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Continue reading →: Beyond the Brew Kettle: Growing and Using Hops in the Home ApothecaryFor years, hops have had a very specific job around our homestead: make the beer better. As a homebrewer, I originally started growing hops because there is something especially satisfying about walking outside, harvesting your own fragrant cones, and using them in a batch of beer that began right here…
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Continue reading →: From Garden to Apothecary: Making Homemade Beet and Beet Green CapsulesIn our last post, we shared how we crafted a beet tincture, and today we are excited to walk through our second favorite way to preserve our beet harvest . By dehydrating both the ruby roots and the nutrient-dense leafy greens, we grind them into a whole-plant superfood powder and…
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Continue reading →: Homestead Apothecary: Crafting Fresh Garden Beet Root TinctureThere is nothing quite like pulling a vibrant crop of beets (Beta vulgaris) from rich, wood-chip-mulched garden soil! This season, our garden rewarded us with an abundant harvest, and while the prime, baseball-sized roots are headed for pickling, powdering and cellar storage, we found ourselves with a basket full of…
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Continue reading →: Homestead Realities: Building a Frugal (and Slightly Wonky) Predator-Proof Chicken PenFor the last ten years or so, we have been incredibly lucky. Our chicken pen—a simple 40×20 foot area enclosed with basic t-posts and four feet of chicken wire—has kept our flock perfectly safe. Predators simply were not an issue for us. But homesteads are always evolving, and so is…
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Continue reading →: Completing Our Usnea Tincture: The Magic of a Double Extraction (Part 2)Eight weeks ago, we shared the first step of making our Usnea tincture, placing the freshly gathered lichen into 80-proof and 100-proof vodka to begin its slow, quiet steep. Over the last two months, that alcohol has been doing the important work of pulling out the plant’s deep, protective properties.…
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Continue reading →: The Many Gifts of Elder: Making Small-Batch Elderflower CordialOne of the things we value most here at Grow, Gather, Heal is finding plants that offer us medicine and nourishment in more ways than one. That is exactly why we love the elder shrub so deeply. It is a plant that gives generously twice a year—first with its frothy, fragrant blossoms…
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Continue reading →: Making the Most of an Abundant Lemon Balm Harvest: Gentle Summer Sun TeaIt is bright, sunny, and pushing 92 degrees out there today. It is the kind of high-summer afternoon where the garden is practically humming with growth, and the heat makes you want to just slow down and find a shady spot to rest. If you grow lemon balm (Melissa officinalis),…
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Continue reading →: Springtime Garden ExpansionIt has been a busy spring and early summer here, and our garden has grown in such a big way this season. After sharing about our first wood chip delivery, we ended up receiving three ChipDrop deliveries in total, and now we are finally down to the last half of the final…
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Continue reading →: Growing, Harvesting, and Making Peony JellyEvery spring, our peonies remind us why old-fashioned flowers still deserve a place in the garden. Their huge, fragrant blooms are one of the highlights of the season, and here on our homestead we look forward to them every single year. We grow both pink and white peonies, and while they…
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Continue reading →: Making Usnea Tincture & Infused Oil!A huge thank you goes out to a couple of amazing friends from our Grow, Gather, Heal Facebook page! We have been completely unable to locate any Usnea around our property here in Maryland, and they were incredibly kind enough to send us a package of dried Usnea to use. I am…
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RJ Homestead
We are Rebecca, and John, and this is our little spot on the internet. Our goal is to post about what we have going on around our little homestead and share the things we’ve learned over the years. We’re glad you are here!
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