MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine comes to life in the recently released Wiser Living Video Series. Volume
One of the Series features some of our most popular workshops from the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIRS taught by members of the editorial team and expert community. Become more self-reliant in and around your home by tackling 19 projects ranging from keeping backyard chickens to making tinctures.
You’re invited into the kitchen to learn the basics of baking no-knead bread with Karen K. Will, editor of Heirloom Gardener magazine. If you have a cast-iron pot or Dutch oven, you can bake artisan-style bread at home, free of preservatives and additives. Once you’ve mastered no-knead bread, Karen will walk you through the steps to bake a light wheat sandwich bread — nutrient-packed, prepared without fuss and ready for the fillers of your choice.
How does a BLT sound? Forget overly fatty, antibiotic-laden store-bought bacon. MOTHER EARTH NEWS Senior Associate Editor Robin Mather will show you how easy it is to cure your own bacon at home. Working with a raw pork belly, Robin demonstrates slicing techniques, how to use curing salts and ways to incorporate the less-than-choice trimmings in soups and stews so that nothing goes to waste. Think you’re a bacon-making whiz? Try out Robin’s method for rendering lard. As a second helping, Robin will teach you to make homemade chicken stock from about six pounds of chicken parts and vegetables. Learn tricks to achieve the aromatic flavor and rich dark color you thought only professionals could master.
Step into the world of fermented foods with Managing Editor Jennifer Kongs. Food preservation is a breeze with Jennifer in the kitchen, and she’ll get you started by pickling beets and fermenting homemade sauerkraut — whether you have a traditional ceramic crock or prefer smaller batches in canning jars on your kitchen countertop.
Then, step out the kitchen door into the garden for a lesson from Editor-in-Chief Cheryl Long about how to use chickens in the garden. Chickens keep ticks and other pests at bay, add fertility to your garden and can even help you till garden beds. Cheryl’s Welsummers, Buff Orpingtons and Cochins produce eggs when they aren’t providing garden benefits. Viewing the hens in action is entertaining as well as instructive. Keep your garden going well into winter with Cheryl’s season-extension methods that utilize cold frames, hoop houses and cloches. You’ll be amazed by the number of cold-hardy crops growing in Cheryl’s November garden. (Sneak peak: View the “Season Extension” video here.)
The editors of Mother Earth Living have got you covered crafting the healing remedies and natural household cleaners that will keep your family safe and healthy. Editor-in-Chief Jessica Kellner is an expert in nontoxic homemade cleaning products. Common cleaners contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are linked to respiratory problems. Cut out VOCs and other dangerous chemicals by making your own all-purpose, glass cleaners and heavy-duty scrubbing cleaners using simple ingredients you may already have at home, such as vinegar, baking soda and essential oils.
Safe cleaners go a long way for ensuring personal health, but everyone’s immune system can benefit from a boost, and the Wiser Living Video Series will help you to keep your herbal apothecary well-stocked. Kellner offers her favorite herbal remedies for balancing hormones, promoting mental health, preventing memory loss associated with aging, and more. Her segment about herbs for general wellness offers sound, science-based advice that anyone can benefit from. Mother Earth Living Assistant Editor Gina DeBacker will teach you how to make medicinal salves and infused oils for cuts, scrapes, and other topical purposes, while Managing Editor Allison Martin’s step-by-step tutorial for making tinctures brings folk wisdom for treating ailments to the modern age. Your first aid kit will never be the same.
And there is so much more! Make your self-reliance and homestead dreams a reality with the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Wiser Living Video Series, Volume One. Don’t miss our sneak peek video, featuring how to apply season-extension techniques in your garden.
