Recipes
Techniques
Tools
Blog
Contribute
Punk Domestics's blog
Chestnuts Old and New
When Jack Frost comes nipping at your nose, break out the chestnuts. Here's a few ways to use them beyond simply enjoying them by the fireside.
Chestnut Jam
Creamy, sweet and rich, chestnut jam harkens back to early American traditions. From Auburn Meadow Farm.
Creamy, sweet and rich, chestnut jam harkens back to early American traditions. From Auburn Meadow Farm.
Seriously Last-Minute DIY Food Gifts
Wait, Christmas is when? Don't panic. If your canning pantry is paltry, there's still time to bang out a few DIY food gifts that will delight your giftee. Best of all, each of these can be done in mere hours, requiring ingredients that are readily available this time of year.
Read More >
Read More >Happy Homesteading Holidays
Even the most hardcore DIYer needs a little assist now and then. There are tools that make our work feasible, or at least easier. Or maybe you know someone who's just getting in to the game, and you want to give them a starter kit. No matter what your reasons, this is an excellent season to stock up on the goods that we'll reach for again and again when summer's bounty bursts upon us. Best of all, our pals at FARMcurious are offering a discount to all Punk Domestics readers!
Read More >Gift Guide: Best DIY Books of 2014
Lest you think the DIY food movement has peaked, all you need to do is look at the breadth and calibre of the books that hit the market this year. Sure, 2013, 2012 and 2011 were all excellent years for DIY food books, but this year blew them all away. Below are the 17 books I think are exemplary titles.Read More >
Gift Guide: DIY Tools
For the more hardcore DIY enthusiast in your life, here's a selection of tools that are sure to make them squeal with glee when they see them under the tree. (Disclosure: Contains affiliate links from which I may derive revenue.)
Roma Electric Tomato Strainer
This one tool made (relatively) short work of 200 pounds of tomatoes, allowing us to can our biggest batch ever. Read the review to see why this tool is a godsend to serious preservers.
This one tool made (relatively) short work of 200 pounds of tomatoes, allowing us to can our biggest batch ever. Read the review to see why this tool is a godsend to serious preservers.
Milwaukee Instruments pH Tester
For the canner who likes to tinker with recipes, this tool ensures that you're working well within safe acidity levels. Inexpensive and easy to use, this tool makes a great stocking stuffer.
For the canner who likes to tinker with recipes, this tool ensures that you're working well within safe acidity levels. Inexpensive and easy to use, this tool makes a great stocking stuffer.
Gift Guide: Cool Jar Accessories
Jars are good for more than just canning. Here's a few accessories that turn jars into fermentation crocks, drinking vessels and handy kitchen tools.
Small-Batch Lactofermentation Kits
A few new small-batch fermentation kits have entered the market, each with a unique angle designed to make home fermentation easy. Each of these kits is practical and useful, and can be used nearly interchangeably. These are great both for first-time and experienced fermenters.
A few new small-batch fermentation kits have entered the market, each with a unique angle designed to make home fermentation easy. Each of these kits is practical and useful, and can be used nearly interchangeably. These are great both for first-time and experienced fermenters.
Gift Guide: Apparel and Mercantile
From tees to tea towels, here's a short list of our favorite soft goods for giving this season.
Punk Domestics apparel
Choose from our family-friendly Yes, I Can tees, or go cheeky with women's Can panties or men's Pickle boxers. Talk about stocking stuffers!
Choose from our family-friendly Yes, I Can tees, or go cheeky with women's Can panties or men's Pickle boxers. Talk about stocking stuffers!
Three Things Thursday: Powder Keg
Once again it's Three Things Thursday, where I highlight three things that ran on the site recently that inspired, intrigued or impressed me. This week, I'm focusing on three contributions from dehydrator extraordinaire Urban Nettle. Here's what she's been powdering up.
Red Onion Powder
You've heard of regular onion powder. Now try red onion powder...a beautiful lavender colored seasoning to add that onion sweet/savory tone to whatever dish you'd like!
You've heard of regular onion powder. Now try red onion powder...a beautiful lavender colored seasoning to add that onion sweet/savory tone to whatever dish you'd like!
Review and Giveaway: Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry
You know, year over year, more and more books come out in the DIY food space. Every year I am increasingly impressed with the caliber of the content, the inspired ideas and erudite information. (See: Best books of 2012 and 2013.) And just when I think that surely no one could possibly raise the bar any further, BOOM, Cathy Barrow throws down and produces a tome that may make all other DIY and preservation books obsolete. I am not exaggerating.
You know her from her fabulous blog, Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen, which surely you found via her many contributions to this site. And of course you know her as the cofounder and driving force behind 2011's Charcutepalooza, wherein dozens, nay hundreds of bloggers sign up to make increasingly sophisticated meat projects at home. In Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry, she brings it all home. Literally.
Barrow is neither a DIY dilettante canning up jars of twee jam, nor a high-minded Martha who touts fussy techniques and fancy presentations. She is a realist, a nuts-and-bolts preserver who doles out plain-English instructions on preserving more or less everything, and then follows it up with real-world uses that anyone can undertake and enjoy.
