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Making your own herb seasoning salt sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Thankfully, fancy doesn’t mean hard. The key to creating the perfect seasoning is starting with quality herbs and salt and getting creative with your favorite combinations. You can customize your herb seasoning salt to suit your preferences and dishes. One of the best parts? By making your own herb seasoning, you can omit the questionable ingredients often found in store-bought seasoning salts. Not only will it taste bette …

Biscuit Recipe Makes 8-10 biscuits Ingredients: 4 cups all purpose flour 2 tbsp baking powder 2 tsp salt 10 tbsp cold leaf lard or butter (or some of each!) 3/4-1 cup milk or buttermilk Directions: Preheat oven to 425F Combine flour, baking powder, & salt together and mix thoroughly Add lard and/or butter to dry ingredients & cut in with a fork or pastry cutter (or your hands!) until pieces are evenly distributed. (You can also use a cheese grater for your butter if you wish) Mix in milk …

How to Make CheeseThere are a number of reasons to make your own cheese, the most obvious being that cheese is delicious. In all its varieties and textures, cheese is a wonderful food that complements and accentuates almost anything you pair it with. It’s also a fantastic way to extend the shelf life of extra milk from something that has to be refrigerated into a shelf-stable product that can be saved for months. Making your own cheese gives you total control of the ingredients, ensuring the onl …

Foraging Wild VioletsHave you ever wanted to forage your own wild violets for culinary use? When it comes to foraging, violets are an excellent plant for beginners. This sweet-smelling flower is extremely common, easy to identify, and can be used in many different recipes including candied violets, violet sugar, violet vinegar, violet lemonade, violet simple syrup, violet jelly, violet honey, and dried violets for tea. Viola odorata, also known as the Sweet Violet or Wood Violet, is one of the f …

Quick History of Mother's DayFor over 100 years, the second Sunday of May has been set aside to honor mothers. Showing appreciation for mothers first happened in the United States in 1908, and Mother’s Day became an official US holiday in 1914. Traditionally, Mother’s Day is a day of flowers, cards, and phone calls to show mothers how much they matter.At my house, Mother’s Day usually coincides with our last frost date, so the day has morphed into back-breaking labor as everyone helps plant the …

Strawberry Rhubarb Vanilla Bean Jam Made Oh So EasyNo homestead pantry is complete without homemade jellies and jams. Besides being so tasty to eat, they’re also very easy to make!If you’re intimidated by making your own jams and jellies, don’t be! Learn how easy it is to use the Jelly and Jam Maker from Roots & Harvest to make the perfect strawberry rhubarb vanilla bean jam and then get the creative juices flowing with so many more flavor combinations – many of which you can make from forag …

What is Fire Cider?Fire cider or fire tonic is a spicy, vinegar-based natural remedy used as an immunity-booster, cold remedy, for sinus relief and general wellness, particularly during the cold and flu season. Most fire ciders are technically an oxymel, which is a medicinal tonic made with both vinegar and honey. Several key spicy ingredients are infused in an apple cider vinegar base, along with herbs and citrus, to create this tangy, uplifting tonic that will burn the bug right out of you!How …

Creative Homemade GiftsIt’s no secret that 2020 became the year of homemade sourdough bread, followed by a surge of home canning and other diy projects! It has truly been a time to learn new home-based skills, and the holidays are a great reason to share some of your creative bounty. From homemade jams and jellies to spice mixes, pickles, and even tea blends, there are a variety if ways to dress up your goods into cute homemade gifts. Even if you are not-so-confident with your cooking skills, th …

What’s The Difference? Fermentation vs Pickling Fermentation and pickling can be easy to mix up; there are some areas of overlap that can easily spark some confusion.After all, you can make fermented cucumber pickles, or pickled cucumber pickles. But, do fermented cucumber pickles qualify as fermented, or pickled? For the answers to this question and more, read on as we explore the overlap between these two methods of food preservation and preparation.In short, here’s what you need t …

Did you have a bumper apple harvest this year or do you enjoy vising apple orchards each fall with your family? If so, I highly recommend making a batch of Apple Jelly out of part of your bounty! This sweet, fresh apple jelly recipe is a great way to preserve some of your apple harvest to enjoy in the dead of winter.If you’re trying to be more self-sufficient, making homemade jams and jellies is a great place to start. Each year I make a goal to make, grow, can, or produce enough of at least one …