished I had put in the first one — like making maple … Read More
Thrifty Homesteader was created in 2012 after the publication of my second book, Ecothrifty. The name was coined by one of my followers because I said that I didn’t want anyone to think that they had to be rich to homestead or live a greener life....
