8 years have passed since we started our adventure of building a four-season greenhouse/growing room at the back of our garage, and it's time for an honest review. If you are new here, welcome! Northern Homestead is in Alberta Canada, growing zone 3, 51 latitude parallel north. The ...
The New Country Garden
Last year in November we purchased a 2-acre country property. We have not shared much about it yet for several reasons but wanted to update you on it over the winter months. Today we start with the new country garden update. Growing a garden away from home is not new to us. We have grown a ...
End of Season Garden Update 2022
We are looking back with gratitude to yet another productive gardening season this Thanksgiving weekend. It also happens to be our 15th anniversary of living in Canada. The beautiful fall weather we are enjoying reminds me of our first fall here. Back then we did not know how rare the warm Octobers ...
A Dozen Ways to Preserve Carrots
After sharing our bountiful harvest last week, the question arose about how to preserve carrots. That's a good question. Here are a dozen ways to preserve carrots. Most of them we are using or have used in the past. Storing carrots in the cellar Carrots are a root crop that stores very well ...
Sowing Carrots in Cornstarch Experiment
Have you heard of sowing carrots in cornstarch? It is said to be a way of planting lots of carrots quickly and easily for great germination no thinning needed and preventing seed waste. Wow, that's a lot to ask from a planting method, especially if it comes to something as finicky as ...
Freezing Raw Tomato Sauce
Preserving tomatoes for winter has two reasons. For one we want to enjoy the summer bounty year-round, but also there are often way more tomatoes in the middle of summer than we can eat, so preserving is the best way to use up the harvest. We already covered the easiest way to preserve ...
Raspberry Chocolate Jam Recipe
Raspberries are hand down my favorite berry, and chocolate is my favorite treat. In this recipe, we combine those two into a raspberry chocolate jam. How delicious is that! For most of the raspberries we harvest, we freeze whole for our breakfast porridge. At the end of the berry season ...
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Recipe
Strawberries and rhubarb are a great combination. They ripen at the same time, they balance each other out and they make the yummy strawberries go so much farther. The dominant taste of strawberry rhubarb jam is still strawberry, but with a nice twist. In my recipe, I use a half and half ratio, ...
Fermented Watermelon Recipe
A yummy watermelon is the best snack on a hot summer day. It's refreshing, contains lots of water, and if you were lucky to catch a good one, delicious. If the watermelon you got isn't as delicious as you like, the fermented watermelon recipe comes to the rescue. Personally, we prefer seeded ...
Fermented pickles for winter
Fermented pickles for winter tick all the boxes. They are naturally fermented, crunchy but still not too salty, and keep well for months. If you love fermented pickles, you know the challenge. They are either very salty or just don't stay crunchy. I certainly do. Since we do not like things ...
