Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2025 i MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Winter has fully settled in, and the ground is frozen hard. Last summer is now just a memory, though we can recall the brightness of the sun in the sugars of our stored squash and in the hay that sustains our livestock through the colder months. If you keep livestock, they’ll still need daily care, but the work is usually lessened. Calving, lambing, and kidding season will be here soon, but the regular work of rotational grazing is on hold for now. Those of us with green thumbs may be tending windowsill herbs, growing microgreens, or caring for indoor citrus trees, but, even still, the work tends to be less. While the gardens and pastures sleep, we have time and perspective to plan and envision the coming year. What will…

Whether we live a rural life-style, an urban one, or something in between, our existence (and that of the world as we know it) depends on an ecosystem of small pollinators and native pollinator habitat that most people rarely notice. Approximately 35% of food crops and 90% of wild plants in the world are dependent on animal pollination. While the common European honeybee, Apis mellifera, has become one of the primary pollinators of domesticated food crops, it makes up only a small portion of the bee species and other insect pollinators in the world. Worldwide, there are some 20,000 species of wild bees. North America is home to almost 4,000 of these species. When any of these species becomes extinct, we’ve lost an entire link in our Earth’s ecology. The…

I Can Make That is a new department in Mother earth News, in which we’ll share crafting projects anyone can make. We hope they’ll add a homemade touch to your space and replace something you’d otherwise buy. We’d love to hear from you: Send us your craft photos at Letters@MotherEarthNews.com. — Mother Why buy candles when you can make your own? Their warm glow and pleasant beeswax scent will bring comfort and coziness to your winter home, and making them is simple and enjoyable. Plus, you can avoid those headache-inducing artificial scents and questionable ingredients found in regular candles. (You can also follow this same process with wax odds and ends from older candles. — Mother) This recipe calls for a blend of beeswax and coconut oil. By adding coconut…

I want to keep an emergency stash of water. Can I store it in 2-liter containers after cleaning them? What else should I know about water storage? Plastic bottles, such as 2-liter soda containers, can be cleaned, sanitized, and reused to store water. Chemicals may leach out of the plastic at higher temperatures, so store these bottles in cool, dark, dry places. Don’t use milk jugs, as the leftover protein from milk can cause stored water to spoil. You can also purchase commercially bottled water or water in large containers for emergency purposes. Follow directions for storing and observe the expiration dates. In general, replace commercially bottled water every six months. Using your own containers may be less expensive. The best option is to use food-grade, heavy-duty plastic buckets, carboys,…

EDITORS’ PICK Sprouted Flour, Malted Wheat Berries I enjoyed reading the latest issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS, as usual. I was drawn to the article by Mary Bryant Shrader on sprouted flour. Basically, she’s malting the wheat berries. As a home brewer, I’ve malted many batches of grain to make my beer. Her process is correct, except that it can also be done by wetting the grain for eight hours and drying for eight hours. Repeat three times. Caution: Make sure the grain never dries completely but is always moist. On the final drying, just give it a light spray with water now and then just so it doesn’t dry completely. Berries should be rinsed with water to wash away possible bacteria before putting it to dry. It’s the fun of…

Long before I used string on stakes to mark the site of my cabin—on a hill on the edge of a forest in Skagway, Alaska—I thought about its surroundings and how the building would blend in. Thanks to my previous experience building a too-big timber-frame house in downtown Skagway, I spent time on the hill lot looking at how the light rotated through the property and in what direction the prevailing wind blew. The gusts from the Yukon Territory can roar down the valley at 75 mph; you have to pay attention. Finally, I picked a spot that would require fewer trees to be cut and would have room for my parked truck. And with a site selected, it was time to begin the build. Cutting and Clearing My neighbor…

I’m an ardent advocate for saving heirloom seeds from your own garden. Letting your garden propagate itself is a step toward self-sufficiency, potentially freeing you from making that annual seed order. It allows you the chance to create progressively more site-adapted seeds with every passing generation. It can even be a part of creating local food security if folks in the same community grow and share seeds among each other freely. Now, it sounds glamorous to talk about saving seeds, but it’s another thing entirely to put the messy process into practice. You see, saving seeds isn’t something you just decide to do as a weekend project—it sometimes requires more than a year to get from start to finish. Chunks of your garden will be rendered “out of commission” for…

Rising interest rates, high food and energy costs, and stagnant wages are on everyone’s minds these days. Sometimes, it seems there’s no way to get a handle on out-of-control finances, especially when it comes to the dream of homesteading. For some fortunate people, a homestead is possible because of generous salaries, inherited money or land, or other factors. But many of us live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have the extra cash to invest in new projects. Homesteading dreams are often put aside because they seem unattainable. But are they? One way to progress toward dreams and goals is to live as inexpensively as possible and apply any and all spare change toward achieving those goals. I call this “low-cost living.” This means not only applying all extra income to…

Which cover crops should I use, and how can I integrate them? Popular cover crops include alfalfa, buckwheat, cereals, clovers, cowpeas, daikon radishes, sunn hemp, millet, and Australian winter peas. Cover crops can be used in almost any production system, and they can reduce or eliminate the use of synthetic fertilizers while still supporting high crop yields and microbial life. Plus, cover crops are great for soil health, explains Nicole Pramik, a team member of The Farm at Okefenokee, a rural agriculture community near Folkston, Georgia. “They suppress weeds and can help prevent erosion. We consider it a living mulch. We can chop and drop them in place, where they give back nutrients to the soil, like the much-needed nitrogen and phosphorus.” Some cover crops, such as daikon radishes, aerate…

ESSENTIAL OILS FOR HEALING REVISED EDITIO Essential Oils for Healing is a user-friendly guide to using essential oils for a wide range of ailments. With hundreds of recipes, safety tips, and storage advice, it helps even beginners harness nature’s healing power. Discover remedies for common issues like nausea, toothaches, migraines, and more. $26.00 Member: $23.99 FORGOTTEN HOME APOTHECARY Unpack 250 remedies organized by ailment, with step-by-step instructions, photos, measurements, and dosages. The intuitive layout helps you quickly find remedies and create natural solutions for health issues, making it an essential resource for beginners and seasoned herbalists alike. #12556 $37.00 Member: $34.99…

While humans moving around is nothing new, and not all disasters are climate-related, climate as a cause for migration is becoming more common—either directly, through destructive storms, or indirectly, through prolonged drought or sea-level rise over time. The Migration Policy Institute says 2022 saw 33 million disaster-related displacements. Most displaced people moved to a location within their same country and had returned to their homes by the end of the year, the Institute says, contradicting the idea that all such movement is international and permanent. For many, leaving home for good is a last resort, and they may not have the means to move far away. It’s the slow-onset impacts that may lead to movement over time, the Institute says: “Hotter temperatures can threaten agricultural livelihoods, sea-level rise can make…

It’s frustrating to buy eggs from the store when our own hens aren’t laying. But as soon as the weather warms and light levels increase, the flood of eggs will begin again. So, take advantage of the spring abundance and put up the excess eggs to enjoy all year round. Freeze-Drying If you have access to a freeze dryer, you can put up lots of eggs when your hens are at peak production. Freeze-dried egg powder will last up to 20 years if it’s stored properly, though my goal is to get through the winter months without buying eggs from the store. The exact amount that can be freeze dried at a time will depend on the size of the freeze dryer. My large model holds between 2 and 3…

Welcome to our series answering reader questions and concerns about how to cut the utility-company cord. Hoss Boyd is founder, president, and CEO of TeraVolt Energy and a recognized solar and energy-storage expert. Learn more about TeraVolt Energy at http://TVNRG.com. I’ve used a 9.35-kilowatt solar-photovoltaic system for nine years without any problems. The system feeds my house and even sends excess electricity back to the grid. However, when our power goes out, I’m left without electricity, so I’ve been thinking about energy storage. My solar company tells me that adding batteries won’t be an economically sound investment. Should I stay storage-free or spend more to keep the lights on? John W. Gibson I believe you can make batteries pay for themselves. Converting an existing solar photovoltaic system to a battery-backup system…

MUSHROOM GROWING KITS Learn to grow your own mushrooms at home without any specialized equipment. Each kit includes detailed instructions, your mushroom culture, and a fungi word search. It’s a great project for anyone with a love of plants, to do as part of a nature study, or simply because they are beautiful and fascinating. Plus, they are great for cooking or just looking at if you're the non-mushroom-eating type. $20.00 Member: $18.99 A) Lions Mane #12063 B) Golden Oyster #12058 C) Blue Oyster #12060 D) Pink Oyster #12062 E) Black Pearl Oyster #12059 F) Phoenix Oyster #12531 THE BEST OF MOTHER EARTH NEWS In this special issue, we’ve compiled the top articles from MOTHER EARTH NEWS 2024 issues. Enjoy re-reading favorites like “Retirement Homestead” (p. 22), “The Greenhouse Revolution”…

SHOW US! Share your unique perspective with our community by submitting photos of inviting gardens, nutritious foods, wild animals, and more to the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Photo Group on Flickr (www.Flickr.com/Groups/MotherEarthNewsPhotos/Pool). We’ll feature our favorites here and online!…