Clyde's Dale Homestead

11/04/2025

Are you thinking about improving your home food security but it just seems too overwhelming?

Here is an easy, super do-able way to make your long term food storage a little bit better TODAY- go inventory your salt.🧂

Most food storage calculators recommend having 5 lbs of salt per person per year. Salt is available in every grocery store, is extremely cheap, and also very difficult or even impossible to produce yourself. You need salt!

If you do a lot of cooking from scratch and preserving you probably will use more salt than most people who buy premade food. (Though I bet your total sodium intake is Iess.)

I have a few kinds of salt like canning salt, sea salt, and Redmond’s salt but you don’t have to be fancy. Just make sure you have salt and keep it dry and easily accessible. Label it if it’s in a generic container. It literally will last forever and never expire. Then you’re done with one good thing! 🏆

11/03/2025

Root veggies getting ready for some pecan oil, salt and pepper then roast @ 425F for about 40 minutes stirring halfway through. Olive oil, tallow, or lard would also work for the fat. So simple and so delicious. Oh, I added some sliced onion after I took the pic.

Carrots and beets picked today (November!) red and purple potatoes harvested in September.

11/02/2025

11/01/2025

Canning season doesn’t end just because the wind is blowing, rain is pelting the windows, and the mountain tops have a dusting of snow. In fact it’s a perfect weekend to make some home canned beans. What’s your favorite meal with beans?

10/31/2025

Every fall, after a good frost, I try to make time to savor one delicious Cedar Mountain Apple. There is only one apple tree like this in the whole world because it grew wild from a seed by a little creek at the edge of a field. This year’s snack did not disappoint. There are many wild grown apple trees in north Idaho but not all of them produce delicious apples.

10/30/2025

Five years ago a big white rooster suddenly appeared on our homestead. He was very interested in joining our flock but couldn’t figure out how to get in our yard as it was completely fenced. So he paced the frontage by the road for a couple days. Friends driving by our house would tell me one of our chickens was loose, but I would correct them saying it was not my chicken. We already had two roosters and weren’t interested in more. I figured a coyote or bobcat would soon take care of him or he would keep wandering on.

But one day the rooster figured out how to get under the perimeter fence somewhere. Or perhaps he just walked up the driveway. Anyway now he was in our yard but not in the chicken run. He would get as close to the other chickens as possible, even hunkering down for the night in tall grass by their gate. Then one day I noticed him peering into my bedroom window. It was then I made the mistake of naming him. “Not My Chicken” had survived the wilderness for at least a couple weeks and just wanted to be safe and fed. So reluctantly the next day I opened the chicken gate for him. He scooted right in and took his place as the low man on the totem pole. He never tried to fight with the other roosters though I did notice that when the other roosters picked fights with each other Not My Chicken would seize the opportunity to get to know the ladies in the flock. He was polite and respectful and didn’t cause any trouble.

Then one day a neighbor from at least a half mile away as the crow flies (or as the rooster walks apparently) came by to do some work for us. Jack Daniels (I am not making this up) looked at our chickens curiously and asked how long we’d had the big white rooster. We replied that he had just shown up about a month previously. Mr. Daniels told us he had a big white rooster that was the meanest, orneriest bird he’d ever known but he had disappeared about a month ago and everyone assumed a coyote had got him.

We all gazed at Not My Chicken, wondering if this was the same bird; humbled by his circumstances, repentant and scared straight by his miraculous journey. 🐓

10/28/2025

Need a hardy, tasty, cold weather loving perennial (grows back every year) that is super high in vitamins, antioxidants, magnesium and other good stuff? You want sorrel.

10/27/2025

Look what my sweet niece gave me! I’m excited to figure out how it works and use it next spring. The other side has fall planting dates and info.

Homesteading Family

10/26/2025

10/26/2025

Beautiful view on today’s walk.

10/25/2025

Still getting great veg from the garden. I’m now a huge fan of fall gardens in north Idaho! Planting cool weather crops in July was much more successful than planting in April.

10/24/2025

Honey stash looking pretty in the pantry.