Running Back To Your Roots.
Homesteading- a lifestyle of self-sufficiency.
This free monthly challenge created by Jones Roots will help you build skills and find community. This isn't an all or nothing challenge. You can participate as you like and pick and choose what skills you want to learn. Each month has a new focus that features recipes, how to's, supply & resource lists, and lots more.
Gardening has become such a passionate hobby of mine over the last couple years. It helped me deal with anxiety during a pandemic, finding what I could control during a time I felt I had none, and now it's literally my therapy. I am my most happiest, calmest self, when I am in the garden.
I discovered Jone Roots's challenge through a friend who shared about it on Instagram. I've been consistently gardening at our home since 2020. But before we even had a garden, I would day dream and pin all the things I would need to know about caring for chickens! I wanted chickens and that experience of raising them in the worst way. As my passion grew and my day dreams becoming realities, I would find more and more things I wanted to learn how to do. I want to learn more about canning my produce I grow. I want to learn more about flower farming and having freshly picked flowers at the ready. I want to learn more about homesteading and how to be semi self-sufficient. I want to be able to use unused space in our yard as usable, practical, beneficial space to grow food to feed us. I believe you don't need to live on acres to do this. You just need to start!
When I discovered this challenge I was so excited for what it was! Each month we would be taught and guided on a new skill to learn. We could pick which ones we wanted to do and be involved in what activities each month we liked best. All the skills are skills our ancestors would use daily. The way people use to have to know in order to live. Baking, Canning, Gardening, and even making their own clothes. I knew this would be a great resource and a community to learn some of basics to homesteading! I jumped right away and signed up for the challenge! It's been a blast.
Each month is a new focus topic and this is what they are:
January- Bread Making, Baking 101, & Sourdough
February- Cooking From Scratch & Pantry Staples
March- Gardening: all things growing food
April- Fermenting
May- Dairy 101
June- Canning & Preservation
July- Stocking Shelves & Being Prepared
August- Buying Local
September- Herbalism
October- All Natural Home
November- A Sustainable Wardrobe
December- Forgotten Skills & Crafts
Everyday there is something new to learn and new activity to try! @jonesroots shares daily on Instagram with everyday topics, guides, recipes, and more! If this sounds like something that would interest you, join the fun! Each month I will share and document what I learned in this post. Be sure to check back each month for my updates!
January
In January, I learned how to make a sourdough starter from scratch to make sourdough bread! This is something I have never done and it was fun to learn a new skill in baking. My Dad use to enjoy making fresh baked loaves of bread when we were growing up and the smell of bread baking is heavenly. I also made a no-knead bread, hubby made us homemade pizza dough from scratch using active yeast, and I made best homemade cinnamon rolls using the Pioneer Woman's recipe! I would of loved to had more time to bake some other breads like biscuits, sourdough pretzels, and some of the other times on January's monthly calendar. I just didn't have time during the week due training for my new remote job and weekends we were off to doctor appts for the baby or just needed to catch up on things like laundry and cleaning.
This no-knead bread was easy to make and there's plenty of recipes out there on the internet and Pinterest to make them! I added honey to mine for a little extra something and flavor. I thought it was delicious but the rest of the family wasn't as willing to try something new. I ended up eating the majority of this myself and tossing about a 1/3 to a 1/4 of it after it sitting on the counter for a week. I live in a household full of the pickiest eaters I swear. They don't know what's good for them. ha.
The homemade pizza crust was more loved than my homemade bread. That's fair. I love pizza too. My husband use to work in a pizza shop in his younger years and he loved it. He learned how to toss pizza in the air without dropping it or ripping it. Something the children and I just love watching him do. We need to make homemade pizza more often, it's so easy to make!
Our most favorite thing we baked that month was the homemade cinnamon rolls following The Pioneer Woman's recipe! Her recipe makes a enough to feed a army and then some. I ended up cutting the recipe in half and it made 3 glass pie pans full! I am actually going to be making these again soon for my sister as a welcome home treat after having her baby. I'll be making enough to share with my parents, my sister, ourselves, some to my grandmother, and if we have enough I'll share a pan with my in laws too! I hope to be able to take some decent pictures the next time I make them and share the recipe in full then. For now enjoy this video of the deliciousness!
February
coming soon!
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