The August 2021 Chicken Update this month unfortunately has a sad start. We had to say farewell to sweet Amelia at the beginning of this month. She was a sweet blue orpington and was a big bird in her prime. She’d had health issues for nearly 2 years (malnutrition issues from a pendulous crop that […]
August 2021 Chicken Update – Cost to raise chickens Read More »
After painstakingly picking popcorn kernels off the cob by hand our first year growing our rainbow popcorn blend, we decided we needed to find an affordable small-scale corn sheller to make the job easier. We had been keeping an eye on Craigslist and FB Marketplace for an antique corn sheller, when we learned that my
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If you’ve caught the hints on social media, we’ve been keeping a secret–we’re purchasing land! To help you keep up with what’s growing at Cottage Farmstead this year, we’ve put together a August 2021 homestead video roundup highlighting the latest happenings around these here parts. Enjoy! Well that didn’t go exactly to plan! Nothing like
August 2021 Homestead Video Roundup Read More »
How to make kombucha If you are like me, my first experience with kombucha was delightful, but expensive, making me wonder how to make kombucha at home. Looking up how to do so online can seem ominous with all the ratios and a bacteria and yeast culture to care for to boot! Today, I will
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Canning and food preservation season is in full swing! Which means more food is going into jars than what we’re eating directly. The $$ savings from this month will benefit us come this winter when we’re craving tomato soup or a bit of salsa. Read on for the July 2021 chicken update on the homestead
July 2021 Chicken Update – Cost to raise chickens Read More »
During the seed shortages of the 2020 pandemic, we began learning how to save as many seeds as we could. But even though we learned how to save cucumber seeds, we weren’t able to do so because we had all hybrid varieties. Womp womp. Lesson learned. We knew we needed to find an open-pollinated or
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Canning and food preservation season is in full swing! We’ve got our first pickles and tomato sauce in jars and the culinary herb supply is mostly stashed. As you’ll see below our garlic is minced, the onions frozen, and the potatoes are curing. We’ve been blessed by a bountiful harvest this year. To help you
July 2021 Homestead Video Roundup Read More »
Are weeds just weeds? Weeds in the garden can seem like a never-ending task to deal with. Pulling. Hoeing. Cutting. Ploughing. Chopping. It gets exhausting! Having spent many an hour out in the field pulling those countless weeds, I feel your pain. After a few years of weeding, there are patterns that I began to
What weeds tell you about your soil Read More »
It’s amazing what one month can grow! Our garden is beginning to produce our dinners and all the flowers are blooming like crazy. You’ll notice our chicken expenses are up this month. Mama Elsie now has 7 cute little baby chicks, so the extra cost of more pine shavings and a 50-lb bag of grower
June 2021 on the homestead Read More »
Weed control. One of the banes of vegetable gardening, especially if you want to use organic weed management methods. Thankfully there are some great ways to conquer the weeds! We’ve tried quite a few different methods over the years and have settled on using the weeding tricks and methods below as a sustainable way to
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