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Welcome to the Nourishing Hearthfire Blog. This is where all our in-depth articles, step-by-step tutorials, seasonal recipes, and honest homesteading stories live.
Whether you’re diving into natural cheesemaking with raw milk and heirloom cultures, baking perfect whole grain sourdough loaves, mastering lacto-fermentation and food preservation, cooking nourishing meals from your garden and pantry, or learning the full spectrum of self-sufficiency skills – you’ll find it here.
Every post is written for real homesteaders and off-grid families who want practical, no-nonsense advice that actually works in a busy, self-reliant life. No fluff, no shortcuts, no nonsense – just time-tested methods, beautiful real-food results, and the quiet satisfaction that comes from doing it yourself.
Browse the latest posts, search by topic, or dive deep into any of our main categories.
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Understanding Phytic Acid in Sourdough and Whole Grains
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Phytic acid in sourdough and whole grains I’ve been getting some questions about the phytic acid in whole grains and sourdough, and thought it would be a good idea to go into detail about how this works, and why you don’t need to be alarmed about it. Along with a bunch of good stuff that is not in refined flours, phytic acid is present in whole grains. If phytic acid is not broken down by the phytase enzyme by soaking,…
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Creating a Whole Grain Sourdough Book for The Rest of Us: Sourdough Without Fail
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Creating a sourdough book for the rest of us: A 100% Whole Grain Sourdough Book with easy recipes and practical design In some ways I’m grateful for the haphazard way I started with sourdough. I had previously been baking with yeast and had never found any recipes that really suited me, so I’d figured out my own. Switching over to sourdough, I took the same approach. I made some terrible loaves to begin with, but eventually figured out how to…
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How much time does it really take to make bread from scratch?
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How to Make Sourdough Bread from Scratch The time involved in making bread can be divided into hands-on time and hands-off time. Some bakers might use a lot of hands-on time, kneading a lot to develop strength in the dough. Other bakers might use a no-knead approach and use more hands-off time, with just a couple of minutes of hands-on time. You don’t need to knead your bread at all. The purpose of kneading is to strengthen the gluten. The…
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Getting started with bread baking on a budget
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Frugal strategies for budget-friendly baking Be adaptableDon’t get fixated on baking with this or that heritage grain. Look at which grains and flours are most affordable where you live, and work with that. Wheat gets a lot of negative attention, but wheat can be a nourishing food for many people if it is organic and made into sourdough bread. Buy in bulkBuying directly from farmers and distributors in large bags can bring a lot of savings. Buying a 20 to…
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The power of bread: how homemade bread can transform your life for the better
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If you eat bread, the quality of bread you are putting on the table could be contributing to your health, or slowly making you sick. The best way to have healthy bread on the table is to make it yourself. It can be overwhelming to get started, but it doesn’t have to be. Many years ago when my husband and I were working on a farm on the other side of the world, I made a list of things I…
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Reflections on homesteading and self sufficiency, and our journey over the past two years
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Around two years ago I wrote a big update about what we were up to, and our plans for homesteading and self sufficiency over the next year or so. There have been so many changes and reflections since then, so here is an update some changes here, and on our progress with self reliance and growing food on old logging land. Changes New babyBorn in April 2024. She is beautiful and healthy and loves homemade cheese. No hay, no cowEvery…
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The best way to make stir fry
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Stir fry is one of those basic meals that is often overlooked. My way of making it is a bit different to most, and I don’t think I’ve posted a recipe for how I make stir fry anywhere, so I’ll share it here. My easy stir fry recipe Ingredients My formula is usually something like: 1 part onions or leeks 1 part carrots 2 parts turnip or cabbage 1 to 2 parts dark leafy greens A bit of garlic and…
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How to make pasta without a pasta machine
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Making pasta at home is easier and cheaper than you may think. In this post I’ll share my method and thoughts on homemade pasta, and how to make pasta without a pasta machine. Why make pasta at home? Dry pasta is pretty much empty calories, wrapped up in plastic. Homemade egg pasta is a really tasty way to eat eggs that even picky eaters enjoy, and because it’s so rich in nutrition from the eggs, sauces can be really simple…
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How to cook with tallow, how to render it, how to store it (and why)
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Cook with tallow: Tallow as a reliable, local, stable cooking fat Many events in recent years have caused me reflect on the expectations of the industrial food system and modern lifestyles, and how rewarding it is to return to simpler ways. Olive oil is in short supply this year, and this offers another opportunity to create better alternatives for cooking that can be produced on a homestead or by local farmers. Most of the olive oil in supermarkets is adulterated…
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How to make black drawing salve
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How to Make Black Drawing Salve Here is how to make black drawing salve, one of the most important natural remedies that I use. We use black drawing salve on all kinds of bites and stings, as well as on splinters, puncture wounds, and anything that looks like it might need possible toxins or infections drawn out of it. I also find it a really helpful remedy around the homestead for wounds on animals – it’s so thick that it…
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Root cellaring without a root cellar: Simple off grid food storage
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Root cellaring without a root cellar You may be wondering why I have three buckets of leaves in my laundry… This is how I store root cellar vegetables through the winter: 1. Gather dry leaves in autumn It can be a bit tricky here some years finding the right time when the leaves have fallen but have not become a sodden mess from autumn rains. I’ve used both maple leaves and blackwood leaves, and both work well, as long as…
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Simple baked cheesecake
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Simple Baked Cheesecake Cheesecake is one of my favourite foods, but not something I used to make very often until I created this recipe. The recipe I’m sharing today is from A Year in an Off-Grid Kitchen, and could not be simpler. It features the easiest cheese to make at home – a simple whole milk ricotta. Or you can use whatever soft cheese you have around the house, as long as it is drained well and is not too…
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Recent Posts
- How to Scale Cheesemaking Recipes Up or Down: Rennet, Culture, and More
- Easy Leftover Vegetable or Meat Pasties (Savoury Hand Pies Recipe)
- Magic Overnight Sourdough Pizza Dough Recipe with Fresh Milled Flour
- Cooking year-round on a wood cookstove: the dream, the reality, and the practicalities of relying on our own firewood and being off the gas grid
- 100% Whole Grain Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Bread for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide
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