For People who Like to Grow, Make, and Figure Things Out
Gardening, food, preparedness, recipes, quiet reflections, and old-fashioned know-how — shared weekly from our Wisconsin homestead. To subscribe, just enter your email in the sign-up form below.
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What you’ll receive
- A weekend newsletter with new and seasonal posts
- Practical gardening, food, and preservation guidance
- Calm, realistic preparedness ideas
- Recipes, home remedies, and wild food knowledge
- Occasional updates on free classes, guides, or trusted partner offers
Free Subscriber Bonuses
- Common Sense Homesteading 101 Printable Guide
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This newsletter is for you if you…
- Enjoy learning practical skills at your own pace
- Prefer real-world experience over quick fixes
- Want to be more capable without being extreme
- Like a calm, thoughtful approach to preparedness
- Appreciate occasional reflections from life on a working homestead
You don’t need land, livestock, or a perfect plan — just curiosity and a willingness to learn.
A Note about Common Sense Home
I’m Laurie Neverman, creator of Common Sense Home. Common Sense Home is run by our family from a small homestead in northeast Wisconsin. We grow and preserve much of our food, experiment with practical resilience projects, and share what works (and what doesn’t) along the way.
We’re not perfect, and we don’t do everything ourselves — but we believe in learning, adapting, and using sound judgment to build steadier lives. Along the way we’ve gone through job losses, economic upheaval, and the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. (More about us here.)
What Readers Say
“You make us readers feel like family, and you have solid advice because you and your family have paved the way for us to follow however it best fits our lives. I also love your recipes! ❤ Thank you for all you do.” – Krystal C.
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“I love the free guides. They are such a big help for me. All of the ones I have down loaded I have saved in my I-books. My husband and I have been slowly working on homesteading for the past four years and are planning a big move during this year. All of the information you share is awesome and I love it!!” – Nikki D.
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— Laurie, Common Sense Home
I freeze peaches and the use them to can pie filling. I UNDERSTAND THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING TO DO. i would like to know why. I usually add the frozen peaches to the thick syrup usuing clear gel. I do let the peaches thaw somewhat .
There are a couple of different issues.
One – if you freeze the peaches first, then can them, I would expect the texture to get quite soft. Many people prefer firmer pieces of peach.
The second, and more important issue from a food safety perspective, is the potential for uneven heating. If you’re packing half frozen peaches in a hot syrup, you’re likely to have hot and cold spots in the jar. A cold spot in the wrong spot could also cause a jar to shatter.
Ideally, you want the contents of any any jar to be evenly heated all the way through, held at the proper temp for the proper amount of time.
As you’ve no doubt discovered because you’re still here to ask the question, acidic fruit with sugar syrup is forgiving. The acid in the fruit inhibits spoilage, as does the sugar in the syrup. (The sugar binds up free water, which bacteria need to grow.)
FREE GARDENING JOURNAL TEMPLATES AND OTHER GARDEN RECORD KEEPING TIPS
I found the article above, but could not find any link in the article to download the templates.
Can you please provide the link?
Thanks,
John
John, the gardening journal templates are a subscriber bonus, like the Homesteading 101 ebook. When someone subscribes, they get sent a link to the download page. If you’d like, I can add you to the newsletter list, or you can use one of the forms on the site to join. I checked and noticed that you are not a subscriber yet.
Please subscribe.
I would like to subscribe but there is no box. Can you help?
It looks like you were able to use a different sign up form on the site, as I see you subscribed successfully. Welcome!
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I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter please.
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I would like to be put on your email list. There wasn’t a place to subscribe.
Hi Patty.
I just entered your information, so you’ll be receiving a confirmation email shortly.
I sent out this week’s newsletter just a bit ago, so I’ll send that to you directly so you don’t miss it.
I love making thins from scratch. I love chocolate mint tea and have been looking to purchase chocolate mint tea. I now see that I could make my own.
You’re my new go-to-guru for all things planticimal.
Grateful. Thank you. Oh, one other thing… To make tea is it purely ‘leaves’ or can whole plants go in. And the root?
I have so many questions. Off to continue my research. Have shared you, of course, to my planty pals. And pals who can’t sleep or have stress or pain. All my contacts then.
Bravo!
Hi Caroline, and welcome.
If you’re referring to wild lettuce, typically the leaves are used, but you can also use leaves and stem if you like. If you are drying some for later use, the leaves dry more uniformly.
Subscribe please. This may be a duplicate
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I’ve tried to put my email in but, I’ve never seen it in my email box
You confirmation email was sent out this afternoon, so you entered your email correctly. Have you checked your spam folder?
I just started reading your blog post and have found them helpful. But I don’t see a subscription button. I do use Firefox, if that makes a difference. Can you add me? Thanks!
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I tried Brave, Firefox and IE and was unable to subscribe successfully. Please add me!
Done, and thanks for asking. Check your inbox for the confirmation email.
Natural remedies for ringworm creams not working
What and how much are you using? You may need to use more, or try something different if a fungal infection doesn’t respond to one type of treatment. (As time goes on, many different microbes are becoming more resistant.) Pau D’arco tea is very good for fungal infections. Calendula salve is also anti-fungal, as are a number of different herbal salves.
Hi Laurie
I realized just as I was clicking on “Post Comment” that the auto fill feature on my computer filled in my whole name. I would like to edit the subscription to only include my first name for comments on this site.
Thanks
Linda
Can do. Answering your other comment now.
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Would like to subscribe. Thank You Very Much.
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