Stoned Gnome Homestead

 Harvest season 2023 Harvest season is in full bloom now.  We have been canning, preserving and cooking as much as we can.  This time of year is extremely hectic on the Homestead. But the rewards of homegrown, homemade food are all worth it. Gardening can be tricky. I’m not gonna lie. It takes a lot of faith, hope and love to get things to grow. You plant a seed and hope for the best. And the universe blesses you with an over abundance of goodness that you’ve seen grow from nothing to something that will feed your family throughout the year. Gardening is not only an investment in money. But your time and energy also radiate through the whole process. But in the long run, you’re actually spending less money to grow your own food then what you would pay in a grocery store. And the health benefits of growing your food is that it’s more nutritious than anything you can get in a grocery store. You know everything that’s coming in contact with your food.  Everything that’s been put on that f

 How do you like to decompress after a long week? For us is having a special dinner night. Whether it’s seafood night, or burger bar, homemade pizzas we just like to enjoy our Fridays. Plan out some fun stuff to do on the weekend. And just breathe from the week we’ve just had.

 Rain, rain, rain and did I mention rain.  Yuppers, it's been raining a lot here in upstate NY.  But my heart, thoughts and prayers go out to my beloved Vermont.  With all the rain and flooding they are going through right now, they need some prayers sent to them.  It's amazing to see the force of mother nature at work.   It really makes you stop and think about how quickly things can change. But I know they are resistant and will bounce back.   On the Homestead, we are waiting to see how the garden bounces back.   It's been raining here and I haven't even been able to get out to the garden since Saturday.  But on Saturday I was able to harvest about 2 cups of blueberries 1st of the season), 5 yellow squash and a bunch of jalapenos. so either later this week or on the weekend I'll start the 2023 canning/preserving  season.   We are starting to launch our YouTube channel: Stoned Gnome Homestead.   Find us on Facebook: Danielle Ragozzine: Stoned Gnome Homestead Our Yo

 The Garden is looking better.  It still may take a few weeks to see what was actually lost/damaged in the storm.  But things are starting to look up.  My greenhouse took the biggest beating.  I’m still going to try to fix it to get me by for now.  Talk about added stress when I walked out after the storm seeing all of my beautiful, gorgeous, tomato plants almost flat up against the fence was horrible for me. But on the brighter side as I took a tour last night while I was watering, I do see growth they are starting to stand back up. I was trying to pull off any broken or damaged branches as I saw them. And we’ll see where this takes us.   It’s sad to know how quickly mother nature can take away all your hard work. But after the storm passes, it’s amazing to watch her rebuild what she’s taken out. Homesteading is what you make of it.  You can start small and grow it as your knowledge grows. but it's yours to make anyway you want to.  We are in this together, don't get frustrate

 Well, it took a bit to completely finish the clean-up from the freezer disaster, but we did it.   I was able to salvage most of the meat.  I did, for safety reasons, throw out all the seafood, puff pastry and such that had thawed out.  It was a very stressful few days, but we got through it.  I was so happy that we had the other freezer there in case I needed to completely switch them out.  This past weekend I was able to reorganize both freezers and move the new large one in and get the small 13cf ready to sell.   You can catch all our cooking, gardening and homesteading videos that will be launching soon on our  YouTube Channel: Stoned Gnome Homestead Find us on Facebook: Danielle Ragozzine: Stoned Gnome Homestead Our You Tube channel: Stoned Gnome Homestead Instagram: stoned_gnome_homestead.   Blogger: Stoned Gnome Homestead AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER This site may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have rec

 When life gives you lemons, it’s time to make some lemonade. If anyone’s ever had this happen to them, I feel your pain. If not take some steps and precautions, so it doesn’t happen to you.  While I was getting ready for work this morning. Peter came in to the bathroom and told me that some really bad news. It seems someone left the meat deep freezer open and it defrosted a lot of the meat inside.  So unfortunately, I spent my morning. Throwing out everything that was not salvageable. Starting to cook stuff that needed to be cooked right away. And re-freezing items that could be refrozen. After looking on the USDA website, I was surprised to learn that you can re-freeze a lot of thawed meats. Which growing up I never thought you could refreeze meat. I was worried about all the pork that had defrosted. So that went into my roasting pan. We’re going to cook all that up, then divide it up after it’s cooled off and refreeze the cooked meat.   Which will help 2-fold, because then we will h

  Welcome to The Stoned Gnome Homestead, where we will talk about all the good things for a modern homestead.  From cooking, cleaning, gardening, make-up, how-to videos and how to shop for the best deals.  I'm a full-time busy working mom of 2 and this is my take on modern homestead living.   I'll show you quick and easy was to get homecooked meals on the table almost every night of the week, without having to resort to take-out. I'll show you quick tips, tricks, and money-saving ideas to help you stream-line your home to be able to maximize time with your family so you can enjoy life.  My goal for myself is to provide my family with from-scratch home-cooking as much as possible.  I'll guide you through learning gardening & cooking basics, canning & preserving, buying bulk, laundry tips and so much more.  You'll get the benefit of all my years of searching for the best of everything right in one place.   Find us on Facebook: Danielle Ragozzine: Stoned Gnome