Couscous: An Ancient Food in Modern Times

Couscous

I ask a lot of questions about my food—oh, not the food on the plate in front of me.  I have eaten in too many foreign countries and permaculture events to stop and question that.  No.  I just eat, smile, and hope no one tells me until I have properly digested. 

I ask questions about food like this…where does it come from?  What are the traditional ways to prepare it?  Who has altered it and how?  What do they do with this over in India, Russia, or South America?  And how will this food nourish my family?

Couscous.  Have you ever thought of it? What is Couscous?

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Off-Grid Micro-Hydro Homestead

Off-Grid Micro-Hydro homestead

Microhydro Electricity Unplugged

 

 

Microhydro, its simplicity is so attractive.  So, you have always wanted to do it . . . go off grid and be self-sufficient.   What does it actually take?  From everyone I have spoken to who actually has done it, the answer seems to be, “Take your estimated cost for time, energy and money and triple it.” 

 Still reading this? 

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Everything You Need to Know About Buying, Storing, & Using Spices

Buying, Storing, and Using Spices

Spices have become an integral part of modern cuisine both in terms of health, and taste and many households prefer to keep them at home in storage. Correctly using spices can result in the best, most flavorful dishes you will ever have; however, that can be maximized after keeping a few important points in your mind. Here is everything you need to know about buying, storing and using spices.

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Homemade Chicken Feed Using The Chop Rite

Homemade Chicken Feed using the Chop Rite

My how the chickens love this.  It’s just what we do after fish night now. You can make homemade chicken feed from everyday scraps, but some scraps need to be broken down for them.

By grinding the parts that humans do not consume and feeding the chickens, we cut down on chicken feed and provide amazing nutrition to the girls.

We made this video five years ago when we first got our Chop Rite, and I don’t know why we never posted it.  With five years’ experience with owning a Chop Rite, I can speak with some authority when I say that it was an excellent investment for our homestead.

Oh, and it’s still Made in America.  The company used to be called “Enterprise” and once in awhile, you can still find an old Enterprise at an estate sale or in a dusty attic.  They haven’t changed the design since they came out well over 100 years ago, so if you need Enterprise replacement parts, we have those too.

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VIEW CHOP RITE

 

Making Healthy Food Decisions for Your Family

Making Healthy Food Decisions

Eating healthy is difficult these days, mainly because it’s hard to know what “healthy food” is. There are so many fad diets and theories on the “best” diet for optimum health that it’s hard to know where to start. Add this to the fact that many “nutritional” labels can be misleading, and it’s really difficult to know whether your efforts are even effective or not. Below are some tips on making healthy food decisions for your family.

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Leftover Safety

Leftover Safety

Perhaps the contents of your fridge look a bit like mine.  It’s Summer BBQ Season!  You have some leftover meat, some veggie or chip dip, a paper plate full of random dessert-bits and cookie crumbs, and whatever else left over from, well, who knows… But here is both our tribute to–and a solution for–the leftovers filling the fridge.  Let’s make sure they’re getting used, but safely. 

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Homemade Cheese

Homemade Cheese

A friend has given me her homemade cheese several times, generally made from her goat’s milk. This is the single best reason ever to have milking goats (although the milk straight is really yummy as well). She invited me over to make some homemade cheese with her, knowing how much I wanted to learn for myself. You can do this with cow’s milk; the thicker it is, the better your outcome will be.

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Deciding to DIY or Outsource Your Home Project

Deciding your home project

When you have a to-do list of home projects you need to complete, the decision to DIY or outsource is important. Whether the project is small (like replacing a porch board), or large (like adding onto your home), both DIY and outsourcing will present unique pros and cons. Before reaching a decision, thoroughly research what to look for in a professional. Also, carefully assess exactly what you’re getting into before you start a DIY project.

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Non-toxic Pantry Items to Clean the House (plus recipes)

nontoxic pantry items to clean the house

Our everyday products which we use for cleaning, polishing, washing and disinfecting are necessities that we cannot live without. Advertisements have been telling us that our houses are full of deadly germs and virus that may attack us and make us sick.

We believe that we are always surrounded by diseases that may just inflict on us anytime, and to make ourselves safe, we obsessively try to keep our surroundings sanitized by using endless toxic products that smell sweet but are full of harmful chemicals like phthalates, perchloroethylene, triclosan and many others.

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Florida will make these emergency preparedness items tax exempt

We have talked about emergency preparedness a lot on our site lately.  We believe in kitchen self-sufficiency and traditional skills because they are healthy, economical, environmentally friendlier than packaged foods, and…because they ensure a greater sense of security in the face of disaster.  Disaster preparedness is on our minds this time of year, knowing that we are just around the corner from Tornado Season and Hurricane Season in many parts of our country.

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