It’s time! It may not feel like it, depending on where you are in the world, but for Josh and Carolyn, it’s time to start making preparations for their early spring gardens. And of course, they’re here to share their thoughts on that with you ... 

In this episode of Pantry Chat, Josh and Carolyn get ready to bring the homestead around to spring, focusing specifically on getting early spring gardens growing in the ground!

In this Episode:

• The whole side of beef incoming to their freezer
• Grinding pig fat down to 50 quarts of lard
• How to extend your seasons and increase your harvest
• Getting seed started and working it into a new system
• Why the basement is not great for germinating seeds
• Getting hundreds of starts going in the kitchen
• Why you want the most intensive projects as close to you as possible
• The long-term survival food benefits of freeze drying
• Their brand new cheese cave (cheese and dairy classes coming in September!)
• How to culture and use raw milk in butter making
• The challenge of growing zones and the last frost date
• When to start thinking about planting out in the garden
• A number of ways you can speed up the soil warming process
• The standard varieties that are suited to early spring gardens
• The most overlooked and easiest growing method

Resources: 

• When to Start Your Seeds Indoors
• Harvest Right Freeze Dryers
• Anatomy of Raw Milk
• How to Make Homemade Butter (3 Ways)
• Clyde’s Garden Planners
• How to Use a Vegetable Planner
• Eliot Coleman
• 5 Steps to Great Garden Soil

Every month, I host a free live training on a new homesteading skill. This January, we’re focusing on herbal medicine and how to create an effective family herbal protocol to help stop the cycle of winter sickness. Join the free live training on January 22 and start becoming a confident family herbalist. Register HERE!