Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 10–15 min | Makes: Enough for 1 large ham
🧂 Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
¼ cup honey
¼ cup orange juice (or pineapple juice)
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp black pepper
🔪 Directions
Combine ingredients. In a small saucepan, whisk together all ingredients.
Simmer. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the glaze thickens slightly, about 10–15 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning.
Glaze the ham. Brush half the glaze over your ham before baking. During the last 20 minutes of baking, brush with the remaining glaze every 5–7 minutes for that glossy, caramelized finish.
Optional: Add 1–2 tablespoons of the pan drippings to the leftover glaze for extra flavor before serving.
💡 Tips
If you prefer a lighter flavor, replace honey with maple syrup.
For a deeper glaze, use dark brown sugar and orange zest.
Works beautifully on spiral-cut, bone-in, or boneless hams.
🕯️ Recipe Note
There’s something special about that golden, sticky glaze bubbling in the oven — the smell alone feels like the holidays. Keep it simple, keep it sweet, and you’ll have a ham that shines as bright as your table.
Homemade yogurt isn’t just about saving money—it’s about freshness, control, and nutrition. When you make it yourself:
Cost savings: A single gallon of milk can yield 8 cups of yogurt for less than store-bought tubs.
Customization: You choose the milk type (whole, skim, goat, raw, organic, etc.), thickness (Greek-style or regular), and flavors.
Fewer additives: No thickeners, stabilizers, or hidden sugars—just milk and live cultures.
Sustainability: Making yogurt at home cuts down on packaging waste.
How Yogurt Works: The Science Behind It
Yogurt is created by fermenting milk with beneficial bacteria. The two classic starter strains are:
Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Streptococcus thermophilus
Together, they convert lactose (milk sugar) into lactic acid. This acid lowers the pH, thickening the milk proteins and giving yogurt its tangy flavor. Many store-bought starters also include additional strains like Lactobacillus acidophilus or Bifidobacterium lactis, which may aid digestion.
The fermentation process not only preserves milk but also boosts probiotic content, supporting gut health.
Ingredients
1 quart (4 cups) milk – whole milk makes creamier yogurt, but any type works
2 tablespoons plain yogurt with live, active cultures (store-bought or from a previous batch)
Equipment
Saucepan
Thermometer (optional but helpful)
Whisk
Clean glass jar or container with lid
Towel or blanket for insulation
Step-by-Step Instructions
Heat the milk Pour milk into a saucepan and gently heat to 180°F (82°C). This denatures proteins so the yogurt sets thicker.
Cool the milk Remove from heat and let it cool to 110°F–115°F (43–46°C). This is the ideal range for the cultures.
Add starter Whisk 2 tablespoons of yogurt into a small bowl with a bit of the cooled milk. Then stir this mixture back into the pot.
Incubate Pour into a clean jar, cover, and keep warm (around 110°F) for 6–12 hours.
For thinner, milder yogurt: check at 6 hours.
For thicker, tangier yogurt: let it go longer. You can wrap the jar in a towel, place it in an oven with the light on, use an Instant Pot’s yogurt setting, or a dehydrator set to 110°F.
Chill and enjoy Once it’s set, refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The yogurt will thicken further as it cools.
Variations
Greek Yogurt: Strain finished yogurt through a cheesecloth or coffee filter for 2–4 hours to remove whey.
Flavored Yogurt: Stir in honey, fruit purée, vanilla, or jam just before eating.
Storage
Homemade yogurt keeps for about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Save 2–3 tablespoons from each batch to use as the starter for the next one.
If you would like a video on the process, check out this one on our YouTube channel!
Bone broth is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can preserve for your pantry shelves. When made with venison bones, it brings a deep flavor and is full of collagen, minerals, and marrow. Pressure canning makes it shelf-stable and ready to use anytime for soups, gravies, or sipping on its own.
This is not a recipe that has to be followed exactly, but simply what we did this time. Last time was different and next time will probably be different again. We ended up with enough broth to can 7 quarts, but obviously that depends on the amount of bones you start with and how strong you want it.
Ingredients
Deer bones, cut into smaller pieces (helps release marrow and collagen)
Water (enough to cover bones in stockpot, refill as needed)
1–2 garlic cloves
1 onion, quartered
A handful of carrot tops
A handful of radish tops
Fresh rosemary sprigs
Salt, to taste
A splash of vinegar (helps pull nutrients and minerals from the bones)
Instructions
Step 1: Prepare the Broth
Place cut deer bones in a large stockpot.
Add garlic, onion, carrot, radish tops, rosemary, salt, and vinegar.
Cover with water.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let it cook long enough for the bones to release nutrients and flavor (at least 24 hours is ideal).
Step 2: Strain and Fill Jars
Strain broth through a fine strainer or cheesecloth to remove solids.
Ladle hot broth into clean, hot quart jars, leaving 1 inch headspace.
Step 3: Pressure Can
Wipe rims, apply lids and bands.
Place jars in pressure canner with 2–3 inches of simmering water. A splash of vinegar in the canner keeps hard water stains from forming.
Process at 10 pounds pressure (adjust for altitude if needed):
Quarts: 25 minutes
If you don’t have enough jars of broth to fill the canner, put some jars of water in to keep everything from rattling around.
Step 4: Cool and Store
Allow canner to depressurize naturally.
Remove jars and let them cool 24 hours without touching.
Check seals before storing. Keep in a cool, dark place.
Using Your Deer Bone Broth
This broth is versatile—use it as a base for venison stew, wild rice soup, or simply heat it with a little extra seasoning, if needed, and sip it warm.
Maybe the cool weather is getting to me. Maybe I like pumpkin spice more than I thought. Whichever is the case, here’s a recipe I had to share. These muffins turned out so delicious I couldn’t keep them to myself.
Pumpkin Spice Muffins (24 muffins)
Ingredients
Dry:
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Wet:
2 cups canned pumpkin purée (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup sour cream
1 cup melted butter
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
Streusel Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup granulated sugar (or half brown sugar, half white for deeper flavor)
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners (or grease).
Make the streusel: In a bowl, whisk flour, sugar, and spices. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or your fingers until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Chill while you prepare the batter.
Mix dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
Mix wet ingredients: In another large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, both sugars, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
Combine: Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just until combined (don’t overmix).
Fill muffin tins: Divide batter evenly among 24 cups (about ⅔ full).
Top: Sprinkle each muffin generously with streusel.
Bake: Bake 20–24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Like maybe some of you, I used to enjoy meandering down the candle aisle in Walmart and smelling every one that sounded interesting. And I’d check every single bottle of soap or shampoo to make sure I bought the one I liked the best.
Now, I find myself preferring, by far, natural scents over commercial ones. In fact, just one sniff of one candle or bottle of soap is often enough to bring on a headache.
Add to that kids who break out from harsh chemicals in most laundry detergents, and we aren’t the easiest people to buy laundry soap for.
So, the other day, I thought, why buy it?
I started checking and soon found a recipe for laundry detergent powder with only 4 clean natural ingredients, one of them being fragrance of my choice. It sounded great to me and we even had most of the ingredients on hand.
Borax for odor control, stain removal, and general whitening. I used 20 Mule Team brand.
Fels-Naptha for cleaning and stain removal. I used Purex brand
Washing Soda for more cleaning power and odor control. I used Arm and Hammer brand.
Essential Oils for a great natural smell. I used one of Plant Therapy laundry blends.
I didn’t have Borax or Washing soda, but a quick trip to our little local store provided Borax and we found a way to make our own Washing soda.
It turns out, if you put regular baking soda on a cookie sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour, you have Washing Soda!
Homemade Laundry Detergent
1 cup Borax Powder
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Fels-Naptha, grated (about 1 bar)
15-20 drops of essential oil, your choice
If you have Washing Soda, put it and the Borax in a jar or container. You will want to use a mask or something to cover your face to keep you from breathing in the fine powders. If you don’t have Washing Soda, you can make your own by putting a cup of baking soda on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for an hour. This changes the chemical formula and makes Washing Soda.
Take the bar of Fels-Naptha and grate it. You can use the fine side of a cheese grater or your food processor shredder disc on the small side. Again, the powder is very fine and not something you want to breathe so wear something over your mouth and nose. Let it settle before you open the food processor.
Put all three dry ingredients in a container or jar. I used a jar so I could just put a lid on and shake it to mix it.
Let the mixture settle and then open and add 15-20 drops of essential oils for scent.
Shake to mix in the oils and let sit overnight.
Use 2 tablespoons for a regular load and 3 tablespoons for a heavy load.
I also have a video showing the process on YouTube at Bringing Life Homestead.
This week started out much like normal. Tim has his photography and devotional walks every while I get the kids up and start on breakfast.
Then, the scramble to get breakfast cleaned up, dishes done, and kids sat down to school.
This year we have four in school. Micah and Alayna are in fifth grade and Kaitlynn and Harold have started first grade. They’re enjoying learning how to read. Soon they won’t have to ask anyone else to read to them. 🙂
In the course of the day, the garden gets checked. Cucumbers and peppers are still growing, okra has started, and tomatoes are ripening.
There’s laundry to do, floors to sweep, weeds to pull, and naps to take.
Judah is growing as fast as he can and loves smiling and kicking for his siblings. And sleeping. He definitely enjoys sleeping.
Even with trying to get the homestead side of things going better, we can’t ignore the business that pays the bills. We try to list to eBay every week day and there’s usually shipping to keep up with. These are a few of the molds we’ve listed recently.
A frog on a garden trowel. A large rose and cross candleholder. These “people watchers” are always comical.
And as you can see, we still have a ways to go.
This is just a portion of what’s left to list.
But, this is where God has lead us and we are extremely grateful for all He’s done. We know He’s going to continue to guide and there’s no place we’d rather be than right in His Will.
This will probably not be a long post, but I thought I’d share what we’ve been picking in the garden.
While nothing has exploded, we have been getting harvests that are small but consistent.
We planted two different kinds of cucumbers this year. A slicing and a pickling variety. Both are doing pretty well, and we are happy with them. The slicing kind is one of the best cucumbers I think I’ve ever eaten and definitely passed the “Will We Plant This Again” test.
We tried several different kinds of tomatoes as well. One, called Napoli, is doing fairly well considering the struggle they had with weather this year. We’ve gotten several tomatoes off them and they are putting on green ones like crazy right now.
A tomato hornworm got into one of my other varieties and did a good bit of damage to a couple of the plants, but thankfully, they seem to be recovering.
We’ve been getting cayenne and hot banana peppers for a while. The plants are staying small for some reason, but they are putting on more flowers so I’m looking forward to more peppers.
Our jalapeno plants finally have tiny peppers forming. I’d just about given up on them producing anything, but they decided to surprise me.
We also have two melons growing. I believe they’re cantaloupe. None of us really care for melons all that much, but I also don’t remember when the last time I had a homegrown melon. We’re expecting that to make at least some difference and will see if these pass the test or not.
Lastly, we have another plant we’re trying out. They’re called garden huckleberries and are in the same family as tomatoes. Only three plants survived to plant outside and so far only one has any berries on it. But that should be enough to try at least.
We’re working on garden plans for fall this year, and if they work, next year should be a whole lot better. But those plans will have to wait until the next post. Thanks for dropping by and I hope to see you next time!
Some of y’all might disagree, but nothing tastes quite like fried bluegill that you caught yourself. Especially when it’s pan fried so nicely and combined with foraged Train Wrecker mushrooms and sautéed green beans.
Tim brought in most of the fish, but Micah managed to land one too.
I cleaned them the night we caught them while Tim made the marinade for them.
Once all 10 were ready to go, Tim placed them in the marinade and we put them in the fridge overnight.
Then, the next afternoon I went looking for mushrooms. We had seen a cluster of them, so I knew where to go.
Train Wreckers, or Neolentinus lepideus, earned the name by their ability to grow on highly treated railroad ties. If they’re ignored, the tie would eventually disintegrate and could cause a train wreck. Thankfully for us, these mushrooms were growing on a pine root which meant they were safe to eat.
They do have some look-alikes, some of which are poisonous, so a positive ID is essential before they go in the skillet.
Fresh green beans were in the fridge just waiting to be used. And so the meal came together.
The results were delicious and filling. We’re already planning our next fish meal. 😊
Around here, we usually keep breakfasts pretty simple. Bacon and eggs, eggs and bacon, that sort of thing. Sometimes, for variety, we add cottage cheese, veggies, or fruit to the menu.
And then, other times, we feel like splurging a bit. Usually in those cases, our minds (Tim’s for sure!) turn to biscuits.
Finding the perfect recipe was a bit of a journey. Especially since we started with store-bought biscuits out of a can. I still shudder sometimes to think of it.
This recipe is not original to me. I found it online at bakerbettie.com
The enjoyment we get from eating these flaky rounds of yummyness is ours, though. They are amazing with butter and honey or jam, with Tim’s delicious sausage gravy, or as breakfast sandwiches. Or even reheated with a little butter.
OLD FASHIONED LARD BISCUITS
Ingredients
2 c Flour
1 T Baking Powder
1/4 t Baking Soda
1 1/4 t Salt
6 T Leaf Lard, cold *
1 c Buttermilk, cold
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees and make sure an oven rack is in the center of the oven.
Grease a cake pan or cookie sheet or line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, if desired. I never grease my pan for biscuits and they seldom stick more than a little bit. If you use a cookie sheet, make sure it has a rim to keep any melted lard from running off.
Keep lard and buttermilk in the refrigerator until needed.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk. *
Add in the cold lard and cut into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or fork. You want the lard to be mostly in pea-sized pieces with a few larger.
Add the cold buttermilk and stir with a spoon or spatula until just combined. This will not take long and you don’t want to overmix as the biscuits will be tough. The batter/dough will be pretty wet and sticky.
Turn the mixture out onto a floured table or countertop. Dust flour over the top. With floured hands, bring the dough into one mass.
Pat the dough out and then fold in half. Turn 90 degrees and pat out again. Repeat this 5-6 times. The folds help the biscuits end up flakier.
Press the layered dough out until it’s about an inch thick and use a round cutter that has been dipped in flour to cut the biscuits. Press straight down with the cutter and do not twist. Pat the scraps back together and cut again. Or you can pat the dough into a rectangle and use a sharp knife to divide into 8 biscuits.
Place the biscuits in the prepared pan, making sure the edges are touching to help the biscuits rise.
Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown. Do not open the door for at least the first half of the bake time. Keeping the steam trapped inside the oven helps with the rise.
Let cool, if possible, and then enjoy however you choose.
Notes
* I have substituted butter, tallow, and bacon grease for the lard with no problems. You just want it cold when it goes in.
*I make mine in my stand mixer and it works just great. Just don’t overmix.
You’ve probably seen echinacea purpurea before—even if you didn’t realize it. With its drooping purple petals and bristly orange center, it looks like a daisy that tried hairspray. But don’t let the frilly look fool you—this plant has earned its place in herbal medicine cabinets for centuries. And like a lot of herbs, the more I learn about it, the more I find myself marveling at how God packed so much usefulness into a wildflower.
I’ve been looking into echinacea more lately—what it does, how it works, and why people use it—and I thought I’d share some of what I found in case you’re curious too.
What Is Echinacea Purpurea?
Echinacea is a native North American plant, often called “purple coneflower.” The purpurea species is the one most commonly used for medicinal purposes, though there are a few other types as well. It’s been used traditionally by Indigenous peoples and adopted into folk remedies for everything from infections to snake bites.
What Is It Used For?
The most common reason people reach for echinacea is to support the immune system—especially when cold or flu season hits. But its uses go way further than that. Here’s a quick list of what echinacea is said to help with:
Immune support: May shorten the duration and lessen the severity of colds.
Anti-inflammatory: Can reduce swelling and irritation, helpful for sore throats or skin issues.
Wound healing: Used in salves or teas for cuts, burns, or skin infections.
Antibacterial/antiviral: Traditionally used for bacterial infections and to support the body during illness. It works better in larger doses, maybe 3x what you would normally use of dried herbs.
Venomous Bites: Stops the venom from snake or spider bites and helps the body heal.
How Is It Taken?
Echinacea is often taken as a tea, tincture, or capsule. Some folks also use it topically (like in a salve or poultice). Most herbalists recommend using it at the first sign of illness—not as a long-term supplement. That’s because it works best to ‘kick-start’ your immune system when it’s under attack. Long-term use might reduce its effectiveness and may even overstimulate your immune system if taken constantly Think of it like a herbal first responder: ready when needed, but not meant to be on duty 24/7.
A Few Notes to Keep in Mind
Not recommended for people with autoimmune disorders unless you’ve done your research or talked to an herbalist. Echinacea stimulates the immune system which might not be something you want to do in this instance.
Some people may be allergic—especially if they’re sensitive to plants in the daisy family.
Pregnant or nursing? Best to double-check safety guidelines before using it. Though it is generally considered safe, doing your own research to see if something is right for you is always a good idea.
Final Thoughts
Echinacea isn’t magic. But it is a great example of how God designed plants with more than beauty in mind. I like knowing there are things growing in the world—and in some gardens—that can help strengthen the body instead of just masking symptoms. Even if I’m not using echinacea all the time, it’s one of those herbs I like having on hand. Kind of like that friend who shows up with chicken soup when you’re sick—only this one grows from seed and doesn’t need a nap afterward.
Bringing Life 