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Roast Your Own! A Do-it-yourself Coffee Tutorial.
For those of us who drink coffee and subscribe to a more self-sufficient philosophy on life, there can be a bit of a dilemma. Coffee grows only in very specific regions, and North America is not one of them. While we cannot grow our own, the good news is that we can still roast our own. Not only is this a rewarding and fun venture, but much like brewing our own beer, it allows full control over ...
Summer Homestead Happenings
It's good to be back working in our garden after our trip to Illinois, and being able to see all the changes that happened in two weeks. The sunflowers are getting taller than Dude the scarecrow, pumpkins are popping up everywhere, the green beans and potatoes were ready for harvest, and we had a yellow summer squash the size of a small child! With firewood to gather and split for the winter, ...
Pollinating
"Earth is a flower and it's pollinating." ~Neil Young ...
From the Mountains to the Midwest
There is much to be learned from getting out there in the world and seeing places different from your home. There is also much to be learned about a person by seeing the place they come from. Having spent my life in the Pacific Northwest, and never having seen the Midwest, I was excited to to along with my Adventure Partner, Corey to visit his family and hometown in rural Illinois. Not only would ...
A Picnic on Castle Rock
Many of my favorite summer childhood memories revolve around evening picnic adventures with my family. My dad would come home from work at the end of the afternoon, bringing dinner with him from town (Kentucky Fried Chicken was a memorable favorite), and we would drive up the winding mountain road just behind our house, enjoying the views as we climbed looking out over the Olympic Mountain range ...
Blueberry Independence Day
Well folks, I am proud to share the achievement of a homesteading dream. Blueberry independence has been achieved. What this means is that we produced enough blueberries on our own land to freeze for the year's supply. To really understand the significance of this, you have to know that we eat A LOT of blueberries. Every July involves several U-pick trips, many frozen quart bags and a ...
June on the Homestead
Yes, I know it's July. That's just how busy things have been around here. With the garden having overcome the cloudy weather and slugs, and finally starting to take off, we've been busy weeding, watering and harvesting. On top of that, I've been busy with all my off-homestead work trying to make ends meet by doing everything from handling cocoa bean orders for two weeks to repairing coffee ...
Like Shelling Peas
I'm not quite sure how the phrase, "Like shelling peas" came to mean that something was easy. I personally think shelling peas is a tedious task. And still, I love it. When I think of shelling peas, I think of summer on the homestead. It's a lot of work, sometimes it's tedious, but the rewards are crunchy and sweet! ...
Garlic Scape Ganouj
Garlic scapes, also called garlic whistles, are one of the most useful and delicious secondary products of growing a crop that I can think of. I had never heard of them until I grew my first garlic, and began noticing them at our local food co-op that summer. At the time, I was living near Moscow, Idaho, the home of one of my homesteading heroes, MaryJane Butters of MaryJane's Farm, and got this ...