How to eat sustainably

First published for last year’s Challenge, on Mahlzeit Ready for the Real Food Challenge, starting tomorrow? Here’s an 8-step guide to getting back control of your own food supply, from the simplest to the most obsessed. Easiest: Stop shopping at the big chains like Safeway Buy your groceries from the locally-owned neighborhood grocery store, if [...]

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Sunday Photos…Healthy Fats

Here at Chiot’s Run we try to incorporate a lot of healthy fats into our diets. We don not eat any soy, canola, corn, or other types of vegetable oils. We do eat coconut oil, red palm oil, olive oil from a small farm in California, bacon grease, beef tallow, and lots of local pastured [...]

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March Planner

So many of us are working our way toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind we here at NDiN wanted to share some general guidelines of what to plan for on a monthly basis. Whether you’re a gardener, a beekeeper, a forager, or you keep animals, hopefully our monthly guides will help you plan [...]

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Reader’s Question: How Do I Get Started?

I’m a 30 year old black man who grew up in the some of the rougher “hoods” of NYC. On any corner you can find, a liquor store, a Mc Donalds, a Kansas Fried Chicken fast food spot and a “corner store” that makes most of its profit from sodas and juice, as well as [...]

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Flattered to be part of the community

Don’t lie–I know that the first thing you do in the morning is put coffee on to brew and then go online to see who has “talked” to you since you last signed off. And usually, it’s no one. (Well, what did you expect, they were all asleep, too!) But a few mornings ago, I [...]

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Sunday Photos…My Solar Dryer

“We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.” -E.B. White *** This past week we had a few days in the 50′s here at Chiot’s Run and I was so happy that I could hang out a few loads of [...]

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What Do You Save For Later?

It used to be all that I’d preserve was tomatoes. After a few years of that I started freezing apples and peaches that I’d purchased by the bushel. When we moved to our current property we were loaded with wild blackberries, so preserves and jams obviously had to go on the list. Now, after almost [...]

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Time to Think About the Real Food Challenge

Here at Not Dabbling, we’ve been discussing whether or not we’re going to do the Real Food Challenge again this year, it seems like a lot of you are interested in it. If you’re interested in participating again this year, we’ll once again spend the Month of March once again focusing on Real Food. No [...]

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Sunday Photos…Winter Baking

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight”   – M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating *** Here at Chiot’s Run I spend a lot of time baking in the winter. Freshly baked bread is good all year long, but there’s [...]

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Time to Brush Up on Your Sugaring Skills

It’s that time of year to start thinking about the upcoming sugaring season. If you’ve never sugared your maples before I’d recommend that you give it a go. It’s loads of fun and you end up with maple syrup at the end. It’s a great way to slow down and take notice what goes into [...]

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