You’ve Got the Strategy. Now Here’s Everything You Need to Execute It.
The Seasonal Food Workshop gave you the framework. The Pioneering Today Academy gives you the courses, the community, and the step-by-step guidance to actually build the seasonal kitchen you’ve been picturing with one skill, one season, one jar at a time.
Join the community trusted by 7,600+ homesteaders learning to grow, preserve, and eat from scratch.
$39/month or $390/year · Includes the free quarterly Plated by Season print magazine
The Workshop Showed You What’s Possible. This Is Where You Make It Real.
You’ve seen how eating seasonally can transform your kitchen, your pantry, and your family’s health. You know what you want to build. What you need now is the skills to actually do it and people around you who are doing it too.
That’s exactly what the Pioneering Today Academy is. Step-by-step courses, monthly seasonal guides, live support, and a community of thousands of people learning the same skills alongside you so the vision you left the workshop with doesn’t stay a vision.
And you don’t have to quit your job or overhaul your life to get there. Everything inside PTA is designed for real people with real schedules so you can build your seasonal kitchen one skill at a time, no matter how busy you are.
No More Homesteading Overwhelm
No more endless YouTubing or wondering if you’re “doing it right.”
Inside PTA you get everything you need to build your seasonal kitchen in one place with courses, guides, live support, and a community of women doing it right alongside you.
Learn
15+ in-depth courses covering seasonal preservation, scratch cooking, gardening, natural remedies, and more. Taught step-by-step so you always know exactly what to do next and you can go at your own pace.
Preserve
Master the skills to capture every season’s harvest with canning, fermenting, dehydrating, root cellaring, and freeze drying so nothing goes to waste and your pantry stays full all year long.
Belong
Ask questions, share wins, and get real support from thousands of homesteaders walking the same path. The kind of community that makes the difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it.
Here’s How It Works
Membership Features
The Plated by Season Print Magazine—FREE, Delivered to You Every Quarter
A beautiful, kitchen-sturdy, full-color magazine packed with seasonal recipes, step-by-step preservation guides, and fresh inspiration you’ll actually use—all included in your membership.
The Plated by Season Print Magazine—FREE, Delivered Quarterly
A beautiful, kitchen-sturdy full-color magazine delivered to your door every quarter — packed with seasonal recipes, preservation guides, harvest charts, herb spotlights, and homestead inspiration for the months ahead. This is the physical seasonal roadmap that turns what you learned in the workshop into a quarterly practice. Delivered straight to your door (US only), exclusively for members.
Full Video Library—15+ E-courses & 130+ Step-by-Step Tutorials
Hands-on, beginner-friendly lessons for growing, preserving, cooking, and more. Go at your own pace—master every skill you need, whenever you need it..
Live Q&A’s with Melissa
Bring your real questions and get real answers. Never get stuck or wonder if you’re doing it right.
Active Community
Thousands of homesteaders at every stage, from first-time canners to experienced growers, sharing wins, answering questions, and keeping each other accountable. This is the push that makes the difference between knowing and doing.
Guided Member Challenges
Focused, high-impact challenges designed to help you achieve a specific goal in just weeks with group accountability and step-by-step guidance built in.
Printable Guides
& Recipes
Save time with ready-to-use references with planting charts, canning guides, and recipes designed to live on your fridge or kitchen counter.
Coupons & Discounts
Save money on gardening supplies, seeds, and more with members-only coupons and discounts on some of my favorite brands (not to mention some discounts of my own!)
Hi there, I’m Melissa!
I’m a fifth-generation homesteader, bestselling author, and full-time working wife and mom of two, and I preserved everything you see in the photos on this page while holding down a job and raising a family.
It didn’t start that way. A cancer scare in my thirties pushed me to take a hard look at what I was feeding my family and what I was depending on others to provide. That’s when I got serious about growing our own food, preserving every season’s harvest, and learning the skills my great-grandmothers knew that my generation largely lost.
Today we raise 100% of our own meat, 75% of our fruit, and half our vegetables. But I didn’t get here in a season. I got here one skill at a time, one jar at a time, one year at a time.
That’s exactly how PTA is designed because that’s the only way it actually works. Not overwhelming. Not all at once. Just the right next skill, at the right time, with people around you doing it too.
Your Complete Skill Library — All Included
Every course inside PTA is designed to take you from “I want to do this” to “I know exactly how to do this” with step-by-step video lessons you can follow in real time, pause and rewind as many times as you need, and come back to season after season.
Here’s what’s waiting for you inside:
Home Food Preservation
The heart of the seasonal kitchen. Master water bath canning, pressure canning, fermenting, dehydrating, and freeze drying with safe, tested methods so you can preserve every season’s harvest with confidence.
Kitchen Mastery
Make everything from scratch, from soups, sauces, broths, casseroles, mixes, and more. Ditch the cans and boxes for good and build a kitchen that runs on real food.
From-Scratch Baking
Sourdough, fresh-milled flour, artisan breads, and wholesome treats. Step-by-step lessons that make real bread genuinely doable.
Grow Your Own
Fruits & Vegetables
When you’re ready to grow what you preserve — organic vegetables and fruits from seed to jar, no matter where you live or how much space you have.
Herbs & Natural Remedies
Grow your own herbs and build a natural medicine cabinet; teas, tinctures, salves, and soaps made from what you grow.
Seed Saving
Close the loop on your garden! Save your own seeds year after year so your food system becomes truly self-sufficient.
Over $5,000+ in value. One membership price.
I used my last jars of canned tomatoes and sauces last week and already know exactly what I need to do differently this year — plant 15 more tomatoes to take us through next spring. Thanks to the Challenges inside PTA, my record-keeping from last year is making all the difference..
— Cheryl, PTA member
Your Seasonal Roadmap, Delivered to Your Door
Plated by Season Print Magazine
(A $120/year Value—Included FREE with Membership)
Get a beautiful, kitchen-sturdy print magazine delivered to your door every quarter—packed with:
- Seasonal from-scratch recipes (including gluten-free options)
- Herb spotlights and easy how-to recipes
- 3-month harvest guides with ripening tips and generational wisdom
- Creative ways to use your home-canned & preserved foods
- Melissa’s homestead & faith devotionals for every season
- Guest columns from seasoned homesteaders
- Practical, timely guides for home, kitchen, and garden
There’s nothing like opening your mailbox to find the latest Plated by Season—your inspiration, roadmap, and encouragement for a truly homegrown year.
Choose Your Membership
Join today and get instant access to your full course library, the community, live Q&As, and your first issue of Plated by Season magazine, free with every membership.
Monthly
Pioneering Today Academy Membership
$39
FREE print quarterly Plated by Season magazine (US shipping only)
(Best value! Save 2 months instantly)!
Annual
Pioneering Today Academy Membership
$390
FREE print quarterly Plated by Season magazine (US shipping only)
Lifetime
Pioneering Today Academy Membership
$1,997
Try it risk-free for 15 days. Annual and lifetime members are covered by a full 15-day money-back guarantee. If you don’t love it, email us within 15 days for a full refund. No questions asked. The only exception is if your first issue of Plated by Season has already shipped, in which case the magazine cost is deducted from your refund.
Monthly members can cancel anytime — no commitment, no cancellation fees.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is this right for me if I’m just getting started?
Absolutely. PTA is designed for every stage, whether you’ve never canned a jar in your life or you’ve been preserving for years and want to go deeper. Every course starts with the fundamentals and builds from there, so you never get left behind.
What if I’m too busy to use it?
Everything inside PTA is on-demand. There are no deadlines, no schedules, and no pressure to keep up. You go at your own pace. A lot of our members start with just one course or one challenge and build from there. The library will always be there when you’re ready for the next thing.
Do I need special equipment?
Some courses, like canning and gardening, do require specific equipment. Each course includes a buying guide that tells you exactly what you need, why it matters, and where to get it. You don’t need to invest in everything at once.
When will I receive my first issue of Plated by Season?
Your first issue ships within the current quarterly cycle. You’ll receive an email confirmation with shipping details after you join. (Print magazine ships to US addresses only.)
What if I’m outside the US?
International members get full access to everything digital — all courses, tutorials, community, live Q&As, and printable guides. The print magazine ships to US addresses only, but international members can access all magazine content digitally inside their library.
What happens right after I join?
You’ll get instant access to your full member library the moment your membership is confirmed. Head straight to the Home Food Preservation course or the member community, that’s where most new members start. You’ll also receive a welcome email walking you through everything.
The Seasonal Kitchen You Pictured in the Workshop — It’s Buildable
You’ve got the framework. You know what you want. The only thing between where you are now and a pantry stocked with this season’s harvest is the skills, the support, and the people around you doing it too.
That’s what’s waiting for you inside the Pioneering Today Academy. And it starts the moment you join.
Trusted by 7,600+ homesteaders. 15-day guarantee on annual and lifetime memberships.
