Ep 49 - Small-Scale Homesteading with Michelle and Stephanie

Hi friends! I'm back with an awesome repeat guest today -- Natalie, the Alaska Redhead! Natalie is a fellow off-grid homesteader who lives in Alaska and was on the podcast a little over a year ago. We became friends and have stayed in touch, so decided to have an on-going series that we're calling Homestead Chats with Natalie and Sara. Today we catch up on what's been going on at each of our homesteads, how we made it through winter, our different crafty endeavors, and lots more! Hope you enjoy! ~*~*~*~*~*~ Find Natalie on Instagram: @alaska.redhead  Natalie's Podcast My Far North Cabin Natalie's crochet Etsy store Our farm shop is full of goodies for you! All of our seasonings, including our smoked jalapeno salt and smoked garlic salt, are back in stock and ready to ship. We also have seasonal offerings like our Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend and our Elderberry Syrup Kits, to get ready for cold and flu season. Your support helps us to keep growing, literally and figuratively Use code PODCAST24 at checkout to save 10% on everything in the farm shop! You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Please share the podcast with a friend so we can reach more fantastic like-minded people!!

Hi friends! It's been a minute since our last episode but we have lots of fun progress updates to share! Things are moving along nicely with our shop build and we've been having a great season at different farmers' markets and festivals. Today I’m super excited to have Tenae Stewart on the podcast to talk about her book, Botanical Cocktails. Residing in California, Tenae is a cottage witch and astrologer who has previously published two other books, The Modern Witch’s Guide to Natural Magick and The Modern Witch’s Guide to Magickal Self-Care. In her latest book, she shares delicious cocktail and mocktail recipes with us that feature beautiful herbs that we can cultivate in our gardens or find while out foraging. I hope you enjoy this episode! ~*~*~*~ Want to connect with Tenae? You can find her on Instagram, or visit her website to get signed copies of her books. Our farm shop is full of goodies for you! All of our seasonings, including our smoked jalapeno salt and smoked garlic salt, are back in stock and ready to ship. We also have seasonal offerings like our Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend and our Elderberry Syrup Kits, to get ready for cold and flu season. Your support helps us to keep growing, literally and figuratively Use code PODCAST24 at checkout to save 10% on everything in the farm shop! You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Please share the podcast with a friend so we can reach more fantastic like-minded people!!

We're back with our second episode in our Homestead Tools series! Make sure to check out Episode 53 - Essential Tools for Your Homestead if you haven't already listened to that one. Today we're moving past the basic tools that we previously covered and talking about some investments that can really help to level up your projects. Mike answers my questions about everything from cutting metal and welding to a variety of options for sawing your own lumber, and so much more! We hope this episode will be super useful for you. Here is the Miller welding app that Mike mentions. Our third installment in this series will talk about tool maintenance so that you can make sure to protect your investments! ~*~*~*~ Our new website and farm shop are finally up! All of our seasonings, including our smoked jalapeno salt and smoked garlic salt, are back in stock and ready to ship. Your support helps us to keep growing, literally and figuratively Use code PODCAST24 at checkout to save 10% on everything in the farm shop! You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Please share the podcast with a friend so we can reach more fantastic like-minded people!!

It was a long winter but we're back with some great project updates now that the weather has gotten nicer and we can get back to work on our property! Spring means worktime around here for sure!! Mike and I share what we've been up to thanks to an excavator rental, and some tips for those of you who might also be renting large pieces of equipement. We also discuss the pros and cons of working with repurposed materials, specifically using old tires for building projects.   ~*~*~*~ Our new website and farm shop are finally up! All of our seasonings, including our smoked jalapeno salt and smoked garlic salt, are back in stock and ready to ship. Your support helps us to keep growing, literally and figuratively You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Please share the podcast with a friend so we can reach more fantastic like-minded people!!

Hi friends! Happy New Year! We're back with our first episode of 2024 where we reflect on what we accomplished in 2023, share some big life events that happened, and then dive into our goals for this coming year. We talk about goals for our land/homestead, the farm business, our tattoo studio, our health, and more. We'd also love to hear about your goals for this year as well! We think speaking our plans aloud helps with accountability and it's also fun to see the commonalities in goals across our whole community. This year is going to be AWESOME! ~*~*~*~ Please consider supporting the show by checking out our online farm shop! All of our seasonings, including our smoked jalapeno salt and smoked garlic salt, are back in stock and ready to ship. You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Please share the podcast with a friend so we can reach more fantastic like-minded people!!

Hey friends! Mike is back on the podcast with me to discuss essential tools for your homestead. We start off by talking about hand tools and then progress to battery-operated power tools and corded power tools. Mike answers some of my questions and we share things we've learned over the years. We think this is useful info even if you aren't homesteading yet because it's great to have a basic toolkit no matter where you live! We'll be doing a second tool episode covering specialty tools and also answering any questions that you all send in, so feel free to message us through our social media if there's something you'd like us to cover! ~*~*~*~ Please consider supporting the show by checking out our online farm shop! Pre-orders are open for our quarterly seasonal box of herbal products. This box ships in time to receive it before the winter solstice, Yule, and Christmas -- so it also makes a great gift! It comes with our best-selling Winter Wellness Tea, elderberry syrup, and lots more. Check it out!!  You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook. (You'll notice we've switched our farm name to Nordic Fox Farm -- we talk about this in the intro to the episode! New website coming soon!)

Hey friends! October 20th marks one year of us living off-grid on our land in Colorado, so we thought it would be nice to take an episode to reflect on everything we've accomplished so far! We also dive into how our lifestyle has shifted living so remotely, some of the unexpected challenges we've faced, what we really value and consider to be luxuries now, and lots more. At the end of the episode we also touch on some tough news regarding our pig herd. This episode is dedicated to Franklin, Clementine, and their piglets ~*~*~*~ Please consider supporting the show by checking out our online farm shop! We've got loads of seasonal goodies stocked up there for the fall and winter. You can also follow us on social media as @foxandelder.

Hi friends!! I’m recording this intro on the summer solstice, looking out at the garden and just really loving life at the moment. This weather is absolutely amazing. We’ve gotten a TON of work done on the homestead recently and we’ll share about that in an upcoming episode. We’re also getting fun new summer herbal products listed in the Fox and Elder shop, including our summer solstice boxes which we have just a couple of left. Today I have Natalie, the Alaska Redhead, joining us on the podcast. I found her through a mutual friend and immediately knew I had to have her on the show. I’m so glad to have been able to strike up a friendship with her and convince her to come on and share her experiences with you all. Alaska is one of those homesteading destinations that has become more and more popular in recent years, but there are some big challenges to consider if you’re thinking about moving there! Natalie and I dive into those and she shares some of her challenges in living off grid in Alaska. She has some great insights to share and I hope you enjoy our conversation! I hope everyone is doing well out there and that your seedlings are healthy and happy. Be good to each other! Until next time, keep your hands dirty and your heart open. ~*~*~*~ Find Natalie on Instagram: @alaska.redhead and @nataliesoffgridkitchen Natalie's Alaskan Life blog Natalie's crochet Etsy store ~*~*~*~ Find Sara on Instagram: @foxandelder Check out our farm's herbal products: Fox and Elder shop Our newest seasoning blend: Herbs de Provence  

Today is our 50th episode!! I have Mike on the podcast with me again and we're diving into all of the different parts of our off-grid infrastructure. We share what has worked, what hasn't, and things we wish we had known ahead of time. Some of the topics we cover include: road access to your land hauling water septic vs composting toilets generators camper batteries battery tenders solar power off-grid internet options We hope this episode will be really helpful to you if you are considering homesteading at some point, or are already homesteading and looking to possibly change up some of the things you're doing! We are definitely not even close to being experts, but always happy to share whatever knowledge we can in the hopes it will save you from some of our own mistakes! ~*~*~*~ If you’d like to support the podcast, please spread the word about it by sharing it on your social media! You can also support us by checking out our online farm shop. We have lots of great herbal offerings in stock and pre-orders for our summer solstice box will be opening up soon. Until next time, keep your hands dirty and your heart open.

Hi friends! I hope the month of May has been treating you well! Things here are looking great – it’s finally warm enough that we have some seeds started and sprouting, and we were invited to vend at a local market for a spring event last week. Our farmers' market also starts up at the end of this month and we’re looking forward to being there every Saturday! Today’s interview features two awesome guests who I’m excited to introduce you to: Stephanie Thurow is a Certified Master Food Preserver and Master Gardener Volunteer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a homesteader, author of bestselling cookbooks Can It & Ferment It, WECK Small-Batch Preserving, and WECK Home Preserving. You can find here on the Minnesota from Scratch blog, or on Instagram under the same name. Stephanie hopes her experience with homesteading will help others reach more of their goals. When she isn’t in the kitchen preserving, she can be found in the garden with her hens, teaching food preservation classes, or at the lake with her family and friends. Michelle Bruhn homesteads in suburban Minnesota. She's a local food advocate, Master Gardener Volunteer, writer, garden educator, and farmers' market manager. As the founder of ForksInTheDirt.com, an information hub for garden and farm-to-table living, her passion is helping folks "dig" their food. She can also be found at ForksInTheDirt on Instagram. When not in the garden, Michelle enjoys spending time with her backyard flock, family, and friends while immersing herself in nature (usually with a foraging basket in tow).   Their book Small-Scale Homesteading covers topics such as: Gardening tips and tricks: from composting, soil health and what plants thrive best during the different seasons. All things preserving: Canning, curing and how to keep your vegetables last year round. Raising chickens: how these feathered friends can inhance your homestead. DIY products and recipes: healthy alternatives to everyday cleaning products, lotions and soaps. ~*~*~*~ If you’d like to support the podcast, please spread the word about it by sharing it on your social media! You can also support us by checking out our online farm shop. We have lots of great herbal offerings in stock and pre-orders for our summer solstice box will be opening up soon. Until next time, keep your hands dirty and your heart open.