-
A Small Batch Still Matters
For a long time, I thought food preservation had to be a major event. Every article, video, and homesteading post seemed to involve: huge harvests giant canning sessions endless prep work dozens upon dozens of perfectly labeled jars And honestly, it felt exhausting before I even started. Living in Florida has taught me that gardening—and preserving food—often looks very different here than it does in many other parts of the country. Large tomatoes don’t do especially well for us, but cherry tomatoes grow like they’re determined to take over the yard. Right now they’re coming on slowly, just a handful ripe each day. Years ago, I probably would have ignored…
You May Also Like
Let Your Home Work for You
-
Let Your Home Work for You
Many years ago, I was part of a homemaking group run by a woman who said something that stayed with me all these years. She talked about the modern conveniences in our homes as “servants.” The dishwasher. The crock pot. The washing machine. The freezer. The bread machine. The food processor. The vacuum cleaner. These tools were designed to help carry some of the weight of daily life. And yet, so often, we don’t truly use them in ways that serve us well. Some appliances sit untouched in cabinets because we think using them somehow “doesn’t count” as real homemaking. Others are used only occasionally while we continue doing things…
-
Small Batch Living Changed My Home More Than I Expected
For a long time, I thought certain parts of homemaking simply weren’t realistic for me. I loved the idea of gardening. I admired people who canned food, stocked pantries, and prepared meals ahead of time. I wanted a home that felt a little more intentional and less rushed. But every example I saw seemed to involve massive amounts of work. Huge gardens. Entire weekends of canning. Twenty freezer meals at once. Five-gallon buckets. Assembly-line cooking sessions. Even reading about it felt exhausting. Between raising children, working, dealing with chronic pain from fibromyalgia, lingering exhaustion after illness, and simply trying to keep up with everyday life, I often felt like homemaking…
