

Pioneering Today Podcast - Homesteading in a Modern World
Melissa K Norris
Pioneering Today is all about getting back to basics, simple living, and self-sufficiency with old-fashioned skills and wisdom in a modern world. With heirloom gardening, canning, preserving the harvest, from scratch cooking, raising your own food, including livestock (backyard chickens, pigs, and cattle), natural medicine, herbs, DIY like soap making along with living a simple self-sufficient life, no matter where you live. Hosted by 5th generation homesteader, Melissa K. Norris, author of The Made-from-Scratch Life. This podcast brings you the conversation from MelissaKNorris.com and The Pioneering Today Academy, with Q&A's, teaching, tutorials, and always giving you practical ways and tips to live the simple and self-sufficient life.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 31, 2020 • 21min
11 Tips to Get Rid of Bugs on Plants Naturally that Actually Work
There's nothing more frustrating than having bugs or other garden pests decimate your vegetables. Unfortunately, there's a lot of myths or suggestions to use synthetic pesticides. These are the tips that have actually worked in my garden. This way you can have delicious organic vegetables from your backyard without sharing them with pests. Snag links and resources at https://melissaknorris.com/266 Get your copy of the Family Garden Plan to help you grow and harvest a year's worth of vegetables from your backyard http://familygardenplan.com

Jul 24, 2020 • 24min
Tips for a Successful Fall Garden & When to Plant for Fall Harvest
Have fresh veggies all fall and into winter straight from the garden (and no greenhouse required) with these tips for a fall garden. The first year or two I tried fall gardening it didn't turn out so well, but now we harvest many plants clear through until January, even in our northern climate. For the full planting list with dates go to https://melissaknorris.com/265 Get the chart (and my book) on how much to plant per person at http://familygardenplan.com

Jul 17, 2020 • 43min
Most Underused Form of Poultry for Income & Sustainability on the Homestead
Learn about this sustainable form of poultry to use on the homestead and how it's vastly underused today. How to put geese to use on your homestead both to work the land and how to make INCOME from them in multiple ways. Join me and Morgan Gold as we talk about ducks and geese on the homestead for livestock but also as a way to make money. Resources/show notes https://melissaknorris.com/264

Jul 10, 2020 • 31min
Tips for Butchering a Year's Worth of Chicken in 2 Hours
We raised and butchered a year's worth of meat birds for our family of 4 in 2 hours. The actual butchering took 2 hours, but the setup, clean up, and packaging were longer. I walk you through our process and tips we've gleaned over the years of raising our own meat birds. For step-by-step photos go to https://melissaknorris.com/263

Jun 19, 2020 • 39min
How to Make Fruit Vinegar at Home with 1 Ingredient
You'll want to make sure you're turning some of that fresh summer fruit into this easy homemade vinegar that uses only, are you ready for this, 1 ingredient!! This is the easiest food preservation and fermenting you'll ever do. Learn how, troubleshooting, and favorite ways to put that homemade vinegar to use with my guest Autumn (and find out what I've been doing wrong). To get a printable recipe & show notes go to https://melissaknorris.com/262

Jun 12, 2020 • 44min
3 Tips for Time Management & My Homestead Schedule
One of the questions I get asked the most is how do you manage to get so much done with work and a homestead? Today I'm sharing the truth about balance, seasons, and the fallacy of doing it all. I also give tips on how I've learned to keep the homestead functioning while still working a full-time job (including a day job off the homestead) and what my current schedule looks like. For links/resource https://melissaknorris.com/261 Get The Family Garden Plan HTTP://familygardenplan.com

Jun 5, 2020 • 57min
10 Things Most Organic Gardeners Forget About
Learn the 10 things most organic gardeners forget about to help you grow more food in the space you have, even if it's not ideal full sun! Many of us need to grow our own food this year, but not everyone has a really large space. Nicky and Dave live in a very urban environment & using the concept of permaculture and a food forest, they have the first-hand experience in growing in a smaller urban space they're sharing with us today. Resources and links https://melissaknorris.com/260 Grow & harvest a years worth of food with the Family Garden Plan free charts here https://melissaknorris.com/familygardenplan/

May 29, 2020 • 28min
Integrating New Chicks to Existing Flocks Q&A Chicken Raising
Learn how to integrate new chicks into existing flocks, plus, all your questions on mixing meat birds with laying hens and how to keep dual-purpose chickens. Common mistakes you NEED to avoid for the health of your chickens and what to do if your chicken is being bullied by the rest of the flock. Resources at https://melissaknorris.com/259

May 22, 2020 • 52min
7 Self-sufficiency and Simple Living Lessons from the Amish
Even without going Amish, we can glean a lot from their lifestyle to help us live more self-sufficient and simple with these 7 tips. Learn how one company has helped preserve the Amish way of life while coming full circle and offering Amish and homesteading tools to the public. Episode resources at https://melissaknorris.com/258 Go to lehmans.com/PIONEER from May 22 to June 30, 2020 to receive 10% off any order $50 or more. Enter code PIONEER at checkout.

May 16, 2020 • 54min
5 Garden Elements You Need to Add for Relaxation and Functionality
While a productive garden is the goal, they should also be a place of sanctuary and beauty. Adding in these elements (even if you battle with shade) or small spaces, can bring you more joy in the garden, something we all could use more of, including weed suppression tips. For resource https://melissaknorris.com/257 Join the Pioneering Today Academy now for your step-by-step plan to raise and preserve your own food https://melissaknorris.com/pta


