The kitchen is where simple living comes to life. It’s where home cooking meets food preservation—where you turn garden harvests and pantry staples into nourishing meals for your family. In this space, you’ll find from-scratch recipes made with whole ingredients, along with trusted techniques for preserving food through canning, fermenting, dehydrating, and freezing. Whether you’re making soup from fresh vegetables, putting up jam, or planning a pantry that supports your values, these resources will help you slow down, cook with purpose, and make the most of every ingredient. Because feeding your people well doesn’t have to be complicated—it just has to be real.
Pickling is a great way to preserve the summer harvest, and not just cucumbers. If you’re a fan of homemade pickles, relishes, or chutneys, then you know that a good pickling spice blend is the secret ingredient that takes your preserves to the next level. Of course, you can buy little packets of pickling spice, …
This recipe for classic canned dill pickles is full of the flavor and crunchiness you want from a dill pickle. It comes together quickly and is one of the best ways to put up a big cucumber harvest before it gets away from you. This recipe was reviewed for accuracy and food safety by Angi …
These sweet and spicy pickles are a family favorite as they have a perfect balance of tang, sweet, and spice. This is a canning recipe, although you can make them and store them in the refrigerator instead of canning them. We make several different pickles each year to be sure we have some of everyone’s …
These easy refrigerator dill pickles (aka icebox pickle or quick pickles) are so delicious and are a great way to quickly put up small batches of cucumbers from your garden or the grocery store. This recipe is for refrigerator dill pickles but you can make all kinds of refrigerator pickles using this recipe as a …
If you’ve spent any time with canning recipes, you’ve probably noticed that most of them call for canning salt — and maybe wondered whether it’s really necessary, or whether the table salt in your pantry will do. The short answer: canning salt is the best choice, but it’s not always strictly required, and there are …
Whenever I’m asked what I do with the extra eggs we get from our hens, I always say that we first freeze enough to make it through the winter. The other person usually looks confused and then says, “Can you freeze eggs?” Yes, you can freeze eggs. In fact there are several ways of freezing …
No matter how much succession planting I try to do, our melons all seem to ripen about the same time. It’s fantastic to be able to eat as much watermelon as you want day after day but we also like to enjoy watermelon more than just one month out of the year. Watermelon sorbet is …
I know what you’re thinking – cucumber sorbet? Trust me on this one. The flavor is clean, cool, and just tart enough from the lime that it doesn’t taste like a vegetable at all. It tastes like summer. This recipe came out of my garden, the way a lot of my best recipes do. Every …
Canning carrots is an easy and versatile way to preserve the harvest at the end of the season and stock your pantry. Canned carrots are a little soft, but the flavor is fantastic – pressure canning carrots seems to intensify the carrot’s flavor. This recipe was reviewed for accuracy and food safety by Angi Schneider in …
There are several tricks for making kale chips that are crispy and not soggy or scorched. Let’s explore those tricks so you can make all kinds of tasty kale chip variations. How to make crispy kale chips 1. Start with clean, fresh kale. For kale chips, it’s best to use kale that is fresh and …
What is the best way to freeze fresh basil to retain the flavor and color? We put all the the popular and not-so-popular methods to the test and came up the easiest and best way of freezing basil. Personally, my very favorite way to freeze basil is in the form of basil pesto. We go …
At the end of the summer when the garden is overflowing with basil, it’s the perfect time to start drying basil to stock your pantry. Fortunately, you don’t need any special equipment to dry basil. Let’s chat about the different methods of drying basil – air dry, dehydrator, oven method, microwave and air fryer – …
I’ve been thinking a lot about food security lately and what that truly means in our modern world. Up until very recently, people HAD to think ahead and make a plan for eating year round regardless of their climate. Now we can just pop into the grocery store and buy anything we want, in or …
Fig season is short, although it does come twice a year, so be sure to preserve figs while you can. Figs can be canned, frozen, pickled, dehydrated and even fermented! Fig season is season is something to celebrate. Like mulberries, figs don’t ship well which makes it hard to find fresh figs for sale. In …
Every summer when we juice our Mustang grapes, I end up with gallons of grape mash left over from the steam juicer. For years I felt a little guilty about how much of it went to waste — all that fruit, all that flavor, just composted. Then I figured out I could turn it into …
When you make home canned soups you end up with a meal in a jar instead of ingredients to make a meal. Canning soup at home helps you be better prepared for emergencies and for busy weeknight dinners. A friend recently told me that someone told her, “You can only can soups at home using …
There are certain jars I always want on my pantry shelf — canned beef stew, chili con carne, and this sausage, potato and kale soup. It’s a copycat of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana, and honestly I think the home canned version is better. You open the jar, heat it on the stove, stir in a …
Traditionally fermented pickles are easy to make and full of probiotic goodness for your gut. These pickles are usually known as sour pickles. They aren’t canned and there’s no vinegar. Every summer we make jar after jar of these naturally pickled cucumbers to preserve for the year. We make whole dill pickles, spears and pickle …
It is possible to grow enough food to feed your family even if you live on a small piece of property. Maybe not 100% of your fruit and vegetable needs but, honestly, I don’t know anyone who grows 100% of their food. This is a really long article, so you might want to grab a …
Mulberries grow in many climates and are often considered a nuisance. Put these tasty berries to use and treat your family to something they cannot get at the grocery store! These tasty mulberry recipes will help you get started. What are Mulberries? Mulberries are small, usually dark but sometimes white, berries that grow on a …