Christian Living Confessions of a Steward — Honest Horse Keeping Guest Post, December 8, 2023 Share this:by Joel Salatin, Plain Values I don’t own a horse. I don’t keep a horse. That’s precisely why I’m qualified to address the issue—I don’t have preconceived notions about keeping horses. I have thought and yakked about it quite a bit, though, because one of the most common questions people… Continue Reading
Christian Living The Healing Land — Apples Guest Post, November 27, 2023November 28, 2023 Share this:by Shawn and Beth Dougherty, Plain Values A PLENTIFUL HARVEST The new apple trees in the orchard are bearing well this year, with russet and yellow-green fruit studding the young branches. In the convent orchard, some of the older trees are taking a sabbatical year. They will only produce a… Continue Reading
Homesteading Confessions of a Steward — Chicken Familiarity Guest Post, November 3, 2023 Share this:By Joel Salatin, Plain Values Thinking like an animal is not always easy, especially if you’re trying to think like a chicken. In this article, I want to dive into one of the single biggest tensions in raising farmstead egg-laying chickens, and it all stems from chicken psychology. Like all… Continue Reading
Homesteading Confessions of a Steward — Water Part 2 Guest Post, October 5, 2023October 23, 2023 Share this:by Joel Salatin, Plain Values Last month I introduced two unorthodox concepts regarding water. The first is the difference between surface runoff and the inventory of the commons (like streams, springs, and aquifers). The second is the notion that we as caretakers can greatly enhance the commons by storing surface runoff rather… Continue Reading
Homesteading Water: Part 1 — Confessions of a Steward Guest Post, September 5, 2023October 23, 2023 Share this:By Joel Salatin, Plain Values Water is the prerequisite to life. Some living things don’t need sunlight, some don’t even need soil, but all living things need water. Certainly, when we think about water, the first source that comes to mind is rain. But rain is not consistent, and most… Continue Reading
Bold Christian Writing Poisoned Youth Guest Post, August 30, 2023 Share this:by J. Pilgrim I think of myself more as a late Gen-X kid, rather than a millennial, because that’s the movies and music I liked, but regardless, I’m an 80s kid. We’re the Nostalgia Generation. I had a Zoomer on Telegram ask me why—given the utter destruction that the digital… Continue Reading
Christian Living The Healing Land — God’s Will Guest Post, August 28, 2023October 23, 2023 Share this:By Shawn & Beth Dougherty, Plain Values Sometimes keeping milk cows isn’t about the cows; sometimes, it’s about weddings, cancer, and love. For example: One morning almost exactly four years ago, a girl arrived on our farm. She came with her brother, who wanted some farming experience and had been… Continue Reading
Homesteading Small Efficiency — Confessions of a Steward Guest Post, August 15, 2023October 23, 2023 Share this:By Joel Salatin, Plain Values For decades, I’ve been direct marketing our farm’s production directly to retail customers as a direct-marketed, branded product. That means our farm embraces the role of middle-man and we have a logo. We practice craft rather than commodity. The Harvard Business Review analyzed the difference… Continue Reading
Christian Living The Roundtable | Amish Insights on: Big Families | Pt. 1 Guest Post, August 8, 2023October 23, 2023 Share this:By: Emily Hershberger, Plain Values This Month’s Question:Springtime is a busy time of the year for homesteaders. How do you keep such large families seemingly so organized during busy seasons? Answered by: Emily Hershberger Emily: “Out with the cold and in with the spring” is what comes to mind as… Continue Reading
Homesteading Moving Animals Around Pt. 2 — Confessions of a Steward Guest Post, July 31, 2023 Share this:By Joel Salatin, Plain Values Last month I laid the foundation for the patterns and whys of animal movement. Failure to systematically and routinely move domestic livestock is perhaps the single biggest failure in animal agriculture. But how? Fortunately, we have infrastructure today that makes learning ancient herding techniques unnecessary…. Continue Reading
Homemaking Start-Up Farm — Confessions of a Steward Guest Post, July 27, 2023 Share this:By Joel Salatin, Plain Values The single biggest cost—and hurdle—in starting a farm of any size is the land cost. Our own nation has gone from free land to extremely expensive land. Old farmers today who acquired their land in the 1960s often have a hard time appreciating the land… Continue Reading
Homemaking First Foods — The Healing Land Guest Post, July 25, 2023July 25, 2023 Share this:By Shawn & Beth Dougherty, Plain Values The corn in the garden is already more than knee-high, and the first planting of green beans has been gracing the supper table for more than a week, so summer must really be here. And even with temperatures in the high eighties making… Continue Reading