Category: Homesteading
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Freezing vs. Canning vs. Dehydrating Your Fall Harvest
You just brought a basket full of vegetables inside. Now comes the next question: What am I supposed to do with all of this? Freezing? Canning? Dehydrating? There isn’t one preservation method that’s best for everything. Here’s how I think about it. Freezing Freezing is usually the easiest place for beginners to start. I like… Read more
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How to Make Your Sourdough Starter Stronger
A starter can be alive without being particularly strong. Maybe yours produces a few bubbles but barely rises. Maybe it takes forever to peak. Or maybe your bread isn’t fermenting as predictably as you’d like. Before giving up, focus on consistency. 1. Feed It Regularly A starter becomes easier to understand when you establish a… Read more
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How to Cure and Store Onions for Winter
Onions are one of those garden crops that can reward you long after summer ends—if you store them properly. The secret starts with curing. When Are Onions Ready? As onions mature, their tops naturally begin falling over and drying. Once they’re ready for harvest, lift them carefully to avoid bruising or damaging the bulbs. Why… Read more
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Sourdough Starter vs. Discard: What’s the Difference?
When you’re new to sourdough, the terminology can make everything sound much more complicated than it really is. Starter. Active starter. Discard. Levain. What’s actually in all these jars? Let’s start with two of the most common terms: starter and discard. What Is Sourdough Starter? Sourdough starter is a fermented mixture of flour and water… Read more
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How to Preserve Peppers for Winter
Pepper plants can keep producing surprisingly late into the season. Then frost appears in the forecast and suddenly there are peppers everywhere. Thankfully, peppers are incredibly versatile when it comes to preservation. Freeze Them For many cooked uses, freezing is the easiest option. Wash and prepare the peppers appropriately, portion them and freeze them for… Read more
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How to Store Sourdough Starter in the Refrigerator
You don’t need to bake sourdough every day to keep a starter. For occasional bakers, the refrigerator may become your best friend. Why Refrigerate Sourdough Starter? Cold temperatures slow fermentation. That means your starter consumes its available food much more slowly than it does sitting on a warm kitchen counter. Instead of maintaining a frequent… Read more
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What to Do With Too Many Zucchini
If you’ve ever grown zucchini, you already know. You don’t really harvest zucchini. Zucchini happens to you. You pick everything you can see and somehow return two days later to find a vegetable approximately the size of a baseball bat hiding under a leaf. So what do you actually do with all of it? Eat… Read more
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How Often Should You Feed a Sourdough Starter?
One of the first questions I had about sourdough was: Am I seriously supposed to feed this thing every day forever? Thankfully, no. How often you feed a sourdough starter depends largely on where you keep it and how often you bake. If You Keep Your Starter on the Counter A starter kept at room… Read more
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5 Ways to Preserve Fresh Herbs Before Winter
Fresh herbs are one of the easiest things to overlook when you’re rushing to prepare the garden for cold weather. Then frost arrives. And suddenly all that basil you meant to harvest is gone. Before cold weather settles in, here are five ways to preserve herbs for winter. 1. Air Dry Them Air drying works… Read more
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Why Is My Sourdough Starter Not Rising?
You’ve fed your starter. You’ve waited. And…nothing. Before assuming your sourdough experiment is over, remember that several things can affect how quickly a starter rises. Your Kitchen May Be Too Cool Fermentation generally moves faster in warmer conditions and slower in cooler ones. A chilly kitchen can turn a normally energetic starter into a very… Read more