This Christmas was a baker’s dream for me. I got all variations of supplies from my family to dive deeper into sourdough. Until now, I’ve been making either discard recipes or the “cheater” boules recipes for soup bread bowls. Now I have a Dutch oven, bannetons, slings, and lames to go with my new stand…
With the year coming to a close, I’ve been thinking about how this year went for us. We had a somewhat successful growing season for being new gardeners, put in some additions, and test drove some new skills. Of course, playing anything by ear comes with fumbles and screw ups. The Garden This year we…
I’ve tried sourdough repeatedly this year. I made temporary progress with a starter I began in February, but by May, a missed feeding invited bad bacteria to pop up. It took an unfortunate amount of time to disinfect the jar and bamboo lid, which seemed to keep regrowing mold each time we’d get it clean.I…
Leading Up to the Plan Somehow, I forgot to share what the main plan for Chayotix Homestead is! A couple of years ago, I bought a book about being self-sufficient on a quarter acre of land. It happened that the land I bought mostly matched the imaginary set up the book gave as an example…
I figured one of my longest plans would be fruit trees. They take a good while to get established and then another while longer to actually bear fruit. The trouble is I have a general idea of what apples I like, but not the specific varieties of other fruits I want to grow. Plus, where…
It’s said the best place to start a story is at the beginning! Initially, I considered the purchase of my home to be the beginning of Chayotix Homestead. Recent times spent with other homesteaders around the world taught me that homesteading is a state of mind. So, if we’re calling *that* point the beginning, my…