By Melissa Norris | Gardening , Natural Medicine Cabinet , Podcast
Knowing how to dry herbs and store them to ensure they have the strongest medicinal properties is key if you plan on using herbs as natural medicine. From correct harvest time, drying method, and one of the areas I see people making the biggest mistake, storage. I’m going to be sharing with you the steps […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Fermenting , Food Preservation
Fermentation dates back thousands of years and has been a way of preservation in households for generations. It’s much easier than you might expect and creates a delicious and healthy probiotic-rich food, snack, or condiment. Here’s everything you need to know about fermented vegetables. Fermented vegetables (and other fermented foods) can seem off-putting if you’ve […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Food Preservation , Podcast
This year we were really depending on our garden produce in order to preserve and put it up so that we had our pantries and our shelves very well stocked with food as we go into the fall and winter months during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s my Complete Guide to Home Food […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Homestead-Life , Lifestyle , Podcast , Preparedness/Survival
I’ll share with you the things you need to do now to prepare for the second wave of COVID. Whether you agree or not, we’re all still living with the effects of it. At this writing, it’s still summertime and we’re in phase two with some restrictions here in Washington state. When we were in […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Fermenting , Food Preservation , Healthy Snacks , Miscellaneous , Podcast , Recipes
Ever needed a fermented pickle recipe? Yes, the answer is yes. These garlic and dill pickles are naturally fermented and result in a salty and sour pickle that’s both crunchy and reminiscent of a classic old-fashioned deli pickle. Unlike water-bath canned pickles made with vinegar, these are fermented in a saltwater brine and boast healthy […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Natural Medicine Cabinet , Podcast
The health benefits of mushrooms are vast and when you consider you can easily grow them at home, it gets even more exciting. Ever since I found healing from stomach acid and ulcers by changing the food I ate (after being on the max dose of prescription medications) I’ve continued down the rabbit hole of […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Canning Recipes , Food Preservation , Food Preservation - Canning , Pressure Canning , Recipes , Water Bath
Home-canned tomato sauce from vine-ripened tomatoes may as well be an entirely new product as there is no comparison to store-bought. It’s incredibly easy to make and you can water bath or pressure can it for long-term food storage. Follow this easy step-by-step tutorial for my favorite canned tomato sauce recipe and enjoy it spiced […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Podcast , Raising Your Own Food
Learning how to grow mushrooms at home opens up an entirely new world for food production (as well as medicine) in your backyard. Many varieties of mushrooms can be grown at home in many different environments. Pairing the correct variety with the correct growing medium is key. Today I have Mary Ellen from Field & […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Homestead-Life , Podcast
It’s been five months since the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. There are many changes that have taken place. Some which will remain going forward and some that I’m glad won’t be permanent. The pandemic certainly changed a lot of things for almost everybody. How people view those changes depends on how they look at life. They […]
Read MoreBy Melissa Norris | Gardening , Podcast , Raising Your Own Food
There comes a time in every gardener’s life when you need to know how to get rid of bugs naturally unless you don’t mind putting in all the work just to feed the bug and slug population. I am more selfish than that, however, and don’t want to share my homegrown veggies. I’ve found some […]
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