Michele B. Decoteau

Food is out there – just hanging on vines, dangling from trees, and lying on the ground. And it is going to waste. How can you gather some of this food? Forage.

Enjoy the harvest as long as you can – berries are a delicious treat all year long and when you save them yourself, you know exactly what is, and isn’t, in the foods you eat

Learn why the unique way in which bees make honey gives it special healing and preserving qualities.

Insteading’s Michele Decouteau shares lessons her family learned from riding out Hurricane Irene on their New England homestead.

A thriving compost pile can provide plenty of nutrient rich soil for a healthy garden and you can compost anywhere. Building a beautiful compost pile is as much art as science. Rich compost can help any garden, even a container garden, thrive and produce and abundance of healthy food. Compost can provide all the nutrients and

Rain barrels are a great way to deal with drought, but can also be a solution for a garden without traditional access.

A babysitting co-op can help to ease the financial burdens of a babysitter by allowing parents to barter for services they need.

Sprouted seeds contain vitamins and calories while bringing a garden to any space. You don’t need special tools or seeds to have a sprout garden either.

While not for the faint of heart, a small PYO operation can be a good source of income and potential customers for any farm.

Geocaching is a growing outdoor hobby where the coordinates of certain locations or hidden “treasure” caches are made available. To find treasure, seekers are armed with handheld GPS devices, a pen and trinkets.

Bartering can be a great way to get something you need and build up a community at the same time. For bartering to be successful, keep these simple guidelines in mind.

Rain gardens attract birds and butterflies (and bees), while protecting local streams and ponds.  These gardens are planted with flowers, shrubs and grasses that are easy to maintain and thrive without fertilizers and pesticides. Where to place a rain garden, how to select plants and how to keep the garden flourishing as a beautiful accent for your home

About five years ago commercial beekeepers across the US began reporting bee losses in record numbers – about 30% each year. This level of loss is unsustainable and many beekeepers are going out of business. Aside from the economic issues, the record number of bees dying should be alarming everyone who eats. About one in

The Freecycle movement, started in Tucson, has spread world-wide keeping thousands of items out of landfills and trash piles. Freecycle has taken the phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” to heart by providing a forum for people with everything including the kitchen sink that they don’t need any more to find people who

Now that you have grown beautiful vegetables, lovely flowers or have gorgeous chicken eggs, how do you go about selling them at a farmer’s market? What are some of the tricks of the trade and the lessons learned from veterans? Homework It is very important to find the right farmer’s market for you. You don’t want

If you have a deck, porch or even a window sill, you can have a garden. Container gardening can be a great way to start gardening, try something new, out wit predators, or bring kids into gardening. Having a garden, even a modest one, will bring beautiful food to your table and a sense of satisfaction.

The recent tragedy in Japan and the vast number of weather-related power outages across the US this winter have many people concerned about what to do in case something like this happens to them. If you and yours were caught in a disaster and had to shelter inside your home for three or more days,

The Red Cross and the SPCA recommend that in addition to an Emergency Kit for you and your family, you create one for your pets. This is important step can help to save your pets live and your peace of mind. Many animal related groups have chimed in to build on the Red Cross list

The Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, movement is an important step in locally sourcing your food. With more and more food recalls being issued by the government and food producers on non-meat items and food prices rising along with oil prices, having locally sourced food can be a key component of a family’s budget and

Did your children outgrow their clothes overnight? With growing kids, it is a fact that you will end up with clothes that still have some wear-ability after your kids not longer fit in them. You can give them to relatives if they live close by, but inevitably your kids will be the last girl or new baby and

If there is economy in scale, an entrée exchange group embodies it. The idea is that if five families participate, each family makes five of the same meals, meet up and trade, and go home with four meals plus your own. By making multiples of the same meal you can save on preparation time and ingredients. Forming an entree exchange