Butter: How to make it, why to eat it, and 20 reasons it’s good for you

My contribution to ye olde NDIN blog this week is a re-post from my blog, Pocket Pause. I decided that after drooling over these butter photos on Wednesday, i’d like to do some more drooling on Friday. Forgive me. – Miranda Butter was given a bad name years ago, replaced with man-made margarine packaged in [...]

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Can You Say Crow-Shay?

I’m a brand new knitter. I love it. I love the stockinette stitch: it makes me giggle all over with happiness. I’m new to knitting, but i’m not new to crafting with yarn: i originally learned that ‘other’ yarn art: crochet. Some deem crochet low brow, kitchy, less advanced or somehow just not as refined [...]

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At What Cost?

Computers and modern transportation have made this world of ours seem a lot smaller. It makes luxuries that many of us might afford seem commonplace. I can order shea butter made from nuts handpicked by African locals, wool from the “Highlands of Peru”, and water bottled all the way in Fiji and have them shipped [...]

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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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Pumpkins – Scones, Seeds, and Clotted Cream

This year my pumpkin vines went the way of the squash – horribly. Neither one seemed to produce any female blossoms, and so I ended up with no orange pie filling or bread sweets produced in my garden.  Instead I picked up a dozen pie pumpkins from a fruit stand (thanks, Mom!), and I’ve been [...]

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Preserving Butter by Making Ghee

Here at Chiot’s Run we use only butter, olive oil, and coconut oil. We use mostly butter since I can find fresh local butter from pastured cows, in the summer it’s a deep golden yellow, and tastes heavenly, the pale white supermarket butter doesn’t even come close to the grassy goodness of pastured butter. Some [...]

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September Planner

So many of us are working our way toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind we 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 ahead for [...]

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A Question on Fresh Food Storage

I had a reader email me the other day wanting to know what was the best way to store her produce from the farmer’s market. Her problem is that it was spoiling at an unusually rapid rate.  She stores it in plastic in her crisper at the bottom of her refrigerator. Seeing that we are [...]

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Taking Advantage of Summer’s Bounty

This time of year it’s all about eating fresh in season food and trying to figure out the best way to preserve some of it for winter. I’m trying to work on growing more fresh food during the winter months, but until I get everything figured out I’m still canning/freezing/drying fruit and veggies. My sister [...]

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Cleaning out the Pantry

Spring cleaning not only applies to the house, but also to the pantry! This is the time of year when I start to make a concerted effort to eat up goods the goods I preserved last summer. Soon enough I’ll be pulling out the canning pots and filing jars with this summer’s bounty and packing [...]

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