Stephanie and my collective knowledge has been distilled down to what we wished we’d known when we started down this homesteading road.

…And I know that’s said about a lot of books by a lot of authors, and I understand why- we write what we know. We end up knowing a lot about what we love.

And we love homesteading, in all it’s beautiful forms.

The twist with this book is that these pages hold BOTH of our combined experiences and the different ways we’ve settled into doing different homesteading skills.  We’re obviously big believers in there being  more than one way to do just about everything.

GET YOUR COPY HERE

How our Book Took Root

Stephanie had written her second cookbook and I was planning another Winter Farmers Markets in White Bear Lake. I was expanding the event to include classes during the markets. I asked Stephanie to teach one of her fermentation classes at a market. We hit it off right away. But living on opposite sides of the city with busy lives during a pandemic kept us acquaintances over the next few years.

Jump to the spring of 2021 at my monthly book club. I was sharing a rhubarb shrub cocktail with my gals and they all loved it so much they wanted the recipe, and urged me to write a blog on it. I knew Stephanie had a recipe for this specific shrub in her book, Weck Small Batch Preserving and so I asked if she wanted to collaborate on the blog…

We used Stephanie’s recipe in the Rhubarb Shrub Love blog and we even did a book giveaway. While talking details and chatting about that project Stephanie mentioned that she’d recently pitched and gotten the go ahead on another book idea to her publisher. But she was feeling hesitant to tackle all the writing for a book on homesteading. She asked if I’d be interested in doing something like that together… and it lit a fire under both of us!

“Instead of self-sufficiency, how about communal abundance?”

Quote from Michelle’s intro

Planning The Book

So we presented our updated outline to her publisher at Skyhorse, they accepted, we negotiated and started flushing out ideas and projects, taking photos and having lots of conversations about what we wanted this book to feel like.

The rest is captured within the pages of our beautiful love letter to urban and suburban homesteading!

We both knew we wanted reading it to feel like hanging out with some friends who happen to be experts (but not the snotty kind ) sharing information and a cup of tea (or coffee, kombucha or maybe a cocktail) and feeling like you can accomplish any project you read about- but without feeling like you had to do it all. But that’s a pretty long title, so after LOTS of title changes we ended up settling on a final. “Small-Scale Homesteading: A Sustainable Guide to Gardening, Keeping Chickens, Maple Sugaring, Preserving the Harvest, and More” – which isn’t much shorter- ha!

And what a fun ride it has been writing my first book. I got to dig deeper in so many of my favorite topics; from my obsession with soil life to the way pollinators are welcomed to our gardens, favorite recipes and chicken keeping hacks. We even get to share some truly inspirational stories of others in our homesteading community. There are amazing people doing amazing things in cities across America.

We believe any home can be a homestead, and any person can be a homesteader. A core belief of ours is that many of us making ‘small changes’ will have a larger impact than a few of us making ‘all the changes’ ever could.  So, we break down some of the basics and how to get started in the book!

Community at the Core

This is also why we include community in the book. As urban/suburban homesteaders, we’re not working with acres of land. But we do have access to amazing neighbors with varying talents and interests.

We encourage you to draw on those talents and skills so we each get to do more of what we love, while giving others the chance to share what they love.

Together we’ll create a more thriving community, plus it is just more fun!

We can’t wait for you to get our book dirty with seed starting and kitchen projects.

In case you haven’t ordered you book yet, here’s the LINK to get your own copy.

Cheers to your own journey of Small-Scale Homesteading!

-In Community

Michelle + Stephanie

The post Small-Scale Homesteading Book appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

This was the first herbal salve I ever made, years ago and it is still one of my all time favorites to use, pretty much daily. this Calendula salve softens, heals, soothes and calms my skin in ways that nothing else can.

Making salve is kind of the gateway herbal bath and body product. Once you realize that you can mix a few natural, quality ingredients and end up with a practical, beautiful and healing product most people feel empowered. I want you to feel that power too!

At a time when more and more of us are becoming aware of what we’re putting on and into our bodies – along with the carbon footprint the products we use leave behind… making your own salve is a great place to pivot.

These salves also make great gifts! As I am writing it is prime holiday shopping time, yet my gifts are being made from things I am already have in my home. Nothing beats a consumable, homemade gift as far as I’m concerned. Bonus that you can use canisters you already have, furthering your commitment to ‘reduce – reuse – recycle’!

Basic Benefits of Calendula Salve:

Calendula petals contains anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial properties, and is used to soothe a long list of skin ailments. Plus, it’s safe to use on babies (yes, even the finished salve with beeswax)! The oils and beeswax are both sustainable and deeply healing in their own right – so being able to swirl and melt them all together can make just about anyone feel like a healer.

Flowers First

Like all recipes, it’s important to start with quality ingredients. Growing my own Calendula adds so much to the garden, as both a trap crop for many common garden pests, and as a draw for beneficial insects – plus they’re gorgeous. I prefer Calendula Resina because it has the highest concentration of petal ‘resin’ aka the good stuff.

These are also great starter plant to seed save from; more on seed saving here. This is all before I snip off the buds to use their medicine. More in depth info on growing these and other beauties at my  Companion Planting Flowers for your Vegetable Garden.

Harvesting Calendula

Summer is in full swing when it is finally time to start harvesting the flowers. This is both rewarding and a great way to tidy up the garden. Picking them at their peak, with fully opened petals but not drooping- and after the morning dew has dried but not in the heat of the afternoon, will yield the best resin.

So, start with either homegrown calendula or skip that part of the process and buy your calendula from a trusted source. The only place I’ve been consistently happy with is Mountain Rose Herbs. They have an amazing selection and grow things they way I do.

Making Calendula Oil:

Once the flowers are cut, I usually let my calendula (and any other herbs/petals) wilt for a good day or two. Or sometimes I’ll place them in our dehydrator overnight to reduce the water content. This make for a more intense infusion and reduces the chance of mold in the oil as you let the plants sit and infuse.  After they’re wilted/dried a bit cover the petals with enough oil so the petals are fully submerged. This also helps keep any possible mold at bay. I use a mason jar and screw the lid on. I usually write the date I started the infusion on a dissolving label and let it set for at least 4 to 6 weeks – usually much more. I routinely let my oils infuse for 3 months.

Sweet Almond Oil was my go-to carrier oil for infusing, until I realized that folks with nut allergies are also allergic to almond oil. So while it has the softest feel, a good shelf life and healing properties of its own I only use it for recipes I know only my family will use. I now prefer Apricot Kernel oil. I’ve used a light Extra Virgin olive oil and avocado oil as well, they work great, too.

Infusing the Oil

Infusion is the process of extracting chemical compounds or flavors from plant material in a solvent such as water, oil or alcohol, by allowing the material to remain suspended in the solvent over time, a process often called steeping.

Herbal academy

Think of this as a cold brewed tea on overdrive. There are quicker methods where you heat the oil. I’ve never tried this, but if you want to check out the Double Boiler Herb-Infused Oil section of the Herbal Academy article, you can make the infusion in a day. It will not be as potent as the slower, lower temperature version.

*You can also slowly add petals to this jar as they bloom- just make sure they are dried a bit and remember to keep adding oil to cover petals completely.*

By the time I’m ready to make salve the bulk of my outdoor garden work has slowed down – and if you don’t have time to make the salve right away, just try to strain off the oil from the infusion within 12 weeks. This straining is as easy as leaving it to drip through a sieve, until the very end when you’ll want to get in there and squeeze out every last drop of goodness. The oil will be cloudier as you squeeze, this is totally normal.

Alchemy Time

Basic Salve Recipe

1 C Calendula Infused Oil (or less if adding other oils)

1 Oz Beeswax

20+ drops of Essential oil of choice.
Here’s a great list of essential oils for salves and their properties.

Now it’s time to get your other ingredient(s) and containers in order. Mainly, beeswax and any other oils you’ll be adding to the mix. One word about beeswax. If you can buy directly from a beekeeper, the raw goodness, plus the smell of honey will add another layer of healing to your salve. Local beeswax will keep the carbon foot print low as well!

I keep my salve recipes pretty simple and just add a bit of jojoba or emu oil to the pot as I’m warming the ingredients. And topping it off with essential oils just before I pour it off.

So Simple

Melt + Pour.

It really is that simple.

In a double boiler (see my cheater version above) or a heavy pan start warming the infused oil and beeswax. If you want to make a larger or smaller batch a good rule of thumb is 1 ounce of beeswax for every 1 cup of oil. You can play around with these ratios as much as you’d like. Adding more beeswax will give you a harder salve; some like a harder slave for summer so it doesn’t melt.

The only trick is to not let the mixture get above 140- low heat is the trick here! If adding essential oils (I do love this, but unless capped they loose their fragrance quickly) do so right at the end. I usually turn off the burner and add just before I pour in.

I usually opt for lavender or rosemary, but this time I let my son choose. I make this as much for his eczema as anything else, so I figured he could chose the scent…and I love that after smelling over 30 bottles he chose frankincense, which is an essential oil known for being wonderful for your skin!

Let the containers cool and cap in a few hours.

Congratulations! You’ve just made your first salve.

These are great as gifts, and you’ve solved the dilemma of needing an upstairs + a downstairs + a car + a backpack skin cream without any fake chemicals or plastic packaging. Well done!

I wonder what you’ll dig into next!?!

Michelle

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