Grit

My dog, Peanut, and I have a morning routine these days: When he hears me scoop up chicken feed and slip on my chore boots, he comes prancing to the back door. His job is to bounce in circles around me while I walk to the chicken yard. If it isn’t to

Nothing’s more frustrating when cooking or baking than getting partway through a recipe and discovering that you’re lacking one ingredient. We’ve all been there. Thankfully, many ingredients have substitutions that don’t typically affect the flavor o

When our cow, Mayberry, developed mastitis, I didn’t initially suspect anything was wrong. I’d collected her from the pasture as usual, and she was just as ornery as ever, tossing her head when I haltered her and walking with a brisk pace back to the

I fairly recently resubscribed to GRIT. I enjoy every issue, especially the readers’ contributions. I’m a career Army National Guard soldier with service in three states (Ohio, Alabama, and Wisconsin). I currently work as a dual-status National Guard

I’d come into the house after another day of rain, and my boots were a muddy mess. In our so-called “mudroom,” I tried to hang on to the wall to stabilize myself while I wrenched my boots off my feet. “A bench is what I need,” I thought to myself. I

When I was growing up in sunny Florida, my grandmother had a backyard full of citrus trees, along with an avocado and pecan tree. My older sister and I claimed the latter two as our personal climbing trees. Whenever we became “lunch-y” during the fal

Poultry is a popular addition to farms and backyards everywhere. When shopping for birds, though, beginners may be overwhelmed by the hundreds of breeds available. A good place to start is by learning the difference between heritage and crossbreed po

You’re 7 miles into the middle of nowhere on a day hike. It rained the night before, and the trail is a muddy mess as a result. One more mile to go until you reach the waterfall, and then you’re scheduled to turn around so you can make it back home b

Unwanted garden visitors can be a constant struggle in a gardener’s growing endeavors, posing a threat to fruit, leaves, or even a whole harvest. You can build this simple 3-by-8-foot raised bed and hinged cover to help keep damaging pests away from

Readers, we’ve occasionally used recipes from our archives in Comfort Foods, and this installment is a special case. A few months ago, a reader sent us a marvelous piece of history that had been tucked among her mother’s cookbooks: a booklet titled 5

Northern Michigan and central California couldn’t be more different—in climate, topography, flora, and more. Yet both places have at least one strong parallel: a deep-rooted love for foraging. I’ve had the honor of calling both locations home, and, l

Many urbanites dream of trading their hectic routines for the quiet life on a small farm. Few have actually attempted to make this swap, and fewer still have managed to succeed at making a living on a modest property. Pete Larson and his family are a

With easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, veteran horticulture teacher Miranda Smith provides a complete reference for cultivating new plants—whether from seed or cuttings or with techniques such as layering, grafting, and budding. Smith teache

When you hear “prickly pear,” you probably think of desert-loving plants full of sharp spikes. But did you know that not all of these cacti live up to their name? Mostly considered a novelty plant today, spineless cacti were once bred to be a versati

My Kentucky garden has stink bugs, leaf-footed bugs, and aphids. These insects have also been spotted in entomologist Ayanava Majumdar’s research gardens in India, North Dakota, and Alabama, and wherever you are, they’re probably in your garden too.