2020Today we will walk through a day in a country kitchen that is filled with preserving, cooking, harvesting and other “from scratch” undertakings. Summer time is the high point for so many projects that it can get a little overwhelming — and sometimes just knowing that everyone else who lives this way faces the same problems can go a long way in how your approach summer inn a farm, homestead or urbanstead kitchen.
Yesterday I posted in our online communities a question – who has canning questions. So today, I will cover the first set of a TON of questions that arrived.
#HollerHatWednesday: What in tarnation is that?
Today, we go back to that discussion I started just before the workshop in episode 313. It breaks my heart to see the destruction and violence that has erupted this year. To watch people who managed not to lose everything during the covid shut downs, lose it to vandals as things start to open up breaks my heart. To see people claim there is no racism in the us when there so clearly is, breaks my heart. To see an ever mounting list of demands that do nothing to address the core issue but cause lots of news buzz breaks my heart – and all of this heartbreak is done from the quiet solitude of my home. Where I am also doing nothing.
So I thought to myself, what if I start talking about it on the podcast. And that was episode 313 was all about. The beginning of a discussion. An invitation to interact on this topic in a meaningful and open way. And several of you had something to say.
This week, I harvested a little over four gallons of honey and realized we have not talked honeybees in a long time. Today I will walk you through my honey extraction process.
Today is the day you have been waiting for – the day that we do the LFTN workshop rundown. But unlike other years, instead of a blow-by-blow I thought I would center this on the community that we have at LFTN. So today’s run through will be of the superb people who attended the event and what they brought to the community. I think you are going to like this approach.
Today we talk with John Athayde of Sfumato farms, Meticulous and Homesteadoji. He’s joining me today to talk all about scything and if you have not thought about using one at your place, or even if you already are, I recommend listening to this interview.
Today, we walk, step by step, through the process of making comfrey salve with fresh comfrey.
#HollerHatWednesday: When is she going to finish?
Never before have I taken time after the spring workshop to get away from the internet, from people, and from modern life. And it did just what I said it would do – allowed me to take the time to process. Change is coming. Change is always coming, but this year, we have taken a special path and I want to share one lesson with you today.
Saturday, June 27, 2020 at 2pm CENTRAL time
Introduction to Canning – Pickles
$50 for non members (Register)
FREE to members (Become a member here)
Have you been wanting to learn canning in a hands-on way but hesitant to start? Join me Saturday, June 27 for the first in a series on webinars focused on the basics of water bath canning be starting with the safest thing you can store in jars: Pickles.
Covered in this webinar:
- Water bath basics
- Equipment need to have
- Equipment nice to have
- Cold packing
- Quick Pickles Recipe
- Difference between high acid and low acid foods in canning
- Trusted sources for canning recipes and information
- Canning safety
There really is not much to fear about home canning if you learn the basics. Many foods are quite safe to process for yourself because if they go bad, you can see and smell it. But, I hesitated to start putting things in jars years ago after my grandparents showed me because it was scary. What if I did something wrong? 15 years later, I preserve much of what we eat at the Holler Homestead and continue to learn about canning and food preservation every month. All it took was pickles – the safest thing you can process!
This webinar will likely run over an hour and I will take questions as we go through the process.
Today I will go over the woes of the grey water system and what we are doing to address them.