About The Brilliant Homestead
The Brilliant Homestead
A Great Homesteading Ideas Blog
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Almost nothing in the plant world can compete with the beauty and baffling array of shapes and colors exhibited by winter squash. From butternuts to cheese pumpkins… candy roasters to Jack-o-lanterns… the variety is amazing. Not all squash grow well in every location, however. Some take a long time to mature and others can’t take … Read more
With much satisfaction, we present to you a book that makes composting easier than it’s ever been. Introducing Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting. In this new book from David The Good, you’ll learn how to compost meat, how to garden on top of compost piles, how to make fish emulsion, how to … Read more
Chickens aren’t just for meat and eggs. If you’re used to buying bland, factory-farmed eggs squeezed out of sick, de-beaked chickens in tiny cages, the price of good eggs can be a bit startling. If you’re used to buying big, gross bags of cheap Tyson bird parts from Walmart, the price of good pastured chicken meat is … Read more
When in search of brilliant ideas today, we came across the following post by Jeremy Marin: This summer I kept more than 1,000 lbs. of “garbage” from getting hauled dozens of miles away in a 3 mpg vehicle to an incinerator. I also saved money and got great compost. Spurred by a question from … Read more
When you can’t water your plants, you can’t feed yourself. If you’re living off-grid or considering it, you’ve got to dig a well. Most folks would call up a company and pay through the nose for a well… yet in the past folks used to dig their own wells without cranes, electric or powered bits. … Read more
What can be grafted onto plum? More than you might imagine. Check out this video on grafting nectarines, peaches and plums onto a wild plum root stock: It’s a veritable fruit cocktail tree!
Let’s face the dirty truth: gardening books are often boring. And good gardening ideas are few and far between. Sure, there’s the occasional laughter-inducing tome, such as Ruth Stout’s epic Gardening Without Work… or the infectious enthusiasm for geometric horticultural engineering found in Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening. But most gardening books do little to stir the mind. How many … Read more
It sometimes seems as if there are as many ways to graft as there are orchardists. In searching out various methods of grafting, and looking at grafting pecans in particular, we came across a very clever pecan grafting method called the “four-flap” or “banana graft.” Check out this fascinating demonstration: Showing how the pecan … Read more
Probably more than you think! Check out this video on apple tree grafting from the Turkeysong Experimental Homestead: So far he’s grafted over 140 varieties of apple onto one apple tree. Do you have a lousy fruit tree growing in your yard? Perhaps a wild fruit tree? A native persimmon that doesn’t fruit or a … Read more
Now this is interesting – Lee Valley makes a grafting bit that lines up to the same angle as a pencil sharpener. That means you can drill a hole in the side of a tree, sharpen a freshly-cut scion from another tree, then stick the two together and seal with grafting wax. I think we must try it. … Read more
Breeding Squash: Create Your Own Heirloom Squash Varieties!
Compost Meat, Paper, Bones and More with Super Easy Composting
Put Your Chickens To Work with a Simple Chicken Tractor
Fast Urban Composting and Coffee Grounds in the Garden
How To Dig a Well: 4 Methods
June 2015
May 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
Florida Survival Gardening
Journey To Forever
Mother Earth News
Permies
The Deliberate Agrarian
The Prepper Project
Taro from Garden to Plate... Step by Step Easy.... July 14, 2015
Seed starting with the Larry Hall method of using net cups. April 25, 2015
Thornless Verses Thorned Blackberries April 25, 2015
Back to Eden update 4-25-2015 April 25, 2015
Supersized kiddie pool update. RGGS April 25, 2015
How To Change the Transmission Fluid in a Dodge Ram August 29, 2015
Boost Testosterone With Velvet Beans August 26, 2015
The Distracting Snake August 19, 2015
Florida Edible Wild Mushrooms August 15, 2015
How To Identify Chanterelle Mushrooms August 15, 2015
Permaculture Design Transforms Neglected Farm into Food Forest August 30, 2015
Wood Raised Bed Summer Vegetable Garden Tour August 26, 2015
Top 2 Ways to Apply Compost Tea to Your Garden for Best Results August 23, 2015
Easiest Way to Grow Herbs Indoors with Zero Effort August 19, 2015
#1 Reason Why Your Compost is Not Composting August 16, 2015
Hardneck or softneck? What kind of garlic do you grow? August 28, 2015
Get ready to plant garlic! August 28, 2015
Holy Shiitake! How to grow mushrooms in your backyard August 28, 2015
Blogger Profile: Abundance Farms August 20, 2015
Blogger Profile: Janet Garman with Timber Creek Farm August 19, 2015
Eat Close to Home with Garden-Fresh Salsa August 28, 2015
Yell It from the Roof-Top Farm! Brooklyn Grange Farm is Planting the Way August 17, 2015
Minto Island Growers Seek Balance As Their Farm Expands, Part 2 August 14, 2015
Plant Pest-Proof, Perennial Bloodroot in Your Garden August 13, 2015
Drying Herbs to Savor the Flavor August 12, 2015
Polyface Farm’s Unfair Advantage August 28, 2015
Why is the Farm at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village so Unique? August 26, 2015
How to Clean, Melt and Store Beeswax August 24, 2015
A Rough Goat Kidding Season August 24, 2015
Managing Hive Beetles in Home Beehives August 21, 2015
The Financial IdolsAre Coming Down August 30, 2015
First Pigs August 29, 2015
Vintage Butchering Tools August 28, 2015
My New Outdoor Sink August 23, 2015
"One More Time" August 18, 2015
Important Florida Survival Gardening Update! Read this! August 7, 2015
Jamaican Sorrel leaves are a good green July 24, 2015
Today at the 326 Community Market: Large-fruited PawPaw Seedlings! July 23, 2015
Another Florida Stinging Caterpillar: The Saddleback Caterpillar! July 22, 2015
WOCA Interview 7/21: Pumpkins, Weird Beetles, Composting and More! July 21, 2015
How to Grow Apples Without Pesticides August 21, 2015
Bread and Butter Pickles August 11, 2015
Limited Free Range Chickens: 12 Tips to Balance Freedom & Safety August 6, 2015
8 Reasons to Grow Daylilies July 30, 2015
Raspberry Basil Yogurt Pops July 21, 2015
Grow a Modern Day Victory Garden August 29, 2015
Free-Ranging Chickens in the Garden August 25, 2015
Do the Tattler Re-Usable Canning Lids Actually Work? (an Honest Tattler Lid Review) August 23, 2015
Preserve the Harvest: Air Dehydrate Celery Leaves August 20, 2015
Home Canning Recipe: Vanilla Peach Jam August 13, 2015
Casual Turtles Latest Terrapin August 29, 2015
5 Steps to Simplifying and Downsizing August 28, 2015
Robinia a Tiny House Case Study August 27, 2015
A Digital Nomad Roundup August 26, 2015
Freedom Yurt Cabins at Tiny House Jamboree August 25, 2015
Managing Menstruation When The SHTF- Naturally August 27, 2015
Handling Wheat: From Field To Table August 12, 2015
Building a Community Reliant Life August 9, 2015
How To Can Over A Wood Fire August 6, 2015
Off Grid Goat’s Milk Ice Cream August 5, 2015
‘understanding roots,’ with robert kourik August 29, 2015
herbed roasted tomatoes to freeze, with alana chernila August 25, 2015
a moment from ‘rectify’ August 23, 2015
327 – Questions From Jet Packer Davin Hoyt Part 1 August 27, 2015
326 – Questions From Morgan Bowen; Trees; the PDC at Wheaton Labs; the Ant Village July 13, 2015
325 – Alone in the Wilderness, the Story of Dick Proeneke May 22, 2015
324 – The Ant Village Explained Part 2 May 15, 2015
323 – The Ant Village Explained Part 1 May 13, 2015
The New Normal August 28, 2015
Settled August 24, 2015
Me & Him, Him & Me August 18, 2015
Todd, Alex, and Other Matters August 14, 2015
Foggy Gathering August 11, 2015
Herbs for Chicken Nesting Boxes August 27, 2015
Breeding Your Cow with Artificial Insemination August 25, 2015
Deep Mulch Garden Video Update August 20, 2015
21 Vegetables for Your Fall Garden August 18, 2015
There’s No Use Crying August 26, 2015
The Gardens in July {2015} August 11, 2015
The Perfect Family Cow? Pros & Cons of Dexter Cattle August 4, 2015
Homemade Medicine Made Simple: Jewelweed {The Anti-Itch Plant} July 25, 2015
Why I’m NEVER Canning Traditional Tomato Sauce Again! July 22, 2015
Free range hens, children and poop? August 30, 2015
GOT BACON BUT NOOO EGGSSSS August 30, 2015
She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one! August 30, 2015
Silkie thread! August 30, 2015
*The Verge of War* A Medieval Rp August 30, 2015
A Hypothetical Anthology August 29, 2015
The Future of Skirmish, Part 2: Straight Outta Compton August 28, 2015
RETROSPECTIVE: The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson August 24, 2015
The Celtic Blade August 23, 2015
Future Skirmish, Part 1: The Closing of the American Frontier August 20, 2015