Are you worried that an organic garden on the White House grounds might cause some Americans to start eating a wide variety of chemical-free, locally grown produce? The Mid America CropLife Association, a lobbying group for agribusinesses giants, is. Just a few days after Michelle Obama invited local fifth graders to help plant the White
Search Results for: natural-foods/vegan-living
How To Make Soothing Cherry Honey Cough Drops
It’s cold and flu season and that means one of two things. It’s either time to stock up on cough drops OR it’s time to make your own at home! It seems like I never have cough drops on hand when I need them, so when a cold hit our family this winter, I decided
Best Wood Arbors
You’ve finally put the finishing touches on your backyard oasis and want to add an entry that will make a statement. Or, maybe your daughter is getting married in your garden this summer, and you want an altar that’s both easy to put together and beautiful. No matter what your needs may be for a
Introduction to Agroforestry: What It Is and How to Successfully Implement It on Your Homestead
As a recently graduated wildlife major, I was a little out of my general comfort and knowledge range when I was accepted into the Peace Corps as an agroforestry volunteer. It was a challenging situation, and a serious one. It would soon become my job to teach locals about agroforestry farms and share different practices
🌻 Gardening
Gardening is a cornerstone of both homesteading and sustainability. Nothing is quite as local as growing your food in your own backyard! Gardeners can come in all sorts of shapes and forms, from the apartment-dwelling indoor gardener to the 20-acre owning permaculturist. Whether you have a few plant containers to maintain or entire fields of
To Catch A Honeybee Swarm
What is swarming? It’s when one colony of bees breaks off and forms a new colony. If the colony stored enough over the winter and early spring, a new brood will hatch, and the old hive becomes too small for all the bees. When the bees are calmost ready to leave the old hive, they
Household Mold Removal
Gross, slimy, smelly, and dangerous to people and pets, mold is the last thing you want to see growing in your home. Mold won’t necessarily destroy your homestead, but it can make family members and pets sick while it makes your home, barns, outbuildings, chicken coop, root cellar, livestock pens, and pump house look awful
How To Grow Bamboo
Bamboo is an amazing plant! It has so many benefits to offer on so many levels. Not only does bamboo produce oxygen, which helps to clean the area where you grow your plants, but many varieties are edible! And above all, gardening is just great for your health in general. Unfortunately, growing bamboo is often
Live Edge Slab Furniture
Although it may seem like the modernized live edge wood slab furniture is a relatively new trend, it began and was popularized back in the 1940’s by furniture designer George Nakashima. The widespread appeal is easy to understand. Each piece is unique, telling its own story, and standing out as the focal point of the
Cork Chair Inspiration
Cork Chairs
Bark Furniture And Accessories
Birch-Bark is waterproof and will not rot, its familiar surface is richly graphic. Birch-Bark has been used for millennia in the making of canoes, wigwams, scrolls, Buddhist manuscripts, maps (including the oldest maps of North America), art, torches, fans, musical instruments, shoes, clothing, as a substratum for sod, birch-bark roofs and more… Birch Armoire-style-Cabinet-Louis-XV-style by Marché Dauphine – 140, rue
Introduction to Worm Farming
If you’re interested in cultivating dynamic, healthy, nutrient-rich soil, and are keen to incorporate nature’s natural composters, worm farming may be a perfect option for you. While rather less common than most soil invigorators, worm farming may be the most beneficial option (and in the long run, the least amount of work). Interested? Read on
Bento Box Inspiration
Bento Box Inspiration
Wood Fired Pottery
Humans have been enamoured of wood fired ceramics for thousands of years. Yet since the invention of electric and gas kilns, wood firing was pushed aside by many. Fortunately the unique beauty of wood fired pottery is again becoming a highly appreciated art form throughout the world. (The Japanese have always held wood fired ceramics
Forest Therapy
Shinrin-yoku. Forest bathing. Forest Therapy. No matter what you call the practice, the goal is the same: for humans to use the forest as medicine. History of Forest Bathing Shinrin-yoku is a term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere” or, more simply, forest bathing. The practice was developed in Japan in the early 1990s
15 Earth Homes
Some earth homes take advantage of something called thermal mass, which basically means that the mass of a structure has some capacity to store heat. So the mass of a home can stay at a more constant temperature than temperatures outside the home due to the presence and absence of sunlight in a 24-hour period. Obviously,
Can I Compost Newspaper?
Compost newspapers effectively with the best preparation techniques, optimal composting conditions, and methods. Avoid common pitfalls, explore alternatives, and repurpose newspapers creatively for a sustainable approach to waste management.
Homesteader Tips For Dealing With Parasites
How healthy is your homestead? When evaluating the health of your homestead, it is important to look at the whole picture. The condition of the soil, the health of the plants on your property, the water quality, as well as the immunity level and overall health of people, pets and livestock. If a problem is
Ground Rules for Foraging Safely
Foraging is more than a hobby. It’s a means of sustenance, and for some of us, it really is a way of life. Pretty much everyone has an idea that some wild plants are edible whether they work in a city high-rise or hoe weeds on the farm. Even in this strange modern age, many
Lessons From Facing Death On The Homestead
As a small girl in my suburban neighborhood, dealing with death was something unusual. So when my pet fish died, tears were shed and a solemn, toilet-side funeral was held, complete with speeches! Any time I found a dead baby bird in the spring, my long-suffering father would kindly wrap it in tissues and bury
Eco-Friendly DIY Drain Cleaners
Why is it a slow or clogged drain always seems to occur at the worst possible moment? You’re busy preparing a dinner party, company is soon to arrive, and now you find the water in the guest bathroom sink doesn’t want to drain. What to do? You want something that will clear your plumbing problems
10 Answers to Your Beginner Goat Questions
It’s time for another installment in our series of articles where you ask us questions and we do our best to give you good answers. The theme of today’s series: Goats! It seems you all have tons of questions about these capricious caprines, and rightly so — they’re interesting, useful, and personable members of any
Seed Saving: 5 Things I Never Knew
Before I moved to my homestead, I was gifted a huge jar of heirloom seeds by a friend who understood what we were trying to do and had experience in seed saving. I remember dreamily sorting through the tiny baggies of beans, kale, and beets; my inexperience and ignorance of gardening temporarily gilded with happy
Homestead Stories: Weird Trees
“Look at this tree!” I passed the image to my friend. It was a blustery, rainy day, and a good time to sit indoors and plan our next gardening adventure. I was looking for unusual trees to add to my ever-expanding forest, though I knew many of the “unusual” trees wouldn’t do well in my
13 Savvy Small Bathroom Ideas
Whether you live in an apartment, a tiny house, or a Harry Potter closet, small bathrooms can be a challenge, especially when you’re living with roommates, a significant other, or little ones. Not only do you have to coordinate shower and bath times, but storing away all your toiletries can get tricky. So before you
How To Grow Victory Gardens
During both World War I and World War II, people with land (even small parcels) planted victory gardens — also known as war gardens or food gardens for defense. It was a means to feed the family, to supplement the restrictions enforced with rationing, and to ease the food chain. Victory gardens provided people with
Welcome to Insteading.
Welcome to Insteading. Every day, we help thousands of gardeners and homesteaders grow their garden and their skills. We have over 1,500 free articles and resources, written by folks out in their yards and fields who have been doing this for years. Truly, it’s over 1.5 million words of content – about 30 books worth!
💡 Sustainable Energy
What is Sustainable Energy? “Sustainable energy is energy that is consumed at insignificant rates compared to its supply and with manageable collateral effects, especially environmental effects.” Renewable energy is one of the quintessential cornerstones of sustainability. In the homesteading world, investing in renewable energy can be the first step towards living a truly off-grid life. And
Writer’s Guidelines
About Our Audience: Insteading readers are active gardeners, beekeepers, chicken herders, permaculturalists, environmentalists, and many other things. Our readers range from newbies looking to plant their first raised bed, to advanced homesteaders who live in earthen homes powered by solar panels and produce most of what they eat. Our readers make sustainable and organic choices whenever
11 Steps To Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick
Face it, everyone is doing it. We feel compelled to join in the tradition of taking a good hard look at our lives, evaluating our faults and flaws, and making resolutions to start anew. We promise this will be the year we finally lose weight, get more exercise, quit smoking, and manage to drink less
40 Smart Uses For Dryer Sheets In Your Home And Garden
When you put laundry in a dryer, static builds up on the clothes, sheets, and towels that bounce and tumble in the heat. Throwing in a dryer sheet can reduce static cling and leave your clothes smelling fresh. That said, dryer sheets have gained a bad reputation because they contain quaternary ammonium compounds that can
Gary Pickering Builds “Tiny House” Survival Pods for the Homeless (w/ video)
Gary Pickering is making the world a better place by donating a number of self-built, portable ‘micro-houses’ to Utah’s homeless people in an effort to help them survive the area’s harsh winter weather conditions. How’d he come up with that? They say that necessity is the mother of invention. For Gary Pickering, years of being
Faiyumi
Characteristics With its silvery head, large single comb, onyx-dark eye, and trim, black-speckled body, this chicken is visually quite similar to the Silver Campine breed, but built a little more like a forward-leaning roadrunner. Those bright, dark eyes of theirs are excellent at scanning the skies for predators–with such alert personalities, it’s hard to take
Buckeye
Characteristics Comparisons to the popular and similar-looking Rhode Island Red abound, but this breed is distinct in character, coloration, and conformation. Resembling the color of the large seeds for which it was named, it is darker in color and meatier in the thigh than the Rhode Island Red. Any resident of Warren, Ohio, where it
Renzo Piano Builds a Haute Shiver Shack For Off-the-Grid Singles
Italian architect Renzo Piano has come up with a small, simple-living home design that could is less of a shiver shack and more of a one-person, off the grid castle – and, if you’re in the market for a “tiny house” and you have an eye for going off grid, you’ll want to pay attention, because it doesn’t get much better than this …
🐓 Chickens
Ready To Start Your Chicken Flock? With their homegrown eggs and potential to become quite the loveable pet, chickens have been an important part of homestead living for decades. Whether they’re worked into a larger permaculture plan or reside in an urban backyard coop, chickens can be a great addition to your homestead! Whether you’re
20 DIY Wall Art Ideas To Give Your Home Some Personality
Wall art provides the finishing touch to a room and can pull an entire space together. The addition of wall art creates a focal point, adds texture, offers a splash of color, and shows the unique personality that makes your space feel like home. Here are 20 amazing DIY wall art projects to spruce up
How To Cool Down A Room: 15 Easy Methods
Lately, summers have been getting hotter. Without some sort of home cooling mechanism, the scorching temperatures quickly become unbearable — and in some cases, deadly. The human body isn’t designed to withstand high heat for long periods. Without reprieve, high temperatures eventually lead to heat illness and heat stroke. Discomfort, dizziness, profuse sweating, and disorientation
Homestead Stories: The Burglar Bear
We were living down the canyon in a big, round house with a 45-minute drive one way just to get to the grocery store. So we grew some of our own produce and raised chickens (and a duck) for eggs. Living out in the woods with gardens surrounding your house and a small flock of
How to Protect Plants From Frost: 12 Clever Methods That Work
As winter wanes and patches of bare ground open up in the fields, my green thumb gets crazy-itchy. I am eager to get back in the garden and get my eyes full of living, growing things again. With the season’s change, however, comes the age-old game of chicken that gardeners play with the weather —
The 25 Most Gorgeous Garden Stools You Can Buy
You know how you sometimes have a dead space in a room, or on your deck or patio? You needs something that takes the place of furniture, but won’t eat up much space. Garden stools are the answer, and they’re having a moment right now. Their resurgence means we can solve the problem of dead
Heirloom Seeds: What Are They?
Heirloom seeds are what our great-grandparents called “seeds.” My mother often complained during my childhood that you couldn’t buy tomatoes like her grandmother grew. The tomatoes in the grocery stores were hard, mealy, and tasteless. When a farmer’s market opened in our neighborhood, she would buy a bag of heirloom tomatoes every week and eat
Homestead Stories: St. Benedict’s Herb
“A rose is a rose is a rose,” I muttered as I worked through my herb garden. “Unless, of course, it’s St. Benedict’s herb.” The shady perennial plant from the rose family (Rosaceae) has many names: Geum urbanum, Wood or City Avens, Herb Bennet, Colewort, Blessed herb, Goldy, Star of the Earth, and the one
Growing Strawberries
Everyone who gardens knows that homegrown food is more delicious than what you can buy in the store. Strawberries are the prime example. Since a perfectly ripe strawberry is even more juicy and soft than a ripe peach, they are practically impossible to pick and transport commercially. Industrial farms grow hardy breeds of strawberries that
Art From Old Books
Many old books simply get thrown out—even by libraries. Artists have found a better second life for unwanted books. Jonathan Callan of London – The Defrauder. joseebienvenugallery.com Jonathan Callen uses large screws to hold the books together. joseebienvenugallery.com Jonathan Callen – The theoretical assumptions of management, 2008. Originally found at “https://www.artnet.com/galleries/kudlek-van-der-grinten-galerie/” Cara Barer of Houston,