Interested in living off the land?

Today's post comes to us from Housekeeping: Knock Out Dirt and Clutter For Good.

As grocery stores continue to raise food prices, more people are turning to their own land to produce food instead of purchasing it at the store.  Whether you want to grow your own herbs, harvest your own fruits or vegetables or raise cattle, there are many ways you can maximize your land as a food source. These 25 blog articles will dig into how you can live off the land.

How to Do It

There’s no way that one blog could give you all of the information that you need to live off the land, but combining these five blog entries can give you some ideas on how to go about starting the adventure.

• Live Off Your Land—Fifteen Steps You Can Take to Get Out of the Cubicle and Onto Self-Reliance
• Infographic: How Much Backyard Do You Need to Live Off the Land?
• The Floyd Eco-Village: Living Off the Land with an Economic Plan
• Tough (and Valuable) Lessons from the Homestead
• Rural Free Delivery: Living Off the Land, Almost

Meat

Hunting isn’t the only way to have meat on your dinner table if you are living off the land.  Many folks choose to raise their own livestock to butcher for food.  A family of four can eat for several different meals from the meat that comes from a whole pig or cow.  If you live by water, you can add fish or other seafood to your diet.  These five blog posts will share some of their insights with you.

• Living Off the Land
• The Year in Oysters
• Living Off the Land
• Abandon the Office: Be a Hunter-Gatherer
• Living Off the Land – And Sea—In Kotzebue

Vegetables

Probably one of the easiest ways to start saving money and living off the land is by growing your own garden.  For instance, one tomato plant will yield about one bushel of tomatoes. These tomatoes will allow you to make and can your own tomato sauce, stew tomatoes and make salsa, in addition to eating them fresh.  Just think of all that you could do if you had more than one plant.  Making your own salsa is a snap when you grow your own onions, jalapenos and cilantro, and you don’t have to step foot into a grocery store.  These five blog posts will give you some ideas for getting started.

• A British Town Relearns How to Live Off the Land [Video]
• Garden Prep [What I’m Doing to Prepare for Spring Gardening in DECEMBER]
• Gardening in November?
• The Progressive Garden—Living Off the Land
• Living Off the Land

Off the Grid

Some people have taken ‘living off the land’ one step further and have decided that they are going to live off the grid as well.  Living off the grid means that you don’t pay for electricity from a company; instead, you create your own by using solar, wind or water power.  Or you could go completely electricity free.  Take a look at these five blog entries to see what others are doing to get off the grid.

• Living Off the Grid, Urban-Homesteading Style, With the Dervaes Family
• 16×9—Off the Grid: Living Off Land Hour from Vancouver
• Living Off the Grid—In a Bus
• Living Off the Grid: Could Decreasing Energy Dependence Ultimately Make Life Easier?  (Video)
• Living Off the Grid

Little House on the Prairie Living

When you were a kid you may have read the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder or watched the spin-off TV show.  If you did, you may remember how hard life was on the prairie and how the Ingalls family survived by living off the land for the most part.  Read these five blog posts to learn a bit more about living like they did back then.

• It’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Up In Here
• The Meteorology of Little House on the Prairie
• In Search of Little House on the Prairie
• The “Historical Pa” (Little House on the Prairie, Controlling Love Etc…)
• Little House on the Prairie and Djibouti

Interview with Leigh Adcock, Part 2

In developing the press’s new list in food studies, acquisitions editor Catherine Cocks is talking to people who are active in the field. Recently, she spoke with Leigh Adcock, the executive director of the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network, about her organization and its aims.

Catherine: On your website, you list one of your goals as insisting on “social and ecological justice.” What do you mean by “ecological justice,” and how is it related to social justice?

Leigh: “Ecological justice” refers to treating species besides Homo sapiens as having a claim in justice to a share of the Earth's resources. “Social justice” in the healthy food and farming movement refers to making sure all people have access to safe and healthy foods grown as close to their home as possible.

Catherine: Another of your goals is to engage people in “experiential learning.” Can you give an example of what you mean by this? What kinds of opportunities for this kind of learning are available now?

Leigh: “Experiential learning” is a concept that recognizes that people learn best by doing. WFAN offers opportunities for aspiring women farmers to pair up with women farmer mentors for eight to ten weeks of on-farm work during the growing season (our Harvesting Our Potential program), and for beginning women farmers (farming ten years or less) to be matched with farmer mentors for off-farm support over the course of a farming year. We also offer occasional “heritage skills” field days to share information on food preservation, weaving, etc. Our women landowner programming (Women Caring for the Land) involves a high degree of hands-on learning as well, including demonstration activities using familiar objects to teach basic conservation concepts and field tours to explore various conservation practices on the ground.

Catherine: Where can people learn more about the key issues that WFAN works on?

Leigh: Our website is the best source: www.wfan.org. We also maintain a sister site dedicated to women landowner issues at www.womencaringfortheland.org. We are members of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, so those interested in policy and advocacy should visit them at www.sustainableagriculture.net. I also recommend Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, by Temra Costa, as a great collection of profiles of the women engaged in changing the face of agriculture and food in America today.

Interview with Leigh Adcock, Part 1

In developing the press’s new list in food studies, acquisitions editor Catherine Cocks is talking to people who are active in the field. Recently, she spoke with Leigh Adcock, the executive director of the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network, about her organization and its aims.

Catherine: According to your website, the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network exists to enable women in sustainable agriculture to talk with each other about the issues they face. Why do women need an organization of their own?

Leigh: As in other male-dominated fields, women in agriculture often prefer to network and learn from one another in an organization dedicated to them. Other women-in-ag networks exist for those engaged in more traditional commodity-based farming; WFAN is one of a small number of networks around the United States dedicated to women engaged in small-scale, diversified farming. We are the only one that engages in leadership development and policy advocacy on a national level.

Catherine: What are some of the issues that concern your members the most?

Leigh: Our last member survey showed that most women in sustainable ag are concerned about affordable health care for their families. That was the biggest barrier to success as small-scale farmers. Beyond that, their other concerns are similar to those of other farmers—access to land and capital.

Catherine: Since the informal founding of WFAN in 1994, the local/sustainable/organic food movement has grown exponentially. How has this growth affected women farmers and landowners?

Leigh: As the movement has grown, our membership has grown along with it. When I started as WFAN’s executive director in 2008, we had about 300 members, mostly in Iowa and neighboring states. Today we have nearly 3,000 members from all states and several other countries. Our operating budget has grown as well, as we expand our programming to meet the increased demand for networking, education, and leadership development opportunities for women in the movement. The healthy food and farming movement has been a women’s movement from the beginning—women operate the farms, buy the food, and staff the nonprofits that support the movement.

Recipe: Minted Peas with Lemon

Minted Peas With Lemon (excerpt from Neighboring on the Air)

1 10-ounce package frozen peas
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Cook peas according to package directions; drain.
Add butter, mint, and lemon peel; toss to coat peas.
Heat through.
Serves 4.

Neighboring on the Air: Cooking with the KMA Radio Homemakers, by Evelyn Birkby

Recipes: Parker House Rolls & Cherry Puffs

Parker House Rolls, Mrs. Marie Vawter

Rub one-half tablespoon of butter and one-half tablespoon lard into two quarts sifted four. Into a well in the middle pour one pint cold boiled milk and add one-half cup of yeast (or one yeast cake), one-half cup sugar and a little salt. If wanted for tea, rub the flour and butter, boil and cool the milk the night before, add sugar, yeast, and salt and turn all into the flour, but do not stir. Let stand over night and in the morning stir up. Knead and let rise till near tea time. Mold and let rise again and bake quickly. To mold, cut with cake cutter, put a little melted butter on one-half and lap nearly over on the other half, place in pan about three-fourths of an inch apart.


Cherry Puffs, Mrs. Kate Wilson

One egg, well beaten, one-half cup milk, butter size of a walnut, one cup of flour, one teaspoon of baking powder. Drop a tablespoon into a buttered cup and into this put two tablespoons of cherries, canned or fresh, then more batter. Steam thirty minutes. This will make four to five puffs. Serve with sauce or cream and sugar.


P.E.O. Cook Book, by David E. Schoonover

Recipes: Cream of Corn Soup

Cream of Corn Soup (from A Cook's Tour of Iowa)

2 slices bacon, finely diced                              2 cups milk
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion                1 teaspoon salt
2 cups frozen or fresh corn                              1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter                                         2 cups light cream
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

In a medium saucepan, fry bacon until crisp. Add onion and saute over medium heat until soft. Add corn to bacon and onion and cook until corn begins to brown. Add butter, stir until melted, and then add flour. Cook for 3 minutes. Add milk, salt, and pepper and cook until thickened. Add cream and heat thoroughly. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

From the Mamrelund Lutheran Church cookbook, contributed by Mrs. Lester R. Anderson, Mary Hanson, and Mrs. Lyle Wickstrom.


A Cook's Tour of Iowa, by Susan Puckett

National Pie Day!

Happy National Pie Day! Here is a recipe you are sure to love!

Pie Crust

2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups vegetable shortening
1/4 cup water

Sift flour and salt together. Cut shortening into flour until grain is nearly pea sized. Add water. Blend together lightly. Form dough into two balls. Roll out.

Makes one 9-inch double-crust pie. You may want to double or triple recipe and freeze crusts for future use. To freeze: roll out crust and place in pie pan. Cover pan with waxed paper and seal in freezer bag.

Red Raspberry Pie

3 cups raspberries
3 tablespoons tapioca
1.5 cups sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 9-inch pie shell with top, unbaked
1 to 2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Mix fruit, tapioca, sugar, and flour. Pour into 9-inch unbaked pie shell. Dot with butter and place top crust. Crimp edges. Pierce top to allow steam to escape. Bake for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes.



Seasons of Plenty, by Emilie Hoppe

Thanksgiving Holiday Menu 1

Surprise your family with this delicious meal from the University of Iowa Press's cook book collection. Come back on Wednesday for our dessert ideas!

Roast Turkey (Elizabeth Hiller, Cooking School Instructor) from P.E.O. Cook Book

Select a plump, young, ten-poung turkey, dress, clean, stuff and truss. Place it on a rack in a dripping pan, rub entire surface with salt and spread with a butter paste, make by creaming together one-third cup butter an adding slowly one-fourth cup flour. This is spread over breast, wings and legs. Place in a hot oven and borne delicately, turning turkey often. Reduce heat when evenly browned, add two cups water to fat in the pan and baste every fifteen minutes until turkey is cooked.

Buttermilk Biscuits from Prairie Cooks

2 cups all-purpose flour                                  1 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons sugar                                           2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup butter or margarine

Sift flour and sugar together. Add butter and cut in as if mixing a pie crust. Stir soda into buttermilk and add all at once to flour mixture. Stir with a fork until it holds together. Turn out on floured board and knead two or three ties. Pat dough into a 1-inch-high round and cut out with a 1.5-inch biscuit cutter. Gently bunch any remaining dough to form and cut last biscuits. Place closely together on buttered baking sheet and brush tops light with buttermilk. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until brown. Makes 16 - 18 biscuits.

P.E.O. Cook Book(Souvenir Edition), edited by David E. Schoonover

Prairie Cooks, by Carrie Young with Felicia Young