Recording your farm data will reveal which changes you need to make next year.
HOMESTEADING & LIVESTOCK
6 Green Goats Grazes to Success
New York-based company Green Goats clears acres of brush with the help of 180 caprine employees.
10 How to Wine and Dine a Chef
Use this expert advice to get your home-raised meat served up at local restaurants.
13 A Market for Meat Birds
Get the most bang for your cluck: Turn raising and processing poultry into a moneymaking, communitysupported agriculture venture.
18 A Welcoming Way into Beekeeping
Adopt-a-hive programs provide a low-cost, low-risk entry to beekeeping for beginners who are stumped about where to start.
20 Stay Prepared With the Latest Emergency Products
You can hope for the best but prepare for the worst with these durable off-grid innovations for any crisis.
24 Organize Your Homestead Stats
Monitor your farm’s facts and figures to manage daily tasks and track your progress.
26 Earth-Moving Equipment for the Homestead
Load up on versatile machinery to doze those daunting projects.
30 From Cubicle to Cultivar: How to Leave the Office and Become a Farmer
Hands-on apprenticeships cultivate opportunities to leave the city and lead an agrarian lifestyle.
35 Undertaking a Backyard Burial
Prepare for the legal and practical considerations of a backyard burial with these tips from a green-burial expert.
NATURAL HEALTH
38 Bring Garden Movement into Your Life Move with intention through your garden routine to stretch and strengthen long-forgotten muscles.
42 Get Better Sleep Naturally
Let Mother Nature’s herbal remedies work on your behalf to obtain the restorative rest you need.
46 Natural Sinus Support
Bolster your immune health and eliminate sinus pain by incorporating these herbal sinus remedies into your everyday routine for long-term relief.
50 Harvest Medicinal Trees in Your Backyard
Look up to find healing remedies in the canopy overhead.
GARDENING
55 Heat-Tolerant Eggplant Trials
Years of experimenting have shown an experienced gardener the best cultivars to grow in her steamy climate.
58 Life Cycle Gardening
From colorful cut flowers to edible shoots, roots, and more, maximize your garden’s yield by harvesting during different stages of the plants’ lives.
63 Bugs on the Move
Join The Big Bug Hunt and make sure you’re prepared when your invertebrate foes come to town.
68 Container Gardening
From the confined space of a shipping container, military college cadets grow and harvest hundreds of heads of lettuce per week for staff and students.
70 Transform Your Driveway into a Vegetable Garden
Use containers and straw bales to create an edible oasis.
76 Cover Crops on Urban Farms
Cover cropping isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. These city farmers have adapted the practice to suit their unique challenges.
80 Manipulate Your Microclimate
Shrug off those Zone limitations and find areas in your garden where traditional growing advice doesn’t apply.
DIY PROJECTS
86 Craft a Better Leather Apron
Turn a deer hide into a multipurpose apron that’s a perfect fit for garden chores or workshop projects.
91 DIY Kids’ Lounge Chair
Build this simple chair for the wee ones in your life.
94 Quite the Coop
Two readers share how their family built a quality custom coop for a fraction of the cost of a pre-made model.
97 Chick Inn Coop
Turn an old play set into the perfect paradise for your backyard flock.
98 Building With Balecob
This hybrid of cob and straw bale building techniques can offer unique flexibility to the natural builder.
103 Handcrafted Deerskin Tool Roll
Turn a tanned hide into a roll-up pouch with pockets that will keep your preferred tools organized for service and storage.
107 Handcrafted Forager’s Basket
Improve your self-sufficiency by collecting willow shoots and turning them into a beautiful, functional basket.
112 Building a Dream Log Home
An industrious couple sold everything to move into the woods of Nova Scotia, and pursue their dream of building an off-grid, solar-powered log home.
114 Invisible Deer Fence
Maintain your garden aesthetic by replacing bulky fence posts with a concealed suspension system that’s simple to build, and will serve as an effective barrier.
116 Low-Cost Rain Barrel Aquaponics System
Create an eco-friendly aquaponics system that will provide your family with fish and fresh greens for years to come.
118 Build a Timber Frame Chicken Coop
A reader shares how his family built a new coop using salvaged materials and traditional techniques.
120 Compost Toilets: Don’t Pass Up the Poop
Including human excreta in your compost piles
doesn’t have to be a crapshoot. Learn how to build and maintain a system to transform Nos. 1 and 2 into beneficial material.
126 Spinning a Yarn
Spinning seems like magic, but it’s no more than making string with a special stick. Learn how to make your own yarn with tools that have hardly changed since the Stone Age.
131 Reusable Food Wraps
These eco-friendly fabric food wraps are the bee’s knees, and you can choose any color or print you like when you make them yourself.
134 Build an Indoor Grow-Light Table
Readers share their tips for starting seeds indoors.
ENERGY
136 Won’t You Be My Neighbor
Take a look at Alabama’s “Smart Neighborhood” and the community microgrid initiative that has the potential to power our future.
141 Get Charged Up With Off-Grid Battery Options
This expert advice will help you pick the best battery bank to power your property.
146 Tech Tools for Energy Efficiency
Monitor and modify your home’s energy usage with these apps and devices.
150 Zero-Energy Retreat
Two families banded together to build an energyefficient getaway in the mountains for themselves as well as renters.
FOOD & COOKING
152 Affinage Aging Like Fine Cheese
Feeling pressed by the limitations of fresh cheeses? Try your hand at aged cheeses.
159 Fermented Beverages Your Way: Homemade
See what all the fizz is about by trying these delicious and nutritious recipes.
162 Mull Over Mead
Enjoy an in-depth look at the components and creation of this versatile, honey-based beverage—a hearty addition to any home brewing arsenal.
166 Dutch Oven Delight
An annual gathering of cooks from across the nation is keeping the time-honored techniques of camp Dutch ovens alive and well.
170 Waste Not, Want Not: How to Cut Up a Whole Chicken
Slice prices and corporate reliance by learning how to consume the entire bird.
175 Egg-cellent Preserves
Brined, cured, or pickled eggs make unique additions to any pantry, and their distinctive flavors can be enjoyed for weeks to come.
178 Icy Herb-Infused Granitas
This refreshing treat calls for garden ingredients and requires no specialty equipment.
182 Discover Fermented Radishes
Rev up your ferments with these spicy, fast-growing roots.
188 Recipes for an Annual Wild Edible Chickweed Salve and Chickweed Pesto
Let this star-shaped plant shine by using its invigorating properties in a potent healing salve and nutrient-rich wild greens pesto.