Accidental Homestead Skills
I assume that most beginner homesteaders are like us and have a list a mile long of skills they need and want to learn. One of mine was cooking meals over a wood fire. Not just when camping. Almost a year ago to the day I was forced to develop a homesteading skill that I always intended to learn. We had some friends over for dinner and I broke our stove top. I went to remove a pot and it wouldn’t budge. It had fused to the glass top!
Look at that beautiful fire roasted chili! I have to say this was the best chili I ever made, before or since.
Our best guess is that there was a small crack from the dutch oven that usually lived there and that enabled the pot to attach to a section of the stove. We looked into getting it fixed and decided it wasn’t worth it since we had planned on replacing it anyway at some point. So I was down to my grill and the oven itself.
Is that not one of the craziest things you've ever seen?
A few months later the oven went out. No idea what’s wrong with it, Chris did some trouble shooting and it’s not an easy fix so we decided to leave it. Really no point in paying a professional to fix a stove that’s half broken anyway. Now I cook all of our meals with an electric burner and our grill. The grill is a charcoal grill that we bought at Walmart and substitute charcoal for wood from trees on our property. I have to say it really isn’t that bad, besides when I wish I could bake something or need more than 2 burners going at once there is very little inconvenience and on the plus side I have learned an invaluable skill. When I started I had to use lighter fluid to get the fire going. Now I can use all nature found materials and a lighter. Next on the agenda is learning to start a fire with flint!
Food just looks better when it's cooked over a fire!
What accidental homestead skills have you picked up?
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HAha! What a random accident to have. I love it when negative circumstances are encountered by positive-thinking people who turn it into an opportunity. ;)
I LOVE cooking over fire. We have been fire-cooking ever since we finally got to our homestead--it was one of our first goals achieved once we got out of the city (where fires weren't allowed....sigh).
Here's our...VERY rustic setup that we used for a while (ie a pot on top of sticks). We've been building an outdoor kitchen area, and I feel so refined, now!
I used to teach kids how to start fires with flint and steel--let me know if you ever want any pointers!
Oh, and I'll add crazy escapee chicken-catching (they're free range now, thankfully), and toddler redirection (aka please stop trying to climb/lick the goat fence) to my list of accidental homesteader skills.
haha I should have added duck catching skills. Turns out if you walk up to them with a bright light in their eyes at night they can't really see you coming and then you get them with a net!
I did see your videos! That's very exciting. We're hoping to start tackling our outdoor cooking space this winter. Food just tastes so much better over wood. I've even made frozen pizza on the grill. It's delicious!!
Sidenote: is that the lodge wok? And is it worth it?
Our ducks seem to like coming up to us so far, but I'll have to remember that for the future!
OH MY GOSH I can't wait to actually make real pizza. We're cooking the occasional pizza in our oven inside, but I can't bear to put it past 350, which makes for ho-hum pizzas for sure.
Also, it IS the lodge wok. We put it on our wedding registry and got it as a gift, but we would have bought it if we didn't get it. It's great for stir-fries, of course, but also making popcorn and lots of other things! As with any cast-iron, it takes a while to heat up, but holds that heat really well once it gets it. As for cooking over the fire like I showed in the picture, I CERTAINLY prefer that wok over any other cooking thing I have. It has a little stabilizing base on the bottom, and that really helped with balancing it.
Interesting. I had planned on getting it but rarely have need for a wok that a regular pan couldn't serve might need to reconsider
The sheer amount of food it holds is what does it for me. The picture I showed you was enough to feed four adults and one kid, with leftovers. I find it is lovely for curries as well--it holds in all that sauce with no splashing.
I'm not a salesperson for Lodge, haha, I just really like their products.
well that's useful. I kind of have a love hate relationship. I much prefer the antique cast iron but lodge does make a few different items I wouldn't be able to get antique.
Some of my best lessons have occurred because of an accident of some sort. I live off grid and cook over a wood fire as well. There sure is a learning curve, haha. One thing for sure, it eliminates the picky folks. You eat it, regardless of how it turned out, because there isn't any choice. No microwave or running down the road to a fast food joint. I've also had some glaring successes. Looking forward to following you.
haha that's for sure. It took me forever to make my first batch of chili over wood but it was damn good! We're not off grid but we haven't had a microwave in years. I don't like the things they make terrible food! Thanks for reading and following :)
Accidental homesteading skill? Most of our homesteading skills have been learned on purpose. Like composting toilets, making bread in a dutch oven, starting a fire without lighter fluid (crumpled paper and cooking oil), spotting borers in our vegetable garden and cutting them out of the plant. There is so much more to learn, it's never ending. @ironshield
Absolutely great skills to have. I accidentally learned that sweet potatoes grow amazingly well in Florida. Last year a friend of mine gave me one that had started to sprout and I burried it in my garden. A few months later I had a garden full of awesome sweet potatoes! Resteemed, and upvoted by a fellow thl member!
That's good to know. I imagine they would do well here as well :) Thank you for the resteem!!
Hate that your stove broke, but awesome job picking up those skills!
I broke my crockpot around the same time too haha
Just saw your post was accepted for a curie upvote! Yay! Congrats!!! We'd love to have you join us in our SteemitHomesteaders slack community. There's a growing number of homesteaders, gardeners, preppers, and like minded people over there. It's free, and more info can be found at the link below. There's also a section where we've talked about what curie is (we're not affiliated with it.... directly). Hope to see you there!
https://steemit.com/steemithomesteaders/@greenacrehome/announcement-steemithomesteaders-slack-community
I'm actually already a member of the homestead life community :) Or is it a different thing?
It's quite different... and worth checking out! It's free and open to anyone. No upvote or resteem or tag requirements! Just a place to come hang out, share ideas, meet others, and talk about anything.
interesting, I will!
meep
This Post was Added to the Steemit Social Media Queue.
I have no idea what that means but thank you! Pretty new to steemit and still trying to figure everything out
I learned a lot of ways not to fix a well with a cracked casing, from all the good old boys in the neighborhood. I gave them 4 weeks to try their ideas, before I called a professional well driller that put in a whole new well in one day - and cleaned up all the mess from the earlier attempts. That was a lesson, alright! Skills learned: patience in letting them take their shot (literally -- shooting the well with a .30-06 was one of the ideas they tried).
And I learned how to remove a wall-length bathtub from a tiny bathroom, without disturbing the walls. No, no .30-06 -- just a skill saw, thick gloves, and a welder's mask.
nice! we just got done with an issue with our well thankfully it was minor. The bathrooms are yet to come :/
That's a good skill to have...especially if that X-Class Solar Flare hadn't been going the other way.
yes! I would say definitely one of the more important ones
Keep up the good work with your posts!! :)
Thank you! This one really surprised me :)
This is awesome! We lived off grid in a 5th wheel for about 10 months. Our grill was my favorite thing to cook on. I got use to cooking on the grill or our 2 burner propane cook stove. Now being in a house with an electric stove can be challenging. One day I will rip it out and have my wood stove back.
I love the flavor but it is definitely more work! Can't wait until we build something a little bigger outside ;)