How to Make Stock

...along with the bones. Roast all of this in a roasting pan in an oven set to 400F for around 40 minutes. You want it to brown but not burn. Transfer the meat and veggies to a soup pot. See if you can deglaze the roasting pan and transfer all those tasty little brown bits to the pot, too. Add water to cover all the bones. Maybe add a cup or so of red wine. Add lots of peppercorns. Add a bay leaf or two. And salt. Bring this to a boil and then reduce...

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Checking in on Kelly’s projects

...his very ambitious project has gone on hold until the crisis arises again. Making a mattress is intimidating, just because of the sheer cost and scale of the materials needed, and as far as I can tell, there’s no one out there to help you do it. If I ever do make a mattress, it will be like summiting the Everest of homesteading. On the other hand, if I ever learn how, I think I could make a mint teaching other desperate people how to do it themsel...

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Foodcrafting 101

...to recreate everything at home. Foodcrafting 101 Workshop Schedule: Bread Making: Master the simple technique of bread making from scratch using the no-knead bread recipe from the Institute Director’s own cookbook. Learn about types of flour, where to purchase them, how to shape loaves and achieve the perfect crust. You’ll learn how to recreate a professional bread baker’s oven at home and produce loaves that rival accomplished bakers. Cheese Mak...

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Humanure Dry Toilet Made From a Milk Crate

...or ask for permission. Incidentally, when the police finished booking the beer crate scavenger the officer placed the paperwork in . . . a scavenged beer crate doubling as an in box! Attaching the Toilet Seat to the Crate Next, find a toilet seat. Forage one or pick up a cheap seat at your local hardware store. In an emergency situation, you could also use the one on your regular toilet and simply bolt it back on when the zombie threat has passed...

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Spent Grain Bread–We Brew Econo

...nt grains, the leftover malted barley and crystal malt that we used in the beer recipe, which are strained out before the beer is put away to ferment, as a flavoring for our wild yeast bread (recipe and instructions for making that bread here—we added 4.5 ounces of the spent grains to the dough–and we just threw them in whole without grinding them up as some folks on the internets suggest). The rich, smoky taste and the dark color these grains imp...

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