Wild + Whole

Here’s an unfortunate idea most people who want to grow food for themselves live under: they think they don’t have the space to do so. In most cases, this simply isn’t true, but this mindset runs rampant in society, and in this writer’s opinion it needs to be changed. One way we can change it is by...

My family and I worked a patch of blackcap raspberries along a road winding through the mountains of central Pennsylvania. We’d waited until the heat of the July day broke with the evening to come pick. With only an hour of light left, we quickly tried to fill a gallon to freeze, and hopefully a cup...

Beans are thought to have been first cultivated alongside their sister crop, corn, around 7,000 years ago in what is now Mexico. Over thousands of years they made their way north on Native American trade routes with unique varieties developing along the way. Mature dry beans are packed with protein...

There are many great reasons to add sheep to your homestead. Whether you’re interested in wool, meat, dairy, help with weeds, showing, or all the above, sheep make useful additions to farms and homesteads of any size. Yet the choice between breeds can be tough. The American Sheep Industry...

Mugolio is my favorite party trick. It turns a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream into a primeval forest treat, a well-liquor drink into a top-shelf cocktail, or a humble chevre into a Michelin-star cheese course, and all for the cost of a few cups of sugar. It’s a rags-to-riches story that’s within...

Around 10,000 years ago in what is now Southern Mexico, subsistence farmers began experimenting with a scrubby wild grain called Teosinte. Over generations they selectively bred for larger and larger starch-filled kernels until they developed the ubiquitous grain that we now call corn. Corn gets a...

Ducks fill a niche on the homestead that no other animal can. Various breeds can either give you a whole lot of meat or a whole lot of eggs, but this article will focus on species that are classified (generally speaking) as dual-purpose birds, meaning you get the best of both worlds. You'll be...

Bánh mì, the Vietnamese equivalent of a hoagie, sub, or grinder, is a beautiful example of what happens when two distinct culinary cultures blend. Bánh mì translates to “baked” and “wheat” or “bread.” At its core, it's a french baguette filled with Vietnamese ingredients. Crispy bread, pickled...

Many of the tribes indigenous to North America have a variation of the Legend of the Three Sisters. The most widely recognized is the Haudenosaunee version in which three sisters (corn, beans, and squash) live together in a field and help one another survive. As the story goes: Very long ago, there...

If you’ve decided to raise pigs, one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is what pig breed to choose. There’s a wide variety of pig breeds around the world and many have their own unique characteristics. Below are several factors to consider as you decide what breed might be best for your...

On our homestead, we strive to create a flourishing ecosystem that supports wildlife, as well as our family. Most of our yard is filled with vegetables, fruit trees, and mushroom logs, but we also have a large pollinator garden and a brush pile in our food forest that provide habitat for native...