Sprouts and Microgreens: How to Make Fresh Vegetables in Winter
By now we all know I love webinars and learning new ways to do things. Sprouts and micro greens aren’t a new concept by any means, but I’ve certainly never dived into them. Honestly, I thought it was one of those fad things meant to convince you that you were doing something healthy. Last week,…
SeedTime: The Great (FREE) Garden Planning Aid (Plus $5 Free Seeds)
Right around the beginning of the pandemic, I got into herbalism. I’d watch tons of webinars, find recipes, and go “forage” in the backyard to practice. In the midst of those webinars was one hosted by a company named Born to Grow. They were the first to introduce the idea of winter gardening in my…
Sourdough Recipes Trials: Farmhouse on Boone
This Christmas was a baker’s dream for me. I got all variations of supplies from my family to dive deeper into sourdough. Until now, I’ve been making either discard recipes or the “cheater” boules recipes for soup bread bowls. Now I have a Dutch oven, bannetons, slings, and lames to go with my new stand…
Happy New Year from Chayotix Homestead!
Here’s to a new year! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us for 2025. My ankle is still in a poor state so I can’t do much of the manual preparations yet. But I’ve already got my almanacs! I buy the Llewellyn’s almanac every year from a local metaphysical shop. (I got…
What We’re Leaving in 2024 and What’s New for Us Next Year
With the year coming to a close, I’ve been thinking about how this year went for us. We had a somewhat successful growing season for being new gardeners, put in some additions, and test drove some new skills. Of course, playing anything by ear comes with fumbles and screw ups. The Garden This year we…
Winter Planning for the Coming Year
There were plans to prep the yards and work out some building concepts for coops and a rabbitry over the winter to be ready for building up come springtime. Life had other plans, and I am sitting here instead in a boot from a major ankle sprain. Plan A The tilled plots are expanded and…
Can We Talk About Homemade Sourdough?
I’ve tried sourdough repeatedly this year. I made temporary progress with a starter I began in February, but by May, a missed feeding invited bad bacteria to pop up. It took an unfortunate amount of time to disinfect the jar and bamboo lid, which seemed to keep regrowing mold each time we’d get it clean.I…
Joining a Holiday Baking Challenge
After the summit this year, I joined as a member of the School of Traditional Skills. Alongside all of their classes, they hold challenges here and there. I missed the composting challenge this year but was right in time to join a baking challenge. How it worked They start their challenge by selecting a class,…
Planning to Add Elderberries, But First a Workshop’s Lessons
It’s no secret that I do a ton of research before I jump into a project. The fact is everything is too expensive to throw away on trial runs. My social media has been full of online summits, seminars, trainings. A couple of months ago, I stumbled on a weeklong web series of teachings on…
Mapping Out the Grand Plan for Chayotix Homestead
Leading Up to the Plan Somehow, I forgot to share what the main plan for Chayotix Homestead is! A couple of years ago, I bought a book about being self-sufficient on a quarter acre of land. It happened that the land I bought mostly matched the imaginary set up the book gave as an example…