Spring is in the air, the days are getting longer, and we have lots of eggs on the farm!  I decided to use up a half dozen of our treasures to make this easy baked egg custard yesterday.  My grandmother made this often and it truly is comfort food.  It only requires five ingredients which makes it a go to dessert if the pantry is running low. Ingredients: 6 eggs 4 cups whole milk 3/4 cups sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon of salt Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Scald milk in a medium saucepan until very hot but not bubbling. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, su ..read more

Has cooking become a lost art?  At times it seems like scratch cooking skills have become a thing of the past.  I grew up in a home where meal preparation was an important part of our day.  Everyone pitched in to help and the dinner table was a focal point for our family.  Decades later, I found that daily cooking amidst the hustle and bustle of work, school and sports was challenging yet still possible.  When attempting to live a simpler life, it is important to practice being frugal and creative in the kitchen.  The benefits of home cooking are en ..read more

With only a few days left until the year comes to a close, I have been making New Year’s resolutions for 2017.  Some of these are personal goals like completing the Appalachian Mountain Club’s 4,000 footer list for New Hampshire (only fifteen more to go), but several of them directly involve our life on the farm.  Identifying the projects I want to complete gets me one step closer to fulfilling them, right? Raise More Chickens We got our first four chicks last May and have loved watching them grow.  Plus the benefit of having farm fre ..read more

We are busy decorating our homestead for Christmas this weekend!  I am preparing some delicious snacks instead of a big meal this afternoon.  My family loves this quick and easy guacamole dip and although I can’t grow avocados here on our New Hampshire farm, you can find a few of the other items in my garden during the summer.  I will also serve some of the mild salsa that I canned in August. Ingredients 2 ripe avocados (mashed) 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1/2 cup red bell pepper (diced) 1/2 cup grape tomatoes (quartered) 1/4 cup red onion ..read more

Part time homesteading is not easy when you are juggling the demands of a job outside of the home.  Work-life balance is so important especially when your home environment includes maintaining a farm.   It can be challenging to meet the needs of your family, animals, gardens, outbuildings, and a traditional house. When I am at home, cooking, cleaning, gardening, or spending time with my family, I am truly content.  But I also enjoy my career and the financial security and benefits that come from earning a paycheck.  The company I work for will be acquired in ..read more

Having a plan for emergency food storage is a critical part of preparedness.  This is especially important when you have a young family.  Going without electricity for a few days is probable during a New Hampshire winter, and I want my children to be as comfortable as possible during that time.  We have also experienced periodic financial struggles, and it is a comfort to know that we can reduce our grocery shopping trips during those months.  An emergency food storage list let’s me know what I have on hand, and what I need to buy. Make a List of Your Su ..read more

Autumn in New Hampshire is gorgeous.  Nature’s paintbrush explodes with strokes with orange, red and gold!  The air is crisp and the smell of drying leaves and wood burning stoves floats through the fields.  Fall is also an important time to begin preparing the garden for winter. Clean Up the Beds Pulling up dead plants prevents the spread of disease and insect infestation, and makes things much easier in the spring.  I add the old plants and weeds to a compost pile, but it is recommended that you burn these plants if they are showing signs of blight or other ..read more

When harvesting my green beans, I started researching how to save bean seeds for next year’s planting.  I have never tried seed-saving but read that beans are the easiest crop to start with.  I guess this makes sense considering the seeds you eat are the same ones that you plant. Which Variety? I had planted several varieties of heirloom beans in 2016; Blue Lake Bush, Golden Wax and Kentucky Wonder Pole.   The pole variety produced a ton of pods!  I left a lot of them on the vines to fully ripen until the pods had yellowed and then I shelled the mat ..read more

The summer gardening season has come to a close and my favorite crop of the year was potatoes.  This was my first attempt of growing these tubers, and I only planted one variety.  They were fantastic!  We ate the new spuds throughout the summer, typically just seasoning them, wrapping them in foil and throwing them on the grill.  Now I am harvesting potatoes for winter storage.  This should be completed once the vines die off, but before the soil freezes. How to Harvest I removed the remaining potatoes by carefully digging them up when the soil was dry ..read more

Preparedness on the homestead has been my focus this week.  A fast moving thunderstorm blew through the mountains the other day.  We lost power for several hours which was a reminder that winter is coming.  In our neck of the woods a blizzard can put us in the dark for several days.  Sub zero temperatures in the double digits can cause the water pump to freeze at the barn.   We need to put the final touches on our plan B.  (Roof shoveling in 2015) Homesteading requires planning for the future while taking care of the present.  I find myself thi ..read more