If you are here to learn how you can build food security for your family in less than 30 days, you are in the right place. When I started out with homesteading six years ago, I knew that food security was important to me. Never did I guess that our entire world would come to a standstill and leave the majority of our society scrambling to build food security for themselves and their families.

For decades, homesteading has been a way for families to increase their self sufficiency not just out of rejection of a failing industrialized food system, but out of our love for the land, our connection with animals, and our focus on growing nutritious and safe food.

This 30-day Food Security Plan will be broken up into four weeks. We will focus on Week 1 in this post. For the next four weeks, I will share with you the simple and straightforward things you can do to boost your family's food security during this uncertain time. So if you are in need of guidance and help navigating how to get started with your first veggie garden or your first flock of chickens - you are in the right place!

Are you one of those wine lovers who had to swear off red wine because the next-day headaches and grogginess are just not worth it? I am right there with you my friend. For the last seven years I've had to ride the struggle bus even when I indulge in just one glass of red wine. 

Then, the heavens parted and I discovered natural wine. No more headaches, no more grogginess, no more inflammation. I had all these questions! Why did natural wine make me feel so much better? What ingredients were giving me so many issues? So this week on the Positively Green Podcast, Becca and I thought we should have on natural wine expert, Allie Kruse of Nonfiction Wine to teach us all about the subject!

Grab a glass of (natural) wine and join us for a virtual happy hour! Allie and her husband own Nonfiction Wine, a local wine shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She drops some major knowledge about all things natural, organic, low-intervention wine. You are going to love it!

Getting started with organic vegetable gardening can feel overwhelming, but if you are looking for an excuse to get outside and be more active, then gardening is a step in the right direction. Whether you have 1/2 an acre or upwards of 20 acres, planting a garden to provide you with healthy delicious food surprisingly only takes a bit of planning with a pencil and paper plus some (much needed) time in the sun tending to it. In this post, I’m going to show you how I got myself organized to try my hand at organic gardening. ​Are you ready to plan your pants off?!

As more and more of us are working remotely and practicing social distancing as the coronavirus hits the US, we thought it would be helpful to share nine simple ways you can make your home a healthier and safer environment. We hope these tips bring you peace of mind and give you a sense of control during this scary time!

According to the EPA, the average American indoor environment is 2 to 5 times more polluted than the outdoor air. The EPA also stated that the worst air pollution in our nation is right inside our own homes and workplaces and that 50% of all illness is connected to the indoor air quality. Crazy! Thankfully there are many easy ways to help improve this, which we address in today’s episode:

• 9-ish simple tips for having a greener home environment
• Why it's so important to have good indoor air quality (especially in winter!)
• Typical chemicals and pollutants that lurk in our homes and their health effects
• Different types of air purifiers and filters
• Best houseplants for clean air
• Why you might want to ditch your beloved candles
• How cookware might be affecting your air quality
• Best practices for bringing new furniture into your home and how to be more conscious about it

Are you curious about the journey behind our DIY chicken tractors? In this post I am going to share with you why we decided to design and build our own unique chicken tractor for our backyard hens. Lastly, I'll share with you how you can get your hands on our chicken tractor build plans so you can build one for your backyard or homestead!

My very first flock of backyard chickens clocked in at seven beautiful hens. After researching and reading as much as I could on how best to raise laying hens, I decided to let them free-range because pastured chickens are the happiest and healthiest. 

Why? Being able to forage for bugs and grubs allows them a diverse diet, lots of sunshine, and never ending entertainment. Keeping hens on grass also provides us the healthiest eggs possible thanks to their higher beta-carotene, choline, and omega-3 levels. It was win-win in my book. 

So after a few weeks of free-ranging my very first flock, imagine my dismay when I came out to check on my girls and found feathers and blood everywhere. My heart sank as I did a headcount and found two of my girls missing. A hawk had been through my flock and thus began the conundrum that most backyard chicken owners face. Do you let your hens free-range and take the risk of a predator attack or do you keep them cooped up and safe and limit their diet and their happiness?

We are back for Season 2 - hooray! In this episode, we are going to go over the US emissions for 2019 and then share the top six ways you can mindfully live a more eco-friendly and sustainable life in 2020. 

As the ramifications of climate change increase, from hurricanes to wildfires to extreme drought, we as privileged first-world consumers have a responsibility going into 2020. It is on us to make changes in our day to day lives. It is on us to live a more mindful, eco-friendly, and sustainable lifestyle. It is on us to let our policymakers know where we stand. You have much more power than you give yourself credit for when it comes to creating lasting and beneficial change for our planet and our goal with this first episode of Season 2 of the Positively Green Podcast is to point you in the right direction for 2020.

If you live in an area that gets blasted with snow and cold temperatures during the winter months, then your chickens are definitely going to need the extra nutritional boost only supplements can give. 

Every winter on our farm in Wisconsin, I give a handful of high quality, natural supplements to my hens. In this post, I am going to share with you why you should consider supplementation during the winter months for your chickens, which supplements I recommend, and the benefits they provide for your flock.

​It’s rare that I get to share this part of my story. Everyone always wants to hear about the farming + homesteading + sustainability side of my journey (all of which I am happy to talk about!), but today that changes.

Today I am opening up about my online marketing journey. If you’ve been curious about my path to sitting here writing you this post, how I started multiple e-commerce businesses, or how much money my marketing skills have made me over the years - then I got a helluva a treat for you.

I did a tell-all with Katelyn Duban on The Rural Women Podcast where we cover all things online marketing for your farm or homestead. Katelyn did an amazing job interviewing me and getting to the heart of my marketing origins.

This interview taught me how you can’t fit 21st century farmers into a box. We all have such eclectic journeys, from second-career to first-generation or (in my case) actress turned filmmaker turned photographer turned marketer turned farmer.

Happy creepin’ on me!

In my last few farm marketing posts, we learned how to pitch your farm’s story to local papers and how to share your products with online influencers to get great reviews.

In this post, I am sharing the surprising way I've gotten local papers, major podcasts, and online bloggers to seek me out, instead of me having to pitch my farm. This tip also has grown customer awareness for our local area for our farm and boosted sales. So what is my special ingredient that makes this magic happen? 

It’s all about having a clear cause on behalf of your farm. Let's dive in!

As the ramifications of climate change increase, from hurricanes to wildfires to extreme drought, we as privileged first-world consumers have a responsibility going into 2020. It is on us to make changes in our day to day lives. It is on us to live a more mindful, eco-friendly, and sustainable lifestyle. You have much more power than you give yourself credit for when it comes to creating lasting and beneficial change for our planet and this blog post will point you in the right direction.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) the last five years (2015 - 2019) were the hottest years on record. Greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise with carbon dioxide emissions clocking in at 20% higher from 2015 - 2019 versus 2010 to 2014. Unfortunately, these increasing emissions lock in the rising temperatures for years to come. This cascade effect foretells a bleak future, one that permanently affects not only our ecosystems and precious wildlife, but also costs us human lives. 

In this post, I am going to share the top five ways you can mindfully live a more eco friendly and sustainable life in 2020. Our world is depending on it.