Homesteading Resources
Children can be useful for measuring post hole depth
Have a resource you’d like to recommend? Let me know.
Real Food and Food Preservation Websites
Cultures for Health – This is where I buy my cultures for cheesemaking, fermenting (milk kefir and water kefir), and sourdough. They have cheese molds, fermenting vessels, bail top bottles and just about anything else you need for home food fermenting and culturing. They also have a great library of online tutorials and lots of troubleshooting tips.
GNOWFGLINS e-courses and e-books – Wardeh is my “go to” person for cultured dairy, sourdough, and fermented foods. She has a ton of information on online help for cooking healthy, traditional foods.
Weston A Price Foundation – Real food information based on the work of Weston A Price, focusing on nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.
Completely Nourished - Feel overwhelmed by all the garbage that’s in our food supply? Completely Nourished helps sort through the hype to help you find foods without added chemicals.
Eat Nourishing – Real Food recipe sharing site.
Recipes to Nourish – Real food and holistic health.
Herb and Spice Blend Recipe Cheat Sheet – never buy another spice mix again. Buy in bulk, mix your own and save money.
SB Canning – Excellent site for all things canning, plus some other food preservation techniques. Creative recipes, how-to’s, great photos – wonderful stuff!
PickYourOwn.org – where to find local food, and what to do with it once you find it
Food in Jars – blog about canning and preserving.
Bulk Natural Food and Product Suppliers
UNFI – United Natural Foods – UNFI is the leading independent national distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods and related products including nutritional supplements, personal care items and organic produce, in the United States.
Country Life Natural Foods – Country Life Natural Foods is a wholesale and retail distributor of natural, organic and vegetarian foods as well as a resource for information that promotes physical, mental and spiritual health.
Frontier Natural Products Co-op – Frontier Natural Products Co-op specializes in natural and organic products. They feature a wide variety of organic herbs and spices and aromatherapy products.
Azure Standard - “We specialize in natural, organic, earth-friendly foods and products. We deliver directly to customers, buying clubs and retailers by semi truck and UPS.”
Gardening Websites
Dave’s Garden and Garden Watchdog – Dave’s Garden is a large gardening community with info on all things gardening. The Garden Watchdog page offers customer reviews of 7,373 mail order gardening companies.
Your Garden Show – An online gardening community with lots of information and video tutorials. You can find my garden at The Common Sense Homestead.
GardenWeb - Online gardening community.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening page – best seed starting dates, best planting dates, plant guides, hardiness zone maps – lots of good reference info.
Local Food Websites
Local Harvest – “Find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.”
Pick Your Own - “This website provides local listings of pick your own (also called U-pick or PYO) farms in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries.”
Sustainable Table – “Sustainable Table’s “Eat Local, Buy Local, Be Local” section is designed to help consumers learn what’s happening in the local movement, and to better understand the concept of local food.”
Eat Wild - “Your source for safe, healthy, natural and nutritious grass-fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy and other wild edibles.”
Wisconsin Specific Sites
Rio Creek Orchards – Our orchard specializes in offering a wide variety of delicious fruit at affordable prices. Families throughout the region place their trust in our products, and we’d be pleased to count you among them. Also, whether you operate a restaurant or a market, Rio Creek Orchards has the fresh fruit to suit your needs.
Wisconsin Farm Fresh Atlases – These regional food guides include farms, farmers’ markets, restaurants, stores and other businesses that sell local food and use sustainable production and business practices. The Atlases cover most regions of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Dairy Artisan Network – Great site listing specialty diary producers/cheesemakers around Wisconsin. “The Wisconsin Dairy Artisan Network assists current and future Wisconsin dairy food artisans through education, promotion of the craft and regulatory advocacy. The network is composed of dairy artisans and farmstead producers with support from industry organizations. ”
Something Special From Wisconsin – Every dollar spent on SSfW™ products and services supports local farmers, food processors, entrepreneurs, our communities and livelihood, as well as the Wisconsin way of life. It is not only an investment in the state’s economy but in its future. You can be guaranteed that when you see the trademark logo, at least 50% of a product’s ingredients, production, or processing activities are from Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Distilleries Association – In 2011 several of Wisconsin’s distillers formed this association to promote Wisconsin made spirits. Related issues we also promote include; Wisconsin agriculture, tourism, small batch distilling and the safe enjoyment of alcoholic beverages.
Wisconsin Specialty Meats map – Specialty meat producers in Wisconsin.
Nami Moon Farms – Pasture Raised Meats, honey, vegetables, eggs and more. Located in Custer, WI.
Natural Health Websites
Earth Clinic - From their site: “full of effective, home-tested, and community-vetted remedies and cures proven through years on this site and in the homes of commonsense families for centuries.” – commonsense families – gotta love that!
Heal Thyself – This is a great online community that promotes knowledge sharing and healing through traditional foods.
The Natural Living Site – information about traditional foods, herbs, natural living skills, homesteading, animals, alternative healing and spirituality.
Food As Medicine -Todd Caldecott, a medical herbalist and practitioner of Ayurveda shares insights for using food to promote healing.
The best prices I have found on Green Pastures Fermented Cod Liver Oil/Butter Oil Blend can be found at Perfect Supplements.
Online Nurseries w/ Cold Tolerant and Heirloom Trees and Shrubs
Cold Stream Farms – Cold Stream Farm is a wholesale / retail bare root tree and shrub nursery in Michigan. Not fancy, but great prices and very good quality.
St. Lawrence Nurseries – Northern Climate Fruit and Nut Trees – The plants and trees grown here at St. Lawrence Nurseries are managed by organic methods. Because we are committed to preserving the health of the air, water, and soil, we use no herbicides, fungicides or pesticides. Instead of artificial fertilizers, we rely on mulch, manure, and cover crops to boost soil and plant health. Rather than using tractors, we hand-plant, hand-weed and hand-dig all of our stock. Our trees, inspected twice a year by authorities from the New York State Department of Agriculture, have always remained exceptionally disease-free.
Oikos Tree Crops – The most genetically diverse nursery I’ve found. “There are over 15,000 species of plants that have been used for food by man. Only 150 of these are commercially cultivated. There are over 10,000 apple varieties. There is only a few dozen that are commercially grown. All new varieties come from seeds. This is true with annual plants as well as trees and shrubs. If you are interested in creating, preserving and expanding the limits of new food plants then having trees and shrubs grown from seed is the only way to increase genetic diversity.”
Homestead Animal Websites
Backyard chickens – BackYardChickens has become the #1 destination for peeps looking for information on raising chickens in any urban, suburban, or rural backyard!
Learn About Raw Milk
General Homesteading Resources
Countryside Magazine
Backwoods Home Magazine
Mother Earth News - MOTHER EARTH NEWS provides wide-ranging, expert editorial coverage of organic foods, country living, green transportation, renewable energy, natural health and green building.
Rural Living Today has a great list of homesteading resources, and a homesteading blog.
Owl Creek Supply Co. was founded on the desire to help families and individuals to become less dependent on faceless corporations, government handouts, and unhealthy farming methods. We are dedicated to giving great how-to information on diverse, useful subjects to anyone who would like to live more independently, or be prepared for unforeseen events, someone who wishes to eat and live a healthier lifestyle, or those who simply want to be more in tune with the rhythms of the natural world. We want you to have the know-how, tools, and skills that will make you and your family self-sufficient, capable, and safe in any economic climate. We want you to be able to find information on any subject, no matter how arcane that has to do with being independent. The owners have been farming on a small acreage for almost 10 years and opened their business this year. They provide quality homesteading and self sufficiency information, products and books.
Homemaking Sites
Tipnut.com – Your Online Guide To The Crafty & Clever
Frugally Sustainable is now offering the e-book “Simply Clean“, which includes recipes for an assortment of DIY safe, non-toxic cleaning products you can make at home.
Organic Agriculture
OrganicA -a resource for organic apple production
Survivalism/Preparedness Sites
Blogs I Enjoy
- 180 Degree Health
- Agriculture Society
- An Austin Homestead
- Food Renegade
- GNOWFGLINS
- Highly Uncivilized - Working towards sustainable suburbia
- Home on the Range
- Homestead Revival
- Humblebee & Me
- Jabez Farm
- Just Making Noise
- Kelly the Kitchen Kop
- Kitchen Stewardship
- Local Nourishment
- Moving On to the Past
- Nourished Kitchen
- Nourishing Days
- Traditional Foods and Natural Health
- SHTF Blog
- Survivial Blog
- Sustainable Eats
- The Complete Patient
- The Garden Lass
- The Nourished Life
- The Nourishing Gourmet
- The Prairie Homestead
- The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen