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Foraging is a great excuse to get outside and reconnect with nature in the first days of spring. Winter foods are weighing heavy on our stomachs, and it's time for something fresh...and green. Well before
You don't often think of grandma's hosta patch as the best place to harvest lunch, but hostas are edible (and delicious). Perhaps it's time to open your eyes to all the wonderful edibles lurking in
A sweet floral wine that captures the very essence of summer in a bottle.
How did primitive potters harvest clay? People have been making pottery for millennia, and convenient hobby shops have only been a thing for a few decades at best. Before that, people harvested their own clay
Pressing cider is a great way to preserve the tasty goodness of apples all winter long. Cider can be canned as fresh juice, frozen or fermented into hard cider, all of which keep for months
Dandelion greens have made their way into the supermarket, but what about the roots? Dandelion roots are both nutritious and edible. They can be foraged in the early spring before the plants send up flower
Bark mulch is a great way to keep weeds down in the garden while adding soil fertility. The problem is, it can be expensive to buy. If you're heating with wood, odds are you already have
Willow bark has been used for centuries as a natural pain reliever. It contains salicin, which was later synthesized and is the active ingredient in aspirin. It's reputed to relieve pain without the stomach upset
When we found our off-grid homestead, we definitely weren’t ready. We didn’t know the first thing about off-grid living. Honestly, we’d never even considered living off-grid until we found our dream homestead. Looking back, off-grid
When we found our off-grid compound, I assumed that I'd have to give up just about every power-consuming modern luxury. We went through our kitchen cabinets and tested each appliance with a kill-a-watt electricity usage
Pine needle tea is a warming wintertime tea, full of pleasant resinous flavors and mild citrus notes.
You don't often think of grandma's hosta patch as the best place to harvest lunch, but hostas are edible (and delicious). Perhaps it's time to open your eyes to all the wonderful edibles lurking in
Plant once and harvest for a lifetime
Have a look at these practical and most successful tips to develop self-reliance and lead a more empowered and balanced life.
Foraging, Preserving, and Homesteading Adventures. Follow along to learn more practical ways to be self-reliant. Click to read Practical Self Reliance, by Ashley Adamant, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
We spent years looking for the perfect off-grid compound, mostly because we didn't have a lot of money to spend. Before we found our off-grid home we toured a lot of shacks that quite frankly
Self-reliant living starts with re-skilling, and unless you have a mentor handy, there's no better way than hitting the books. These are my favorite books for self reliant living, and they're taught me more than
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is one of the most useful and widely available herbs you can find. Once you know how to identify yarrow, you'll see it everywhere. The plant has dozens of traditional uses, most of
A black walnut tincture is easy to make at home, and all it takes is a fresh supply of ripe black walnuts. The walnuts themselves will still be perfectly good to eat since a black walnut
A while back I took a winter foraging course at our local herbal school, and I was truly amazed at how many ways you can eat a pine tree. Most conifers are not only edible,
A while back I took a winter foraging course at our local herbal school, and I was truly amazed at how many ways you can eat a pine tree. Most conifers are not only edible,
Homemade elderberry syrup is easy to make at home with just a few simple ingredients. Using fresh or dried elderberries, this elderberry syrup recipe is ready in less than an hour.
At this point there are more than 700 articles on Practical Self Reliance, and there's just so much information that it's hard to know where to start. Here are all the most popular articles, sorted
Tinctures are a convenient way to take your herbal medicines. They're ready to use, just pop a few drops into your mouth or a glass of water and you're done. The problem is...tinctures are expensive. A
This method of making dandelion capers uses salt and vinegar to create a pickle that can be canned for long-term preservation or stored in the refrigerator for a few months.
Shade-tolerant fruiting plants can be hard to find, but there are still quite a few fruits that grow in shade, whether part shade or full shade. Don't give up on homegrown fruit just because you
Living off-grid doesn't mean giving up modern conveniences. There are a number of companies that make specialized off-grid appliances, and while they cost a bit more at the start, they're built to last a lifetime.
This simple rose cordial captures the essence of roses in a sweet syrup that’s perfect for kid’s sodas or mixed drinks for adults.
A friend of mine spends her summer weekend trying to wipe knotweed off the face of the earth. She comes back from trips exhausted, having used everything (including fire) to try to eradicate a patch
When we think of medicinal herbs, most people's minds go right to small weeds and flowers growing at the edge of your lawn or on a roadside. We don't usually think of trees as a
Growing turmeric at home is surprisingly easy, and these beautiful plants thrive indoors or outside with minimal care. Most people know turmeric as a bright yellow spice powder that's commonly used in curries. It also
I found myself wondering, how did our ancestors in landlocked regions find salt? I know. The weird things I wonder about... It's easy enough to harvest sea salt from the ocean, but what if you're
The very best medicine is the one you'll take. When you turn your medicine into mead, it becomes a true pleasure to take. No arm twisting required. Homemade elderberry mead combines honey with elderberries to create
These days, home brewers generally make mead in either 1 gallon or 5-gallon batches. Why? Mostly because that's how the equipment is setup. Brewing vesicles, or carboys, come in one gallon or five-gallon sizes,
Wild edible roots and tubers can form the basis for a wild foods diet, providing more calories and nutrition than a few wild foraged weeds. A while back I was having lunch with my little
Homemade cheddar is rich and flavorful, and the natural bandaging allows the cheese to achieve complex flavors during aging. (Waxed or vacuum-sealed aging are also included as options.)
Blackcurrant mead is a delicious way to preserve blackcurrants, and their natural astringency is exceptional in a homemade honey wine.
Producing your own sugar at home is a tasty way to increase your self-sufficiency. While maple sugar is a good option, it only works if you have enough large maple trees on your property. Apples,
Wood ash from your fireplace, woodstove, or outdoor boiler may seem like a waste product, but there are a surprising number of uses for wood ash. Historically, wood ash was an asset, and there are
Living off-grid doesn't mean giving up modern conveniences. There are a number of companies that make specialized off-grid appliances, and while they cost a bit more at the start, they're built to last a lifetime.
Every year I'm excited about fermenting up something tasty with raspberries. Raspberry wine, raspberry mead or even a light summery raspberry beer. Just one problem...raspberries are wicked expensive. Do you know how many raspberries it
Humans require salt for survival, plain and simple. While it's easy enough to extract salt from seawater, that's only practical if you're near the coast. Inland sources of salt were well known to our ancestors,
Outside of the tropics, it's hard to grow your own sugar cane. Just about everywhere else has some type of tappable tree that you can use to make your own backyard maple syrup. On average, a
Self-reliant living starts with re-skilling, and unless you have a mentor handy, there's no better way than hitting the books. These are my favorite books for self reliant living, and they're taught me more than
