Articles - Backwoods Home Magazine

Raising quail — A home grown delicacy

This coop is for the birds

By Dorothy Ainsworth Issue #71 • September/October, 2001 You can buy a dozen eggs at the supermarket for 99 cents, or you can go out to...

Composite lumber helps outdoor projects resist water, weather, and sun

Fruit Trees

By Alice B. Yeager Fall winds down with the ripening of a Japanese persimmon known as the Fuyugaki...

Growing Productive Strawberries

Want More Fruit From Less Space? Espalier Your Trees!

Here’s a Mighty Creative Way to Protect Your Plants from Animals

From Martha and Abigail to Dolley and Louisa, America’s earliest First...

By John Silveira Issue #29 • September/October, 1994 (This is a four-part series. Click the links to navigate to parts one, two, three, and four.) It was...

Doesn’t anyone remember Tom Paine

Feeling nostalgic? Now you’ll rave! Here’s the story of Burma Shave.

Fireplace cooking cures the winter blues

Grilled Steak with Olive-Blue Cheese Sauce

An Introduction to Small-Scale Home Hydroponics

There’s no such thing as free land!

Grid-tied, Grid-connected, Off-grid. What’s the difference?

Solar-Powered Electric Fencing

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 I take the Springfield Armory rifle out of the box, and savor it. I seldom do that with...

How to shoot a handgun accurately

The time for modern; the time for traditional

Military surplus and military “clone” rifles

Science and truth. Are they related?

By John Silveira Issue #46 • July/August, 1997 It was an argument about science. Dave and I were on one side, Dave's friends Tom and Bill,...

The MTHFR mutation and why it may matter to you

A brief history of health and medicine

We don’t need no steenking 2nd Amendment

Goodbye TV, hello constructive time

Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal

By Charles Sanders Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 A 450-pound hog will provide a lot of delicious meat. Hogs are raised throughout our neighboring Amish community for...

Khaki Campbell ducks — The other egg layer

By Amanda J. Kemp Issue #126 • November/December, 2010 Spring brings the pitter-patter of little feet in the mud, games of tag, and raucous quacks. While...

Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead

Broody biddies make sense on the homestead

SARS — Is this a glimpse of the future?

Jackie’s tips for hardcore homesteading

Used bookstores can be sucessful in the hinterlands

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #166 • July/August, 2017 Nearly all of us homesteaders grow tomatoes in our gardens. Tomatoes are hugely valuable as a homestead crop. After all, they give us a wide variety of products. Many...

Nut Trees on Your Homestead

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #149 • September/October, 2014 While growing up in Detroit, we had no nut trees in our yard (though we did have seedlings before I left home). That didn't stop my parents, though....