From soil and seeds to livestock, preservation, and off-grid power.
By the Off-Grid Desk Clean water is the foundation of survival and health, and a good water filter is one of the most important pieces of equipment any prepared household can own. Among the options, gravity-fed countertop filters like the well-known Berkey and similar systems have earned a devoted following for home and emergency use, … Read more
By the Foraging Team North America is remarkably rich in wild edible foods, and for those who learn to recognize them, the landscape offers a surprising abundance of nutrition growing free for the gathering. From nutrient-dense wild greens to protein-rich nuts and vitamin-packed berries, common wild foods across the United States can genuinely supplement a … Read more
By the Off-Grid Desk Among the renewable energy options for off-grid living, one stands quietly above the rest for the lucky few who can use it: micro-hydroelectric power. If you have a stream or river with year-round flow on your property, a micro-hydro system can produce steady power around the clock, in every season, rain … Read more
By the Off-Grid Desk Solar gets most of the attention in off-grid power, but for the right property, a small wind turbine can be a valuable addition or even a primary energy source. Wind has one great advantage over solar that makes the two natural partners: it often blows hardest at night and in winter, … Read more
By the Off-Grid Desk Solar power is the most accessible and popular path to energy independence, and for good reason: the sun is free, the technology has become affordable and reliable, and a solar system has no moving parts to wear out. For anyone looking to reduce dependence on the grid, weather outages, or move … Read more
By the Food Preservation Team Smoking is one of the most ancient ways humans preserved meat and fish, and it endures because it does two things at once: it helps preserve food and it makes it taste wonderful. The combination of smoke, and often salt and heat, has kept protein edible for far longer than … Read more
By the Food Preservation Team Dehydrating is one of the oldest and simplest food preservation methods, and it remains one of the most practical for the modern homestead. By removing the water that spoilage organisms need to grow, drying preserves food in a lightweight, compact, shelf-stable form that keeps for months or years. Dried fruits, … Read more
By the Food Preservation Team Canning is the preservation method that lets you capture a garden’s peak abundance in jars that keep for years on a shelf, no refrigeration or freezing required. Opening a jar of your own tomatoes or green beans in the depths of winter is one of the quiet joys of self-reliance. … Read more
By the Aquaculture Team In fish farming, one truth outweighs all others: healthy water makes healthy fish. Nearly every problem a fish keeper faces, from stunted growth to disease outbreaks to sudden die-offs, traces back to water quality, because the water is the fish’s entire environment, supplying the oxygen they breathe and carrying away the … Read more
By the Aquaculture Team For the homesteader who wants to raise fish intensively in a controlled way, a recirculating aquaculture system, or RAS, offers a compelling approach: raising a lot of fish in a relatively small volume of water by continuously filtering and reusing that water rather than relying on a large natural pond. RAS … Read more
By the Aquaculture Team Raising your own fish for food may sound like an ambitious leap, but for the homesteader looking to produce protein, few options are as approachable as tilapia. Hardy, fast-growing, and remarkably forgiving of the mistakes beginners inevitably make, tilapia has become the go-to fish for small-scale aquaculture, letting a homestead produce … Read more
By the Beekeeping Team Here is the question every new beekeeper actually needs answered, and almost nobody asks first: what happens if you do nothing wrong and your bees still die over winter? It happens, often, and it is not always your fault. Beekeeping is not a set-and-forget homestead project like a rain barrel. It … Read more
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