Food Preservation

Beef jerky is a popular, tasty treat that’s perfect for anywhere and everywhere. Depending on whether you buy it at your local butcher or make it yourself, you want it to last. So, here’s the question: how long does beef jerky last? Store-bought beef jerky will last for 1- 2 years if properly stored. Homemade … Read more

Native Americans’ lives back in the day were hard, as they focused much off their energy to find and preserve food. They grew various crops, were able to forage for natural growing plants that were good to eat. They were also prolific hunters. Despite their ability to supply food, it was hard to have enough … Read more

Ramen… 2-minute noodles, instant noodles, whatever you call them, this is one heck of a foodstuff! This is quite possibly a hiker’s best friend, while out on the trails because it’s lightweight, it doesn’t take up much space in your pack, and it’s easy to prepare. Additionally, it’s great for household meals and snacks – … Read more

I’ve always liked biltong, it’s one of South Africa’s favorite snacks; it’s easy to get as most butchers have it in stock and it equally easy to make. I’ve made some myself many times, and it’s one of my favorite foods to make. Now, beef jerky is the American equivalent, and many people think they’re … Read more

I’d never really considered dehydrating honey on the homestead, however, the other day I was gifted a lot of honey and I really wanted to use the five-gallon buckets that it came in for another project on the homestead. So I did some research and came up with some ways to store the honey that … Read more

Dehydrating food is a great way to preserve it for future weeks, months – perhaps years, depending on what exactly you’re preserving… I love dehydrating herbs in particular, as this makes it easy to store them for later use. Herbs definitely aren’t the only foods you can dehydrate, though. You can also dehydrate fruits, vegetables, … Read more

Potatoes have been a staple crop for centuries. Thankfully, they are an inexpensive and easy to grow vegetables that consistently produces a bumper crop. But, storing the potatoes so they do not rot and are both good and safe to eat for the winter and spring (until a new crop can be harvested) is a … Read more

There’s nothing that quite says fall like fresh apple cider. Every fall we gather together and pick apples on our homestead. We drag the old cider press out of the barn, brush the cobwebs off and clean it up so that we can make our very own apple cider. Everyone gets involved from the oldest … Read more

If you’re a homesteader, preserving food is an absolutely essential skill. If you want to live a sustainable, low-cost lifestyle, you need to be able to optimize the foods you grow, harvest, hunt, forage or buy, so you have a healthy, low-cost supply on hand during cold weather, or during tough times when food is … Read more

Sauerkraut, either you love it or you hate it. I love it, but my household has mixed emotions about it. It takes several weeks to ferment your cabbage, and to make it you need lots of cabbage and pickling salt. What is Sauerkraut? Sauerkraut is much simpler than it sounds, it is just finely chopped … Read more

Drying flowers to preserve them has been a homesteading tradition going back hundreds of years. The only downfall to the process is all of the patience it requires. Pressing flowers between boards or sheets of cardboard takes weeks. These oven and microwave flower drying techniques take only an hour or less. There are many reasons … Read more

Preserving eggs with mineral oil is both an inexpensive and speedy process, but you can only use this old homesteading method when dealing with farm fresh eggs. Because commercial manufacturers of eggs wash the bloom off of the shell and refrigerate them, rubbing mineral oil onto the shell to protect it from air and bacteria, … Read more

Dehydrating is the most expensive way to preserve eggs, but only because the initial investment of a dehydrator will be anywhere from $65 to $175. We own three dehydrating machines now. We upgraded with each purchase, and have not been unhappy with any of the NESCO machines that we own. Having three functioning machines makes … Read more