Hello world!

When you’re looking at five acres and wondering how to make it actually pay for itself, most advice starts with “find your passion” or “follow market trends.” That’s not helpful when you’re three years in and your grocery budget is still the same size it was in the suburbs. What I needed were low-cost ways…

“These beans look like trash,” Ben said, poking at the withered Kentucky Wonder vines with his boot. We were standing in what used to be our prize vegetable garden, now looking more like a collection of brown sticks after six weeks without decent rain. I’d spent months researching the best drought-resistant vegetables to grow on…

My neighbor Jerry swore that soapy water in a bucket would solve our mosquito problem. “Just Dawn dish soap and water, set it out at night,” he said, leaning against his fence post. “Works every time.” Three weeks later, after trying every homemade natural mosquito repellent recipe I could find online, I was ready to…

When I first started reading about zero-waste homesteading tips to reduce your environmental impact on a small farm, I thought the answer was composting everything. Every scrap, every eggshell, every coffee ground went into our bin. We’d save money, feed the soil, and feel good about ourselves. Ben thought I was overthinking it, but I…

“You know you can just hang them upside down, right?” Ben said, watching me fiddle with the dehydrator settings for the third time that morning. I had basil wilting on the counter and was determined to preserve our herb harvest using what I thought were proper food preservation methods. Turns out I was overthinking it…