/
All blog posts
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.
-
Nostalgia
·
We’ve moved into our house in the forest. We haven’t built the mud room/wood storage area yet so every morning I tromp towards the door in my muddy boots and leave bottles of fresh goat milk on the doorstep before taking my boots off. During my husband’s childhood milk was still delivered each day in glass bottles, a layer of cream would rise to the top. The bottles would be washed and returned, reused again and again. In my childhood…
-
How to Make Butter Off the Grid
·
All you need to make butter is a bowl, a whisk, and some cream. Ingredients for homemade butter The cream used for making butter should have no additives, just cream, and if it’s créme fraiche for making cultured butter, then it will have cultures as well (here’s my recipe for culturing cream at home). Cultured cream is far far easier to turn into butter than sweet cream (and it’s delicious too), so if you’re doing this by hand like I…
-
Roasted Butternut Squash and Spinach Salad with Cheese
·
I’ve never successfully made a hard cheese with a natural rind before. On a biodynamic fruit day, back when we still had Buttercup the cow, I mixed some of her milk with some of our goats milk, cultured it, sort-of followed an asiago recipe (I am not so good with all the continuous stirring), pressed it, salted it, and put it in the makeshift cheese cave to age. Roughly once a week, mostly on other biodynamic fruit days, I would…
-
How to Move to the Country with Market Gardening – Homestead Income on 1/5 acre
·
Photo credit: here Market gardening as a way to escape the rat race and move to the country One of the things many folks struggle with when wanting to get away from the city and move to the country is income. Since the increased mechanisation of farming less people are needed to work in mainstream farming operations, and there aren’t many jobs available in these areas. People in cities often feel trapped in them, under the assumption that they need…
-
Salted Caramel Cheesecake Pie (grain-free)
·
There’s not much else that needs to be said when there’s salted caramel and cheesecake in the title. I will say that you could make this even more special by adding a drizzle of melted chocolate to the top after it’s cooled, or you could use chocolate instead of caramel. I made my own cheese for the one in the photos out of some Greek sheeps yoghurt, but it will work well with all kinds of soft cheeses (such as…
-
Mason Jar Chèvre (easy 1 minute soft cheese)
·
An easier way to make soft cheese Chèvre and other soft cheeses are pretty easy to make to begin with, but they usually begins with boiling water and sterilising everything in the boiling water, which adds extra time and hassle to the process. I’ve been getting massive cravings for chèvre, so much that I even looked at soft goats cheese in the shop (before quickly moving away, knowing that I can make better stuff at home) and knew I had…
-
Simple Wonderful Lamb Burgers
·
These are the perfect burger. They’re juicy and full of flavour yet they hold their shape. Minimally seasoned with garlic and herbs to let the taste of lamb shine through these lamb burgers can be served in a variety of ways; with tzatziki and greek salad, with gyros or kebab toppings, with traditional burger accompaniments like fried eggs, salads, and sauces, or with any vegetable side dish…even Swedish braised red cabbage. Simple Wonderful Lamb Burgers Ingredients 2 cloves garlic, finely…
-
We bought a cow.
·
For a while I thought it was the wrong decision. I committed to buying this cow assuming that hay prices were the same as the last time I looked. I asked all the questions that I thought I needed to ask, about her personality, udder and teat size, when she’d last calved, and so on. I forgot to ask whether she likes to eat grass. She stands in various places in the paddock, looking around with her big Jersey cow…
My books
More Resources for Off-Grid Living
Categories
Recent Posts
- 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
- Easy 100% Whole Grain Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread (honey-sweetened, and works with fresh milled flour & ancient grains)
- Natural Cheesemaking: How to Make and Use Your Own Cheese Cultures
The Nourishing Hearthfire is reader-supported and mostly ad-free