So this blog and website is about the sharing the knowledge of the things that I find have value in life. Teaching our kids about the importance of cooking from scratch, growing your own food, raising animals and foraging for medicinal plants. I want to cover all of that in this blog. I want to provide a place for conversations, prayers, laughs, cries, and the joys and the disadvantages or mishaps that occur on the farm, in the kitchen or anywhere life takes us.

I grew up on a beef cattle farm in a small town in the Southwest area of Virginia. Surrounded by the most gorgeous mountains you have ever seen. But in the valleys are some of the prettiest farms your eyes have seen . I grew up learning how to raise cattle, tobacco, grow a garden and preserve that garden. I was taught how to shell peas, break beans, shuck corn, top strawberries, pick up taters, slice cucumbers, and so much more. That led us to canning beans, freezing corn and peas, making strawberry freezer jam and canning pickles. Besides pasta sauce that was about the extent of my canning and preservation. I loved it and am thankful to have had the experience. We would gather around with my Gran and Grandad, some aluminum tubs and pans, and plentiful buckets of fresh produce. A lot of which got eaten before it made in the kitchen. Oh how I hated then doing those chores. But what I would give to have my Grandad back to break beans. I say break because I feel like I was the only one who tried to get the strings off. Everytime I see a bean that has a string, I say out loud to my kids or myself, Grandad must have broken that one.

Although the days of doing things with them are over, we have started the same kind of traditions with our kids. Slicing beets, making medicinal capsules, gathering herbs, flowers for jellies, planting the garden or reaping the harvest. It make us happy to know that they can provide for themselves. They can can and preserve their own food. We had always done the simple things and thats what I was used too. Then Covid hit and boy were we glad that we knew how to do some things. That only made us realize there was so much more that we could be doing and learning and teaching our kids.

So I got busy doing research, trying new recipes, finding new things to try that I had never tried to make before especially from scratch. Then it seemed like a rabbit hole. It just kept on going until soon I had written a book that was intended for just my kids. It focused solely on making most kitchen staples from scratch without going to town. Then it began to grow into a section 2 of how to use the staples in real recipes that I wanted to pass on to them anyway. A family Heirloom. Then I decided to add a section on a few things to stock, how to save scraps and egg shells plus how to reduce a recipe in half.

What started out as a simple, follow this recipe turned into 287 pages of knowledge of tried and true recipes that I know my family loves and I think your family will too. The book not only teaches how to can, preserve, dehydrate, freeze, gather, make from scratch and cook all in one. I truly believe that you will wow your family and friends with some of the recipes.

I know my family would rather eat my beets. My family will not eat store bought beets, but I pickle 200 lbs of beets every couple of years. Coffee creamer, my husband will not buy nor consume store bought coffee creamer. I make my own. But there are so many more simple recipes that will have your family healthier and happier to eat. Don’t have something in particular? That’s okay because there are so many substitutions for things, they are in the book as well! You will find recipes on dairy like making butter, sour cream, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk etc. You will find recipes on bread, meats, jams and jellies, fruits, vegetables, spices, condiments, and much more.

There is something for everyone with a huge dessert section as well, Pig Pickin Cake being one of my favorites along with one of my best friends Suzanne’s Apple Pie and my Gran’s Roast beef and gravy recipe. Maybe trying to be more self sufficient is on your bucket list and you didn’t know where to start! Here it is. Maybe you want to be healthier and boycott the preservatives. Maybe you want to be able to pronounce all the ingredients in your food. Maybe you want to limit the amount of poison your kids consume. Maybe you just want to learn how to make from scratch things that you didn’t think you could. Jump on in and learn how. In the beginning you may find that things are a little more time consuming, but that’s ok. When you were in school typing wasn’t easy to do at first, and I bet you had to be trained at your job. But once you master it, you can reduce your time and spend more time taking it all in with your family. So don’t feel like you are defeated! Keep going and trying and if you fail a few times, don’t stop. Most of these recipes I have made hundreds of times and sometimes a batch of this or that gets tossed across the fence!

So if you think now that you might be interested in checking out my book, my website, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok all ya have to do is follow the links. My Kitchen My Rules is the name of my book. Find me on Facebook @ Made with Love Homestead, Instagram @ madewithtonsoflove, My website www.madewithtonsoflove.com, or Tiktok @ thecrazyherblady.

Bring ya chair back sometime and we can discuss some more kitchen items to make from scratch or snarl ya nose at! Either works for me. But I do enjoy these chats! Check us out, follow, share, like and comment! And always remember to Smile, God loves you and so do we!