canning
Building Planter Boxes for Strawberries
Add to Favorites By Sue Robishaw – It wasn’t that the old chicken wire covers we’d constructed five years ago didn’t work, they did. I had an idea for building …
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How to Make Bath Bombs: An Easy DIY Gift
Often ball-shaped, bath bombs are dry, chalky, conglomerations that fizz and release fragrance when dropped in water. They’re sold as novelties, though additions like witch hazel and skin-friendly oils can add benefits.
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Eliminating Weevils in Flour and Rice
Their little legs wriggled on my spoon. How harmful could they be? Casting my eyes to each side, I watched for approaching family members as I dropped the little bugs in the sink and stirred the flour.
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How to Make Lard from Pork Fat
Leaning how to make lard is not only easy, but it saves money and is healthier for you than store-bought lard because you know where your pig fat came from.
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What You Can, and Can’t, Can
Just about anything you would grow in your garden may be preserved by canning. Only a few foods cannot be safely canned at all, some may be canned in one form but not another, and still others don’t hold up well under the prolonged heat of processing.
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Using Water Bath Canners and Steam Canners
Two canner styles are suitable for processing high acid foods: water bath canners and steam canners. Either type is a good starting place for anyone just learning to put up home canned foods; both are easier to use than a pressure canner (required for processing low acid foods).
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Preserve Recipes Turn a Bountiful Harvest Into Holiday Gifts
Add to Favorites Want to avoid the traffic, crowded stores, and expensive prices when shopping for holiday gifts? Here’s how. Use these preserve recipes to keep seasonal foods when they’re at …
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How Do Blueberries Grow?
Add to Favorites How do blueberries grow in my garden when there seems to be so much stacked against them? For the last few years, I have been enjoying homegrown …
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Selling Homemade Food: Laws and Considerations
Add to Favorites Cottage food law is the legal permission or ban on selling homemade food. And it’s gotten a lot of attention lately. Within the past few years, states …
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Farming In The San Luis Valley, Then And Now
Add to Favorites By Karin Deneke, Photos by Chuck Reel and Karin Deneke You cannot miss the hay trucks when traveling east on La Veta Pass. Loaded with heavy bales of …
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Surviving A Water Shortage
Add to Favorites Even the best water system breaks down now and then. Pumps fail. Electricity mysteriously goes off and stays off for long periods. Bulldozers diabolically seek and destroy …
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Agritourism: A Profitable Idea?
Add to Favorites By Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer, Colorado The words, “fun on the farm,” were probably not coined by a farmer. After all, farming is hard work, but today, people around the …
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Family Trees
Add to Favorites By Heather Smith Thomas, Idaho Ron Kelley and his family are enjoying their orchard business in southern Idaho, near Weiser. “My father and grandfather were citrus growers …
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Turning Trash to Treats
Add to Favorites By Justin Thaxton — Four years ago, my family broke free from the bondage of suburban living. After 10 years in a subdivision, we were thrilled by …
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What to Cook in a Solar Oven
Add to Favorites Several years ago, we added a solar cooker to our homestead tools. We have long, hot summers and cook from scratch every day, which was taxing our …
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