Ep 177. Apothecary February: Home Herbalism without the Overwhelm

Do you love the idea of Christmas but find yourself completely overwhelmed once the holiday season actually arrives? That has been me for the past few years, and this year I’m trying something different. Instead of waiting until December to deal with the clutter, shopping, meals, unfinished projects, and endless mental load, I’m starting now. I’m decluttering one manageable space at a time, getting Christmas shopping out of the way, leaning heavily into freezer and crockpot meals, gathering the last herbs, and giving myself permission to close down the garden instead of squeezing out one more round of productivity. This isn't about creating another list of things you should be doing before Christmas. It's about serving your home and family in a way that creates more margin later. In this episode, I’m sharing what that looks like in my own home and asking one simple question: What can you do now that your future self will be really grateful you already handled? Because I’m not spending October preparing so I can do more in December. I’m preparing now so I can have less to do—and more room to actually enjoy the season.

Preservation season isn't over just because the tomatoes and cucumbers are finally slowing down! Honestly, I’m a little burnt out on preserving at this point in the year, too. But there are still plenty of things growing in the garden and available locally that are worth putting up for winter—and some of them can double as inexpensive homemade gifts for the holidays. In this episode, I’m sharing five things I’m still preserving in October:

This episode started with something I've been noticing through the farmstand: people aren't necessarily looking to completely change their lives—they're looking for simple ways to make the lives they already have a little better. And honestly? That's what I want from homesteading too. Pasted text Homesteading can quickly become an endless list of things we're supposed to learn, grow, preserve, bake, make and buy. But instead of constantly asking, “What should I learn next?” I want us to start asking, “What do I actually want homesteading to give me?” In this episode, we chat about:

Do you actually need more food, supplies, and preparedness gear—or could you become more prepared simply by making better use of what you already have? In this final episode of my pantry preparedness series, I’m challenging you to imagine what would happen if you couldn’t go to the grocery store for two weeks. Could you make breakfasts, lunches, and dinners from what’s already in your pantry and freezer? Do you know how to turn basic ingredients into meals? And if the power went out, do you know what’s in your freezer, where your flashlights are, or how you’d handle the food you already have? We’re also talking about something I think is just as valuable as the food on your shelves: skills. Knowing how to cook from scratch, bake bread, preserve food, can, freeze, ferment, grow food, make broth, or simply get creative with ingredients can make your household more resilient without building a giant stockpile. I’m also touching on financial preparedness, finding the weak spots in your household, and the constant temptation to believe that one more gadget, freezer, generator, or dream freeze dryer will finally make us “prepared enough.” The goal isn’t to prepare for every possible scenario or create another massive to-do list. Take inventory, learn how to use what you already have, identify one weak spot, and choose one small thing you can do this week to make your household a little more resilient.

What does pantry preparedness actually look like when you’re not interested in stockpiling a year’s worth of food? This week, I’m taking you behind the scenes of what preparedness looks like in my own home—and it turns out it’s a lot less about filling shelves and a lot more about creating a food system that keeps moving. I recently bought food in bulk and spent about four hours preparing 14 freezer meals for busy school nights, sports, workdays, holidays, and all of those evenings when having dinner ready can keep us from spending money on takeout. But finding room for 14 new meals meant finally dealing with the tomatoes I’d been freezing from the garden all summer, so now those tomatoes are moving from the freezer to the canner and eventually onto my pantry shelves as enchilada sauce and barbecue sauce. In this episode, I’m also talking about how I decide what’s actually worth stocking up on at Costco, why a 20-pound bag of rice makes absolutely no sense for my family, how preparedness can save time as well as money, and why having the skills, supplies, and systems to handle the food you already have can be more valuable than simply accumulating more. My preparedness isn’t ever really “finished.” Summer is for growing, harvesting, eating fresh, and freezing. Fall is for preserving and stocking. Winter is for eating through what we’ve stored, making soups and stocks, and eventually looking ahead to what we want to grow again next year. It’s a constantly moving system—and I think that’s a much more practical way to think about preparedness for busy families.